Travel With Mel

We just returned from a trip to California.  We spent most of the week at my parent's home in La Quinta and ventured to Orange County for a couple nights in the Newport Beach Fairmont and a day at Disneyland.  Flights to Palm Springs and Ontario were pricey, but Virgin America was advertising some great specials to LAX so we decided to add an hour to our drive and try flying Virgin.

Due to 8 years of consulting and an irrational fear of flying, I really hate to fly.  But I am always thrilled to try something new and looked forward to trying the Virgin experience.  The planes were brand new A319s with an in flight entertainment system in every seat called 'Red'.  Red is similar to Jet Blue's television system and would have been really cool except the sound didn't work in our seats.  The flight attendant told us they were still working out the kinks.  Better luck next time!

What we did find really cool was Red's ordering system for beverages and food.  They did the initial round of cart service and from there, if you wanted another drink, you could order it right from your seat and they'd bring it to you.  It's much nicer than the dings that constantly go off as people confuse the flight attendant call button with the light button and the service is terrific.  I also liked that Virgin America is cashless.  I was a little bummed, however, that we couldn't order champagne to celebrate so we had to toast our engagement with gin and tonics.  (see previous post on engagement!)

I decided to head to Mendoza when my organized tour ended.  I was drawn by the wine (the region produces 70% of Argentina´s wine) but a fellow traveler mentioned she planned to visit Mendoza a few days and stayed a week so I figured it would be the right place to relax.  The bus journey from Santiago is only 7 hours and I read it was beautiful so I decided to bus to Mendoza and fly back to Santiago to catch my flight home.  I was a little nervous about venturing out on my own after the ease of traveling with a guide but managed to purchase my ticket and get myself on the bus without incident.  However, when we came to the border of Chile and Argentina, I got worried.  Then we passed the ´Bienvenidos a Argentina´sign, a guard waved us by and I thought we were free.  Then 20Ks later or so we stopped at this giant covered area.  Some people were getting off the bus but not everyone so I started to panic as I wasn´t sure what to do and I have this huge fear that the bus will leave without me. One other thing about South America is that there is very little English spoken so I felt very lost.  Fortunately, the ´bus attendant´herded us all into the line to do the paperwork to leave Chile and a 2nd line to enter Argentina.  But then I saw people doing something with bags and panic set in again as I imagined doing nothing and my bag being left at the top of the Andes.  Have no fear, the baggage handlers checked bags that were under the bus, and they lined us up and asked us to quickly open our carry on luggage and peeked in.  With that, we were herded back on the bus and on our way to Mendoza and my rucksack made it to the other end!

Even with the minor stress of the bus border crossing, I highly recommend the bus journey between Santiago and Mendoza, even if you have the money to fly.  The bus snakes up into the Andes where you´re among the snowcapped peaks.  There is even a point where a chairlift even crosses the highway (as you can see from my photo through the dirty bus window)!   Coming back down the other side and into Mendoza is also beautiful as vineyards and sunshine surround you.  I hear the pass is closed frequently in winter, however, so that´s something to pay attention to.

I will admit that part of my draw to Argentina and Chile was wine, so I had planned to spend some time at the end of my adventure through the Lake District to enjoy the vineyards in the area.  I convinced a couple fellow travelers to join me on a wine tasting tour and we were not disappointed.  There were five of us with private transport and a slightly crazy tour guide.  (She lived in the US for years though her English was terrible, her laugh was a cackle and she kept giving us useless information like 'there´s the grocery store, you buy groceries there').  Fortunately, she added some entertainment to our tour.  Our first vineyard stop was Conch y Toro, which is the largest exporter of wine in Chile.  We´d been drinking Casillero del Diablo (one of their brands) since arriving in Chile so it was cool to visit the winery and learn the story behind the Devil´s Cellar.  We tasted 2 wines - a Carmeniere (unique to Chile) and a well aged Cabernet Sauvignon.  The contrast of the wines was unique and I was happy to put my tasting skills (found at Whole Foods at a wine tasting class with Richard and Schelley) to the test!

 

After lunch in the area, we set out for the second vineyard.  This was a local, small vineyard that only produces 200,000 bottles of wine/yr.  They don´t sell to stores, only directly to clients.  Everything is done very manually (see the wine press), even the labels are put on by hand.  The owner was from Spain and wine making had been in his family for generations.  His wines were an excellent value.  We tasted an unoaked and oaked chardonnay, a rose (making a comeback!), a light cab made for fish, a bold cab and a muscat.  The experience reminded me of a trip to France´s Loire Valley with my mom and I wish I could have brought home a whole case at $6/bottle.  I bought one but now that we can´t carry wine on the plane, we´ll see how it makes it in my checked luggage.  My rucksack could become a mess of wine.

The day was a nice contrast of a commercial winery with a small, family run business and a good mix of wine.  I look forward to comparing this to Argentine wines. 

 

After a night bus from Pucon (about 11 hours), we arrived in Santiago early Easter morning.  A few of us wanted to go to church, so after a run along the river, we went off to the cathedral for 12:00 mass.  Those of you that know me know that I respect and value my catholic upbringing, but mass isn´t normally a part of my weekly routine.  But since I was in a country that is more than 90% catholic, it was something I wanted to do, especially on Easter. (I am a C&E catholic after all, what would happen if i missed the E?!)   The cathedral was beautiful and the sight and emotion of the day nearly brought tears to my eyes.  Easter has never been a big holiday in my family and I´ve been out of the country for the holiday before, but I think part of the emotion was missing this celebration with loved ones.  In any case, mass flew by even though it was in spanish and we were off to explore the city.

We tried to find a restaurant in Barrio Brasil and while it was closed, we stumbled upon a hidden gem of an area that gave us the feeling we were wandering in Spain.  Plan B was another restaurant nearby known for it´s seafood.  Lunch was such a treat as we had our own private room upstairs and we felt like we sat down to lunch in someone´s home - perfect for a holiday.   My meal was amazing too-tuna over a shrimp risotto.  They say seafood is to Chile what beef is to Argentina and they are right!

I spent the rest of the day wandering the city and exchanging my bus ticket to Mendoza.  I bought it for the wrong day but fortunately was able to change it fairly easily given my lack of Spanish!  We ended the day in Barrio Bellavista in a restaurant that even featured a table made out of a bed.  It was our last night as a group, so much of the gang partied into the wee hours.  I guess I´m getting older (or maybe that night bus got to me) because I made it home by midnight.

All in all, it was a great Easter and a special memory to have spent it in Santiago.

 

 

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.

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!

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!