Photo Friday: Bariloche, Argentina

How to See Gran Buenos Aires in 2 Hours

Gaston is Yemi's good Argentinian friend from when they both studied abroad. From the moment he picked us up from the airport and they both talked passionately with their hands, it wasn't hard to tell why they were good friends. The car would swerve as Gaston turned around to Jan excitedly reminiscing about how much fun he they had traveling through Europe seven years ago.

Gaston has an affliction: he has an incessant need for speed!  "When I'm not speeding, I'm a bad driver because I'm so distracted. However, when I speed I have laser focus!" he once said with a straight face. Yemi already knew of his disease from when Gaston lost his mind while driving them along Germany's Autobahn years ago.

He excitedly showed us all his enablers toys around his garage before we had a homemade pizza dinner prepared by his lovely girlfriend, Martina, and her mom. "There's the Porsche Carrera, the All Terrain Sports ATV and my baby, the Ducati Monster 696 motor bike. Working on them in my garage is therapeutic to me!" he exclaimed. It wasn't a surprise that he offered taking Yemi on a Sunday morning ride around Gran Buenos Aires on his "baby."

Gaston and his baby

They rode fast through the city past Los Bosques de Palermo which is a beautiful park in the daytime that transforms into Buenos Aires' red light district at night. They then connected to General Paz highway and that's where Gaston's symptoms started to act up. By the time they hit 150 km/h, Yemi's attempt at being macho and not wrapping his hands tight around Gaston's waist had depreciated.

They made a stop for breakfast at San Isidro Partido, which is part of Greater Buenos Aires. Here they reunited with another friend from school, Flavio, and his brother in law - all of them part of this biker's club. After breakfast they were off again to the highway for another spin around and back to the great city of Buenos Aires. Yemi really loved every bit of it.

Flavio and his baby

There is nothing more special that knowing locals when you visit a new country and certain experiences, such as this, are only discovered through insiders. Gaston and Martina were exceptional hosts throughout our stay in Buenos Aires. They showed us great hospitality and we are really grateful for this. They are also expecting a new baby girl and the more Gaston spoke about how excited he was about her arrival, the more we could tell that is affliction was getting cured, albeit very slowly.

Gaston and Martina on one of our many nights out

Stranded

"Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong."

We have been very lucky on this trip. There have been stressful travel days and visa issues, but nothing major enough to interfere with our plans.

Until April 9th. 

April 10th was supposed to be a long domestic travel day for us within Argentina. We had booked a rather expensive flight with one layover. The day before our flight, we got an email from the airline with an update on our flight. With Google Translate's assistance, we were informed that there was a national strike occurring on the day of our flights. There would be no flights, buses or even taxis throughout all of Argentina!

The airline made it clear that it was due to unions that don't work directly for them so there would be no refunds.  Our only option was to fly out a day early - in two hours! We quickly packed our bags and Jan ran a half mile through pouring rain to the laundromat to retrieve our laundry.

Argentinians take siestas seriously. The laundromat was closed from noon to 4pm!  Panic began to set in as our flight left at 3pm and we would not leave without our laundry. When you only have five outfits, loosing 70% of your laundry isn't an option!

Our hostel began making calls to notify the owner of the laundromat of our dire situation and with literally five minutes until our departure to the airport, they opened the store for us.

We were soaked from the pouring rain but happy to have a flight to Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, we got stuck there for two days until the strikes ceased and we could move on to our final destination. We ended up nixing the one hour flight after it was cancelled for the third time in three days and instead took a 20 hour bus ride.

At the end of the day, we missed out on two days in a town we had been looking forward to visiting because we were stranded in Buenos Aires. But considering we arrived safely, we won't dwell on the memories we could have made.

Enjoying one of three luxurious 20 hour bus rides we took in Argentina.  We imagine it's like flying first class.

Photo Friday: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Street musicians playing at Sunday's San Telmo market in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Steak, Wine & Caramel

Argentina was so much more than we expected. The Iguazu Falls were more spectacular than the big waterfall we were prepared for and the South was more pristine than we had imagined it to be.  There were three things we experienced consistently during our three weeks in Argentina. 

