Thursday, August 30, 2007
The Premature End
Iguazu
Iguazu Falls
BEAUTIFUL FALLS. We hired a tour guide and had a nice and intelligent guide, Lucas who showed us around the falls. We expected to have other people on the tour with us, but being slow season, we had a private tour! Very nice! We learned a lot about the falls and Iguazu as well. It was well worth the money for the guide. See pics, I can’t explain enough how much we enjoyed ourselves. The only bad thing about Iguazu is the town itself. They really stick it to the tourist. We were charged 4 pesos for a 1.5 liter of water at the local Kiosco and it is always less than 2 pesos in the stores everywhere else in Argentina. Oh well, we were only there for a few days. Our hotel was nice and Payton played in the pool with me. Jen no longer has a bathing suit. Her bikini bottom became merely a see through piece of fabric, so she threw it away. I thought she just wanted to fit in with the locals…
Back to Buenos Aires
Back to Buenos Aires
Back to Buenos Aires staying on the same street as our last apartment, but a few blocks away. We are actually 6 blocks away and now we are in the heart of strip joint central. We have at least 7-8 cabaret establishments within rocks throw away from our apartment. Our apartment isn’t the best, but it will work for the next 7 days, 3 of which we will be at the Iguazu Falls. We are also 100 yards from the Hard Rock Café. We were initially excited about this, however, after one quick dinner at the restaurant we soon realized that we will not be eating there anymore. Overpriced and under flavored. They don’t even have ranch dressing for their “ranck chicken salad.”. I thought Jen was going to lose it…
We took care of all of our car selling paperwork the following day in a matter of 3 hours. Not bad for a couple of non Spanish speaking Americans. We were told it would take us two to three days to complete the process. We called the buyer of our car that night and arranged to sell the car on Wednesday. In addition, we are trying to figure out how to bring the Thule back to the states or sell it. After finding out how much it was going to cost to send it back, 800 USD (more than we paid for the Thule) we decided to sell it and take a loss.
The best news so far, is that I was able to talk to an American Delta airlines customer service agent who sympathized with us regarding the huge misinformation we received when we purchased our tickets prior to coming to BsAs. Originally, we had been told that we were able to purchase a 90 day ticket and could stay longer in Argentina if we wanted to. All we would have to do is pay 100 USD for a change fee and pay the difference in the price of a ticket, which we were told was roughly 300-500 USD. That sounded good at the time so we booked the tickets. Well, when it became time to purchase our return tickets, since we no longer have a car and Payton is really searching for structure and stability, guess what, Delta wanted 4000 USD per person for the flight since we were beyond three months and a 1 year ticket was roughly 5000 USD. It was cheaper to purchase another round trip ticket for 1100 USD and only fly the one-way leg of the trip. I called the South American Delta call center and was on the phone for roughly 1 hour before being transferred to the States. After being on the phone for Payton’s entire nap (2 hours) we finally ended up paying only 300 USD, not per person, for all of us! Our experience with Delta was great from the US to Argentina and even though we had some problems with the details of our return ticket they definitely came through and straightened things out for us. We are happy with Delta.
La Cumbre
La Cumbre & Merlo
We left Salta and drove down to La Cumbre. La Cumbre lies on the western slopes of the Sierras of Cordoba. I wish we could have stayed at least 1-2 weeks here. It is a beautiful mountainside town with great restaurants and plenty of activities for all. Unfortunately, we were only here for a night and one run in the morning before heading south on our trip toward Buenos Aires.
After leaving La Cumbre, we headed towards the National Park of the Condors. Unfortunately, after driving up a very steep mountain, no condors were to be seen. Therefore, we drove down the other side of the mountain which was equally steep and finally landed in the valley before reaching our destination town of Merlo.
Merlo is a quaint “microclimate” town approximately 6 hours from Buenos Aires. It lies on the hillside of the Southern Sierras of Cordoba. It is a very nice tourist town with friendly people. We stayed at the Howard Johnson and Payton enjoyed the indoor heated pool tremendously. Many things to do here, unfortunately, not enough time…We are in a hurry to get to Buenos Aires to sell our car.
