Me Gusta Vino y Bodegas!

First things first, before I go on about the Winery tour I wanted to say quickly Anna and I attended a wonderful BBQ (they are quite a tradition here) at the hostel on Sunday night. It didn´t start until 11pm, that is Argentina for you. But the meat was really amazing, probably the best I have had here so far, and might I say that I am very much looking forward to becoming a vegetarian again when I get home. This trip has really proved to me how much I enjoy living without meat but I really appreciated this BBQ it was full of damn tasty steak and ribs and all sorts of sausages. It was also a lot of fun, we got to talking to a bunch of different people from all of the place. There was this one older couple, maybe in their 50s and they were great fun to talk to, very different. She was very Latin, full of life and laughing, he was from Minnesota and quiet and didn´t smile that much but I got to talking to him and he turned out to very interesting and nice, he worked as a border guard between the States and Mexico and had a lot of really interesting things to say about his job and had surprisingly good politics, very liberal, he had a lot of sad stories to tell as well. They were very cute they met when when he was marine stationed in Buenos Aries, they were about 21 at the time, yet were still very much in love.

Anyway on with the story on Monday Anna and I woak up pretty early to board a mini bus that took us out to the country side around Mendoza so we could tour the Bodegas or wineries. It was AWESOME. We got to the bike rental place, mounted our chosen rides (both of which turned out to be crap real ass breakers but none the less) and we were off. The first winery we hit was a bigger one and it had a museum. We had to wait around for about 30 mins for the next tour so we just checked the place out. It was a beautiful day the countryside was lovely. While looking around we found a bunch of wine in glasses on a table in one room so we helped ourselves although we found out later that wine had been for the people who were on the tour while we waited so we drank before and after our tour (which was free) lucky us. We also learned a bunch about the area and about the process of making wine. One thing we learned was that it is mostly Bolivians who come down as migrant workers to pick the grapes and they only make one peso for every huge basket that they pick, and they get paid through this weird system in which they get tokens for their baskets which then get converted into money later on. The next stop we biked to was not actually a winery at all but it was one of my favorite places we went. It was this really really beautiful little place where two families lived and worked. One of them made chocolates (we bought some) and the other made liquors (we bought some too). Liquors were all hand made and bottled - we got to try a couple for free really amazing stuff. Anna bought a bottle of Chocolate coconut liquor and one that was a combination of apple, Cinnamon, lemon and something else. We also tried the grapefruit and chocolate banana. They are all awesome and I mean that. I also bought this green olive spread they made. Really a fun stop. The third place was a much larger and higher end winery. We did a tasting up on this beautiful patio that looked over the vineyard. Under bright white umbrellas we sipped some of the best wine I have ever had. I ended up buying a 35 peso bottle of really great wine from there (about 10 dollars) and Anna and I left to eat our lunch under a big shade tree on the side of a country road. We proceeded to drink the entire bottle I had just bought ( of course some of the nicest wine I have ever bought we drank straight from the bottle and finished in one go) but we had no where to store it once opened so down in went. then we were off again, slightly tipsier than before to the next winery where we just looked around. Down the road again, which I have to say was very pretty and interesting. the road was lined with huge old trees and was really genuine. The area was not made up for tourists, people just lived there and the wineries just happened to be there too because of the soil. The last two stops were across the road from one another. One was an olive oil making company. I had never actually seen olives on trees ( trust me they do not taste good raw!) and the other was another really beautiful winery owned by this french couple. Here if we bought a bottle of wine (20 pesos - less than 7 dollars we each bought one) we got the wine, the tour and a tasting. We hung out there for a while, it was really lovely and we needed to sober up for the ride back. We made it back to the bike rental place with 15 mins to spare and were then driven back into town where I promptly fell asleep! It was a lot of fun, and seriously made me consider becoming a wine maker, seems like a good life!

Mendoza

hello all!

I don´t have a terrible amount to account for at the moment. Anna and I reached Mendoza a couple of days ago. It is a much bigger town then I expected, but it is not really touristy at all which I really appreciate especially after being in Bariloche which it all tourist all the time. It is an interesting place though. Throughout the entire city there are streams flowing down between the road and the sidewalk. I am not exactly sure whether it is a form of open storm sewer or if there was a huge river that has been diverted everywhere but it is pretty cool. Not all of the stream beds are full though, and I was running the other day and wasn´t looking where I was going and I almost jumped right into one (I probably would have broken my leg) because I am used to being able to jump from curb to the road anywhere, here you can only do it where there are these tiny bridges from road to sidewalk or else you have to jump the stream as well. There is also this huge park here, about the same size as the larger downtown core. It is really beautiful full of palm trees, little lakes, streams and statues! Anna and I have been going for runs in it, although it has been insanely hot here for the last little while and I think I have shin splints which is making running painful. This is actually the only city so far we have seen Argentinians running in, most everywhere else we just get looked at and whistled at when we run. But here there are tons of people working out the park.

