The Newest (most-delicious) Scoop

So we know, it’s been a while. A long while actually. About 2 ½ months. Quite a lot has happened in this 2 ½ months. We moved, got jobs and essentially have acclimated back into American life. So there is quite a lot to talk about in this latest blog, and we’ll start from the beginning – but don’t worry, its not too long.

Just after we got home, we each went to the bachelor/bachelorette parties for Laura (Martin’s sister) and Luke (martin’s new brother-in-law). The girls went for a relaxing weekend poolside in Palm Springs while the boys went to Luke’s family’s ranch for some very manly activities (beer and guns). Shortly after this weekend, came the big wedding weekend. On September 2, 2007, after much preparation (especially for Corina, Martin’s mom who made Laura’s dress) we boarded a boat in the Newport Beach Harbor and where we spent a beautiful evening. For more pictures, here is the link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/martinswims/LauraLukesWedding
http://picasaweb.google.com/martinswims/LauraSBacheloretteParty

After this, it was down to business. We started spending our weeks in the Coachella Valley Desert area at Martin’s parents’ house while Martin began working for his Dad’s company, Top Stoneworks, which does marble, tile and stone work for big houses in this area, and Grace began a long and arduous job search. After much looking in a variety of fields, she has now spent 2 weeks at the Children’s Discovery Museum of the Desert, as an event planner and camp director (check it out: www.cdmod.org). We just rented a little apartment in Palm Desert that we are enjoying decorating and putting together.

It hasn’t been all work though, we’ve managed to have a bit of fun too. We went to an awesome concert to see Muse at the Irvine Amphitheater, and we also spent a night at the Magic Castle in Hollywood with our friend Jeffrey, who is a magician there. We got to get all dressed up and see some fabulous magicians – it was amazing... (http://picasaweb.google.com/martinswims/MagicCastle)

We’ve also really been enjoying living in the desert area. There is a new Indian food restaurant we love, and the $1.50 movie theater is great. The weather has cooled down and is beautiful, especially with the mountains and palm trees.

So that’s the scoop with us, hope that updates you all a little bit. We hope all is well with all of you!

Love,
g & m

Home Sweet Home

Our last day in Argentina was cold and rainy (the country must have known we were leaving). After a few last minute errands, and ordering in tons of empanadas both for lunch and to take on the plane with us, we got a visit from our friends Stella and Graciela, as well as Martin’s uncle Julio. We chatted with them as we finished putting a few things in suitcases and closing up things in the apartment until, all too soon, it was time to leave for the airport. After kisses to the doorman and our friends, we left the place we’d spent the majority of our past 7 months with tears in our eyes (ok, not martin’s, just mine).

After successfully checking in all 8 suitcases, and lugging all 8 carry-ons through immigration (thank goodness we had my mom and Julian with us!), we finally boarded our flight to Houston. Although the flight left on time and the service on board was great, it was a very bumpy flight, and we spent many of the 10 hours awake and trying to distract ourselves with movies. Fortunately, we landed safely and had no problems going through US immigration and customs (thank goodness because we packed a few wine bottles over the limit). We caught our connection to LA just in time, and after a quick flight, we walked in to the arms of Martin’s family. It was wonderful to be home.
Seven of our eight checked bags came through and the eighth bag came on the next flight, just 20 minutes later. What luck! We arrived home to Martin’s truck, decorated in red white and blue, and a small welcome home celebration with family and neighbors. Our second day home we spent in true San Clemente style – Mexican food, friends and the beach. And it gets even better – after leaving the beach we got slurpees, Martin took a nap, and then we went to Pizza Port for dinner – it’s good to be home.

Now we face the monumental task of unpacking, getting a cell phone for martin, car insurance for me and other such business. Not to mention finding ourselves some jobs. Although it’s a bit overwhelming, it is still so nice to be back. Thank you to everyone for the welcome home visits, phone calls and emails - we are very appreciative of all of your support and thoughtfulness. And a super thank you to all who visited us on our journey, it was great to include others in our experience. Also, thanks to everyone who has been reading our website, it gave us a great feeling knowing we were sharing our adventures with everyone at home. We are planning on keeping this website up with more stories about our adventures - now of the California type!

