Travel With Mel

Pucon is an outdoor enthusiasts dream town.  The town is made up of mostly tour operators, hotels and restaurants so there's not much to do if you're not interested in getting out of town and into the mountains.  One of the big attractions is the climb up the Villarrica Volcano.  Half our group did that, but I opted for a more relaxed day and later start time and did a hike in the Huerquehue National Park.  The trails in the park were surprisingly well maintained and we enjoyed a couple hours of wandering before relaxing over lunch next to one of the lakes.  Later that night we ventured out to some natural hot springs to help relax our aching muscles.  I've been to several hot springs in the northwest but these were among the nicest I've seen and again surprisingly well maintained with a changing room that even had stairs directly down into the springs.   The rest of my time in Pucon I've spent relaxing at the beach and catching up on the internet.  I went 4 days without touching a computer (probably a record for me in my adult life!) and I have to say, it was just what I needed to recharge from the daily grind of life at home. I think we all need to disconnect like that every once in a while.

We spent our first afternoon in Pucon swinging from the tree tops like monkeys in the sport of Canopy.  Part of the group went white water rafting but I decided I wanted to try something new and this looked like fun.  As I climbed up the first shaky ladder I began to get nervous and question what I got myself into.  The first time the guide hooked me up to the rope, told me to sit and let me go it freaked me out a bit.  But after a few trips down the rope, it was just great fun.  The scariest part was climbing up the series of ladders and waiting on the shaky platforms in the tree tops.  As the wind picked up a bit, I thought to myself that we're all gonners if one of the trees gets blown down!  Fortunately, we came down safely and all had an enjoyable afternoon in the trees. 

Getting from Argentina to Chile was a bit of an adventure.  Since our guide couldn´t get bus tickets, he arranged a van to the border.  We then checked out of Argentina and walkd a couple hundred meters through a national park to Chile where we went through customs and got on another van to Pucon, Chile.  We were fortunate that this travel was fairly seamless and only took a few hours.  With the one hour time difference (Chile is the same time zone as New York), we even had time to enjoy an afternoon activity in Pucon.

Continue reading "Bienvenidos a Chile!"

Our last stop in Argentina was San Martin.  It´s a small town on a Lake (shocking, in the Lake District!) and was really charming.  We only had one night there, though it could have easily been more as our guide had some challenges getting us bus tickets out.  Oh, the joys of traveling... one must be flexible and ready to change course at any minute.  In any case, we enjoyed a lazy afternoon in San Martin and sun bathed on the lake.  We also indulged in some shopping where I was finally suckered into a leather handbag (Lori bought 2 in Buenos Aires). 

We met the crew for dinner where I dined an a smoked deer pizza.  It was surprisingly tasty and I really must start photographing food for my blog since that´s such a part of my experience here!

I got so caught up with the activities and scenery in Bariloche and the next couple days of travel, that I´ve hardly had time to blog.  But today is a ´day off´from my vacation so I´m catching up on the next few days.  The town of Bariloche is nestled in the Lake District of Argentina.  As you may guess from the name, there are lakes everywhere! 

  The natural beauty and abundance of outdoor activity are what attracted me to the tour that I am on.  I haven´t been disappointed by any of that.  However, I haven't had as many moments of ´wow´as some of my fellow travelers and I believe that is because I am fortunate enough to live in a place where natural beauty is everywhere.  We have it really good in the Pacific Northwest and I look forward to taking advantage of that as the sun starts shining, somewhere around the 4th of July! :) 

During our time in Bariloche, we did an all day hike to Cerro Lopez.  We caught a local bus to the trail head, hiking about 4 hours, then we still had to walk 2 hours to catch the bus back to the center of town where we were staying.  We had a couple near misses with members of the group nearly getting lost!   It was a long day, but I felt like I earned my dinner that included trout, a local specialty.  We fished for rainbow trout with my grandparents as a kid, so this brought back memories as I had forgotten how good it can be.

 In addition to our hike, we tried our hand at kayaking.  This reminded me that I need to get to the gym more!  My arms were tired in the first five minutes.  They finally warmed up and despite the challenge of keeping our boat going straight, it was an enjoyable couple of hours on the lake.

The rest of our time in Bariloche was spent eating and enjoying beers at the local Irish Pub.  I´m sure your shocked that I would enjoy beers while traveling, but I can attest to this being a cultural experience as well.  I learned a new word in spanish - frambuesa (rasberry) - while ordering my girlie rasberry beer.

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´.