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.

Patagonia or Bust

Argentina is huge. It takes 40 hours in a bus alone to get from Ushuaia, the southern most point of the country, to Buenos Aires, which isnt even the northern most point of the country(see map below). Since internal air travel is still absurdly expensive, buses have become the main method of travel for pretty much everyone in Argentina. At first when we were figuring out how we wanted to do our South American portion of the trip, the idea of spending so many hours on a bus sounded completely wretched. In fact, I believe there was a lot whining involved.



As I've learned since being here though, bus travel really isnt that bad when its not done in a Greyhound bus with no shocks or on a school bus when your friends stick a pen in your mouth if you sleep with your mouth open. Bus travel here is much more comfortable and enjoyable, since it has become a such an important method of transportation around this ginormous country. Depending on what bus company you decide to ride with, the buses have various levels of seating, ranging from normal bus seats to full out air-travel 1st class bed units. There is a waiter that serves meals, snacks, hot drinks, and adult beverages. You get all of this plus movies and a blanket for an extremely reasonable cost. It also becomes your hotel when you are going on overnight bus routes, which makes it even more affordable for a traveler. Since you cant beat that deal with a stick, the Shustrins will be busing around South America over the next 3 weeks:

Buenos Aires to San Carlos de Bariloche = 19 hours
San Carlos de Bariloche to Mendoza = 17 hours
Mendoza to Valparaiso, Chile = 8 hours
Valparaiso to Santiago, Chile = 2 hours

Our first bus ride.

It was pretty awesome. Bus left at *exactly* 3pm from Retiro bus station in Buenos Aires and pulled in about 45 minutes early to the Bariloche bus terminal. We decided to spring for the full 1st class sleeper units, (since realistically we'll prob never get to find 1st class units on an airplane for less than an arm and a leg) which were super comfy for the 9 hours of sleep we got on the trip.



There was plenty of wine, champagne, whiskey, and mate, which made the trip a bit more fun. The food though, was not the best. Our welcome snack was massive amounts of dulce de leche(aka sugar), and ham and cheese. Dinner was some weird unidentified hot stuff, with some ham and crackers and flan. Breakfast was toast and medialunas(mini croissants)with jam. So basically, ham and sugar. Our waiter must have known the food was bad since he was a serious grumpy bunny. At one point, he reached across both of us, mid conversation, to angrily close our shades. He also feverishly waved his hand in front of our ipod screen when we were watching Jersey Shore Deleted Scenes to get our attention when it was dinner time.


There were personal TV screens too. It seemed exciting upon arrival on the bus, until we learned that our TVs were the only 2 TVs on the whole bus that refused to play more than about 5-15 mins of each movie before freezing and restarting. We saw the beginning of alot of movies but the middle and end of none. Maybe on the next bus they will work, but frankly, it didnt matter in the slightest. Because when we werent talking or eating, or drinking, or sleeping, we were looking at this:

And This:
And This:

Dialogue from passing through the Andes:
Matt: Dude, this is awesome.
Annie: Dude.

So overall, I give the bus trip an A-. It was comfy, it went quickly, and we saw some amazing landscapes. And now, we are in Bariloche in northern Patagonia to snowboard at Cerro Catedral. We'll also hang out in the town and check out El Bolson. Its pretty cold since its winter, but Im ok with that since we'll be on the mountain soon enough.

La Parrilla

Classic Argentinian cuisine consists of a small set of staples, but the most important and most indicative of the country as a whole is the Argentinian grill - la parrilla (pronounced par-i-sha). Though very European, filled with pizzerias and pasta shops, Buenos Aires would not be Buenos Aires without the strong presence of the parrilla. So basically, meat. Lots and lots of meat.

