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October 17, 2007
Day 10: Buenos Aires
Today was our last day in Argentina and, unfortunately for me, it was also a holiday (Dia de la Raza, or Argentina's Columbus Day) which meant many stores were closed (I had been hoping to squeeze in some last minute shopping before we left). Fortunately, we had gone to Santa Fe Street not too far from Recoleta Cemetery which we hadn't gotten the opportunity to see when we went to Recoleta the previous Saturday so we made our way down there. Recoleta Cemetery is really large--like Adam said, it's like a city of tombstones. There are many impressive tombstones but after wandering around for half an hour, it can get a bit repetitive. Before we went the cemetery, we checked out El Ateneo Grand Splendid, a large bookstore housed in a former theater. After lunch at a Peruvian restaurant in Congreso, we returned to San Telmo and walked along the main commercial street, Defensa, in the half hour we had left. Fortunately, San Telmo Market was open so I did a quick walk through. It's definitely a place I wish I had had more time to see as they had many cool antiques and other knick-knacks. Adam and I had a great time in Argentina--we had nice weather the entire trip (the only time we saw rain was while we had lunch at the Peruvian restaurant), we did and saw a lot, and ate and drank a lot of wine pretty inexpensively. Argentina is also a country with a lot to do--we only saw a tiny part of it and would love to see more.
Recoleta Cemetery
Posted by Jennifer at 08:58 AM | Comments (0)
October 16, 2007
Day 9: Tigre Delta
When I read things like this, I knew I wanted to go to the Parana River Delta. The problem was finding the right tour--the only tours I could find involved rides on catamarans that looked pretty touristy. I wanted a boat ride where I would potentially see capybaras and lots of birds. Fortunately, about a week before we left I found a recommended guide on one of the travel message boards and scheduled a private tour. As soon as we made our way down the delta, we were enchanted--it was unlike anything we'd ever seen. The first part of the delta is filled with vacation houses and the homes of people who live along the delta, and the river itself was filled with rowboats, kayaks, and other recreational boats. The second part of the delta is a lot less populated and more natural and, while we didn't see any capybaras or exotic birds, it was very peaceful and enjoyable. Riding in the boat itself (a small motor boat) was quite an experience--when we sped along the wider channels and areas where several rivers met, particularly when we passed larger motor boats, we bounced up and down (I wondered at times if I should be wearing a lifejacket) and, at one point, Adam even fell out of his seat. It was really fun though.
Our guide, who spoke English with a very Italian accent, shared information about the delta along the way and stories about previous passengers. He said he once had a woman from Spain who was dressed very poshly when he pointed out an eagle overhead. The eagle managed to catch a small bird and had ripped out its heart which landed, still beating, on the boat next to the woman. He said the woman didn't say a word the rest of the trip. Another time he was asked by three German backpackers who didn't have much money how they could explore the delta and he recommended they take a public bus. They asked to be let out in a spot that was in the middle of nowhere and ended up getting stranded. He happened to be taking a group out that day when he saw the girls waving their arms at him from a distance. He drove his boat to where they were and since he didn't have room on his boat, he left them his cell phone and repellent and told them to call him if they managed to get a ride with someone else, otherwise he would return in a few hours to pick them up. They hadn't called by the time he returned into town so he went back to retrieve them. When he found them, they were crying and didn't stop crying the entire boat ride back.
Towards the end of the ride, Fernando asked if we were interested in seeing his vacation home. We had seen so many vacation homes along the delta, I was curious to see one close up so I said yes. As we docked, we heard goats bleating and Fernando explained that he had recently bought two baby goats. We walked over to see the goats and Fernando said he would go get his baby otter. I couldn't believe he had a baby otter but he brought it over and explained that his dog had come home with it one night and they had taken to each other like parent and baby ever since. Adam and I actually got to hold and pet a baby otter. We couldn't believe it. Fernando then invited us to his porch to share a bottle of wine. The whole experience was amazing--it was one of those days I wished would never end.
Tigre Delta
Fiona, the otter
Fernando's porch
View from Fernando's porch
Posted by Jennifer at 09:19 PM | Comments (2)
Day 8: Buenos Aires
I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do some more bird-watching at Costanera Sur and for the first hour or so, it was really nice and relaxing as we walked along the main reserve trail and stopped and looked at birds. The highlight, however, was definitely watching two fork-tailed flycatchers glide into the air in search of insects but before I could get a good shot of these birds, we suddenly started getting bitten by mosquitoes (we had forgotten to put on repellent) and we started walking briskly towards the exit. I was wearing long pants, long sleeves, and a jacket but the mosquitoes still managed to get me on my finger and feet. The reserve is located in Puerto Madero, a waterfront neighborhood which nearly entirely comprised of skyscrapers and construction sites. We walked along the boardwalk to Puente de la Mujer, Calatrava's Bridge of the Woman and made our way to Centro, the historic core of Buenos Aires. We had lunch at Filo where I had the best steak I ate in Aregentina. It was a steak with morels (I've had a weakness for morels ever since I had them in Paris) and it was cooked perfectly (unfortunately, a lot of the restaurants we went to overcooked the steaks I ordered). We then stopped off at the Museo de Arte Moderno which was a big disappointment.
