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.