Gaucho and allergies

This is it folks, the final installment in the trip to Argentina. Paul finally got to be the gaucho that he really wanted to be, but at the same time realised that he is quite allergic to horses and now has two bloodshot eyes. Still at least he got the photos! And how I laughed.

All was not smooth however, Lorena, the wine tour guide from yesterday had assured us that we would be back at 5pm so that we could catch our flight at 7pm. This morning however when we got in the bus, Carlos - today's guide, and utterly unprofessional in my view - told us we wouldn't get back until 7pm which caused a bit of concern. Then there was discussion of catching a bus at 2pm, which was highly unlikely when we got the horseriding place in the foothills of the Andes at 11:30 for a two hour ride... So we had to get him to order a car at vast expense... Oh well.

The tour itself was great - Paul wished he had worn trousers as he kept getting attacked by the thistles, but the scenery and the horses were excellent. Our nationality of the day was Belgian as we had a couple from Antwerp along for the ride, Bart and Katrien - picture of Katrien is attached!

Might have to collect myself for a couple of moments and think about the trip, and I will post some final thoughts from Santiago whilst waiting in the lounge. So until then hasta luego Argentina as I am definitely coming back again. With or without an allergic sidekick...

Maipù

Today we headed off for a wine tasting in the Maipù region of Argentina which together with the rest of Mendoza province make up 70% of the wine production for Argentina. Whereas we weren't that impressed with the city of Mendoza, the region itself is stunning with a great view of the Andes and some really nice vineyards. The view got better with more and more Torrontes and Malbec, the two signature wines from this region of the world.

We went to two vineyards - an organic one called Cecchin and a mass production one called Zaccardi (whose wines are available at Systembolaget for you in Sweden) and they were two very different experiences. One was rather 'artesanal' and the other was very slick - like the Sandeman's port experience in Porto or some of the larger whisky distilleries in Scotland. So, the jury is out as to which we preferred. However, the wine was flowing more than freely at the Zaccardi vineyard, including during the lunch and so nobody was complaining.

We spent most of the time speaking German with two really nice guys from Berlin (Michael in the picture above) and Schwaben, however there were some Argentines from the very south and a good compliment of Brazilians - and my Portuguese gets much better after a Syrah Reserve (I mean whose doesn't)

Anyway, I need to siesta now and so more tomorrow following the horse riding!

Wine tasting and drains

Now left to his own devices, Paul has had to grab the bull by the horns and got things in order for the Mendoza leg of the trip. This afternoon not only did he book a wine tour into the hinterlands so that he can take pictures of the Andes as well, but he got more laundry done, enquired about horse trips for Friday morning and did a quick tour of the centre of Mendoza. It's not Buenos Aires, I can tell you but it is a pretty provincial town, and there are some cute squares in the middle of the city.

Being a cultivated bear, I am not usually one to take pictures of drains, but I felt that the drains in Mendoza were a little special. There is quite some infrastructure in place, because otherwise Mendoza would be a desert. The same irrigation is used for the vineyards, because it is really quite hot here, and otherwise wine growing would be impossible. The water in the irrigation systems keeps the beautiful leafy sycamores alive as well, without with the city would probably be really quite inhabitable.

I am sure that Europe is delighted to hear that it was again in the 30's today, given that it is really quite cold in both the UK and Sweden. You should be here then, right? :-)

Mendoza

Hi all - we have made it to our last stage on the journey in Argentina and need to start thinking about stocking up on Quilmes and alfajores before heading back to Europe via Miami! We have just checked in to the hotel in Mendoza and are relishing the fact that we have a double bed for the first time this trip. Much as John has been an excellent room mate for the duration of the trip to Buenos Aires, it is nice to get your own space again as well!

Dominga yesterday was AWESOME!!! Paul had the most amazing sushi and some really good salmon lasagne, the recipe for which he is going to inflict on his Swedish friends when he gets home. As with any excellent trip, he has started to worry about his waistline, and so we are about to go trekking around Mendoza just to check it out.

Also in the works are the plans for tomorrow and Friday - wine tour and horse trekking in the mountains (or nearby anyway), that will be the subject of a future post. However, I think that today's photo has to be of the taxi driver's chair from Mendoza - and it is a homage to all taxi drivers in Argentina, as we have been cheaply transported around this fair nation in vehicles in various states of disrepair, none of which had seatbelts. But it has been fun. Tee hee!