When you sit down for a meal at a parrilla, the first thing to notice is the menu. In general, the main course section is a list of cuts of beef with a few chicken and pork choices thrown in. There is a long list of sides and usually salads (which are mostly create-your-own) and starters. There are many choices within these categories, but not much else outside them. When ordering a meal, one should also know that one order of meat is generally enough for an eater like me and an eater like my husband. Parrillas also run the gamut on niceness - some are 5-star affairs which require nicer clothes than anything that fit in my backpack for this trip and some are stands where you pour on chimichurri from a squeeze bottle and sit on the riverwalk. We've been to a bunch of different ones and they all have there own unique flavor of Argentina.

Over the last few weeks, we've figured out that a starter, a choice of meat, a side, a salad, and a bottle of wine is just fine for a meal where you are full but not in need of a taxi to get home. And what self-respecting Argentinian would even dare to leave a meal like this without a dessert (not Jorge).

I don't know if Ive had such good steak as I've had in Buenos Aires. Below is a list of our favorite parrillas we've been to so far.

T-Bone
Malabia and Santa Fe, Palermo

The steak we had at T-Bone was probably the most tender of all. It was cooked to medium, which is a hard goal to hit in Argentina as it seems most people like their meat much more well done than this. We also had a huge plate of fried potatoes and a provoleta, which is a small wheel of provolone cheese thats been baked with salt and served warm and gooey. The whole meal, wine included, was about USD$45.


Su Parrillon
Costanera in Puerto Madero

In general, I'm not a huge fan of eating street meat, but I decided to throw caution to the wind when we walked along the river in Puerto Madero (the really new modern section of BA on the river, lots of highrises). There were at least 20 different outdoor cafes, all serving similar style meats on the grill, drinks, and toppings. For just USD$7 total, we each had churrasquito (thinly sliced sirloin) and a pear soda. The sandwiches were gigantic, fresh, delicious, and slathered with chimichurri and pickled onions.


El Palacio de la Papa Frita
La Valle

This was actually the first meal we had after arriving in Buenos Aires. Our friend Jorge took us here as a welcome meal as they are well known for their papas souffle, which are cold thin cut potatoes flash fried in super hot oil until they puff up like pillows of air. They were a nice treat, especially since fried potatoes are like crack for me. This was also my introduction to real Argentinian chimichurri - made of parsley, vinegar, garlic, oregano, crushed red pepper, salt, and olive oil. Its so much better than ketchup. Who knew.


El Estrebe
Pena and Pueyrredon, Recoleta

We came here for lunch one day since it was a national holiday and everything was closed but restaurants. The thing that stood out to us about this meal was not only the amount of filet we were served as supposedly a single portion (both of us couldn't finish our halves), but how good the sides were. Instead of the standard salad and fried potato route, we indulged on a baked onion stuffed with ham, tomato, and cheese, and fluffy mashed potatoes. I was skeptical at first about the onion but seriously, it was awesome. I mean really, whats to dislike about onion, ham, and cheese.


and drumroll please....of course I've saved the best for last....

Don Julio
Gurruchaga and Guatemala, Palermo

This has been, by far, our most favorite restaurant in Buenos Aires. It is only a block from our apartment so we have no problem getting so full that both of us need to crawl home. We've been twice already and plan to go back once more before we leave for Bariloche.

And before I explain the food, just know even Matt said "Wow, this is awesome." So thats saying something.

The steak has been the most flavorful out of all that we've had. The salads are fresh and healthful and the chimichurri is spicy without overpowering the herbacious flavors. We've gotten the same wine both times as it is the most impressive bottle we've met thus far.(Its imported to the US, I HIGHLY recommend trying it)

For Aaron and everyone else who is curious, this is the wine:
Aguijon de Abeja

All for under $55 (seriously, i attached proof), we got: an enormous amount of skirt steak, a fresh green salad, warm fresh bread, chorizo with sun dried tomatoes, fried potatoes, a bottle of the awesome wine, flan, and a glass of malamado, Argentina's port-style dessert wine.



aaand proof. FYI, $4 pesos = USD$1