Leaving Buenos Aires, arriving Buenos Aires and the most interesting cab ride of my life - Day 12

Our last day in Buenos Aires was spent finally getting to take a tour of the inside of Casa Rosada. It is open to the public on holidays and weekends (but of course wasn't open yesterday - Good Friday) when we attempted to go. But today was the day!

We checked out of the hotel and walked over to the Pink House and were permitted inside; there was a long snaking line which we couldn't quite figure out, but finally realized you had to get in line to get a piece of paper with your tour group on their, and then line up when your tour time was called. A little disorganized, but everything run by the government usually is.

We had a fabulous tour guide who spoke in Spanish and English (bonus) - otherwise I was going to have to feed a broken Spanish translation to Kyle. The Pink House is where the Argentine president works. Their presidential residence is 1 hour away, which would be awful to drive to and fro ever morning in Buenos Aires traffic, but good thing there is a helipad right next to the Pink House. We went through the press room where the president gives all official press conferences. We also got to stand on the famous balcony where Eva Peron addressed the Argentines in the 1950s and where Pope John Paul addressed the people in the 1980s. Great tour to end our stint in Buenos Aires.

Our next important task before leaving was to find a Pope key chain for Kyle. Luckily the main city cathedral was surrounded with many souvenir sellers hawking many pope items.

We returned to the hotel to meet our airport taxi. We had reserved one online at the cost of 180 argentine pesos (about $36 US). The airport wanted $80US for a car, or would set up a taxi for about $50US. You know me and my deals, so I set off to look for a reasonable ride to the airport that was secure with good reviews. I found Taxi Ezeiza.

We approached the taxi driver in the lobby of the hotel who was flustered searching for us because the hotel said "no one by that name is here." I knew to look out for him, so I was able to find him. Christian, the taxi driver, explained the "the hotels like to rob you" in his broken English with an Spanish\Italian accent with some random Portuguese words which we took to mean there was not much cooperation between taxi airport companies and the hotel. He was there 20 minutes early, which was great.

We get in the white station wagon marked with Taxi Ezeiza and take off for the airport. Christian immediately doubts our knowledge of the proper airport we are supposed to be going to - beenasthough there are two Buenos Aires airports - he says "the silly tourists have ended up at the wrong airport before." You know me - I had done my research :)

We start off, and Christian informs he is always a tour guide, and immediately begins pointing things out and telling Kyle where to find the "expensive prostitutes that you pay in USD, not Argentinian pesos that live in Recoleta" which was Kyle's favorite neighborhood before he found out this gem of knowledge.

Our tour continues on the highway, and then Christian realizes all of a sudden we have no gas, and says we must stop at the gas station. Kyle and I both look at each other with a little concern, but we really have no choice. Christian seems quite harmless, and I think we both could take him. He resembles a young, slightly awkward Tim Curry. We pull off the highway and stop at a gas station. Christian informs that we have to get out of the car while gas is being put in the car through a valve in the hood. I am starting to internally freak out, but then Christian points to the sign that all passengers must get out of the car - I internally calm down a little bit. We learned most cars run on natural gas in Argentina, and getting out of the car is to probably avoid being blown to smithereens if something goes wrong. It was quite mindblowing that these cars all run on natural gas.

Back in the car, and back on the highway our tour continues. We find out about Ciudad Evita which the original street plan looks like the profile of Eva Peron - quite incredible. Because of the messed up streets due to the odd shape - each address has 6 parts to it. After this exit, Christian informs us that we are going to stop by his mothers to get his dinner because the restaurants at Ezeiza "are too damn expensive." Kyle and I look at each other again. We had survived the potential gas station incident, so hopefully we would be okay on this one. Luckily we had left with plenty of time to get the airport.

We head into what Christian describes as an Italian neighborhood (we also get his life story with the free tour). He was born in Italy, moved to Argentina. Has a French father and Italian mother. He got a degree in graphic design, and spent some time in Canada during university. Now, he serves a taxi driver and tour guide for his father's company. We arrive at a house, and out pops this older lady with something in a sack with a vitamin water. Sure enough, this is Christian's mother who we were introduced to. After being wished "buen viaje" (safe trip in Spanish) we were finally off to the airport.