Uruguay

Very excited that I got to go with this time - we headed off to the former Portuguese city of Colonia in Uruguay. More about that in a minute....

The others had an awesome time last night at a restaurant called Oviedo which was recommended as the best restaurant in Buenos Aires by the Hedonists Guide, and it certainly lived up to its billing with delicious wines, Kobe Steaks and great desserts. Following that however was the fantastic Milion bar, which was architecturally amazing and the fact that it wasn't packed made it even more pleasant. Definitely one to come back to :-)

Anyway, Uruguay was great - it was searingly hot (probably around 38 degrees) but it was really pretty, as you can see from the photos. Apparently the city was founded by the Portuguese and then taken over by the Spanish and at some point used by the English as a smuggling post. Anyway, a nice day out away from the big city and the usual rat race we have been used to for the last two weeks. I wouldn't recommend the beer though...., nor the pizza.

Plan for tonight - our last night in Buenos Aires, is to go to Dominga and then on to Congo. It's a tough life :-)

La Boca

Today was searingly hot, and the city seems to be getting hotter and hotter for each day that passes (Sorry Sweden) and today was mid to late 30's... We therefore went on a celebratory shopping trip around Palermo - Paul, Lorna, myself and Kiran. Having not spent much time in women's handbag and shoe shops, it was a bit of a revelation; however both Lorna and Kiran seemed delighted with their purchases and Paul managed to pick up a nice shirt (to temporarily replace the ones that he left in the hotel in Pinamar).

After a nice lunch (where we were all agreed that the national day of customer service must be upon us) we sauntered back to the flat to then head out to La Boca, which is a poorer district of the city, but one that contains much passion and history. It is here that the multicoloured buildings are that you see on many of the post cards and pictures from Buenos Aires. Never wishing to be a bear that disappoints, I have attached a couple of choice shots from La Boca.

A piece of trivia for Swedes here - that I got explained to me - is that Boca Juniors, the local football team that spawned such heroes as Diego Maradona and Riquelme play in yellow and blue, the same colours as the Swedish flag. This is because Boca Juniors split from now rival club River Plate and didn't have any colours. It was decided to pick the colours of the flag on the first boat that docked in the harbour, which happened to be Swedish... Bet you didn't know that...

Tonight we are headed to Milion for drinks on what is our last full day in Buenos Aires, as we are going to be going to Uruguay tomorrow for the day.

Senor Tango

Yesterday was much more of a lazy day - we headed to the San Telmo market to look at the antiques and furniture, and it was quite impressive, as you can see. The antiquities and furniture shops were packed full of really nice furniture and it was quite a revelation. It's only open on Saturday and Sunday for the market in the middle, but the architecture and 'serious' shops make it worth going there on other days as well.

In the afternoon, we just wandered through Palermo and bought all the wines for a wine tasting evening that we had planned to show how different foods matched with different wines, which was quite good fun. All of them Argentine, so it was nice to see how the Torrontes and Malbecs (typical Argentine wines) paired up with different types of food.

However, nothing was to prepare us for the show that was Senor Tango. One of the guide books said that it was the closest thing that we were going to get to a Las Vegas show in Buenos Aires, and that was certainly the truth. There were live horses, the Moulin Rouge version of 'Roxanne', Don't cry for me Argentina in Spanish and Senor Tango himself who did a large 40 minute set in the minute and chatted in Spanish to the crowd. Not so good for non Spanish speaking audience :-)

However the tango dancing was amazing, if a little short and so that made it all worth while! Judge from yourself from the website

Weekend entertainment...

We all headed out to meet the Buenos Aires weekend night life on Friday and Saturday, and of course it was an interesting experience...

The restaurants that we chose (Cluny and Godoy) were really nice and the food was excellent. More shocking examples of portion control, however, with a risotto and a FULL veal steak on top - and more sushi than the naked eye could see but the quality was excellent! However, as we didn't fit into the porteno night crew, we weren't allowed to come to the late sitting :-)

We also went to a night club on Friday night which was certainly interesting to our European eyes. Billed as the biggest gay club in Buenos Aires, we had certain expectations - which we had to throw out of the window when we got there to hear CeCe Peniston's 'Finally', Rick Astley's 'Together Forever' and I am sure that we heard 'I think that we are alone now....' We left at 4am, given that we needed to embark on an ambitious Evita day, but apparently at 5am they turned the sprinkers on - we are guessing to cool down the clientele after an evening of girating to tunes of a bygone age...

