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