We finally arrived about an hour later - the trip should usually take 40 minutes. We now have Christian's card and information AND his home phone number if anyone needs a tour or crazy taxi ride in Buenos Aires.

Tonight, we flew to Lima, Peru, and tomorrow we fly to Cusco. Good night all!

Pics
1. Inside of the Casa Rosada
2. The press conference room of the president in Casa Rosada, Buenos Aires, Argentina
3. The view from the balcony Eva Peron spoke from, view of Plaza de Mayo

San Telmo and UT Southwestern reunion in Buenos Aires - Day 11

Today we headed over to San Telmo - another neighborhood in Buenos Aires. Given that it was Good Friday, we expected many things to be closed and we were right. We figured it was a good day to walk the streets of Buenos Aires and enjoy the relative quiet in the city.

Everywhere was closed for lunch so we made the once trip visit to the Mecca of McDonalds. Very expensive compared to the states - a meal was around $8-$10. But when you are hungry and it is the only thing open it doesn't matter. The food was decent, and I was happy that I could get a Fanta there :)

Next stop was San Telmo, located south of Puerto Madero where we are staying. Our first stop was ... wait for it... a church. We were able to go into the Nuestra Basilica de la Senora between the Good Friday services. Really beautiful church - I know it had some significance and I will add that here later :)

Then we headed down "La Defensa" - a street famous for its shopping and antique markets - watch out wallet. On Sundays they have a huge market that stretches for blocks, bummer we were not there on a Sunday. Walking down the street - we found some really cute shops with unique knick knacks. Yes - I did buy something :)

Heading back to the hotel, we passed lots of graffiti, but honestly it was more like art than any of the graffiti back in the states.

That afternoon we met up with Lindsey and Tessa, who are two of my medical school classmates. They are spending time in Buenos Aires taking Spanish classes and working in a local hospital on a research project. We had a great time catching up and trying to speak Spanish. We enjoyed a Malbec (of course, we are in Argentina) on the pool deck.

The night, Kyle and I headed to a Tango show at the local cultural center. The footwork was amazing and mindboggling - and the traditional tango music with an accordion player was fantastic as well. The tickets were about $25USD each, and the tango shows in town with dinner start at $100 USD (talk about overpriced). We were really happy to find this gem through tripadvisor.

That night, we met back up with Lindsey and Tessa for dinner at Broccolino (it was so good we had to go back twice). A really fun last full day in Buenos Aires. Off to Lima manana!

Pics
1. Shop in San Telmo
2. Graffiti in San Telmo
3. From left to right: Lindsey, me, and Tessa on the rooftop deck overlooking San Telmo - UT Southwestern reunion in Buenos Aires
4. Basilica de Nuestra Senora
5. Bottle of wine we enjoyed that afternoon
6. The tango show in Centro Cultural de Borges

Tigre Delta - Day 10

We decided to take a day break from Buenos Aires and explore one of the suburbs. The original plan was to take the ferry to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, but a) the tickets were ridiculously expensive for the day (upwards of $100) and it was more of a pain to get to. So we settled on Tigre Delta which is about an hours train ride from Buenos Aires up the coast to the north.

it is a popular weekend vacation spot for Buenos Aires residents and truly feels like you are a world away from the hustle and bustle of the city. There are two options to get there - either the local train that costs about $1.50 US each or the tourist train which is upwards of $30. Of course I chose the local train, plus there was guaranteed to be some good people watching on the way.

We headed to Retiro train station and bought our tickets - all in Spanish :). And boarded the train. Thank goodness we got a seat - it was incredibly busy even midday on a weekday. The train had about 12 stops before we reached the final destination of Tigre. A multitude of people got on and off at each station - who knows where they were going.

Tigre is at the mouth of the "Rio de Plata" (River Plata for a rough translation) and has many waterways with houses on the river with some really nice scenery.

