CERRO COLORADO

Staying at the Hostel has given us access to maximum exposure in speaking spanish, deciphering labels in the mercado and detailed information about the hiking trails. And more. Read on.
We started Thursday by hiking along the beautiful mountain lake, through a Mapuche village, scattering the occasional sheep and horse, and seeing some outstanding birds .(? barruchia - some kind of Ibis we think, with curved bills and pink legs). Later we made some lucky guesses at the grocery store and cooked up a pretty decent chicken dinner. All those staying here, and a few others who seem to live elsewhere in town, use the kitchen and dinner time turns into an international affair. We are the oldest by about 35 years at least.
Next day, Friday, we borrowed maps , hiking poles and set out to hike to the top of Cerro Colorado. The trailhead is 17Km from town. No problemo. Just take a taxi . Told driver to come back for us in 5 hours, Then we started up the 2300 ft elevation gain trail, pretty well marked , just keep going up. We went through lovely large deciduous forest, with bamboo as ground cover, occasional streamcrossings , then on to snow covered trail at the top. The Andes around us still covered in snow ,the sky was deep blue. Hot sun and cold wind. On the summit we ate our lunch in a cairn built of lava rocks, protecting us from the forceful winds. The view was 360 mountain and volcano peaks. Then hiked back to meet our taxi. Never saw a single person all day, That is the story of hiking in Patagonia in the off season.

Fast forward

A quick catch up. On Tuesday we spent the day touring Mendoza on foot, mostly the San Martin park. A 550 hectare place, with a big hill on the far side capped by a rocco monument to Argentind independence. Then across the park to a beautiful copy of afountain in Paris , Jardin de Luxumberg, The 4 Continents.. Next out of the park and to wine tasting at The Vines, the best wine bar I've ever been to. A flight of 6 really good Malbecs cost $15 US. I spent an hour and a half savoring the difference.
Next we picked up our stuff at the hotel and caught the night sleeper bus to Neuquen - 12 hours, 600 miles. Exutivo class, leather seats that go flat, hot dinner, wine , breakfast, for $60 each. Arrived well rested, so we traveled on to San Martin de los Andes on another bus,arriving mid afternoon. Moved into the Puma hostel for ~ $30 us /night, very nice private room, with lots of other friendly people and staff glad to give us detailed information about how and what to see in the area

Bikes and Wine

Monday
We rounded enough coins to catch the bus out to Maipu, the starting point of the 25K tour. We were outfitted with bikes and started off. They gave us a map, and we could proceed at our own pace. First a very old winery, Rural, with a museum of old equipment that was fascinating. Then a quick tour of the vines, vats and barrels, then tasting. Since it was only 10:30 am, and 24k plus many wineries to go, we went easy on the tasting. Next we biked 12k to the turnaround point. Their advice was to get to the furthest point, and taste your way back. Saves on sending out the sag wagon at the end of the day is my guess.

The ride started in a little town with new streets and a gread bike lane. Then there was a stretch of road construction = gravel and dirt. But the cars had to detour. Next was a hard portion of narrow 2 lane road, paved but no shoulder and a fair number of buses and trucks. But here the scenery reallyopened up. Beautiful vineyards, with Los Andes including Acongaga, snow covered, in the background. Then the last stretch of beautiful linden lined back road, smooth and no traffic.

At the end point, Sarah went to an olive grove and press, and I went to another winery across the road - Carinae. Old vines recently purchased by a French family who reopened the winery. The tasting cost ~$5 us but in exchange we got to taste their best wines, not the bulk stuff. It was very good wine. Back on the bikes, we headed for the lunch stop. A special deal at a local restaurant that came with the tour. A beautiful spot, with excellent food, but overall a kind of strange experience. We were one of everal tables of prepaid casual bikers, amidst some very well dressed folks eating off the full menu. And it seemed like the waitstaff and the other diners were trying to pretend that we didnt exist. Ah, well, we soaked up the scenery, enjoyed the birds, ate the prepaid, and got back on the bikes. A few more stops, a little more tasting, and were back at the start. to be continued

Parilla

Another food post...



Today we walked around Mendoza, and signed up for a Bikes and Wine tour tomorrow. George met the guy who runs this, and sent us there. The logo is a person on a bike quaffing from stemware. (SMFD - without a helmet! we will wear helmets..)



But, the coin thing again.. We can take the city bus to the starting place for the tour for 1.40 pesos (about $.50 US) or the shuttle for 30 pesos each. But to take the bus you have to have enough coins for the round trip for two. And there ARE NO COINS almost. This is because when the price of metals like brass and nickle got high earlier this year, coins were worth much more melted down than their face value. So they all got melted, and sent to China and India. Now it´s this incredible game of stratagy between menchants and customers to get those precious few that are left in circulation.



Well anyway, while we were signing up, we asked the young man running the desk at Wine and Bikes where to go for parilla (pronounced pa.ree.jha), the special Argentine BBQ, brought to your table on a little habachi like thing to keep it warm. The full deal usually includes kid, pork, maybe chicken, and of course beef all portions - sweetbreads, kidney, blood sausage, chitlins, steak and ribs. He lit up and recommended Grill Jesus and Mary. I am not making this up. We headed off, expecting some little locals only hole-in-the-wall, only to arrive at this beautifull restaurant and elevated patio on the edge of the big park. Fortunately the grill fire was out and they were closing for the afternoon. I say fortuantely because we were hungry enough to eat there and it would have been the most expensive meal of the trip by a factor of 2.