Since most of the stores were closed when I had gone there last Sunday, we returned to Palermo where I happily shopped while Adam waited very patiently (Adam definitely deserves muchas smooches for the patience he displayed while I went clothes and crafts shopping) and we had dinner at a very good Middle Eastern restaurant. Even though it was pretty brisk in Buenos Aires, I still managed to get bitten by more mosquitoes outside the restaurant. On a side note, I'm not sure why there are so many mosquitoes in B.A. but during our second weekend in the city (which I understand followed several days of rain), we got bitten quite a lot--at the reserve, at night in the city, in the hotel, and on the train to Tigre and I was told that B.A. experienced an invasion of mosquitoes last summer and it's expected to be even worse this summer. Can't say I envy Portenos in this regard.
Posted by Jennifer at 08:50 PM | Comments (0)
Day 7: Salta
On our last day in Salta, we had a trip to Cafayate with a private guide planned. Cafayate has a number of wineries and drinking wine is one of Adam's favorite things to do so I thought this would be a trip he would enjoy. Little did I know that the scenery on the way to Cafayate would actually be the highlight of the trip. Before these scenic landscapes were many fields growing tobacco and other crops and along this stretch was a popular stopover place that produces their own goat cheeses. This was the Napa experience we had hoped for--they served wine and food and we ordered a sampler platter which came with an assortment of their goat cheeses, pepperoni, olives, bread, and bacon, all of which were extremely good. The bacon was probably the best bacon either of us have ever had. All the items on the platter were so good in fact that I actually asked our guide to stop at this place on our way back from Cafayate so we could have the platter again, possible artery-clogging effects be damned.
Anyway, the scenery was similar to what we saw on the way to Cachi only even better. Our guide happily pointed out all the rock formations that resembled various things (i.e. ship, Cleopatra, etc). Unlike Cachi, there was also a river with water here and the below the rock formations were many lush green trees, resembling what I imagine an African savannah would look like. There was also a very cool tree that dotted the landscape here--a tree that only has flowers, no leaves, and instead bears a green trunk and branches where photosynthesis can occur. When our guide found out we had not seen any condors yet, she scanned the skies for condors as she drove and was able to spot a number of them along the way, albiet far away. I was happy to watch them through my binoculars though and both she and Able told us very interesting facts about condors. Able mentioned that some people killed condors because, while scavengers, condors had been known to clutch goats, lift them up high, and drop them so they could feast on the goat (I truly shudder to think how these goats must feel). Angie, our guide for Cafayate, mentioned that condors generally mate for life and when their partner dies, they commit suicide by plunging to the ground. If this is really true, I think condors must be one of the most romantic creatures in the animal kingdom.
Angie also shared a lot of insight about Salta and Argentina. We learned from both her and Able, Argentinians' strong dislike of Chile and Chileans (Chile apparently supported England during the Falklands War, which Argentinians have never forgiven) and from Angie, a deep dislike on the part of Argentinians who live outside of Buenos Aires of Portenos. Angie and Able also talked about the 2001 Argentinian peso devaluation and the impacts it had (Angie shared a very poignant story about the day after the devaluation, which took place close to Christmas). Both gave excellent tours but little did we know we had an even better tour-related experience in store.
Food that made me toy with the idea of quitting my job and moving to a goat farm
A gaucho we spotted while eating said food
En route to Cafayate
Cool building in Cafayate which will house a crafts market
Posted by Jennifer at 07:39 PM | Comments (0)
Day 6: Salta
We had another group tour excursion scheduled for Thursday and when our guide brought us to a car with no other people, I thought perhaps he was taking us to a bus but, as it turned out, no one else had booked this tour so we lucked out with a private tour! And we couldn't have lucked out with a much better guide--Abel shared a lot of insight on Salta and Argentina with us as well as some great stories, which I'll share with you later. I don't remember all the attractions along this tour but it included Cerro de los Siete Colores, the mountain of seven colours, Purmamarca, a picturesque town filled with vendors and stores selling crafts and nice views, and Salinas Grandes, or large salt flats in northwest Argentina. We stopped somewhere near the top of a mountain where the wind was fierce and where I saw my first vicunas. There was a man selling stones with etchings and black rock carvings, which Abel had explained some men who had worked in the salt flats did as a way to get out of working in the salt flats, which is a very hard life. After the salt flats, we stopped for lunch at an adobe building in a small settlement where no more than ten families lived. It was a really unique experience--the doors were made of the wood of a local cactus and the chairs had seats that had cow hides. We ate homemade empanadas and steak milanese (breaded steak), both of which were very good (the empanadas were probably the best I had had in Argentina).