Instead of the typical tourist tour on the catamaran, we took the local water taxi (Interislenas was the name) to a port where there were some nice restaurants. I almost felt like I was in Italy on a water taxi - not quite Venice, but close! We zoomed down the waterways and admired the houses built on stilts on each side of the river. We dropped off one person here and one person there on the way down to the final destination.

We passed a resort that was exclusively for employees from the National Bank of Argentina. Vacationing with your coworkers could be fun, but completely controlled by your company might be interesting.

After being on the water taxi for an hour, we arrived at a restaurant. We originally were going to go further, but beenasthough lots of people were getting off each including locals - we decided to give it a try instead. We had a beautiful lunch on the river at El Gato Blanco. Kind of like a Peruvian version of a restaurant on Las Olas in Peru.

Back on the water taxi, we enjoyed the ride back to the port deciding which house we would buy if we won the lottery. There were actually a few for sale!

Pictures below from the water taxi ride

Laundry and Sightseeing - Day 9

Since we only packed carry-ons for the trip, we were in need of doing some laundry. Laundromats certainly are not on every block in Buenos Aires, in fact they don't exist after searching for one in Recoleta yesterday - our problem might have been that we were in what was considered the wealthiest district where dog walkers were abundant, and not laundromats.

First order of the day was to find a laundry place - thanks to the internet we found one not too far from home that was not going to charge the exorbitant prices of Hilton ($10 US for one shirt - I don't think so). We dropped off our laundry for pick up tomorrow, and definitely felt a load lifted off us. (Har, har, har)

We got lunch at a little place recommended by our travel book called "Coma" (which means eat in Spanish for my grandad). They had delicious sandwiches that were very inexpensive - I had a "Little Mexico" sandwich with guacamole, tomato, and chicken and Kyle had a "Houston" with ham, cheese, lettuce and tomato - the Kansas and Wyoming looked most interesting as well :)

After fueling up for our day of tourism, we headed to Teatro Colon which is a very famous opera house, recently refurbished. We wanted to head inside to check it out, but the $21 price tag for foreigners v the $6 price tag for locals turned us off to that. Instead, we took some pretty pictures of the outside - we went and saw - that's all that matters, right?

We next headed to what is supposedly the widest street in the world "Avenida de 9 de Julio" on which also stands the Obelisk which highly resembles the Washington Monument. We didn't die trying to dodge the cabs and motorcycles, so it was a successful crossing.

We had our one breakdown and had a McDonald's ice cream on the way to the next sightseeing attraction of the day. Today's neighborhood was Centro which has a lot of the government building and is considered the heart of the city.

We headed to Plaza de Mayo (May Plaza) which is a green area on the former seat of the president's palace and was witness to the 1810 revolution in Argentina. Given its history of revolutions and demonstrations, it is a popular place to demonstrate today. When we were there, it was quite quiet - with only signs up celebrating Pope Francis's election to pope. At one end of the plaza is Casa Rosada (Pink House)... kind of like the White House in the US which now houses the presidential offices.

To the right of the Casa Rosada is the Metropolitan Cathedral where we got our Catholic Church fix of the day. The cathedral is the largest church in Argentina, and really doesn't look like a church at all from the outside, more like a greek temple.

With so much history for one day, our brains were full and we wandered back to the hotel through the neighborhood, running across some gorgeous buildings on the way.

Dinner was definitely the hilight of the night - Kyle found an amazing Italian restaurant - el Broccolino - about a 30 minute walk from the hotel. Hopefully we walked enough to walk off the amazing fresh pasta we had :). Overall, another amazing day in Buenos Aires. Adios!

Photos:
Teatro Colon from the outside
The Obelisk on the widest street in the world
Casa Rosada
Another Pope Francis poster!
A beautiful church we found when wondering around the neighborhood

Recoleta - Day 8

On our first full day in Buenos Aires, we decided to head out to one of the many barrios of Buenos Aires. One of the most famous and wealthiest being Recoleta. We hailed a cab outside the hotel to head the 10 or so kilometers to Recoleta. If I thought the cabbies in New York were bad, Buenos Aires cabbies certainly give them a run for their money.