We walked back toward our hotel and came across a small hole-in-the wall sidwalk cafe with hand lettered signs and great smells. We sat down for the next 2 hours and devoured a rack of beef short ribs, fried potatoes, grilled mixed vegetables and a really good bottle of Malbec all for about $30 US. CT was so smitten by the vegetables that she disappeared into the cocina to meet the chef. He was the vegetable cook who had apparently never had a fan visit before and was delighted. We all ended the afternoon very happy. SC

Carmina Burana

While walking the streets, plotting ways to get coins for the bus, we saw a poster for a production of Carmina Burana in the Teatro Colon Opera house. Here for 3 nights only, and in our price range, IF we kind of skipped any major meals. So we retreated to merely empandas ( not a hardship ) and made our way to the Opera. It was simply staged and brilliantly choreographed in a combination of ballet and modern . Used our bird watching binocs from the back of the second balcony. It was thrilling.

(SC - I totally agree. And the theatre was amazing. An Art Deco place dating I´m guessing from the 30´s. Incredible acoustics. The chorus and principal singers were amplified, but even whan it was just the dancers, we could hear their feet moving against the stage. And we were in ¨superpullman¨. We´re talking way up there. From where we sat, looking down on the stage was like looking down a black diamond run. You didn´t want to trip walking to or from your seat.)

On Saturday we took a bus to the Palermo district and just walked around there all day, enjoying the weekend crafts fair and outdoor music. Once again, we had to try anything to get coins to take the bus. Example: act like you are going to buy 3 candies or 3 oranges, ( they say 2 pesos), then , change your mind and buy only 2, so they have to give you coins in change. But they often just up or down the price or throw in something else so no change is involved. Other alternative is to take the Subte ( subway) where you can buy tokens. Or just walk. We retrieved our back packs and got on the all night bus to Mendoza. Arrived here as the city slowly wakes up on Sunday morning, and have found a cheap hotel. There seem to be signs everywhere about tours to bodegas and hiking. Will just have choose which one to take next. Next blog will tell you what we found and what we tasted. CT

Back packs and tango shoes

We went looking for a tango lesson. Our friend Mario had recommended the Argentine School of Tango run by Octavio, his friend, and located in the Gallerias Pacifica. We went looking for it. Galleria P is a shopping center in a spectacular old buiding occupying an entire city block in downtown. The Galleria is upscale to say the least. It makes Bellvue SQuare look like a strip mall. It has a four story cross shaped atrium roofed with glass in the center. We were intimidated. But Mario had shown us on a picture of the outside of the building where the school was located, so we set off without asking for information or directions (guess who´s idea that was). It was like wandering around inside a Rubic´s Cube. When we did ask for directions, about half an hour later, we were sent through an obscure door into a whole othe part of the structure, and indeed there was one small sign with an arrow for the school. It was like the entire building was divided on a diagonal from lower corner to opposite corner, and one part was the Galeria, and the other was the Borges Cultural Center. Soon we were following a narrow hallway that wound around the top floor through a rabbit warren of small offices. Eventually we came to a dance school, but it was for ballet.

More directions. Down a stairway, through more corridors, and then we are in the middle of the Argentine Inventor´s Exibition 2008. Fascinating stuff, all prototypes looking for investors we think, Everything from solar powered thermos bottles, to something that looked like a mix of a catamaran, a recumbant bicycle, and a kayak. But there in the middle of the exibition, was the entrance to the Argenitne School of Tango! We were in. It was right where Mario said it was. And we started joking with this guy at the desk about his black eye, and he turned out to be Octavio. He was welcoming and glad to see us. We took a lesson. It was so good, we came back the next day and took another. In ski terms, we can now get on the rope tow 50% of the time and come down the bunny hill in an unsteady and unpredictable snow plow. But we are inspired!

Coming next: Trial of bus ridership in a country with no coins and busses that only accept coins.....

Back in Buenos Aires

A long trip to here. Arrived at SeaTac in plenty of time, but just as we were about to take off the pilot told us there was a problem with the "reverser". Since we have never flown backwards, we didnt think this was too much of a problem, but we went back to the gate and waited 2 hours for the problem to be fixed. Fortunately we had orginally 2.5 hours to connect with the overnight flight to Buenos Aires, so we made the plane with minutes to spare. We arrived over BA at 9AM as planned, but there was a huge thunderstorm over the airport so we landed in Montevideo Uraguay instead. This was just to take on more fuel so we could fly around Argentina until it was safe to land. Finally arrived a few hours late, but who cares?





Next was the trip from the airport into town. Shuttle $25 (US), Taxi $30 and public bus $0.50 each. So we found the bus stop and rode in style. Walked over to our hotel, and took a nap.



Then out to dinner at a little bistro in the neighborhood. Great simple food, beef stew for CT and what turned out to be fried pork cutlets for me and a nice bottle of Malbec cost $30. Now back at the hotel we are coping with the Latin keyboard to post this. This usually quiet neighborhood (Barrio Ricolleta) is a little rowdy tonight because it is Simcha Torah and the Lebovitchers next door are chanting and singing at high volume, and dropping by to have someome light their cigarette.
Will have no trouble sleeping tonight .

test 2

Test with PDA and keyboard

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PDA Wireless test