Salta
Salta
Salta. Every guidebook and everyone from Argentina raves about Salta. It definitely is a unique town compared to the rest of Argentina, but it also has many similarities. This town is beautiful in its own right; with many historical buildings and friendly people. However, if you’re not in the town square it becomes a little run down and dingy. The hotels in town are over priced and at best are a couple of “stars” below their current ratings. We decided to leave the city and head 11km west to a beautiful town called Villa San Lorenzo. This place was amazing! It has its own microclimate which allows for the town to be green and cooler than Salta all year. The people in Villa San Lorenzo are extremely nice and our hotel was perfect for us, Las Moras. There is a nature reserve a few kilometers from town as well as a city park that follows a river upstream to the top of the mountain. We went on a hike in that area and unfortunately we didn’t make it to the top on the day of our hike, but it was beautiful. If anyone is in the area, they should also either stay at or checkout El Castillo hotel and restaurant. An American by the name of John Johnston owns this particular hotel and he moved to Argentina 28 years ago. He married a Saltean and had two children. He has a very interesting story and is starting to write his memoirs now. The food at the El Castillo was amazing and the grounds were beautiful as well. The mountain biking was pretty good, however, in the future, I think I would have liked a guide. Oh well. I almost forgot one thing. The food in Salta is unlike anything in Argentina. They use spices in their food. We had the best picante salsa that could rival any great Mexican restaurant in the states.
On the second day here we contacted Roberto (from El Calfate) regarding his interest in purchasing our car. Initially he informed us that he wanted the car at the end of June, however, that quickly changed, and he told us he wanted it the following week in Buenos Aires. Oh shit! We are literally 20 hours by car away from Buenos Aires. We decided to stay one more night in San Lorenzo and drive up to Catamarca, where they have artesianal goods from Bolivia. The goods are imported into Argentina and then sold as “Artesianal goods made in Argentina” after putting an Argentine flag on the products. Pretty funny! Sounds like what Americans do with products made in China, but sold as American made after a simple addition or modification of the product. We found some beautiful blankets and clothes however we have an extremely tight weight allowance for our flight home as well as limited space so we passed on any purchases.
Tafil del Ville
Tafil del Valle
Our drive from La Rioja to Tafil del Valle was interesting and beautiful. Interesting in the fact that we had been hearing a strange squeaking noise for more than 5 miles before we realized that the noise was coming from our bike rack, which had a busted strap and was only attached to the car by one upper strap. Apparently, one of the bikes handlebars had applied enough friction to cause the strap to rip. We were able to fix the bike rack and continue on. The drive was beautiful in the fact that we went through beautiful agriculture areas and we drove through a canyon with its own microclimate, which was like being in the tropics. We drove out of the canyon to be utterly surprised with the vast desert landscape that lay before us. The hotel we stayed at was very nice, but expensive. The town reminded me of Yreka, CA. No vegetation, minimal rocks, and dry grass. The town was quaint, but fairly boring.
We left the next day for a hairpin drive down the mountain toward the Quilmes ruins. Difficult to explain, see photos…It was very intriguing how these pre-Columbian tribes lived. After our short visit we left for Salta.
Villa Union
Ville Union
Left Barreal and had a beautiful drive with some red painted mountains and amazing desert views. Part of this trip allowed us to drive on a dirt/gravel road for nearly 4 hours without seeing more than 2 other cars. We were lucky we didn’t have any complications. We kept seeing signs for a radio station used for people in need of help, however, after driving by this particular location it looked like someone decided they needed the equipment more than anybody else. Let’s say this road was so dirty/dusty that we lost our brakes for a short period of time. Luckily no big hills!