It was a laugh though :-)

Don't cry for me Argentina...

Today was another mammoth trip around the city and it definitely had an Evita theme to the whole thing. First of all we went to the Evita Museum which celebrated (and I mean celebrated) her life in all its forms - we got to see her acting skills on the big screen, her amazing oratory abilities on the balcony of the Casa Rosada and some of the reforms that she bought to Argentina. Plus, there were some amazing clothes and possessions that made the story of her life really quite vivid... Some of the details might not have been 100% accurate historically, but it was really well done and for some reason reminded me of the Anne Frank museum.

We then went over to Recoleta Cemetery to look at the final resting place of Eva Peron and it was really packed. The cemetery itself was beautiful, but the Duarte (Evita's maiden name) mausoleum was down one of the smaller alleyways and so it was difficult to get to - not unlike a certain oil painting with an enigmatic smile...

I can safely say that I know more about Eva Peron now, than I did before...

Buenos Aires on foot

Today was an energetic day with much walking around Palermo, Retiro and Microcentro looking at some of the more famous sights of Buenos Aires. We still have the Recoleta cemetary and Boca's Bonboneria to look at, but we did check out the Palacio de Aguas Corrientes, the Casa Rosada and various other monuments around the centre of the city.

Paul's personal favourite was the neat juxtaposition of the Torre Ingles (English Tower) with the monument to commemorate the war dead from the Falklands War - one might think that it was done on purpose...

Still, it's a beautiful city with so much going for it - you need to come!

Fantastic dining experience

Last night, the gang went to a relaxed dinner in a residential part of town just up from Palermo called Chacarita - it was amazing. The name of the restaurant is Casa Felix and as you can tell from the photo, it looked like they were in somebody's front room. There were about 6 tables for everybody, and the extremely well cooked organic food was delicious. The experience was just amazing, it has to be said. If you are ever in Buenos Aires, GO!!!

Palermo Viejo

We went for a walk this afternoon to get rid of some of the cobwebs, and to check out the local area where we are staying, Palermo Viejo. I understand from the others, that it is a mix between Sydney, Paris and Barcelona with amazing architecture, great cafe culture and some really nice shops. We didn't stay out for very long, given that we were so tired from last night - but I thought that you might like to see a couple of pictures from the area...

Also here is the place that we are staying in Buenos Aires - it is really very nice, and thanks to Gary for organising it for us!

Feliz Ano Nuevo

Welcome to 2009! Last night was really good fun in the Limbo bar. We discovered that most people don't spend New Years Eve in Buenos Aires, which was really quite obvious when we headed up the motorway from Pinamar. The southbound road was chock full of cars - it was really interesting. Also, as well as the road markings being decorative, we found out that the speed limits were optional as well - and quite random... And that roundabouts weren't really roundabouts - more like straight throughs... Paul, naturally, followed the curveture of the roundabout and almost crashed with the cars who were driving straight up 9 de Julio (the broadest avenue in the world apparently)

Anyway, back to the bar - we got a table on the terrace, and had a 5 course meal, which we almost didn't get to eat because the fireworks kicked off at 12, and we still hadn't got through the second course. When we enquired where our main courses were, the waiters told us that our deserts were going to be available shortly. We got everything in the end, but it did take until 1am until we finished dinner. There was a short disco pause between the primero and segundo plato for some Amy Winehouse...

The other interesting experience was the gun powder from the fireworks that rained down on us - the chef from the restaurant was lighting the fireworks in a milk crate and setting them off. I swear I saw him go back to one that he had light but hadn't gone off! Matt even managed to receive a spent rocket in his dinner. Not quite sure that that would have happened in Sweden!!! However, it was a really good evening, a nice relaxed atmosphere, good food and great service. Here is a picture of the whole group.

Oh, and Paul wanted me to post a picture of the 'December' gang, as Jack has now gone home! His shoes will be filled by John who arrived yesterday evening and did very well to make it to midnight before almost passing out!