1.  Caramel

Dolche de leche tasting during our wine tour in Mendoza

We know we just offended every Argentinian by implying in the title that Argentina is known for their caramel. They call it dolche de leche as it's made from milk instead of sugar. It's put on everything - bread, crackers, ice cream...everything. No fridge is complete without it and we can't recall a meal that it wasn't served with. It's good, but two things were far better...


2.  Wine

We went to Mendoza for the Malbec and left with a half a case of Cabernet Franc. Our friend Martina had recommended Pulenta's winery so we blame her for completely wrecking our Argentina budget!  We couldn't leave this gem behind in Argentina as it's not sold in the US. We are praying Jan's mom doesn't "accidentally" mix up our box of wine with her boxed wine before we get back!  ;)

Cab Franc is a grape that smells like pepper but it tastes smooth and buttery with medium tannins. Jan said "mmmmmhhh, it's so buttery!" after almost every sip. Each time you taste it, it's like you're tasting it for the first time. It's impossible to believe its 14.5% alcohol!

We are allocating these precious bottles for very special occasions like (1) the end of our trip, (2) getting a job, (3) buying a house, (4) our one year anniversary and (5) our friend's wedding. Bottle #6 is up for grabs. You should always keep a fancy bottle of vino handy for the unexpected awesomeness that happens in life. (We picture our friend Anmol reading that and immediately letting Yemi know that's him to a "tee.")  :)


3. Steaks

When you see the obese cows grazing around this country, you will quickly find your mouth watering. We even spoke to vegetarians giving themselves a pass on one steak. Steaks aren't as cheap as we expected them to be, but relative to what we would pay in the US for the quality we received they were about half price. A nice filet mignon was usually $20-$25 and often large enough for both of us.

Surprisingly, we couldn't find a good steak the first week we were in Buenos Aires despite visiting a premier steakhouse, but we finally broke that cycle of bad luck in Puerto Iguazu at La Rueda, the oldest restaurant in town. After several experiences of tough meat, we were delighted when these steaks practically melted in our mouths.

Unexpected Adventures

Enjoying the reward of our strenuous hike up Cerro Campanario in Bariloche, Argentina

One of the ways we have made this trip even more enjoyable is we've taken turns researching and planning each country so that the other person is completely surprised. Yemi planned our weeks in Argentina and he was very selective about what he revealed to Jan. Two surprises took the cake.

Devil's Throat - Iguazu Falls, Argentina

The first surprise occurred while we were visiting the Iguazu Falls on the northeastern border of Argentina. After visiting the famous Devil's Throat overlook which famously caused First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to exclaim "Poor Niagara!," Yemi navigated us on hike towards the bottom of the falls. He had Jan change into a swimsuit since we would get sprayed by the falls. Jan's alarm bells started going off when she noticed women coming up the path completely SOAKED.

"We are actually going to take a speed boat INTO the falls!" Yemi announced. Millions of liters of water pour over these falls every second!  This was definitely going to be an adventure and Jan was psyched!

Our boat about to head into the falls

Our 20 minute boat ride circled the falls around San Martin Island and then plunged into the pouring water of the Devil's Throat Canyon on multiple occasions at high speeds giving us a thundering baptism. Yemi quickly lost a contact lens. The water was so powerful that we had to put our heads down and close our eyes. It was thrilling to be so close to this natural wonder!

Jan is soaked and pleased

The second surprise was much less thrilling for Jan. In the town of Bariloche in Southern Argentina Yemi rented us bikes to ride a famous loop called Circuito Chico.  He told Jan how breathtaking the views would be but didn't mention that it was 27km long or that it wound up and down the Andes mountains of Patagonia!  While that translates into roughly 17 miles using standard conversion formulas, it actually translates into more like 40 miles of hell using newbie biking conversion charts.



To get the full perspective of this painful bike ride, you must first understand that we had hiked to the top of Cerro Campanario the day prior, which is one of the highest mountains in the area. Jan's legs wobbled and burned with each pedal. She walked up Every. Single. Hill. "I'm so sorry, but I'm not Nelson!" she complained to Yemi at the start of every climb, referencing Yemi's best man and their 200 mile, five day biking adventure in California last summer.



The circuit was a great workout and provided the breathtaking views Yemi had promised. We had an opportunity to quit at 20km but Jan pushed through the final 7km, making Yemi very proud. Jan looks back fondly on the day now that her thighs are no longer on fire.

Circuito Chico overlook in Bariloche, Argentina