We stayed at a beautiful hotel just outside of National Parque Ischilguista. This place is famous for its red rock canyons and native petrogleyths. In the guidebook they said this place resembled Bryce canyon in Utah. The National Parque actually outsourced (even in Argentina) the tourism, which translated into one company performing tours inside the park. It is required to take a bus tour in the park and to leave your own vehicle. This is the only way to see the park. Very frustrating for us because having Payton on a crowded tour bus isn’t fun for her or us. All in all it worked out for everyone. There were some beautiful sites, however, this place was greatly over exaggerated in the brochures and guidebook. I’ve never been to Bryce Canyon, but from the pictures and people I’ve actually talked to that have visited Bryce Canyon, Bryce has amazing slot canyons and Ischilguista did not.
After visiting the first park we left and drove to the second park in the area at Valle de Luna (valley of the moon). We had been told that we should see both national parks, that they were very different from each other and both were amazing. Well once again…It was pretty, however, after being at the first park (which was better) we could have passed on this one. The only nice thing about this park was that we were able to bring our car inside the park. It was a driving tour and the only stipulation was that you had to be lead by a national park personnel who rides in the lead car then gets out at designated spots and speaks about the interesting rock formations and history of the land etc. Nearly 2/3 of the way into the tour we saw some other Americans who with with their own Argentine paid guide drive away and leave the national park ranger. We decided that we wanted to do the same, so we left too. No problems. Only in Argentina.
We drove to La Rioja that night and found it to be a Shit hole! We stayed in a 5 star hotel for 100 USD which was really nice and had some amazing food.
Barreal
Barreal
We left Mendoza after spending almost the entire morning with our friends across the street, our landlords and their family. We were excited to go, but Payton seemed to want to stay. She had also made some great friends. To drive to Barreal we had two routes to chose from and the one we picked seemed like the best option. This is what is was: Drive 1 hour south and then drive west climbing nearly 7500 ft to peak well over 10,000 ft on a seasonal road. Doesn’t sound bad, right?! Well, let’s say that this seasonal road is a creek/river bed that is etched across the mountain canyons with formed ice and sand pits throughout the road. It would be a great 4x4 adventure. However in the Kangoo driving in 1st gear for a portion of the way and not knowing if we would make some of the inclines was a little nerve racking.
We arrived in Barreal, (which is famous far its car sailing on perfect sand flats) upbeat and ready to have a wonderful stay. The westerly view from this tiny (1000 population) town is amazing with snow capped Andes mountains as far as the eye can see. We arrived at our destination hotel, only to be astonished (really an understatement)!!! There was no availability at the hotel in this small town. We initially laughed because this has never happened to us before and since there were no cars in the parking lot, we were mystified. We thought we were being rejected because of our nationality. We left this particular posada (which was written up in many magazines and newspapers including the LA times) for the second best hotel in town. Let me remind you, this is a very small town. We were once again surprised to find out that they also had no availability. What was going on you ask… Apparently, there was a motorcycle expedition that booked the only nice hotels in town for this particular week. We ended up at a hostel, Jen said this is “as low as she goes” for accommodations. None of us walked around barefoot and I was the only one that showered. It was a place to stay and it included homemade toast for breakfast and coffee cooked the old fashion way (aluminum pot on a wood burning stove). Yippie Kiah!
There is only one restaurant in this town that is worth eating at, so we were told, and we showed up at opening hour only to find out that it was reserved for the night. By this time we were pissed. The motorcycle group took our nice Posada we wanted and the second hotel and now they are taking food from us. I DON’T THINK SO. After a lengthy, but nice conversation with the owners in Spanglish we came up with the important information of the reservation being at 10:00pm. Since it was 8:00pm we simply sat down and told them that we would be in bed by 10:00pm and that we would like to order. The owner/waitress laughed and started serving us German beer.
After all this amazing fun, we find out that it was the wrong time of year for car sailing. Basically, our trip here was a big out of the way MISTAKE!