Fiona's version of BA traffic rules: traffic lanes do not exist, neither do turn signals. You honk if: 1. someone comes into your lane without a turn signal, 2. if the traffic is stopped and it should be moving 3. if the light is red and you want it to be green 4. just for the hell of it. I'm definitely glad to have experienced BA driving, I'm just glad I was not the one driving!!

After our whirlwind taxi ride, for the expensive price of $6USD (yay for cheap cabs). We walked around Recoleta before the restaurant that my dear friend Annie recommended opened for lunch. Every few blocks there was a really nice "plaza" - AKA park with gorgeous trees. It was really nice to sit on a park bench and watch the world go by. There were a lot of dads with strollers in the parks which I thought was really neat.

FINALLY the restaurant opened (we were starving by then and our stomachs were ready to consume themselves). We ate at Cumana which had fantastic empanadas - especially the Blue Cheese empanada (YUM).

After we were refueled, we headed over the Recoleta Cemetery. The masoleums or family graves look like little mini mansions (complete with crypt basement) that line the mini streets that are set up like spokes on a wheel. The plots are bought and sold just like real estate. One was for sale, Kyle had a faint interest...haha. The most famous grave in the cemetery was Eva Peron's - very easily seen by the multitude of flowers and people in front of it. It really was a beautiful place. Some of the masoleums have gone into disrepair next to newly built gleaming marble final resting places.

Next door we headed to the Basilica Nuestra Senor del Pilar which was gearing up for Semana Santa (Easter Week in South America). There were also the ever present Pope Francisco posters - Argentina certainly proud of their new resident in Vatican City, as they should be! The church is considered the finest colonial church in the city, consecrated in 1732.

After our death and church fill of the day, we were off to see more pretty things in Recoleta. First stop was the giant metal statue of "Floralis Generica" - each of the metal leaves fold closed during the night and open again in the morning. Really gorgeous flower in the sunlight.

Since we hadn't been to any museums yet, today was the day and off we went to the Museo de Bellas Artes which was conveniently located across the street from the Floralis Generica (I'm such a good planner.. haha.. or map reader). I'm glad Kyle is a roadrunner through museums as well and doesn't like to read every sign. I can sit and appreciate only for so long (or as my mom likes to call me - fidget bum). My favorites were the impressionistic paintings of Joaquin Sorolla of the beach in Spain - they were some of the only paintings I recognized (haha) because I did a Spanish project on him in high school.

We were walking by the cinema and there was a huge crowd assembling which wasn't there earlier in the day. How odd I thought. We decided to take a peek, and found out it was a red carpet premiere for "Oblivion" - hadn't heard of it. All the commotion was because Tom Cruise was appearing later that evening. Glad we didn't stick around!

All of that tourist activity made us ready for an afternoon cafe con leche con medialuna. We stopped at la Biela - a cafe famous in Recoleta with a gorgeous patio (only bummer is anything served on the patio costs 20% more). Oh well, it was a gorgeous day so we decided to splurge.

We hailed another cab home - with crazy gridlock everywhere, and had a nice dinner near Puerto Madero. Another fun and busy day! Buenas noches!

Images below from Recoleta Cemetery and my new kitty friend

Bingo Bus and Buenos Aires - Day 6/7

After recovering from the stomach bug, we were debating if the 14 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires would be a good idea. But realizing flights would be over $300 and you could not get a refund for the bus tickets, we sucked it up and prepared ourself for the Bingo Bus.

After reading about the fancy busses on many other blogs, we were both really excited about this part of the trip. We ended up going with Andesmar - really great reputation in Argentina had to splurge on the "primera clase suite" - first class. The tickets were about $95 each with food/beverages.