Ummm lets see what else. I want to reinstate how crazy different peoples perception of time is here. No one eats dinner until after 10pm and most eat around 12am, Anna and I got told we were crazy for eating at 9pm. Also no one goes out until 2am it is hard for us to get in the swing of. And this isn´t just adults, Anna and I were walking to the bar the other day at 1am and the local ice cream shop was open and there were tons of 2 - 10 year old kids there with their parents getting ice cream. There were even some still there at 3am when we passed by again. I didn´t even know that 3am existed when I was a kid! Anna and I also started taking a couple of two hour Spanish courses which have been pretty helpful. My Spanish still stinks but at least I am improving a bit. Although I went in to a used book store yesterday and thought I was asking the man if he had any English books but instead I was telling him that I had a bunch of English books and he just kinda stared at me and I didn´t realize my mistake until I left.

Mostly Anna and I are filling our days currently with alot of reading, alot of wandering around town, alot of eating, and a little bit of exercise to try and compensate for all of the eating. We are staying at this really nice hostel right now, it is a big old house and has a huge courtyard. Anna and I were in a dorm room for the first night we were here and then due to a mix up we were moved into the rec room which has turned out to be great because it is huge and we have it all to ourselves and no one ever goes in there so it is way better than a dorm any day! This is the second hostel we have stayed at here, the first two days we were at this other hostel that was recommended by a friend of Anna´s and it was terrible and I mean terrible. It was old and falling apart and dirty. The washrooms were disgusting, and the showers barely worked and one night we had ants climbing all over us! We are happy to be where we are now.

Our other traveling companion, Lorena, was away doing a biking trip but she should be joining us today or tomorrow, and then we will be off again to this place called the Valley of the moon and then up to a town called Salta. From there we are planing to rent a car for a couple of days to see the area and then Anna and I are off to Chile and up to Bolivia! I am very excited. As for now we have no plans for today and tomorrow we are renting bikes and doing a wine tasting tour. I am stoked! Well hope you are all well and happy, send emails when you have time!