Mendoza II
Mendoza II
I know it’s taking a while for us to publish things to the blog, but that’s the way things work on vacation. Different priorities and situations arise all the time. For instance, this week our focus was on crime and President Kirshner’s (Argentina’s president) visit to Mendoza. The city was virtually in lockdown around the outside amphitheater that Kirschner was speaking at. He actually had 35,000 Porteno’s (Buenos Aires residents) flown/bused to Mendoza in order for him to appear to have supporters within the area. Apparently, from what we were told, Kirshner is not well liked in this city. After his lengthy speech (elections are in 6 months) he informed Mendoza that the city was going to be a focal point for better police control and support. Typical politics at its best!!! Why do I mention crime? Well, simply put, our car was broken into in front of our “safe” neighborhood apartment in the middle of the day. Very interesting that there were not any witnesses. They took our stereo, (piece of shit, not worth more than 50 USD) Payton’s backpack (filled with diapers, food/snacks, medicine, hat, gloves, blankey, sunglasses), IPOD, first-aid kit with my new stethoscope and worst of all, our Chariot. Oh, I forgot, they broke the passenger side window to get into the car. All I can say is that they are lucky we didn’t find them. The following day I went to have our window replaced and asked the very nice salesperson from MH parabrisas where local thieves sell stolen goods. I got directions and later in the day our neighbor and I went to this shady place to find the chariot. Needless to say, it wasn’t there. However, this place was very interesting. Everything at this particular location (5 or more acres) was items that were stolen. The most abundant items were fruits and vegetables. I was astonished. Who steals fruits and vegetables? Apparently it’s a lucrative business. The second largest stolen item was baby diapers. A pack of 48 Huggies diapers for 3 USD? SOLD!!! Walking around this place was sketchy. I can’t tell you how many strange/peculiar looks I received. Is it the hair, or the fact that I’m 6’1” tall and white?
Two days later at the ultra safe park down the street from our apartment we witnessed a robbery 25 ft from the park Payton was playing at. We decided to leave the city the following week. We occupied our time with visiting a few more wineries and experienced a traditional asado (BBQ) with our neighbors. A traditional asado with Argentine’s is an experience everyone should have. We must have eaten over a period of 3-4 hours and talked and drank. Payton loved it more than us. She fell in love with the daughters of the hosts, also our landlords, and the also adored Payton. We will truly miss them all. We felt like we had made some great friends!
What about biking? I went to this awesome area north of Parque San Martin, however, after riding for a little over an hour by myself I came across a few bikers who informed me that I was being watched by people above the canyons. The bikers stated that the observers would stop me at gunpoint and take my bike and valuables. Needless to say I rode out of the park with the other bikers. We planned on meeting at the park the following Tuesday for another ride, however, that didn’t work out. Temperatures had dropped to the low 20-30’s with a wind chill and with a shortage of gas in the area we decided to leave the following day. When I say the shortage of gas, I mean natural gas. With the extremely cold temperatures there was an abundance of people using gas to heat their homes and our hot water heater wasn’t receiving enough gas to keep the pilot light lit.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Mendoza
Mendoza
If wasn’t for the pre-Columbian irrigation canals receiving water from the Andes mountains, Mendoza would probably not be in existence. Mendoza is literally a “desert oasis.” There are approximately 130,000 people within the city limits and an additional 850,000 if you include all the different towns and barrios surrounding Mendoza. I include this information because Mendoza has a small city feel. Why are we in Mendoza? Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina. There are roughly 1000 wineries in the Mendoza Province. Our plan
is to visit two wineries per day, three days a week. Adjacent to the right is a pic of another protest happening in Argentina. We stayed back a little. The protest was regarding BUSH.
We arrived in Mendoza on May 8th and we stayed at the Argentino Hotel across from Plaza Independecia and the Park
Hyatt (listed in the top 100 hotels in the World by Travel&Leisure). There are so many Americans here! It’s refreshing to talk with other Americans and gives us a break from the Spanish language. Mendoza is a small city; across from our hotel we parked right next to a guy who we met in El Chalten, (he is from Seattle and also sold his house and quit his job and drove down to South America). We actually met a couple from Portland at our hotel. Our first Oregonians! Additionally, we met a couple from the Southern U.S. who have been living outside Buenos Aires with their 1.5 year old boy since
January and our now touring Argentina before leaving in 3 weeks. Very nice family. Payton enjoyed playing with their boy, Matheus, at the park across the street from the hotel and we enjoyed drinking wine and vodka tonics together prior to them leaving.
