The Road to Mendoza

After leaving BsAs on a sweet overnight bus we ended up in a much more manageable town called Mendoza. A mere 14 hours away via sweet 'private' bus, Mendoza sits at the foothills of the Andes. Our bus, was a double decker sweet ride and we got a top shelf front row seat. We were the only people to get on in BsAs, which seemed a little strange, but there were a couple more stops along the route. We were prepared to give up the awesome front seats, but never had to. The bus, that had a crew of three only took about 6 or 7 people to Mendoza.

Everywhere you go in Mendoza you can see the mountains in the background, Hanna and I walked all over the city, take our word for it. There are tons of awesome parks and fountains throughout the city that purely beg you to get in them. It's just not fair. They look so clean.

Our only full day in the city was spent on bikes touring the local winery's, distilleries and olive farms. We covered quite some distance, most of which Hanna swore was uphill. There was one downhill which she overheated her brakes. She did come to my rescue later when my tire popped and she rode the 3 km back to the shop to get some assistance. The bikeshop owner told her that of all the bikes he rented out that day, only hers came back with two unpopped tires. Look at her go!!!

The tours were solid. The distillery was the neatest as its main purpose is to take scraps from wineries and make grapa. The wineries are not permitted to distill anything in the wineries, something along the lines of the German Purity Law for beer. The distillery makes both red and white grape grapa, but also has added more fine products like gin, vodka, and various liquors from mandarins, grapefruits and dulce de leche. They were all wild, strong and awesome.

Our tour of the city was a complete success and now we're off to Viña del Mar to see what Chile has to offer us. We realize that it wasn't a stop previously on our map, but we do apologize. We hope it's not too much of an inconvenience for you to look it up Pappa Pittam. Miss everyone!

Besos!

B&H

On the Road - We're outta here

It's not you BsAs, it's us...we just need a little space. We're off to Menzoda. Our bags are packed and we're ready to go, but there's no jet plane involved, solamente a bus. After Mendoza, the plan is still to head over to Chile and up to Peru from there... vamos a ver.

Our lovey new French roommate is letting us leave our giant suitcases in her room while we travel. We have our passports, tent, bug spray and sunscreen all packed up. What more could we possibly need? We even got a brand new sleeping bag, but there's a little controversy about which one of us it actually belongs to. Byron wanted to make sure he fits inside regardless...

Nightlife

So, it's almost 11:30pm here in BA. No Hanna and I are not staying in, but this is about the time people actually finish up dinner and head out. No joke, about the time that most people in Adams Morgan are almost blacked out, we're just heading to a parilla party. Gimme that grilled meat. Dinner number twos never tasted this good...

Ciao!! Besos!!

Potential Route to Machu Picchu...

View Larger Map

Check out what our current travel plans are...you should probably view the larger map for more color! I think we should be able to update it as we go so you can see a little dot of where we are. You can see the summit with our little green backpacks. Most of the points have a little description about what we might do there, so feel free to click away. We're amped. We made our reservations!! From March 28 to April 1 we will be here: http://www.sastravelperu.com/english/inkatrail.html

¡Livin la vida porteña!

Our sincerest apologies for slacking off with the blog. We're pretty busy over here with our volunteering, socializing with fellow expats, planning our next trip, and continuing our exploration of Buenos Aires. Our participation with the film festival is pretty time consuming. We watch at least one documentary a day and write about it. Additionally, I've been translating their documents and Byron is working on their website. I'm also volunteering with a organization that creates fundamental growth experiences for underpriveliged children through games and activities. (www.abrirlapuerta.org.ar)

Also, in an attempt to make some friends/connections we've joined a BsAs expatriates online forum. It keeps us updated on fun local activities and just basic get-togethers. Another source of some of our new friendships is a pub crawl that we did last week. A couple of guys from Georgia (go figure) put it together and do it like four times a week. By the time we made to the final destination at 3am, a gigantic night club called Araoz (pronounced arouse), Byron and I gave up and went home. I'm sure the party didn't stop until many hours later though, since the clubs are open until 7am.

Of course, in between working, touring and drinking, one must eat! We've been stuffing our faces with steaks and papas fritas, almost on a daily basis. Thanks to our friend Justin, we have a wonderful website to find restaurants with (www.guiaoleo.com.ar). Our Italian roommate recommended a Peruvian restaurant to us last night, and we feasted on various sea creatures, yuka, chicken, onion salad and cancha (a corn snack). We may try the russian place nearby to change things up a bit :)

Human Rights Film Festival

In our desperation to find something to do, we went to talk to a woman about volunteering for the local human rights film festival held here and in Santiago every year. Check it out! http://www.derhumalc.org.ar/. She was actually really excited about our willingness to help and immediately piled on some tasks. Our first assignment will be to watch the English films that made the cut and write synopses about them. Such a perfect assignment too, considering it's been raining incessantly for the past few days. The actual festival is in May, so we will just be puttering around their office until then... or until we find something that pays! Hanna's still waiting to hear from some schools and child-related organizations.

A trip to Peru is in the works. We just have to determine our route... Bolivia is a little difficult of us Americans to get into, so we may just hang out in Mendoza (wine country) and take it from there. Any suggestions will be welcomed with open arms.

Casual Bike Ride

If you've ever been outside the United States, you realize just how crazy people drive. My little English Auntie rules the motorways hitting roundabouts while shifting into 5th gear, the buses in Barbados would allow you to get one foot in the door before flooring it, and Buenos Aires is no exception. But, if anyone knows me, it's impossible to keep me off a bicycle, after all, who wants to be stuck walking or taking a taxi everywhere? The freedom of a bike is unparalleled.

With that being said, one of the first things Hanna says to me in the taxi on the way to our Buenos apartment (to further reiterate the fact...) is how she doesn't want me to ride a bike in the city. My mom also told me not to ride my bike off the sweet jump a friend and I made in the basement 12 years ago, but the sweet scar on my elbow has told me otherwise since. It took me less than a week to realize that I absolutely had to venture outside with some sort of two wheeled pedal-powered device. Walking took ages and required brushing up against other sweaty bodies, wading through trash lined sidewalks, and stopping at pedestrian walkways. So, I ventured out down to Calle Florida on a sweat beach cruiser (the kind you have to pedal backwards to stop) that had handlebars like a badass chopper motorcycle. Isn't the suspense killing you to find out if I made it back alive?

Yup, you guessed it. I did. The buses were courteous and gave me a chance to squeeze through between them. The cars barely even noticed me cruising down the side of the street. The taxis purused the streets looking for business, but were always aware of me. I did try to take out a pedestrian but failed. Stinker. All in all a good ride. When I showed back up alive the roommate who loaned me the bike (and advised that I start out riding in the weekend traffic) was actually quite amazed.

Now onward to this gem I came across the other day. Bolivia might be the coolest place ever. The road pictured below is called "Death Road" due to the constant stream of casualties vehicle traffic racked up annually. Now the road is closed to cars and trucks, but open to extreme downhill bikers. I still don't think it's quite as extreme as running with the bulls, but it still should be a sweet 100km of downhill riding. I believe the road descends over 800 meters. HOLLA!