El Ultimo Canto

Our last two weeks here have of course, flown by, but you know…time flies only when you are having fun – and it’s been fun. Gracie’s dad was here about two weeks ago, he stayed at a super-cool old hotel built in the early 1900’s, with an antique elevator, very modern room and art gallery in the lobby. We spent some time in the rooftop garden of the hotel drinking champagne and chatting about the differences between life in Argentina and home. Mike enjoyed his time here walking up to La Biela in the mornings for coffee and people watching and one night we watched the sub-20 Argentinian national team of soccer players (athletes all under the age of 20) win the world cup (beating the Czech republic). We spent time at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and the Recoleta Saturday Fair. Just before Mike left, Martin’s cousin Julian arrived (with a nice California summer tan, which we were very jealous of) and with him, we spent a very nice day with Martin and Julian’s uncle Julio and his family.

A few days after Julian arrived, Gracie’s mom flew in. So with our final two visitors, we visited the usual sights like Plaza de Mayo and Café Tortoni one last time. We also spent lots of time shopping in the Palermo Viejo neighborhood, mostly at our paper store, and sampling every flavor of Cadbury Chocolate (ask Julian about this). We spent one last wonderful day in Colonia where we had to say a final goodbye to our favorite singing waiter. And speaking of goodbyes, we have had dinner with a different family friend nearly every night for the past week, which has been wonderful. We had the best empanadas in the city at the home of Horacio, Maria Teresa and Josefina along with Dany, Luis and Claudia; and then a fantastic asado cooked by Jose-Luis and Laura, along with Maria Laura, Mariano, Sebastian and Paula. We visited Ceci and Nacho and their new puppy Timoteo, and had coffee with Gloria. All of these people, and others like Carlos and Marisa, Carmen and Herman, Hugo and Claudia, Giaconda, and Graciela and Estella, have all made this adventure a wonderful experience and we are so appreciative of their hospitality, help and friendship.

But we couldn’t leave without one last adventure. Although we had been planning on going to visit Iguazu falls since January, we left the actual booking of the trip to the very last minute (yes Annie, we know we are the worst procrastinators). It was so last minute that even the travel agent couldn’t book us a flight or hotel. But with a little magic on our part, we made it for a quick, yet incredible visit. Iguazu Falls, which is on the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay is the largest waterfall in the world – over 2 miles long, made up of over 270 falls (Angel Falls in Venezuela is the tallest and Victoria Falls in South Africa is comparable in terms of water quantity). All of the water comes from rainfall from the Brazilian rainforest, and then travels down in two large rivers through the northeast section of Argentina, until joining together to form the Rio de la Plata, which Buenos Aires is built alongside, and then flowing out into the Atlantic ocean.

So we left the cold of Buenos Aires and headed into the jungle. Although this region also had recently experienced a cold snap (just the week before – good thing we procrastinated!) when we arrived it was beautiful balmy weather. We spent that afternoon around the little town of Puerto Iguazu and at our lovely hotel. We arrived at the national park early the next morning, boarded an old convertible truck and drove 8km through the rainforest until we reached a small dock a few kilometers down river from the falls. We put on raincoats and life jackets and climbed in to a little speedboat that took off up river, charging through rapids and making turns so sharp you could easily reach out and touch the water. And suddenly, we could see the waterfalls in front of us.

We stopped for a few minutes to take pictures of the crashing water, huge rainbows and clouds of little birds flying through the sprays of water. And then we were instructed to put our cameras away. And our boat charged directly towards the waterfalls. The driver pushed the boat against the current, as close to the base of the waterfall as we could possibly go. We were completely soaked and unable to see or hear anything as we were being completely pelted by the water. After a few more “showers” our boat took us back to the dock, and then over to a little island that also faces the falls, where we hiked just a bit to we could get another, this time drier, view. Once off the island, we hiked up alongside the falls, stopped for lunch, and then walked along the upper trail – on the top of the falls. Along this trail and during lunch, we were visited by many coati’s – fuzzy little raccoon-like animals that are native to the area. We also walked along a trail to see a different area of the waterfalls, named “La Garganta del Diablo” – translated: “The Devil’s Throat.” The trail is a long stretch of platforms suspended just a few feet over a seemingly very calm and expansive lake, until suddenly a great hole opens up and the water drops down so fast that enough mist rises to be seen from an airplane. It’s incredible.

