Awesome Argentina and Mendoza

Arrived hot and sweaty after a very long flight from San Francisco. Grabbed a taxi to the hotel with our ton of luggage however we had to hang out in the lobby for a couple of hours as we could not get a room assignment until 3:00PM. Because we were going to Patagonia and the Falklands we needed some warm clothes however BA was perfect for shorts. The Kepenski (Park) is an old elegent hotel that was perfect for the 4 days we allocated to see BA. It is set on a side street so it was reasonably quiet. The only negitive was that the air conditioner was rather anemic and difficult to operate, butr alas we figured it out and all was well.

We are wet with sweat rather than rain due to the heat/humidity! It is our 2nd day and we took a city tour of BA this morning. Met some terrific young folks who just finished a 4 month work stint on the Princess Cruise - the same one we will be taking so we milked them for the "must sees"! Tomorrow we go to Colonia which is in Uruguay. We take a 50 min hydrofoil and spend the day--lots of shopping and museums, etc. The following day we have booked an excursion to an Estancia (ranch) which will feed Stanley BEEF and who knows what for Vegan Jean. We see a gaucho show, tango, and the pampas a few hrs outside BA.

This is a country of demonstrations, This morning we saw 2. We thought they were using guns at first but the loud "pops" turned out to be fireworks. The tourist bus drivers were pissed off that they had such low wages. It seems that the govt does not have good control on inflation even to the point the it raided and emptied the Social Security funds of the retirees. Next we saw some street Tango--pretty cool! And old man and a hot young babe were dancing very sensually and risqué. Saw some slums, the immigrant areas (Italians, Spanish, Jews, Pollacks, Germans) and the huge soccer stadium. Saw Evita's stuff and San Martin (liberator of Argentina). Visited the rich and famous areas as well! Had a fabulous Torrontes (Argentinean white grape) last night with dinner at a local eatery. So flowery and delectable like honeysuckle but not sweet. If the winos in the US every catch on to this grape they will make mucho. Ah, life is good!!! Took the hydrofoil from BA to Colonia to spend the day here. It crosses the river Platt (the second widest river in South America) that is very shallow, brown and muddy. The locals say it is not polluted but who knows as this region of the world is not known for its environmental sensitivity. The hydrofoil ride took about one hour as Colonia is about 80 miles across the river. The sky was dark and it looks like rain, but we are troopers and a little rain actually feels good. This is a very old town but has become a weekend retreat for locals from BA and Montevideo. The old part of town is just that, “old” and we cannot believe the number of dogs that are wandering around the town. We had a very pleasant walk around the town and then found a nice little restaurant to have lunch This was a good thing as the sky opened up and we had a massive thunder – lightning rainstorm for a couple of hours. It was a small restaurant with excellent food and they let us and a couple of other tables hang out during the rain. We finally caught a break in the rain and walked back to the ferry dock. This was an interesting side trip but $120 a pop was not worth the money!

Today we visited Tierra del Fuego National Park with a different private guide. It is named fuego not because of volcanoes which is what we had thought, but because the native inhabitants built so many fires to keep themselves warm as they wore no clothing. The European settlers saw all the smoke from their boats, didn't see the people, and named it land of fires (almost called it land of smoke). Nowadays the air is so clean it could be bottled--in fact our guide told us that a visitor from Mexico City (smog heaven)on a different day asked the guide for a bottle of pollution because he was in withdrawal in such a pristine place! We canoed on a river that flowed into Beagle Channel and saw incredible sites. We took the canoe out at a point which was the end of the pan-American highway (starts in Alaska). Although we were the only ones in the river and channel, there were many tour groups at the take out point, including the Princess cruise ship which we will be taking on 3/6! We then had a catered lunch (many appetizers, bass, baked potato, fruit, vino, etc). Followed that up with a 4 hr hike of the fuego forest and coast side of the channel. Very lovely scenery as they do not clear the trees but rather let them decompose on their own so the place is extremely lush. It takes 500 yrs for a tree to rot because of the long cold season and no termites.

The first night we had a private dinner in a club, opened just for us. The wife cooked all the courses which were organic, fresh from the sea, butcher or garden. They are known for their haddock and actually have an annual haddock festival. Jean had a special vege dish and Stan the haddock served 2 ways. The vinos were syrah (jean) and a chardonnay-semillion (stan). These folks also make their own liquors out of local produce. We had a cherry one and a Calafate (local bush fruit like a very small blueberry). This was by far the most flavorful and best dinner we have experienced in Argentina yet—fresh and very yummy and we had the entire restaurant to ourselves.

Back at the ranch, we will have our final dinner and toast Patagonia and our private tours farewell. Stan arranged this land segment called “Awesome Argentina”, and indeed it exceeded all our expectations. Tomorrow will be our 7th flight (which is a pain due to the security stuff and standing around time). We head back to BA in order to pick up a 12 day cruise on Thursday which “sails” to Montevideo, around Cape Horn and the Maldives (Falklands if you are British but the Argentines do not recognize it).