The Sh*t They Should Have Shown: Argentina and Chile

Ok we admit we watch the Real World/Road Rules Challenge on occasion. There is always a finale clip show with unseen moments that is invariably always funnier than what was on the original episodes show. So here are some photos from Argentina and Chile from our "Sh*t They Should Have Shown."

McDonalds- You have outdone yourself. Tortilla chips on a burger.


What? everyone doesn't have a drunken picture with themselves and a tranny pirate from a club at 4 am?!


"Fast Food" in Buenos Aires.
Ok no matter what Annie said, you get quite bored on 20 hour bus trips.




Cat or small but chubby tiger, unsure.

What? Replica A-Team van on the streets? Thanks to whoever owns this for the gift to me.


Uh oh, if you have seen Annie with these...

You know this is coming out later.
You can't escape Dylan McKay even if you try.

Warning label including a dead friggin baby on all Chilean cigarettes. Otherside had a big "INFARTO!" sticker too.


Ugliest dog in the world? in Chile atleast.
Yes thats a faint picture of the Saints-Vikings NFL opener in the background.

Ok that's all for now. Hope everyone is well!

Where in the World have Annie and Matt been since the last blog post.

Since we last wrote, we have ridden buses for 28 hours, stayed in 4 different hotels/hostels, traveled through 3 cities in 2 different countries, and eaten more mayonnaise than I have eaten over my whole life. Its time to play catchup.

After Bariloche, we hopped on another overnight bus that took us 17 hours north of Patagonia up to the city of Mendoza, the capital of Argentinian wine country. The city itself reminds me alot of both southern California and northern California for different reasons. The streets are wide and lined with sycamore trees, the houses and buildings have a Spanish feel, and there are outdoor cafes everywhere. It can get pretty hot on a spring day but cools off a lot at night, near frost.We spent our 3 days in wine country as we should have - drinking a lot of local wine. We did this both by going on a wine tour which took us into the Uco Valley and by twice visiting a tasting room in town - The Vines of Mendoza. I'll spare you all my wine nerdery and give you the short story: The Malbecs from the Mendoza region are very drinkable and intriguing, the Merlot of surprisingly good, and the Argentine white grape Torrontes, if made well, can beat out my love Gruner Vetliner any day. The views of the mountains from the flatness of the valley are completely stunning and are best appreciated after a lunch of local meats and cheeses and of course a Malbec.

Before leaving Argentina for Chile, we decided to spend a day relaxing at the Cacheuta Hot Springs. The springs, which are perched in a deep narrow valley in the foothills of the Andes, reminded us so much of Palm Springs that we would have forgotten where we were if we haven't had to take an old South American public bus through the mountains to get there. Which is why I love this country. The bus driver stops many times along the way to talk to friends, take policemen from street to street, and to make jokes with the passengers. We had to pause to let a group of horses cross the road and the street dogs would chase the bus when we passed through a town. This was our goodbye to Argentina, which after 6 weeks, has become a home to us. But we'll be back.(especially since we can - we've purchased shockingly expensive entrance visas that are good for 10 years)


CHILE

The pass through the Andes near Mendoza is the best way to get over to Chile. We orginially hadn't planned on going to Chile, but after landing in Argentina and learning more about South America, we realized how easy it is to get there. So we again, boarded a bus, and headed over to the coastal town of Valparaiso. The drive took about 9 hours and took us through the Mendoza desert, the Argentinian foothills, and then to the intimidating snowy peaks of the high Andes. The Chilean border sits right in a valley in between two impressive mountains which oddly are part of the uber-exclusive ski resort Portillo. The road also passes right next to the highest mountain in the Americas, Aconcagua. (approx 22,000 ft). Some of these photos were taken thru a window which had a decal advertisement all over it, hence the weird texture.




Once you cross into Chile, there is a stretch of road that is made up of 16 hairpin turns. I thought that I've seen curves before, I also thought Ive been nervous about driving on ledges before, but this was on a whole other level. The bus drivers here are really great drivers and do this stuff all the time which makes it quite impressive to watch though a little terrifying at the same time.


After the road evened out, the Chilean land was really beautiful. The foothills in Chile are greener than those on the Argentinian side. Its also much more obvious you are in South America on this side since there are houses and villages built into the valleys.