After so much hiking, we were thrilled to begin our last excursion of the day – rafting through the back waters of the falls, where we enjoyed the quiet calmness of the waters, rustling of the palm tree leaves, and stillness of the caiman (animals like small alligators) sunning themselves on rocks – yes really. When this portion came to an end, we headed out of the park, and straight to the hotel for happy hour drinks and showers (the warm kind in the bathroom – not waterfall).
For more amazing Iguazu pictures, here is the link to the photo album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/martinswims/IguazuFalls

We flew back to Buenos Aires this morning and spent the afternoon packing up our little apartment. And although our apartment sure seems small, it’s amazing the amount of things it seems to hold. Despite an injured back, Martin used his amazing organizational skills and boundless patience to meticulously pack 5 suitcases and 4 backpacks. We took a break to have dinner with our friend Dany at our favorite restaurant here, La Fonda del Polo. And now, we are sitting in our bed here on our last night, amongst the suitcases, both excited that we will be home soon, but sad to be leaving. After so much saving and planning and dreaming and worrying in the time leading up to this past 7 months - it is strange that it is now over. And after spending the past 7 months meeting new people and traveling to beaches, cities, mountains and jungles, and all of the anxiety, laughter, problem solving, and picture taking that went with it – it is hard to imagine it being over. We were so incredibly fortunate to have this opportunity. We have learned so much through this experience – about new cultures, about our families, about each other and ourselves. We are very, very thankful to all of our friends and family who helped to make this adventure amazing, and we are so excited to see everyone at home again soon (including the staff at Las Golondrinas). Although we are a little nervous about finding new jobs, a new place to live, and starting over with our California lives, we see it as another adventure to look forward too, and write about. But looking back at these past 7 months, it really was, a great escape.

Snow in July

As you may have seen on the news, last week it snowed in Buenos Aires for the first time in 87 years. An arctic weather front traveled further north than usual, resulting in another cold snap in the city – and news articles about it printed around the world. Sadly, we missed it.

Actually, it was probably a good thing we missed it considering our apartment does not have heat. Although, with 5 people our little apartment, we probably would have been warm enough.

Our friends Tyler, Hillary and Jen arrived a few days before the cold snap, and we spent their first two days here visiting places around the city. We spent time in Plaza de Mayo, at the Recoleta Cementery, and on our roof – drinking wine. We also watched the Argentine national soccer team beat the pants off of Paraguay in the Copa America tournament. They went on to beat Mexico, but had some bad luck against Brazil in the finals. (Try not to talk about this with Martin).

On the third day of our friends visit, we piled them into our rented Chevy Corsa (which proved to be not nearly as cool as our VW Gol) and headed off to the Andes on a road/ski trip. We spent the first day driving through the desert stopping only for gas, candy and some make-shift cheese sandwiches. Our second day, after scraping the ice off of our windshield, we headed up into the mountains, this time stopping in Junin de los Andes for a spectacular lunch of more fresh trout than we could handle. (Junin is the fly-fishing capital of South America). We then made it to the cabins owned by our friends Carlos and Marisa, in San Martin de los Andes, and after a quick romp in the snow with their German Shepherds, we settled into our cozy little cabin.

We didn’t have too long to relax though, as there was a party planned for the evening to celebrate the birthdays of Martin and Arturo (manager of the cabins), and we were in charge of bringing the cake. This was not too difficult though, we went to the nearest chocolate shop and bought a massive concoction of dulce de leche and filo dough. The party was held in the ‘club-house’ a large 2-story cabin with long picnic tables and parillas lining one wall. The party was great fun, with other guests from the cabins providing live music late into the night.

The next day we slept very late, and then spent some time in the down-town area of San Martin, having lunch by the lake and renting ski-clothes and tire chains to prepare for our trip to the mountain the next day. In the evening we had another gathering in the ‘club-house’ playing cards with some of the little kids staying at the cabins and grilling huge pieces of meat and veggies for dinner.

We hit the mountain early the next morning, and although the chains on the car proved completely unnecessary, the snow at the resort was perfect. The mountain the ski resort is on looks out over the entire valley of the seven lakes district, and although it is small, was not very crowded. Martin patiently stayed with Jen and I on our first green run giving us tips on the art of skiing, while Tyler and Hillary warmed up their snowboards on the red runs. After only one fall each, Jen and I made it to the bottom, where Tyler, Hillary and Martin promptly said goodbye and headed for the black runs at the top mountain peak. Jen and I meandered down another green run or two while Tyler, Hillary and Martin zoomed down the slopes in perfect powder. We met up for lunch and also met Carlos and Marisa to ski a few more runs before the park closed.

After some warm showers, we went into town to a restaurant recommended by Martin’s dad – El Regional. After appetizers on the house, as an apology for the 15 minute wait to get a table and a comedy/accordion performance, we were presented with a large platter of smoked local meats (wild boar, deer and trout), cheeses and homemade bread. To compliment this, we each chose a different home-brewed beer – bock, smoked, honey, and raspberry. What a perfect after-ski evening.

Our final day in San Martin de los Andes was spent hiking around one of the smaller lakes. We stopped to make a snowman, and met the owner of the property at the end of the trail. He invited us to keep walking into his property to check out an old, abandoned mill and dock in the lake. After exploring these a bit, we sat on a log to drink some mate, and then headed back. We stopped in the town to pick up some souvenirs and stock up on chocolate for our drive home, then played cards in the cabin for the rest of the evening.