We got to the bus station in Mendoza, and found our platform - 28 out of 90 platforms. Turns out Mendoza is a very busy transit station. We could have hopped on a bus to Chile, Peru, Uruguay, or other destinations. Our chariot pulled up which was a double decker bus. We checked in our luggage and headed up stairs to our "suite". The seats were very plush - about what you would find in first class on a plane. They laid flat fully, and had a in seat entertainment unit - something that was great to keep you entertained for the 14 hour bus ride.

We left bang on time at 7pm and headed east on ruta 7 straight to Buenos Aires. About an hour in, the world famous Bingo started. Jesus (our bus attendant) handed out the bingo cards - the first person to fill their cards won a bottle of wine. He started to announce the numbers (it was a great review in Spanish and numbers) and we waited in anticipation to see if our numbers were called. After 15 minutes in, someone shouted "Bingo Andesmar" and won the bottle of wine. Bingo was definitely all it was cracked up to be. Then we were served dinner - two courses, one was cold and the other was hot. Wine was served with the meal, and then champagne was served after. Through the night, I watched a few movies and managed to get some sleep. In the morning, we got a small breakfast box with a choice of hot drink. The dulce de leche muffin was pretty good - might have to import those to the states.

We were very happy to had made it to Buenos Aires! We got off the bus and hailed a taxi to the hotel. This is my free hotel from the American Airlines sweepstakes, and it is amazing. We have a beautiful view of the river and Puerto Madero neighborhood. We immediately crashed when we arrived.

The rest of the afternoon we walked around Puerto Madero and had lunch at a really nice cafe. Looking forward to exploring more of Ba tomorrow! Adios!

Pictures:
Bus Station in Mendoza
My Bingo card
Jesus calling out the numbers
First course of dinner
Primera clase suite on the bingo bus
Puerto Madero on the river in Buenos Aires
View from the hotel in Buenos Aires
Puente de la Mujer Buenos Aires

Wine Tasting Round 2 - Day 5

Another delicious breakfast at the Posada, and Marcelo showed up again bang on time for our second day of wine tours.

Today, we headed to Lujan de Cuyo - about a 30 minute drive from where we were staying. We were in Maipu yesterday and the other region is called Uco Valley - about 1.5 hours away from where we stayed.

Marcelo was fantastic again - he made all the reservations for us, and shared some wonderful knowledge as we were driving around. Plus his music choice was amazing - a mix of Jay Z, traditional Argentine music, and the best of it all - 80s Argentine music.

1. Carinae
This boutique winery is owned by a French couple who came to Mendoza in 1998. It was abandoned in the 1980s, and revived by the couple. All of the wines are named after constellations, and "carinae" is the constellation over Mendoza during wine harvest (which was when we happened to be there - perfect timing!) We had a nice tour of the facilities, and another wine tasting. These early wine tastings are a bit difficult, especially at 10:30am - talk about an eye opener.. just kidding! Kyle bought a bottle of wine here - partly because it tasted good and mostly because he can say he has a bottle of wine that can only be bought in one place in the world at the winery.

2. Archaval Ferrer
This was easily the best tour of all the wineries. We had an indepth 1.5 hour tour watching the wine being made. We started by watching the truck dump the grapes in to the warehouse, then the workers loading them on to the machines and hand sorting any malformed grapes out. The grapes then headed to have the stems removed, and then requality checked. After that, the skin was removed.

We went to where the vats of wine were filled and the yeast added for fermentation. We got to taste some of the wine before it was put into the barrels to age. We tasted the altavista 2013 - it was interesting to taste before being aged, but was pretty delicious. We then toured the warehouse with all of the barrels, and got to taste wine directly from the barrel - altavista 2012, even more delicious.

The barrels are all made of French oak, and coast about $1500 each. Wines can be aged from 6-18 months (of course the more premium being aged for longer). The barrels can be used up to 4 times, again the first use reserved for the premium wines.

Another great tasting finished off this tour.

3. Lunch at Ruca Malen
We headed to another incredible winery from lunch. Our view was amazing from the table - we almost had to pinch ourselves to verify it was still there. This was not Argentine barbeque (we needed a day of rest from that) and was a 5 course tasting menu. Incredibly delicious and the pairings were perfect.

