Finito

Sadly today is our last day.. we are flying out at 6AM to LAX. We are both leaving with mixed emotions.. regular hot showers and warm LA weather are 2 things we are looking forward to.. along with a new set of clothes to wear and not lugging big packs around.. it has been an amazing trip and blew any expectations we had totally out the window..

Opera Bay, pavlova and organic tofu

I felt obliged to go to Puerto Madryn to see Opera Bay a replica? of the world famous Sydney Opera house.. well the likeness is not THAT close but still it was pretty cool.. it is in actuality a massive nightclub.. so for our last night in BA (and of the trip for that matter) we rallied some fellow hostelers and danced the night away at Opera Bay..

Yes I got Pavlova in Buenos Aires!! the food in this city is absolutely amazing, we went to an Organic Vegetarian resturant the other night for dinner and had the most yummy Organic Tofu ever.. did you even think the words "organic tofu" and " buenos aires" could exist in the same sentence!?!

Palermo

the quaintishlyhip neighbourhood of Palermo

Free ART wednesdays!!

Heather Andrew

Exploring BA

San Telmo Markets

Walking tour of BA

Japanese Gardens

and Sushi binging..

Recoleta Cemetary

Mate bar

Being the national drink of Argentina I have been keen to try Mate. We spied a Mate bar near our hostel and I was eager to give it another try as when we had it in Cordoba it was really bitter tasting.... the waiter did the preparation for me, as you can read in the article below there is a whole ritual involved in the preparation.
I bought a Mate at the markets and some Yerba Mate at the Mate bar.. it might be one of those acquired tastes as it really is quite bitter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_(beverage)

The sizzle of sexy Buenos Aires

Well we arrived in BA during a downpour so we are not feeling the sizzle quite yet, but we are here!!!

BA is our final destination for the trip, we fly back to LA on June 2nd.

Sandy saw this great LA Times article about the city.
http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-trw-buenosaires-18feb07

We also uploaded more photos from Cafayate, Cordoba and Mendoza
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nimbinferal/sets/72157600315398291/show/

The Vines

After sip n cycling our way around the Maipu valley we decided to head to a recommended wine bar http://www.vinesofmendoza.com/ to taste some more of the wines from this region. We did a 5 wine ¨flight" and the guy that gave the tasting used to own a wine shop in town so was a real wealth of knowledge not just on the wines but also Argentinian culture.

We returned the next night with a lovely couple we met at our hostel as they had a winemaker from a local Bodega giving a talk on the wine making process and of course we got to taste some more wine. It was a really informative discussion and we feel very educated on wine at this point.

Continuing our shopping streak in Mendoze, so Argentina is well known for it´s quality (and cheap) leather, and Heather managed to squeeze a leather jacket into her backpack (somehow?)... while I opted for a pair of trendy jeans, as denim is also rather inexpensive. Good thing we have only 1 more overnight bus ride as our backpacks are starting to get a bit porky.

Vino! Vino! Vino...Oh My!

We have spent the majority of our time here in Mendoza learning about WINE! We joined up with other hostelers to do a full day bike tour of 3 local wineries and a chocolate/liquor maker, which was great fun! We had a guide that led the 12 of us on the country roads of Maipu, the closest small town of wineries. We went to small boutique organic wineries, and big wineries that produce over 20 different varieties...and we tasted some divine and some not so divine wines! :D It is not harvest time here now, (it is late January to early March) so all the vineyards are dry and brown but they are still very lovely. We have now learned the whole process, from picking the grapes, to separating the skinds and seeds, to fermenting the grape sugar to alcohol, to pressing and filtering, and then to aging some in oak barrels. Fun fact: one american oak barrel costs the wineries $500 US dollars to buy, and one french oak barrel costs $2000 dollars! ..."barrel" meaning where certain wines are aged 6 months to multiple years in order to add flavor and merge textures....making them more complex! haha Look at all my wine knowledge! Aren´t you impressed?! :D
This is the first winery we visited on our bike day...it was a small, family run winery that has been around since 1898. There big award winner is a Malbec (which we bought), it is Mendoza´s most famous variety of wine. The Malbec grape grows well here because it is very dry all year round, only 9mm of rain a year...there is also a very cold winter. All of which are ideal growing conditions...

