Hello & Goodbye

Sorry we haven’t written in a while… Here is what has been going on in this side of the world…

After a few days in Buenos Aires taking care of a few things and getting Martin healthy again, we headed off to San Clemente del Tuyu to see our friends Carlos and Marisa, again. As it was so late in the summer season here, the beaches were empty and the campground was pretty quiet. We spent Easter weekend with them, enjoying walks on the beach, reading and fishing. On one of the days we went fishing with Carlos and Marisa, we caught 47 fish!!! We tried our best to eat them all. A few days later we helped them to close down the campground and returned to Buenos Aires.

Here in the city we have been have been catching up with family and friends whom we hadn’t seen in a while. We have explored more of the city. A day was spent at MALBA (Museo de Arte LatinoAmericano de Buenos Aires) which is a contemporary art museum that had a really neat exhibit of David LaChapelle photography and music videos. We also took a ride on the oldest subway line in the city – the train cars are nearly 100 years old. They have wooden seats and windows that close with a leather strap, and you have to pull open and shut the doors yourself. That particular subway line takes you to another very old relic in Buenos Aires, the Café Torotni. This café is one of the most famous and for sure the oldest in the city, built in 1858 it was frequented by famous Argentine intellectuals such as Jorge Luis Borges (a writer) and Argentina’s most famous tango singer, Carlos Gardel. It is beautiful inside with old lamps and chandeliers with the waiters in tuxes serving espresso. We had a great time there with our friend Dany, and we are looking forward to going back for their nightly tango shows.

We have been spending also been spending a bit of time at home in the apartment reading (Martin hasn’t been able to put down the Lord of the Rings copy he found at a hostel book exchange in Peru), cooking (I have finally figured out how to use an eggplant) and planning for our next adventure – which due to it’s nature has taken a lot of planning. We have rented a car, a Volkswagen Gol (they don’t make these in the US, probably because they are so small) and early Saturday morning we are going to start a 30-day driving trip. The tentative itinerary is to first spend some time in the Lake District which is in the south-western end of Argentina and includes the towns of Bariloche, Villa La Angostura and San Martin de los Andes. From there we will drive up Ruta 40, which runs along the Andes until we reach Mendoza, the wine-making region in the north-west. We are hoping to cross into Chile and visit the city of Valparaiso as well. From Mendoza, we will visit Cordoba and Rosario, two other larger cities in Argentina, and then return home to Buenos Aires. It is about 6000 km all together. We have been filled with travel advice from many friends and family down here, and now that our tent and sleeping bags are packed, we feel just about ready to go.