4. Carmelo Patti
Our last winery was in a little town outside of Mendoza. It is a family operation which happens all in one spot - the vineyards, wine storage, barrels, and bottling. The character in this place was amazing - the concrete wine vats are from the 1940s and the original building I doubt has been repainted since then. Really nice tasting.

We got back to the hotel that evening and unfortunately were hit with a stomach bug. Thus the blog silence. All is good now!

Pictures:
Concrete wine vat at Carinae
Vineyards at Archaval Ferrer
Wine glasses at lunch!
Had to get a picture of the grapes!

Wine tastings in Mendoza Round 1 - Day 4

After a very refreshing night sleep, we were up by 7:30am for a wonderful breakfast cooked by Julia who owns the posada. Fresh fruit, bread, and made to order eggs were delicious.

Then, Marcelo (our private driver) - yes we are a bit spoiled arrives with our chariot at 9:20am on the dot to whisk us away for a tour. Okay, so you are probably thinking how much can a private driver cost - it ends up being about the same or cheaper than doing one of the bus tours with about 16 people from winery to winery and we even ended up on some private tours. Marcelo was definitely worth it!

Stop 1: Trapiche Winery
This beautiful winery was one of the larger wineries in Argentina - and has one area for premium wines and what are affectionately known as table wines. A lot of the family wineries were abandoned in the 1970s\1980s and bought by other families more recently. They have all been renovated, and many still use the original facilities and tools to make the wine. We had a great semi private wine tour, and tried 3 wines on a beautiful terrace (see below for pic). I tried a new wine called a Cabernet Franc there - very delicious. Basically, the Cabernet Sauvignon grape had a love affair with the Sauvignon Blanc grape and produced this - at least that sounds more interesting than plant reproduction. The picture below is of Trapiche's private railroad which would take the wine to Buenos Aires to be bottled. Back in the day to make some more money, the bottle makers in Buenos Aires would water the wine down to make more money. They even used menthol to create more liquid to put in bottles, but this resulted in the death of several people. So now there is a law that dictates that the wine must be bottled where it is made.

Stop 2: Tempus Alba
A smaller operation than Trapiche, but in equally as beautiful a setting. We did a wine tasting here. I had a rose malbec for the first time. Not the biggest fan, but definitely glad we tried it. Life is not too hard when you are gazing at the Andes mountains, looking over vineyards, and drinking Malbec. I almost needed a reality check.

Stop 3: Familia Zuccardi
Two wineries can certainly make you hungry. We headed over to Familia Zuccardi winery for a typical Argentine barbeque lunch of course accompanied by Malbec. The first course is also empanadas (Kyle's new favorite food) which are often filled with cheese, meat or onions. Next, salad, grilled vegetables, and tomato/olive oil were brought out. Then the parade of meat began. At first, we thought this was the only portion of meat - we were most certainly wrong.
Meat plate #1: regular sausage, blood sausage, pork
Meat plate #2: chicken, ribs
Meat plate #3: baby goat meat (that was the translation) and steak - Fiona was defeated at this point
Meat plate #4: veal, more steak (Kyle muscled through it and tried everything)
Then desert (which of course I saved room for) was an Argentine flan with a white cream sauce with candied grapes. YUM!
The view wasn't half bad either - in a greenhouse type room with beautiful windows overlooking the vinery.

Next, we headed over to the winery part for a tour (which was private.. yahoo). Kayla (from Chicago) was our tour guide - she was spending about 3 months down in Argentina as training to be a sommelier. We had a full tour of the property and saw each part of the wine making process in detail - Kyle went into paparazzi mode with his camera (those pics will come later). After the tour, another excellent tasting.

That night, Julia suggested we headed to Casa del Campo grill for dinner (the same owners as the place we had lunch the day before). We thought, great, we know where that was, but in fact it was at a different facility. We were befuddled why you would have one location open for lunch, and another location for dinner - but turns out they wanted a restaurant with room enough to have a party which was where dinner was at. The grill sounded like a made to order place which would be great after our meat marathon that was lunch.