It was a long day of driving before an unexpected night at a hotel in Bahia Blanca after a flat-tire while driving on a very dark road. Unfortunately, this took a while to sort out the next the morning and we got a late start home, resulting in another full day of driving and returning to the city in the evening, with only enough energy to order in empanadas for dinner. For the remainder of their visit, we took Tyler, Hillary and Jen to Palermo, the San Telmo fair and a few of our favorite bars and restaurants. We discovered a new bar in a renovated old mansion that made great mojitos, and we also saw a Celtic band play at Clasica y Moderna, a cozy bookstore and café.

My dad arrived to visit on Monday morning, and we immediately whisked him away to Uruguay, where we spent the day walking around Colonia and eating lunch at our favorite pasta place. The following day, Tyler and Hillary left to begin their adventure in Peru, while we took Jen and my dad to the Evita Museum and the Zoo. We also returned to the Plaza de Mayo, this time remembering to bring copies of the San Clemente, California newspaper, the Sunpost, with us as we are hoping the will print our picture in their weekly “Where in the World” section – we’ll let you know if it happens!

For more pictures of our San Martin de los Andes trip, go here: http://www.picasaweb.google.com/martinswims/SanMartinDeLosAndes

One month left...

The past 2 weeks have absolutely flown by. This morning our friend Mark left Buenos Aires to continue his own global escape. We have a couple of days to relax and regroup before our next set of visitors. These couple of days should be our last alone until we go home, there will be a steady stream of visitors until we fly home on August 3rd; which means, we have one month left! The nervousness and sadness has already started to creep-in now that we’ve set a date.

In the meantime, we had a great time with Mark while he was here. He was quick to get into our relaxed style of living here in the city – sleeping in, a few chores during the day, a café in the evening, a delicious dinner and staying up late… he even found himself a gym to go to near our apartment. Instead of visiting all of the tourist sites, Mark preferred to live in Argentina like an Argentine – which was also great for us. We got to visit all of our favorite restaurants, even some new ones. We finally ate at a Mexican restaurant, which is certainly one thing that Grace and I both miss dearly, and sadly, the restaurant didn’t quite fit up to So. Cal. standards. Another night we tried Japanese, which came much closer to the mark than the Mexican place, and of course, various parrilla places. We ate at Bice in Puerto Madero, our favorite pasta place in the city, and we also gave Mark the treat of having our homemade pasta. It was hard to tell which he enjoyed more. We left the best for last though; a couple of nights ago we ate asado at our friends, Laura and Jose Luis’ house, joined by their 2 kids and their significant others, and of course, Lola, their beagel. We had a wonderful time, the food was great, the company and conversation was spectacular. And on Mark’s last night we went to a new restaurant and bar close to the apartment called ‘Clasico y Moderno’, it is a book store/restaurant/bar/live-music venue. When we went there was a small samba group playing mellow samba and jazz, with an amazing Brazilian singer. The place had a fantastic atmosphere, very laid-back cool yet traditionally elegant. We think Mark very much enjoyed Buenos Aires, the people he met and the culture he saw. We shared many interesting conversations regarding culture, politics and people of all over the world.

In these past 2 weeks, my (Martin) grandmother (Mechi) came down to Buenos Aires to visit with some of her friends, take care of business, and to see us! So, we have had many lunches and dinners with her and our family friends – which have all been wonderful. Everyone always has something interesting to tell, and we are learning all kinds of neat things about my family. Another reason Mechi’s visit is so important to us is that Mechi is Grace’s final exam for her Spanish. Mechi speaks quickly and quietly, and very poetically. Before we came down here, Mechi would always chide Grace to always practice speaking Spanish and how important it was. In turn, one of the reasons for our trip was for Grace to improve her Spanish – which she has of course, done beautifully. Every time we see Mechi she has a compliment for Grace and her improvement in her Spanish. I think she is passing her final with flying colors.

Unfortunately we have been slacking on taking pictures, of all of the restaurants we have been to with Mark and Mechi, we have not taken out the camera once. Not to worry, tomorrow Tyler, Hillary and Jen will arrive and we have a super adventure ready for them, there will definitely be pictures.