Before I share some of the photos from this excursion, I have to share two stories Abel told us during this trip. The first involves John Galliano, famed designer for Christian Dior. Abel mentioned Mr. Galliano was in town to get inspiration for his next season so he took him to see a traditional folkloric show. Galliano loved the show and a performer's gaucho suit caught his eye and he said he had to have it. Abel obtained the name of the tailor who had made the suit and went to visit her the next morning with Galliano. She was poor and lived in a slum and Galliano fell in love with the slum. He was taken aback, however, when he saw her home and when she told him the suit would cost 300 pesos (approximately $100 US) he couldn't believe his ears and started crying. He couldn't understand how she could charge so little and, ultimately, he sent her a thousand euros which she would been unlikely to convert to pesos had Abel not gone with her to the bank (apparently, bank representatives will verify the source of large sums of money held by poorer individuals).
The second story involves Harvey Keitel who was in a neighboring city, Cafayate, promoting a film. Abel took him back and forth between his hotel and the film shooting location and learned that Mr Keitel and the producers of the film, who were Argentinian, were fighting because the film was running over budget. The producers had ensconced the entire film crew at a five star hotel and Keitel eventually convinced them to send the entire crew to a local hostel. The incredible thing is that Keitel offered to move to the hostel with the rest of the crew and stayed there for about ten days. I can only imagine the stories that must've gotten shared by the backpackers who stayed at that hostel.
En route to Purmamarca and the mountain of seven colors
Cerro de las siete colores
Purmamarca
En route to Salinas Grandes
Salinas Grandes
Vicunas
The small settlement where we had lunch
Posted by Jennifer at 05:46 PM | Comments (0)
Day 5: Salta
In case you haven't figured it out, I love birds and will happily take any opportunity to go bird-watching when we travel. Unfortunately, I'm not a very good birder so I generally rely on guides, particularly if we are visiting another country. On this particular morning, we went with a bird guide to Reserva del Huaico, a private reserve in Salta. I did not keep a list of the birds I saw this time but we did see some nice birds on this excursion. According to our guide, the Northwest region of Argentina, of which Salta is a part, has the highest number of species of birds in all of Argentina because of the many different types of environments in this region. It is spring in Argentina, which also meant we had an opportunity to see migrant birds, which was a bonus.
The birdwatching was only for half a day (I don't think poor Adam, who does not share my passion for birdwatching, could have lasted much longer) so we spent the afternoon exploring Salta. We took a cable car up San Bernardo Hill and went to the Museo de Arqueologia de Alta Montana which, for a few short months, is displaying an Incan maiden mummy found several years ago in a mountainous region that straddles the Argentinian/Chilean border. We switched hotel rooms because our first room required walking down a flight of stairs between the bedroom and the bathroom that could have fairly easily lead to a fall and as falling down stairs was not part of my desired vacation experiences, we asked for a different room. Unfortunately, our second room had a lot of ants and, after accidentally stepping on one and getting bitten, I spent the rest of our time in the room walking from bed to bed or in socks.
Reserva del Huaico
View of Salta from the cable car
Posted by Jennifer at 04:50 PM | Comments (0)
Day 4: Salta
We had a full schedule of excursions planned during our stay in Salta and, unfortunately, every single one of them required waking up early (generally before 7). On this day, we were going on a group tour which ended in Cachi, which Adam had expressed a preference over a private tour thinking that we would meet people. Unfortunately, there were no English-speaking passengers on this tour but we did have an English translator who would hunch over and translate the guide's descriptions to us, which was a little overwhelming at 7 something in the morning. After yawning our way through the morning, we gradually perked up as we passed the countless tobacco fields into the mountainous Andean landscapes this region is known for. The scenery was really impressive although I was disappointed that we didn't see any guanacoes or vicunas (part of the reason I had come to Salta) and our final destination, Cachi, is a very small town with not much to see and certainly not enough to spend the two hours we were given. Adam and I spent most of our time at a wine bar reading, thinking that we were actually stuck in the town for three hours when after hour two, I thought I should see where our van was only to discover they were in fact leaving. Thank god I had checked because we might still be in Cachi today if I hadn't.