Guess what was for dinner? Yep, the traditional Argentine barbeque with meat marathon. This tim,e, I knew to save room for dessert! Dinner was delicious, and another 2.5 hour affair, but hey we had nowhere else to be.. except to get into bed for our wine tasting round 2 the next day. Buenos noches!

Pictures:
View from the Trapiche terrace
The winery building at Trapiche, next to the private railroad tracks which are now out of use
Familia Zuccardi wine barrels
Beautiful view of the sky at Posada Verde Oliva

Over the Andes and to Mendoza! - Day 3

After the hustle and bustle of Santiago for the past 2 days, we set off for Mendoza, Argentina Thursday morning. The original plan was to take a 7 hour bus ride over the Andes mountain which has some spectacular views, but unfortunately the highway from Santiago to Mendoza is closed during the day, which would have meant a night bus and no views. So next best (and quickest) option was to fly. It was a 40 minute flight which consisted of taking off, going over the Andes, and descending.

The views from the flight were amazing, and we were glad to have a window to peer out of. We were on LAN which was very efficient, but also very small - a vague reminder of Spirit or Ryan Air - we were packed like sardines, but for 40 minutes that was okay!!

Through customs we went, and had another stamp added to the passport (YAHOO) and we were met by our private driver for the weekend (we felt very special) who sped us away to where we were staying.

Arriving in the afternoon to Posada Verde Oliva, we were warmly greeted by Samira, one of the managers of the property, and shown to a gorgeous room. The building is very old (maybe 17th century) and recently remodeled as a hotel. The property has a beautiful pool surrounded by the vineyard and olive trees.

We were starving, so we headed off to Casa del Campo, recommended by Samira. We of course had to get a malbec, and had our first Argentinian empanadas - one filled with cheese, the other with meet. They were delicioso! Kind of remind me of English pasties a little! For our main course, we had a stuffed pasta with meat and vegetables with homemade pasta. A very delicious meal!

After our tummies were full, we headed to our first winery which is 300m from our posada. We had a tasting of a malbec and a Cabernet Sauvignon - both of which were delicious at Vina Maria. The original founder of the vineyard came from Italy in 1889 to make wine. We enjoyed our wine on the patio accompanied by our new found dog friends.

Off in search of another winery, we came across a olive oil grove, and had to go in for a tasting. We learned that the older olive oil trees were, the more olives they produce - they had some on the property that were over 100 years old.

That night, we had a wonderful three course dinner back at the Posada with a malbec straight from the grapes that were grown on the land. A fantastic start to Mendoza!

Pics below:
View from Posada Verde Oliva
Walking around Mendoza
Cheers at lunch at Casa de Campo Cafe
New dog friend at Vina Maria
the Andes flying from Santiago to Mendoza

Funicular Fantastico! - Day 2

Another amazing day in Santiago! Kyle still entrusted me with planning the day, so I must be a good trip planner so far :) or he might just be lazy.. haha. So we started with more beautiful buildings. But first a ride on the clean and efficient Santiago subway - makes NYC look like a third world subway.

Our first stop was Palacio La Moneda which is the seat of the President of Chile and other cabinet ministers. Previously, the building served as the colonial mint from 1814-1929. I just enjoyed the fact that 2 soldiers on horses were "guarding the palace" who were happy to pose for pictures and answer questions about their horse. They stay on the horses in 5 hours shifts - probably to just appease the tourists. After this, we were on a quest for lunch as we were ravenous. We finally happened upon a cute little cafe by a church that was on our to do list to see. Fiona had a very tasty avocado and turkey sandwich, and we tried out first empanada de queso which was delicioso.

Onwards to the church - Iglesia de San Francisco. The first stone of the church was laid in 1586 which makes it Santiago's oldest surviving colonial building. It was incredible inside - Kyle got some amazing pictures (to come later :).