Seeing the Sights

We spent a fun week with Cody and Amy, who arrived with their luggage, only 3 hours later than scheduled – setting a new record for our visitors. This was their first visit to South America, and we were happy to show them all our favorite places around the city. After the welcome breakfast (turned lunch due to the airline delay) we wandered around the San Telmo fair, checking out vintage posters, surprisingly well-kept gramophones and green/blue glass “siphon” water bottles – the kind with the CO2 cartridges to make the water bubbly as your pour it. We also watched a man on stilts dance with little kids, an orchestra perform tango music, and our favorite puppet show.
In the remaining days of Cody and Amy’s visit we spent time in Microcentro, walking along the big, busy streets of Avenida de Mayo and 9 de Julio, stopping for coffee at Café Tortoni and Puerto Madero. We checked out both the Museo de Bellas Artes and the Evita museum. We spent a while playing with the resident stray cats (all of whom Cody lovingly named “Scraps”) and taking photographs at the Recoleta Cemetery. Our trip to the zoo was also a great day because we managed to catch up to a zoo keeper, and followed him around for a bit while he fed some of the animals lunch, and we were also lucky to find some of the food pellets that the kids from the school field trips had dropped near the camels – so we fed them too!
We also spent some time visiting Caminito, a small part of the Boca neighborhood where all the buildings are painted in bright colors, and a street fair is set up on Sundays. Another day, we spent in Colonia, Uruguay walking around the cobblestone streets and having lunch at our favorite pasta place with the singing and crazy hat wearing waiter. We also took Cody and Amy to our favorite paper store and restaurant (now their favorites too we think!) in Palermo. We also cooked at home a few dinners – notably our famous home made tortillas and home made pasta! However, I think all four of us agree, that our favorite part of their visit was when we ordered empanadas and ice cream to be delivered and played marathon games of ChinChon –that Amy almost always won!
The morning after we sadly said goodbye to Cody and Amy, our friend Mark arrived – at his scheduled time, but without luggage. We’ve spent the past two days here in the city with him, visiting some of the same places we enjoyed with Cody and Amy. This evening we went to a bar to watch the final match of the Copa Libertadores, an all South-American club soccer tournament that has been going on the past few months here. Our favorite team, Boca Jrs. was playing Gremio, a Brazilian team. In the previous game (home for Boca), Boca won 3-0, giving them a good lead for the final game. The second half of the finals was played in Brazil, where Boca scored 2 more goals, winning the tournament dominantly. They are now the champion club team in South America. The game began at 10:30pm and ended around 12:30am (after much singing and cheering from our fellow fans in the bar). It is now 1:30am and we are back in our apartment. Cars are still constantly driving down our street with passengers hanging out of the windows, waving flags, yelling and honking horns in celebration. This sure is different from sports celebrations at home – there is really nothing to compare it to. Although we wish it would settle down a little so we could get some sleep, it is nice to see people be so passionate and excited for something. We didn’t have our own pictures, but we found some on Boca’s website to share. For more pictures from our trips to the zoo, Colonia and around the city, here are the links:
http://picasaweb.google.com/martinswims/ColoniaIII
http://picasaweb.google.com/martinswims/ZologicoDeBuenosAiresII
http://picasaweb.google.com/martinswims/PaisajesDeBuenosAires

Just Hanging Out...

My, my it has been a while. Since we decided to stay here in the city and try to cut down our daily budget a bit, we have been somewhat low-key, yet creative in our activities. Unfortunately, for about a week, we were severely limited in our creativity due to an unforeseen cold-snap – the chilly-est fall weather that Buenos Aires has seen in over 50 years. One evening, when the temperatures dropped below freezing, so many people plugged in their heaters, that we had a power outage for about 30 minutes. Being the California kids we are (and not having a heater of our own), we spent much time on our couch, under a sleeping bag, drinking mate and tea. When it was warm enough, we spent time wandering about the city photographing graffiti murals and stencil art in San Telmo and trying Argentine McDonalds McFlurry flavors (which are different than at home). We have also been keeping up with the games in the Copa Libertadores, a South American Soccer Tournament, and currently Martin’s favorite team, Boca Jrs. is still in it and doing great (we can not say the same for River Plate). When at home, we spent time cooking new recipes (including a fish-chowder casserole that came out great despite filling our apartment with smoke while in the oven), and reading Paulo Cohelo novels such as The Alquimist and Brida (in Spanish!).

We were not alone the entire time though. Martin was fortunate enough to have lunch with nearly 40 of his dad’s closest friends from military school, who meet up on a monthly basis. We also attended the 6th birthday celebration of Camila, the granddaughter of a cousin of Martin’s mom. We had a fun evening there, talking politics with the adults and laughing at riddles from the kids until 3 in the morning! On another late evening, we met up with Ceci and Nacho and some of their friends from grad school at a bar. We also enjoyed both a dinner party at our apartment, and a boat ride on the Tigre river delta with Carlos and Marisa (the owners of the campground in San Clemente del Tuyu).