Tronador, El Bolson and Frey

Hello,

sorry about the long absence. I have been very busy. But let me get on with the story. We woke up early on the morning of Feb 13th and left the hostel packs ready for a hike. We boarded a very small mini van type vehicle and headed along with about 15 others to the base of Mt Tronador. The base area was called Pampa Linda which is what the hike up Tronador is referred too. I think Tronador means thunder. We arrived later than we were supposed to at the base after a some what harrowing car ride on back park roads that were barely wide enough for one car that went whipping around blind corners. I think drivers here have a sixth sense about when other cars are coming in the opposite direct. It was a beautiful drive though, it followed a string of turquoise lakes and then up a valley to the base of the snow capped mountain, half of which is in chile. At Pampa Linda we signed in with the ranger and started to climb. The first bit of the hike wasn´t bad, pretty flat and winding until we crossed a river and then it was up up up. All of the hikes around here are very dusty and all of them are covered with horse shit because they use horses to carry people and supplies to the refugios (huts) at the top of each. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to clear the tree line and we had a great view of the valley behind us and a huge glacier with waterfalls pouring down the rock face in front of us. We decided to take lunch in a glade that dropped off at the edge down in to the valley. Lying there Condors began to fly up along the cliff edges so close we could see their individual feathers. Now this all sounds lovely but I will tell you this climb after the last hike and the sun burn I had just killed me I was damn tired. From our lunch spot we had about a 45 min climb to the refugio which sat right at the base of the glacier. From there you would need special gear to climb to the top of the mountain. It was beautiful though and I was glad that we had done it once we arrived. The cabin was perched on bear rock and was backed by a giant white blanket (the glacier). We put down our packs and walked in to the refugio. These huts are different than the ones we might have in canada, they are staffed and you can buy food and drinks and you can sleep in them too. We just chilled out for the rest of the day talking with other hikers, reading and writing. I took a stroll around the area right up the foot of the glacier. It was pretty amazing. But once we arrived the wind began to pick up and clouds began to cover the peak. After about 2 -3 hours the rains came and pounded the shelter. By the end of the day there were about 30 hikers and 4 staff in the refugio, sometimes even 50 people sleep there. I felt really bad for all the people who had decided to camp because the winds just howled and the rain became more like slush as it fell. We eat the food we brought and hung out with a whole bunch of cool people. Finally the staff spread out all the mattresses over the floor in the upstairs of the refugio and we picked our beds. The room was basically one huge mattress, and we slowly trickled to bed. The winds just beat at the refugio all night and it was lovely to know that we were inside and warm and dry. Two girls we had met who were camping came inside before we went to bed because their tent had gotten too wet. The next day we woak to more winds and clouds. We had a relaxed breakfast and finally decided to brave the trip back down. (Lorena decided to leave earlier than Anna and I because she is braver and wanted to go to a couple of lookouts she is like the energizer bunny!) The clouds still hung low around us as we descended but as it turned out we cleared the clouds pretty quickly and other than the trail being alittle slippery the decent was fine. We got to the bottom with plenty of time to spare before we had to catch the bus so Anna and I walked up to the base of the waterfalls that poured down from the glacier, it was spectacular. By the time we reached Pampa Linda we were beat! I was half comatose the entire trip back to Bariloche. The next day Lorena left us for a bike trip and Anna and I took the bus down to El Bolson a little hippy down two hours south of Bariloche. It is very cute and pretty and after a big mess up with hostels with I won´t get into it but it ended up costing us an extra night we settled in to a hostel down town. It was actually a really weird place kinda like renting the front room in a loopy old couple´s house but it did the trick. We spent the night getting dinner, drinking beer and wandering around. The next day as luck would have it the weekly fair was being held in the town centre. The fair was amazing! It was basically a hippy craft and food fair with all sorts of amazing home made items and the best food ever. Now I have to say the food in Argentina has far from impressed me, it had not been good at all really, just alot of meat but nothing special (Except this one street meat vendor in Bariloche AMAZING!!!) But Anna and I basically spent our whole time at the fair stuffing our faces it was great. We had waffles the fairs specialty and they were unbelievable, all covered in fresh raspberries and whipping cream then we bought fresh berries and eat them, we bought a cake and eat it then smooths and finally more street meat and french fries. We bought a couple of tangible things and really just had an amazing day. And just before boarding the bus at 5 back to bariloche we started (and finished on the bus) a box of wine. I was pleasantly toasted for the bus trip back! You can drink anywhere here I love it no one cares. I had a beer on the bus trip home from the hike today!
Today we spent our last day in Bariloche doing one last hike. We met this Irish woman Maureen who we invited to go with us. We took the city bus out to about 2 km from the start of the hike and we spent about 3 hours climbing up almost to a mountain peak. Again the refugio was based on a glacier lake that sat just below the peak. It was a beautiful day and the refugio was really cool. It is a base for alot of rock climbers who climb all around the area and people were just hanging out cooking and listening to music. The lake was cool too, it was mostly pretty shallow so it was pretty warm as glacier lakes go. We chilled out eat lunch and hiked back down. I am tired and ready for the 19 hr bus ride we have in store for us tomorrow. Tomorrow the plan is to get one last piece of street meat from the vendor here, seriously I am not kidding the best thing I have eaten in Argentina it is all about the sauce he has! and then we are boarding an over night bus to Mandoza. Mandoza is in the heart of the wine district and we plan on doing a winery tour and a bunch of ¨wine tasting¨! Hope you are all well I am going to sign off for now.
cheers

