Entries from March 2007

When I saw that the bus ride between Buenos Aires and Bariloche was 24 hours, I thought it had to be a misprint.  At the least, I thought I might have a flight option.  But no, I´m on a ROAM trip with Gap Adventures and we´re doing it the low budget way.  We had an 18 hour trip on one bus and then a transfer to another 6 hour bus with a layover in between.  First lesson in bus travel, they run on Argentine time so our bus was nearly 2 hours late.  It was pouring down rain though.  Fortunatly, the first 6 hours flew by and I continued in a cycle of read, sleep, listen to podcast, repeat for the next several hours.  I slept off and on over night and before I knew it, the first leg of the journey was over.  The bus was surprisingly nice - clean, reclining seats and they even brought meals, which is more than I can say for even a US airline!  We thought our layover was only an hour, but again, the busses run on Argentine time, so 2 hours later we hit our next bus.  This was a much more beautiful ride as we entered into Argentina´s Lake District.  Several hours later we finally arrived in Bariloche with the sun shining and the town situated on beautiful Lago Nahuel Huapi.  It was worth the ride! 

Having just confessed to my Evita obsession, it would be appropriate to tell you that I spent my 2nd day in Buenos Aires visiting her grave and her museum.  Her grave is in Recoleta cemetary, which is where many famous Argentines are buried and is unlike any cemetary I´ve ever visited.  They don´t have headstones, there are entire monuments dedicated to the grave.  I walked around the neighborhood for a bit and then walked up to the Evita museum.  It was an interesting progression through her lift from birth to marrying Peron to the good she did for the people or Argentina to her death.  There were various items from her life, including some of the dresses she wore and video footage as well.  It was neat to see the footage of her and Peron speaking in front of places I´ve seen in Buenos Aires.  And also shocking to realize that the makers of the Evita movie didn´t get all the facts right.  Oh what they do for dramatic effect!

After the museum I made my way back to the MALBA museum which is Buenos Aires´answer to MOMA or the Pompidou Centre in Paris.  It´s a small museum so I made a quick tour through it and made my way back up to Palermo to catch the subway back to the hotel before meeting my tour group.

Our tour group is a lively bunch and after a dinner of all you can eat mixed grill, salad and wine, a few of us made our way to an Argentine club where more drinks were consumed.

Needless to say, I woke up today with a hangover.  Sigh... I´m too old to party with 21 year olds!  My roomie, Lori, and I took it easy today and worked out the toxins with a run around the gardens in Palermo.  Then we went to La Boca to check out the brightly colored buildings, street art and ended up indulging ourselves in a gourmet meal at Patagonia Sur.  Being a bit of a foodie, I thoroughly enjoyed the entire dining experience.  It was a prix fixe menu and we were full after the first course but the food was incredible.  I started with King Crab on a bed of fennel and arugula.  Then I moved to a 7.5 hour lamb served with mashed potatoes with all the fat and spinach and nuts mixed in.  Dessert was a sort of puffed pastry with dolce de leche mixed in, dusted with powdered sugar and accompanied with roasted carmelized almonds and creme fraiche. I´ll dream about this meal for the rest of my trip!

We hopped on a bus to the center of town and then back on the subway to Palermo Soho.  I feel so good that we´ve figured out public transportation.  We´re almost local!  We spent the rest of the day and evening wandering the area, which does have a Soho feel to it.  This is the Buenos Aires people must be talking about when they talk about how beautiful it is here.  The shops are cute, the cafes funky and modern and the neighborhood is tree lines with building no more than 5 or 6 stories high.  I could definitely stay in Palermo Soho for a while!

But all good things must come to an end so we´re wrapping up our last night in Buenos Aires and getting ready for our next adventure.

(I´ll post pics later as I´m at an internet cafe without a USB connection.  Yeah, I can´t believe there are still PCs like that either!)