We are very happy to have our friends Cody and Amy here now visiting for the week, and we will put up more of our adventures with them in a post soon!

A Holiday in the City

This holiday weekend should find us in Peru again, however, we have had a slight change of plans. For more than one reason, we put our return trip to Peru and Bolivia on hold… for quite a while. This decision does make us a bit sad, but it is nice to relax here in Buenos Aires and see even more of this wonderful city and catch up with friends we haven’t seen for a while or even at all.

This weekend is also a long holiday weekend here in Argentina. Instead of celebrating Memorial Day on Monday, the holiday down here is 25 de Mayo, which was this past Friday. 25 de Mayo celebrates the beginning of the revolution that eventually led to Argentina’s independence from Spain six years later on July 9, 1816. On Friday we took a walk through the Plaza de Mayo, which, although it was over by the time we got there, had some sort of patriotic celebration on a grand scale. One neat thing about this holiday is that everyone gets flag crazy, more so than at home during 4th of July – stores, government buildings and banks fly the Argentinean flags in front of their businesses; taxis and busses fly flags from their windows; and people wear ribbons and pins of the flag.

Tonight, to celebrate the Memorial Day weekend, we stuck with American tradition and had a bar-b-que. Of course we could not have one here at our apartment because a bar-b-que may not even fit – but one of the great parts about Argentina is that everything, we mean EVERYTHING can be delivered. And by everything we mean: pizza (obviously), empandas, pastas, sandwiches, your laundry and groceries, bread, sushi, ice cream, and asado (bar-b-que). So for $30 pesos ($10 dollars), we had a bottle of wine, 2 steaks, 3 sausages and french fries delivered for our holiday feast!

This past week, which has found us shuffling around Buenos Aires, we have visited some museums and today we went to an older part of town to the San Telmo Fair, which is one of Grace’s favorite things to visit, especially the tango shows they hold in the plaza. We were out for just a bit today because the weather here is getting colder, as winter is quickly stepping in.

We hope everyone had a wonderful weekend with family and friends. We miss you all.

What do a Jesuit, a Condor and a Volkswagen Gol have in common?

The province of Cordoba!!! - which is where we spent the final few days of our road trip.

We left Malargue and the Mendoza wine country for a day long drive with the Andes waving good-bye in the rearview mirror. Along the drive, which was one of the straightest roads, I’ve ever driven, we had a chance to see an impressive creature. We were one of the very few cars on the road, and ahead of us we saw something very large picking at some road kill. As we slowed down and got a bit closer, the road kill (a fox) took flight, in the claws of a huge eagle. It landed in a tree about 40 feet away and posed for our pictures, impatiently waiting for us to leave so that it could finish its lunch.

In the evening we arrived in Alta Gracia, a pretty little town just south of the bigger city of Cordoba. We spent the next day wandering around one of the Jesuit missions, the Tajamar, a 17th century dam used for irrigation purposes, and Villa Beatriz, the childhood home of Ernesto “Che” Guevara which is now a museum with many interesting photographs, letters and possessions of the famous revolutionary.

That night we made the short drive to Cordoba, which was quite a shock. Although it is the second largest city in Argentina, it seemed that the hectic traffic was 3 fold of the madness in Buenos Aires. We found a neat little hostel to stay at, which really was a relief to find and arrive at, but to our dismay they had no room. Crushed by the news and just looking for a place to crash, we stayed at the nearest and cheapest hotel we could find. Luckily, the next day, the hostel had room for us, where we felt much more at home with our fellow backpackers.

Instead of spending time in the downtown part of Cordoba the next day, we took advantage of our little Gol and headed for the mountaintops. Our destination was the newest of Argentina’s national parks – La Quebrada del Condorito, the Canyon of Little Condors. For the second time in a row, we were the only visitors to the national park for the day, which is a great feeling. The trip was simple: from the entrance of the park, walk to the lip of the gorge, where there is a small balcony built, and walk back, the only catch is that it’s a 10 km hike each way. The hike took about 2 hours to reach the balcony where we were supposed to see condors. Sadly, we saw no condors. So we sat down to have lunch and wait for some birds. There was a little one that joined us for lunch but no condors. Grace decided that maybe a little song to the condors may bring them out, and lo-and-behold, as she sang, condors began to soar! The canyon we were at is special in the way that it lies against the prevailing winds and with such steep walls, huge up-drafts are created, ideal for parent condors to teach their chicks how to fly. Since it is almost winter, chicks already know how to fly, so we only saw young adult and adult, male and female condors. They really are incredible, especially in their size – standing up, they can reach more than half of Grace’s height, and their wing span is about my height with my arms stretched above my head. (In the picture, it is that tiny little black and white speck - they were usually flying pretty far away from us. and when they were close, we were too awestruck to take pictures!). We also saw a variety of falcons and eagles; we watched these magnificent birds for well over an hour. When the clouds started to roll in we decided to head back. On a break during our hike back, I comfortably fell asleep sitting on a rock, my day was complete.