The most wonderful day

Hello all,

Today was one of those beautifully perfect days that you have to remember exist when everything else seems to be grey. We woak up early and navigated our way on to a very crowed city bus and found our way out of town and to the base of this hike called Laguna Negra which means the black lake. It was about a 14 km hike to a glacial lake near the top of a mountain. The day was perfect. It was hot and the sky was brillantly blue and totally cloudless. The air smelled sweet like pine mixed with mint and lemon. The hike followed a river up a valley and finally climbed steeply via switch backs to the top. The beginning of the hike was smooth and shaded. The forest was lush and the trees were big, a real treat after patagonia. There were a whole bunch of new plants I haven´t seen including some kind of bamboo. The river was beautiful falling over the rocks crystal clear. There were a whole bunch of little waterfalls. We passed a bunch of cattle at one point, hanging out in the shade chewing their cud. We climbed up the switch backs in the shade of the mountain which was really nice because the sun was hot on our backs. We finally reached the lake after about three hours on the trail, much faster than we thought. There was this amazing rough little cabin built on one side of the lake that was nestled between three peaks. The cabin is there to sleep in and you can buy some food and drinks there that I guess are brought up on horse back. There was the cutest little kitten that lives up there with the loudest purr you would ever believe. We jumped in the lake the minute we got there and basically jumped right back out, it is glacier fed and none too warm. We proceeded to feast on the food we brought, we didn´t skimp on fresh fruits and veggies after our last camping experience and we brought a whole bag of amazing chocolate. After lunch me and Lorena hiked around the lake and up the saddle between two of the peaks and looked out over an amazing valley with a huge volcanic mountain in the distance. We could see all the way to Chile. We then hiked back down and swam in the lake again. This time we managed to stay in for about 10 - 20 minutes. The lake was so clear you wouldn´t believe it. Swimming around it felt like flying. All of the water on these hikes has been so clear and refreshing to drink. We then headed back and picked up anna who had spent her time reading and sun bathing. We stopping in the the hut again and said good bye to the kitten and met the park employee who worked at the hut. (most likely the hansomest man I have ever met in my life he didn´t speak english so it was only a short meeting.) then we hiked back down. Stopping to hang out with our feet in the river for a while. We eventually reached the end of the hike and were sitting on the dusty road waiting for a ride when two older german men that we had met on the hike arrived and offered us a ride back to town. We first went and got a beer, the germans love their beer, at a small resturant in the middle of the forest. It was amazing they had built this huge porch out of big logs from the area, it was incredible. There was also a pet baby llama that we got to pet and feed milk. After this we drove back into town exchanging hiking experiences with the germans, one of them only starting running marathons when he was 56, he gives me hope that I will be hiking for some time to come. Finally more than 12 hours after leaving we reached the hostel just in time for their free dinner which was tasty to begin with but was also flavored with hunger and now we are off to bed to hike again tomorrow. It is nice to know that days like this exist!

photos

I am still planing on posting pictures but I have yet to find a computer that will read my dvd in combination with a browser that will let me post pictures so the quest continues but I have alot of killer pictures so I promise I will post them eventually, or die trying.

Bariloche

So we arrived in Bariloche two days ago after a very long bus ride, more than 32 hours to be exact. But it actually wasn´t so bad, the buses here are better than they are in Canada, more comfortable at least. And one of the buses we were on was Coche Cama which means the seat reclines more than a normal seat but not as good as first class which means the seat goes all the way back like a bed. Although on an earlier bus we were sitting right up at the frount of the second floor of the bus which we thought would be cool for the view but what we hadn´t considered was how the frount window would act like a solarium and basically cook us. I didn´t bring my sunscreen on the bus, thinking mistakenly that I would not need it, and I got burnt to hell. On Coche Cama they also try to instill a sort of enviroment by playing terrible spanish style elevator music that I assume people here appreciate but it started to drive me insance (loca) espically because I had the bad fortune to sit right under the speaker that was blaring it. That is one thing I have found out about Argentina that is very different than Canada they have little compuction about forcing everyone to listen to music or a movie where as in canada you would have to plug in your head phones to hear it. They also have no problem waking you up if you are sleeping to give you food or just to talk to you which would never happen in canada. They also proceeded to play a very loud and violent movie at seven in the morning. Anyway we finally arrived in Bariloche which is a very pretty town. This area is known as the lakes district, and Bariloche sits on a large lake surrounded by mountains and forests. It is a nice change of senery after the arid plains of Patagonia. Bariloche is also known as the chocolate capital of Argentina so our first day here we went out and bought a bunch of chocolate and ice cream (which is better here than it is in canada I think it is the quality of the milk). So the first day we just hung out, Bariloche is quite a tourist town, and it is where all of the highschool graduating students come to party. We had planned to go out dancing the first night we were in town because it was friday but we were too tired after the bus ride so we went to bed. We are staying in a very nice hostel called Marco Polo with our own private room and bathroom, which came in handy because that first night both Anna and I became violently ill. We still have no idea what caused it but we spent all yesterday either sleeping, or walking around very slowly and painfully as we both had crazy body aches. Today I feel much better and I can eat again which is nice. I don´t think we are going to get up to much today but tomorrow we are going to go for a nine hour hike in the area and the next day we are off again. Although we are going to have to load up on the chocolate before we leave :)

The first hike

Well this was one of the most disasterous hikes I have ever been on yet it was also amazing and beautiful so we got a bit of the good and a bit of the bad.