After our religious experience of the day, we headed over to the funicular after which this post is titled. Santiago has hills in the city on which there are beautiful lookouts. Parque Metropolitino is at the top of the tallest hill in Santiago. There is a funicular which heads up the hill for about $5USD (a deal instead of climbing all the way up) which stops half way for the Santiago Zoo. The zoo was great - Fiona bonded with the giraffes and Kyle bonded with the monkeys. The view from the top was incredible (picture below). You could see for miles from the top - Santiago spreads all the way to the mountains far in the background. We climbed to the cumbre (top of the hill) where their is a impressive statue dedicated to Virgin Mary.

After heading back down, we took a stroll along the river back to our hotel, stopping at a beautiful fountain on the way home. Every bench seemed to be occupied with couples kissing - seems to be a popular thing for the jovenes to do. The Chileans are very romantic.

Dinner was another adventure. Kyle found a highly recommended restaurant online, but sadly google maps led us astray by about 4 blocks. Frustrated and hungry, we stopped at a little cafe and had an appetizer. Here, we tried out first pisco sour. Fiona was not too impressed, but Kyle fell in love. He has a new favorite drink. It sort of tastes like limoncello with a bit of a bite. Our waiter said the pisco sour is better in Peru, so the jury is still out whether Fiona will like it or not. We finally found the restaurant after asking for directions at the cafe and realized that we walked right past it and looked at it earlier. Turisto estupido. To finish off the night, we had another delicious Camenere and pizza.

My Spanish is improving every day, thank goodness. Off to Mendoza tomorrow, early flight in the morning. Signing off for now. Adios amigos!

Primera Dia en Santiago!! Day 1

Greetings from Santiago, Chile! We both arrived yesterday morning after a 9.5 hour flight which was rather uneventful. After a crazy day of packing and tying lose ends, we made it to the airport with time to spare and toasted our epic South American adventure with a drink in the Admiral's Club.

Santiago was extremely foggy when we came into land. We went through what we thought were high clouds, and BOOM there was the runway. It was about 50F when we got off and very foggy but that soon cleared up.

We easily found a taxi from the airport for $19 USD - not too bad, and headed to our hotel in Providencia. We are at an Ibis and while the room is small, it is just fine for two nights. We took a quick 2 hour power nap before sight seeing that afternoon.

We woke up ravenous, so we stepped out of the hotel and found a nice sandwich shop. The menu had quite a selection with all sorts of toppings. Funnily enough, hot dogs are quite popular here - maybe I'll have to try one. I had turkey in the style of "a la pobre" which was fried egg, onions, and cheese - probably a heart attack on a plate, but it was delicious. Kyle was enamored with the Chilean hot sauce.

After lunch, we went to the subway which was fair easy to navigate and headed to the Plaza de Armas - one of the main squares in Santiago. We walked around for quite a while to get the feel of the city. We say lots of adorable stray dogs (which I wanted to take all of them home) and these random teenagers with body paint on and ripped jean shorts - we googled it and can't figure out their significance.. who knows.

We stumbled upon a beautiful church - Basilica la Merced and had a nose and went in to check it out. It was absolutely gorgeous inside - with many shrines. The most popular one was to San Expedito who has his saint day on April 19 - he was a popular dude. There are also many pictures\banners of the new pope Francis everywhere - South America is proud to represent at the Vatican!

Next we hit up Cerro Santa Lucia which is a raised hill in the middle of the city. We started the climb up, and as we got higher, the views got better. You really can see how the city developed in stages with the ancient architecture transitioning to the new glass office buildings. There were also countless couples on the hill - not a place to go on Valentine's Day if you are feeling lonely. Haha. We had a good hike up and on the way down discovered the Neptune Fountain - a very famous site in Santiago.

For dinner that night we went to Liguira Restaurant - which was highly recommended by a travel book I had and foursquare (who know it was so popular in Santiago) where we had a Chilean wine - a Camenere which was absolutely delicious and amazing food. That was yesterday, a great start to the trip! Adios amigos!

Photos:
1. My luggage - carry on only - aren't you impressed?
2. We had leg room on the flight and could stretch all the way out - very spoiled!