This was at one of the BIG wineries that produces over 20 different varieties of wine, including sparkling wine. It is very commericalized though with tons of photo ops, one of which we took advantage of! :D

At the last winery, I won a bottle of wine because I found the oldest bottle of wine they had in their private collection...this is the one I am holding, it is a 1971 San Felipe. They won´t drink any of these wines ever, they are just to collect and show off. Seems a bit unfortunate to me, to waste all this delicious wine...but hey, that is just me! :D lol

Mendoza

We have had a lot of fun walking around Mendoza with its plazas, sidewalk cafes, and shops. It is the winter solstice today, so the weather has been brisk but beautiful. The wine has been our main attraction here though, and what an attraction it is! It is absolutely fabulous! Here Andrew is sipping a local Malbec during our first sidewalk lunch. Yummy!There is a beautiful park in Mendoza too, which we found on our first day here. We arrived late afternoon, and the sunlight coming through the trees was just breath taking. It is very surreal experiencing such a "fall-like" place in the middle of June! :D lol I just could not help myself and decided I had to play with the leaves that covered the ground...

Feliz dia del Padre

Happy Fathers Day!! We spent father´s day wandering the empty streets of Cordoba, sipping Mate and shopping at some local arts and crafts street market..

the house of Che

Yesterday we were treated to a dreary londonesque winters day, good for lazing in bed (we have our own TV! in our room) and watching movies... today the sun is out and while the weather is crisp it´s nice to be outside walking around. Its a short bus ride to Alto Gracia one of the childhood towns of Ernesto Che Guevara. To honor him is a small museum in his former family home. His birthday was yesterday and the remnants of a party were still visible. The bike from his first trip through South America was there.. yes the Motorcylce diaries bike! wicked!
Most surprising thing I learnt today, this time last year Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro were visiting the museum to honor Che. I was not aware of how deep his friendship with the Cuban dictator had been.

More on the life of Che..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara

shop till you drop in Cordoba

We managed to fit a city tour on a NY city red double decker in amongst our shopping expeditions. Designer denim and all assortments of leather goods fill the shop windows. Decked out in our new threads we hit the town to experience the (in)famous nightlife only to end up on a darkened dancefloor with the power out, a surefire way to end the night early.

Quebrada de Cafayate

We took an afternoon tour into another world.. large red monoliths towering overhead.

Massive natural amphitheatres made from solid rock that slowly pushed through the earths surface.. layer cakes of copper formed green rocks.. red martian landscapes.

Thankfully our re-entry was smooth.

Sip N Cycle in Cafayate

After the amazingnessness that is Iguazu Falls we boarded a 20+hr bus ride to Tucaman. I must confess folks it has been a while since our last loooong overnight bus ride.. leaving at 10:45AM with an arrival time of 8:30AM.. joyous! NOT!

I managed to contract a full on head, chest achy feverish cold on the busride to add to the 20hr nightmare.. a few tylenol later and some other cold/flu drugs i was feeling vaguely human.. we arrived to Tucaman and sat around sipping coffee for 6hrs until our bus to Cafayate.. a few books read later we finally boarded.. I finished Marching Powder.. one of the best books I have read in recent times.

Onto Cafayate..
we arrived at around 9pm, the sky is filled with a million stars.. we had weaved our way upwards past hills covered in cactii and with the Andes as a an ever beautiful backdrop. Arriving into the quaint little pueblo of Cafayate we were greeted by a tout that for once seemed like a nice hombre.. we followed him to an amazing hostel, TV, Kitchen, free internet.. free wine tours.. whoah! almost too good to be true after 1.5 days of travel funk that we had to wash off in the HOT showers.. at dinner we had to eat off the kids menu as it was the only vege options and a glass of wine here is cheaper than a glass of OJ.. yes i was trying to behave and recover from my illness.. while Heather dived into the local wines. Friday.. tucked into our free breaky at the hostel followed by a short jaunt around the central plaza.. secured bikes for the day and a map of the wineries.. time to get our sip n cycle on !.. bodega uno (first winery).. muy bien! we enjoyed a few tastings, bought a bottle... discovered that due to our late start most everything was shutting up for lunch.. (as is the way in these siesta ridden countries).. what to do? hmmm..
how about sit on the balcony of our hostel, soak up the sun, drink some local vino and eat a tasty homemade lunch.. todo bien!
the afternoon consistented of biking to a few more wineries, purchasing a few more bottles of vino and then another long sit on our balcony spent contemplating how much we are diggin on Argentina about now..

Argentina set on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/nimbinferal/sets/72157600315398291/