The next day was to be our last day of the road trip, and fittingly, one of the longest driving days. We took the morning pretty easy and visited some sights in Cordoba. Our main draw was the Jesuit block, where in the 1600’s they built a large university and church. The university still exists, now as the Univesidad Nacional de Cordoba, where students take classes in the same rooms as they did when the university was created. The university also houses the Jesuit Grand Library, which has some of the earliest books in South America, mostly books printed in Europe and brought over or written here by hand. There is a set of the first publication of a Spanish dictionary, a bible written in 8 different Arabic languages, and other religious and philosophical works all made in the 15th and 16th centuries (as well as much newer works). The church was just as an impressive sight. From the outside, it is one of the plainest churches in existence, but the inside is ornate to the max - everything is carved or covered in gold leaf.

After our visit to the Jesuit block it was time to start our trip home. From Cordoba it took us around 10 hours to get back to Buenos Aires… it was such a relief to be back in our apartment! It was a great feeling to be able to spread our selves out and know that we would be cooking our own meals again and showering in our own bathroom and sleeping in our own bed. However, this feeling will be short lived because in three days we are going back to Peru, but for now, we are enjoying the apartment and our routine life in Buenos Aires.

Our road trip lasted 29 days, on the 30th we returned the car. We drove a total of 7,750 km or 4,844 miles! We both loved every minute of it… for me the best was the 7 lakes drive in the south of Argentina and the Argentina/Chile border crossing drive where we climbed up and down the Andes. For Grace the best was the time we spent in Valparaiso, Chile. But both of us agree that our favorite day was the day before her birthday, in Bariloche, where we stayed at the super fancy hotel and spa, as a thoughtful gift from my sister (thanks Laura and Luke!).

A Gol (and flamingos) in the Mist

There was traffic on Ruta 40 this morning – a large herd of goats was crossing the road. It was far more interesting than traffic in LA. At the moment, we are in Malargue, which is a tiny little town about 3 hours south of Mendoza. It is ¨pre-cordillera¨ which means it is desert-ish with the Andes looming on the horizon. We had quite an adventurous day here yesterday.

We first explored the ¨Caverna de las Brujas¨ (Cavern of the Witches) which is a gigantic system of subterranean caves complete with stalagmites and stalactites. Equipped with helmets with headlamps, our guide took us crawling on hands and knees and climbing up steep walls to the very deepest part. There was a wall full of crystals that shined with our lights. And when we all turned off our lights, the crystals continued to reflect the light for just a second...and then it was pitch blackness. I only knew I was blinking when I felt my eyelids move.

Once we were back into the daylight, we hopped into the gol and drove (rally argentina style) and drove an hour further to the largest lake in this part of the desert ¨Laguna de Llancabcelo¨. According to the park rangers logbook, we were the only visitors for the day, so I practiced my stick-shift driving for a little bit (Martin was a great teacher). When we reached the main part of the lake, which is famed as a bird sanctuary, we were a little disappointed to see only a few swans. It was beautiful though, a deep blue with the darkness of the Andes behind it. As we were leaving, we stopped on the side of the road and walked though a cattle pasture to a lagoon on a smaller part of the lake. We saw more white swans, black-necked swans and black ducks. All of a sudden, we saw a flock of birds flying overhead. They looked pink which I figured was from the sunset. But as they flew closer, they appeared bigger, and pinker, and we realized they were flamingos!!!!! They flew right in front of us and noisily landed on the lake. It was amazing. As we drove away, we saw one of the best sunsets we have seen here (probably in honor of mother´s day).

Before arriving in Malargue, we a day in San Rafael, a smaller city a little to the north. In order to blend in with the local folks we rented bikes (San Rafael has the largest number of bicyclists in the country). We road a little ways out of town intending to visit some wineries, but ended up visiting an olive oil factory instead. It was neat, and tasty!