En route to Cachi
Los Cardones National Park (cardones means cacti in Spanish)
Posted by Jennifer at 04:17 PM | Comments (0)
Day 3: Salta
The flight to Salta was quick and painless though I wouldn't surprised if it was because we flew on LAN Argentina as opposed to Aerolineas Argentinas. As we rode in a van from the airport to Salta, I was very disappointed by what I saw and the disappointment was only cemented when we walked around Salta. Salta is known as Salta la linda (Salta the beautiful) and the town sharply contrasted with the picturesque colonial towns I had seen in Mexico. The streets were filled with old cars that spewed noxious odors at intersections that lacked traffic lights and the drivers generally ignored cross walks which immediately made me think of pedestrian fatality statistics. I was sorely disappointed and felt I had been tricked into coming to Salta by all the city's boosters. We had dinner at Dona Salta, a local favorite which serves a number of regional specialities such as humita and locro. Their humita was good (and in fact ended up being the best one we ate in Salta), along with their empanadas (also a speciality of Salta) and locros. I think the lentil stew I had ordered could've fed the local army, with food to spare.
Pretty in pink- Catredal de Salta
Posted by Jennifer at 03:58 PM | Comments (0)
Day 2: Buenos Aires
Palermo hosts another weekend crafts fair (I love crafts fairs) so we decided to go to Palermo the following day. For those of you who don't know me, I also have a weakness for clothes shopping and our first stop was Alto Palermo Shopping Center. I was pretty impressed by the mall but, as I was to soon learn, Argentinians, or at least Portenos, love to shop so stores are frequently crowded, particularly during the weekend, and they seem to run out of items quickly. We made our way south to Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, which I had heard was the best Latin American art museum in South America. The museum was nice but small but they did have an exhibit on Joaquin Torres-Garcia which I enjoyed. We made our way back north and stopped off at the Japanese Garden (surprisingly large and nice), the botanical garden (disappointing), and the zoo (nice but crowded). We walked further north towards the fair which was not as nice as the fair in Recoleta so I decided to check out the clothing stores in Palermo but, much to my disappointment, many were closed (it was Sunday). It was too early to eat dinner in Palermo and Adam really wanted steak so we headed back to San Telmo and, after being turned away from La Brigada, went to Desnivel. Adam's steak was good but I made the mistake of ordering the steak with marsala sauce--the steak was o.k. but the sauce was pretty bad. On our way back to the hotel, we heard techno music and walked in the direction of the music to find a bunch of tango dancers dancing to techno music. It was pretty wild to see and I wish I had caught it early enough to tape because they then switched back to more traditional tango music. It was still nice watching the tango dancers--neither Adam nor I are into tango but watching tango in a less formal setting is nice.
Botanical garden
Tango dancer
Posted by Jennifer at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)
Day 1: Buenos Aires
As we made our way to Buenos Aires from the airport, I was disappointed by what I saw--wasn't Buenos Aires supposed to be the Paris of South America? Instead, what I saw were nondescript buildings and several slums. My disappointment deepened as we entered the central city and I saw lots of graffiti and broken sidewalks. We arrived in the afternoon and decided to grab lunch at a Basque restaurant in the neighborhood we were staying in. This was my first experience struggling with a Spanish menu--I took Spanish in high school and retained some knowledge but time and lack of practice had eroded my vocabulary and, unfortunately, the Spanish-English dictionary provided only a limited amount of assistance. But the food we ordered was pretty good and, with our bellies full, we decided to explore Recoleta.
I had done my research and knew that Recoleta was home to the famed Un Altra Volta. I was too full to order my own ice cream but I enjoyed some of Adam's. My first agenda was to hit the Feria Artesanal de la Recoleta, a large weekend crafts market. On our way to the market, I got distracted by Buenos Aires Design, a mall devoted entirely to housewares and furniture. I was pretty enthralled--it was exactly the kind of place I would use to furnish my house if we didn't live in a small, NYC apartment. The crafts fair was quite large and I didn't want to subject Adam to my crafts obsession for the whole afternoon so I tried to go through it quickly. I wanted to see Floralis Generica but this part of Recoleta is a maze of parks, plazas, and wide streets and we must've spent about an hour trying to find it (incidentally, after we gave up and started focusing on finding the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes we actually stumbled upon the Floralis Generica). It took us a while to find the museum but it was definitely a worthwhile effort--the museum was definitely the best one we went to and it was free which is always a bonus.
Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Pilar, a church near Recoleta Cemetery
Posted by Jennifer at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2007
Leaving for Argentina!
Sorry haven't updated in a while but I'm heading out to Argentina--hopefully I'll be able to post while I'm there!
Posted by Jennifer at 07:57 PM | Comments (0)