The first day we woak up at 5 am to be outside for the bus at 5:30 am which was to take us to Torres del paine in Chile. Well the bus didn´t show for a good 45 mins making us very worried that the hike had ended before it had started but finally the bus rolled around the corner and we were away. All three of us attempted to catch some well needed sleep on the bus but they refused to turn down the air conditioner so sleep was almost imposible as we sat shivering in our seats. The next big problem arose as we attemped to cross into Chile. None of us had remotely considered the idea that some of the food we had brought for the trip would be illegal to bring across the border. As it would happen about a third of the food we brought had to be taken away from us by the chilian border officals who precided to spray it with some sort of liquid and then burn it all - all those lovely avacados so sad! We attempted to say on our border documents that we had no illegal goods but they went through our back packs and Anna ended up with a long list of the contraband she attempted to cross the border with. Luckly we ended up with no fines but it meant that we were on heavy rations for the rest of the hike. Finally we reached the park after passing herds of llamas which was pretty cool. The mountains loomed in frount of us amazing and beautiful but as we discovered this was a land of mountains but it was also a land of wind! As we drove to the starting point of the hike - a ferry that took us across a lake - wind shook the bus so hard that it rocked violently back and forth. At this point dark clouds began to form and rain began to fall in heavy sheets that fell almost horizontally because of the gale force winds. Now we had been lead to believe that the weather would most likely be good. Everyone we met who had done it came back sunburnt and with stories of blue skys. Now I know you are always supposed to prepare for the worst but we got lazy. Anna and I had been waiting to buy fleeces in Bolivia where they would be cheap so we only had cotton sweat shirts and as my friend Alyssa would say ¨cotton kills¨and we discouved this very first hand! As we exited the bus in to driving wind and rain we were soaked almost before we could put our raincoats on. Huddling beside a small hut waiting for the ferry we began to question our decision to do this 5 day hike at all. Once we were on the ferry Anna had already developed the first stages of hypothermia. Once we reached the other side we collectivly decided to camp there and to attempt to get anna warm. There were Refugios along the way these are buildings that people can rent beds in so there was somewhere warm for her to sit - this refugio was particularly nice because it was meant for rich tourists to spend one night in the park. Even with this it took anna several hours to regain any body heat. It was a rather scary situation. We finally decided that we were all ok and that it was time to go to bed in the two person tent we had rented for the three of us. So we squeezed in and spent the rest of the night listening to the howling wind and wondering if it were strong enough to rip the tent up from around us.

The next day broke the storm and brough blue skys. We day hiked out to a glacier called grey and then hiked back to camp and packed up and hiked to the next camp site. Now I must refer to our diet because it was a speical kind of misery. We had rationed a bit of oatmeal for breakfast. One can of tuna and crackers between the three of us for lunch and a quarter of a block of cheese and one sausage and bread between the three of us for dinner. Not an exciting meal plan. IT was spiced with one chocolate bar a day and a few packs of cookies for the trip. I will tell you it has been nice to eat a real meal and some fruit since I have returned to civilization. I don´t want to look at sausage or tuna for a while. Oh I also forgot we each got two hard boiled eggs a day. That was my favorite part!

Anyway the third day brought more rain and we spent the morning in the tent pretending that it was big enough for three people to relax in. Then we packed up and headed for the next site, although once we arrived we decided to continue onward. After about another hour or two we came to a huge glacier fed river that had no bridge. We had to snake our way across very slowly and carefully as to not fall in and be swept away! Finally we reached a cross roads and decided we had gone far enough and chose to camp there illegally because we were exausted. But of course a couple on horse back who worked for the park found us and told us we had to move a half and hour before sunset so being three cute girls we used out powers of persuation to convince them that we just couldn´t move and they finally let us stay.

The forth day broke with more wind and rain and a huge rainbow. We hiked up the side of one of the mountains and down into a valley between to mountains beside a gushing river. We made our camp at a camping spot and then continued deeper in to the valley and finally climbed up and up until we were sitting in the bowl of the mountain staring up at the three towers of rock that the park is named after. I just about died of exaustion and cold but as we reached the top it was worth it the towers were amazing and just then the sky cleared and the sun poured down on us.

The finally day saw us retreat out of the valley and down on to the patagonian steps. It was a good hike and a hard hike but it was definitly an experience.

More About Argentina

A couple of things I forgot to add to my last post that I have discovered about Argentina. 1: People here have no idea about time! They do not even start to go out to the bar until 2 am and they only end the night at about 6am. The idea of going to the bar at 11pm is laughed at, noone will be there! And it is very true, it is helped by the fact that the sun doesn´t go down until 10pm but still starting the night at 2am is crazy! 2: They have no change down here. you almost always have to have the correct change or close to the correct change to buy stuff. Which makes no sence to me because if the store doesn´t have the change I am not sure how everyone else is supposed to. 3: learning spanish in Argentina is extra hard because they have a special way of talking here that is different from the rest of south america.