Truth be told, it was better we visited the olive oil factory in San Rafael because the previous day, we drank a lot of wine. We spent the day in the vineyards of Mendoza visiting both large and small wineries. Although they don´t let you taste as many different wines as they do at the California wineries, you do get a tour of their facilities including the machines that mash up the grapes, the tanks they filter and ferment the wine in, the gigantic wooden barrels they store the wine in, and lastly, the bottling, corking and labeling area. We should have taken better notes. Our two favorites were a small artesenal winery which only makes 250 bottles per batch, and a larger winery (who´s wine we buy from the market occasionally) that makes thousands of bottles a day. We also stopped by a family-run place that makes home-made chocolates and liquors (including dulce de leche). This was definitely one of the highlights of the day.

There are lots of great photos!!

http://picasaweb.google.es/martinswims/MendozaMalargue

Gol versus the Volcano

We are so proud of our little Gol - it has crossed the Andes not just once, but twice since our last post!!
We left San Martin de Los Andes and drove for about an hour on a highway, and then another hour along a dirt road to the border of Chile. It was a foggy and drizzly day, but just after Martin said sadly, "I guess we won´t get to see Volcano Lanin" the clouds parted and the sun was up in a clear, bright blue sky - only interrupted by the giant cone-shaped volcano completely covered in snow. It was quite an amazing sight. After crossing into Chile, we drove down the Andes (rally argentina style) through forests of red and yellow trees, and small farming villages with pigs wandering around the side of the road. We then hopped onto the pan-americana, a.k.a. the 5 freeway - the same one that passes right through San Clemente, California (and apparently goes all the way to Alaska). We drove north through Chile´s main agricultural area - which is actually quite similar to California - orchards of oranges, lemons and avocados, and lots of vineyards as well, and stayed the night in a small town. The next day, we continued north, passing through Santiago, then west to the coast to the city of Valparaiso.

Valpariaso is actually quite a big city, right on the Pacific. It contains one of Chiles main shipping ports. You can tell by the ornate details on the buildings and mansions over-looking the ocean that it was once a very wealthy city, but it is now a bit run down. From the shore, it´s width is only about 3 blocks before it becomes steep hills - covered in orange, mint green, purple, yellow and blue houses, small shops and cafes. The main commercial center of the city is on the flat part near the water, leaving the narrow, cobblestone streets that twist up though the hills relatively quiet (and exciting for Martin to drive on). To get up and down these hills, if one is a bit weary from the stairs, in the early 1900´s the city built elevators for public use along the hill sides. They are like box cars that hold about 4 to 6 people each. They are pulled up or down along tracks by the weight of an opposite traveling cart. We stayed at a small hostel up in the hills and quickly made friends with many of the other travelers staying there. We met people from Austria, Canada, England, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and France and we would all sit together in the mornings to have breakfast and swap travel stories and advice. A group of us also went out to dinner one night for a Chilean specialty that is called Chorillan - a pile of french fries covered in scrambled eggs, onions, roasted pork, and to our delight - spicy chile sauce! We spent our first full day wandering around the city with our new friend Toto, from Germany, admiring the immense amount of art that adorns nearly every wall in the city. Some were publicly commissioned murals, some were private artists decorating the outsides of their homes and shops, and others were illegally placed stencils and drawings. Along with paint, many were also made from mosaics of colored tiles and broken mirror pieces - making them sparkle in the sun. Our second day in Valparaiso we spent visiting 2 of Pablo Neruda´s three houses. One high up on a hill in the heart of the city, and the other about an hour south in a smaller village right on the beach. The house on the beach, in Isla Negra, houses many of Pablo Nerudas collections including: boats in glass bottles, masks from all over the world, the feet of antique pianos, bugs, bottles, sea shells, plates with hot air balloons on them, porcelain roosters, the sculptures of women they put on the fronts of ships, and more. It was such an interesting, and beautiful house and we learned a lot about the poet, who himself was quite unique.

With our friend Toto squished in the back seat, we left Valparaiso and made our way through the curvy and steep roads through the Andes (this time with much more of a desert landscape than when we crossed further south). Immediately after crossing the Argentinian border, we stopped to see Cerro Aconcagua - the highest peak in all of the Americas - at 6962 meters. We also stopped by the small cemetery near it for the many climbers who have attempted to reach its peak since the late 1800s but never made it, or did make it but never all the way home. Also near there is the Puente del Inca, a bridge over a small river that was naturally formed from sediment left by warm sulfuric water. The bright orange stone streaked with green lines sparkled in the sun, and water continues to drip from it. It was quite a strange sight amidst the bare red mountains.
For more pictures of Chile, Valparaiso and our southern and northen border crossings, go here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/martinswims/Chile

We arrived late last night in the city of Mendoza and have already had our first bottle of wine with lunch. We plan to spend today exploring the city, and tomorrow exploring the wineries!