Valparaiso is an old port town built into very steep hills that sit right on the Pacific coast. The city is known for its funiculars that have been taking people up and down the hills since the late 1800s. The buildings are all colorful and are covered in very impressive and artistic graffiti. I was sad we only had 2 days in Valparaiso as I really enjoyed the artistic atmosphere and the San Francisco-like feel.



mmmmmm mayonaiseeeeeee

We are now in Santiago but are leaving on Monday to start the long journey to Greece. (Seriously, its gonna take 3 whole days and will involve 3 planes, a ferry, a couple of trains and some buses) I'm not really sure that I'm ready to leave South America - I have found it to be such a beautiful and comfortable continent. But I do think that my hardworking fleece and jeans could use a little break while we head up for some warmer weather.

Bariloche - a 2fer.

Part 1 - Matt
200 Centimeters of Fun (....no that's the not the name of Ron Jeremy's next movie)

As we pulled into the Bariloche bus station, a light snow was falling. Fantastic news! We are here to snowboard and snow is good! Well...mostly but not initially. Apparently Cerro Catedral the ski resort here doesn't handle snow well. And Catedral received A LOT of it. For 72 straight hours, there was a mix of snow, sleet, and rain falling in the city of Bariloche. What that meant was that there was 72 hours of snow at the mountain which is located 20 kilometers and about 2000 vertical feet above the city. With this much snow, Catedral was essentially closed for the first 3 days we were in Bariloche. Staying in a hostel filled with a large contingent of Australians, and Irish with a smattering of Israelis and Americans all there for a unified purpose: ski or snowboard. The next most popular unifying activity rears its head pretty quickly. Let's just say for a few days there was abundance of board games, card games, chess etc but with each player holding not only their own cards but their own liter(s) of Quilmes or Stella. We also were lucky to arrive on the night of hostel's weekly asado night. As much as it feels a little boring to sit in a random town in Argentina and wait for a mountain to open in the days of a warm NYC summer, endless meat and beer makes time go quickly.

So finally after a few days we get to the mountain. Holy crap was there a lot of snow. 200 Centimeters worth. 200 centimeters, or like 80 inches, or 7 FEET at the top is a ton ton ton. Basically driving up on the first day it looked like a snow bomb exploded in the area. We took the public bus each way after the first trip, but sharing a cab with a local Argentinian mother and son the first day
they commented that it was the most snow they have ever seen on the mountain.

With rented equipment (boo!) we ended up going snowboarding 4 of the next 5 days with the day off spent resting my weary neck, back, hips and legs. Ok, so the views are f8cking ridiculous. There's no other way to describe it. Cerro Catedral is in the Southern Andes mountains and is bordered by the large lake Nahuel Huapi and other mountains. The view from the top is so absurd nearly everyone who reaches the top for the first time, unhooks their skis or board and spends 15 minutes up to taking pictures. Ok I’ll save the unwitty banter for future writings, but share some of the amazing views from this area





Yes you can choose a 5 star restaurant, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find one with this view:

Part 2 - Annie
Off-Piste Shenanigans

One of the cooler things about Cerro Catedral, other than the ridiculous views, is the variety of terrain there is to ride on. There are so many different areas to the resort that after 4 days, we still didnt feel like we saw the whole place. After the storm that came through, there was so much snow that the resort staff needed days and days to dig out all the lifts. Some were never opened by the time we left Bariloche which meant parts of the mountain were nearly impossible to get to. As we were dedicated to getting the most out of our 4 days, we decided to unstrap and hike it to the top of the runs left abandoned by some closed lifts.
We took our place in line hiking along a very narrow ridge that lined the top of a steep bowl, which was made of a few slopes with mixed levels from double black diamonds down to blues. By the time we made it about 1/4 of the way across the ridge, people were stopping to strap into there boards and skis and begin the descent down 1200 feet of the ungroomed powdery bowl. We decided to do the same, but as soon as we were sitting in the snow and ready to go, we realized we had stopped at the top of a like a triple black.

Since the powder was so deep, we decided just to scoot down a little on our butts until we reached a more managedable area. After a while, the steepness evened out into *only* a black diamond and I decided to get up and give myself a chance. With the sweeping views of the lake and the Patagonian Andes in front of me, my not-terrible-but-could-have-been-better rental board on my feet, and the Hartford Tweezer playing in my helmet, I started making some turns through deepest powder on the steepest slope Ive ever traversed.

Im not sure if it was the idea that the only access point for this run was a long strenuous hike, whether it was the challenge of the deep powder, or whether I was just happy to be snowboarding in Argentina, but I think I had possibly the best run of all my snowboarding years. For those who snowboard or ski know, that when you push yourself to do something new or something that seems slightly impossible, and you actually do it, it feels like youve discovered it all over again.
I wished we had had time to do the hike again and ride through the deep snow again, but just having done it once makes me positive that enduring the cold weather to come here for the snow was worth every moment of cold toes.