Hello!  Buenos Aires! (I can almost hear Madonna singing from Evita in the background as I type...)  Yes, here I am on my blog revealing a deep, dark secret.  I am fascinated with Evita (Eva Peron).  I loved the Madonna movie, can sing nearly the entire soundtrack, find the story of Eva Peron to be interesting and think it may be the reason I´m sitting here in Buenos Aires right now.  Truth is, I can´t remember when I decided I wanted to come to Buenos Aires, but it´s been high on the travel shopping list for some time and now I´m happy to say I´m here!

Getting here is a long trip, but easier than going to Europe in many ways.  The time difference is only 4 hours, so adjusting to the change is much easier.  The flight from Dallas is 10 hours, but since it´s truly overnight, it goes by fairly fast since I spent most of the night dozing in and out of consciousness.  Even with an empy airline seat next to me, it´s not good sleep so I took a nap once I got to my hotel and at 7 PM am just trying to keep my eyes open long enough that i´ll sleep through the night once I hit the pillow.

They call Buenos Aires the ´Paris of the Americas´(not South as previously posted)  I can certainly see some of the European influence here, but then that´s contrasted with a sort of mid 20th century modernism.  (see crazy photo of the contradiction in architecture.)  I´ve spent most of the afternoon wandering the central city and am now in the San Telmo neighborhood.  This area is known for it´s flea markets and Tango dancing, though not sure I have the energy to  Tango tonight!

In my wandering, I got to relive that moment in Evita where she steps out and sings to the people (Madonna sang, I´m guessing Eva didn´t!) and see the famous Casa Rosada.  As you can see it´s a rainy dreary day here in Buenos Aires, but ´Don´t Cry For Me Argentina´.

Tapas & My Backpack

 Tapas decided to help me pack for my trip to South America, though I think he was more interested in his weasel play toy than in actually helping me accomplish anything!  This is my 3rd backpacking adventure, and I'm always amazed at how much I can fit in my backpack and that I can travel this way for several weeks.  It's a very freeing feeling, not to be bogged down by stuff. 

In any case, it's Monday morning and I'm about an hour from heading out to the airport.  My flight path takes me to Dallas and then to Buenos Aires.  So look for my next posting from the city they call, 'Paris of the South'.  Hasta manana!

I hadn't been to Portland since Christmas and I'm leaving on a 3 week trip to South America later this month so I thought I would head down to Portland before I leave. Richard and I left for PDX on Friday afternoon and the highlight of the drive down was Richard's Cingular wireless modem that gave me internet connectivity while driving. I <heart> my geek!

Friday night we met friends at one of my favorite restaurants in Portland,Bombay Cricket Club.  It was a chance to catch up and for Maureen and I to celebrate our birthdays since they are 5 weeks apart.  I also got to see my friend Ken and meet his new lady, Amber. 

Ken and Amber

   The food wasn't as good as I remembered, but the lamb shahi and chicken tikka masala were still tasty.  Of course it's all good after enjoying a mango margarita!

Saturday included lunch at the Benson hotel and some furniture shopping to solve our growing space problem in my condo.  We decided to stay in for dinner and expose my parents to Richard's passion for terrine cooking and share a mutual passion for wine.  Coincidentally, all of the wines we drank were from the year 2000 and we nearly polished off 4 bottles!  We started with a zin, moved to a spanish red, then a chilean blend and finally an ice merlot that Richard picked up in Canada.  As always, the terrine was outstanding, though we had so much wine I'm not sure we would have known the difference!  We received confirmation a couple days later from dad and Nana that the leftovers were tasty so apparenty the wine didn't cloud our judgement.

Sunday was family day so we took my grandpa to his favorite restaurant, the HomePlace, stopped by to see my aunt and uncle and brought my Nana back to enjoy dinner with her before driving back to Seattle.  We ordered my favorite pizza in Portland, Pizzicato. I like them because they create pizzas with an interesting variety of fresh and gourmet toppings and I never get that guilty feeling I get after eating pizza soaked in fat and grease from other pizza restaurants.

It was a good weekend with lots of eating for Richard and I and lots of love for Tapas as he's always a big hit with my family!