After a couple of days looking for an affordable, long-term apartment we decided to stay in a small suburb outside of Mendoza city, Godoy Cruz. There is definitely a business opportunity and need for someone to have furnished rentals online. We only say 3 different websites with rentals and 2 of the 3 only offered one rental (they were both the owners of the apartment). We are paying 700 USD for a two bedroom 1 bath apartment with secured parking. The only downfall, no internet. Oh well. We will be here for 1 month then get another house outside the city that’s larger and has a big yard.
After being here one week we have experienced some great food and wine. We will compile a list of our favorite wineries at the end of our time in Mendoza. However, we have been to 4 different wineries and one gourmet wine & cheese tasting and have concluded that we will be having a good time here. The only downfall with Mendoza is the minimal mountain bike opportunities. I’ll have to go to a tour company for some ideas.
We visited the local aquarium and reptile museum. Wow! The aquarium looks like it’s part of a local freak show. It’s old and dirty with skeletons, stuffed fish (with eyes and skin falling off and small aquariums with too many fish inside of them. Across the street from the aquarium is a reptile museum. We found that there are a lot of snakes in Argentina; especially in the North. Makes the whole idea of biking alone in the desert a little more exciting.
Later in the week we visited the local zoo, to our surprise we really enjoyed ourselves. We first started walking up a cement path and came across some monkeys (not in cages) grabbing garbage out of the garbage can (one monkey was attempting to drink Coke from a bottle). To our amazement there were 10-15 monkeys in the trees above us jumping from tree to tree. Luckily, no poop was flung at us. Payton loved watching the monkeys and she was thrilled to see the monkey in the garbage can since she still has a fascination with garbage and garbage cans. We continued our adventures and came across some amazing animals. We have never seen zoo animals so animated before. Payton loved watching the animals peeing and pooping. She even fed a Zebra. One of the big differences between the U.S. and here is that you are able to get so close to the animals. Literally we were 6 or less feet away from a Bengal tiger and a
lion. Additionally, the lion pen was designed to protect animals from leaving, but not from people from entering or tossing different trash and animals in the pen. We also saw a mountain lion couple attempt to fornicate. The female lion was moaning/yelling very loud and Payton was a little uncomfortable and asking a lot of questions. I don’t think Jen and I are ready to start talking about reproduction yet, Jen attempted but Payton was confused.
We drove to the Argentina-Chile border yesterday. Snow is
starting to accumulate on the mountains and on the roadside. We visited Punta del Inca (an abandoned hot springs resort on the side of a mountain overlooking the river 10 meters below). The yellow/orange colors of the structure are from the sulfur in the water. We also did a short hike to take some pictures of Cerro Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Western
Hemisphere. I was supposed to climb this in December, however, that will not be
happening now. We took the pictures of Aconcagua at an elevation over 10,000 feet. These mountains are big! We drove through Upsallata, where Brad Pitt’s film ‘Tibet’ was filmed because it was very similar to the picturesque terrain of India.
Monday, May 7, 2007
San Rafael
We reached San Rafael late at night. Stayed in an overpriced American style hotel/casino suite. If it weren’t for the lack of alcohol in my body, I would have went down to the Casino and gambled a little bit. Due to the price, we left that morning for another hotel. El Jardin reminds me of Melrose Place. (see above) I guess I’m dating myself now. If you’re not in your late twenties or thirties, you probably will have no idea what I’m talking about. Melrose Place was basically a teenager/young adult soap opera. Needless to say, this place has a little less amenities that the casino/hotel offered. But 1/3 price.
San Rafael is a bike friendly town. I haven’t seen this many people ride bikes since we left Chico. Aah CHICO!!! That brings back good memories…Maple and Popular lined streets make this a attractive town if your able to look pass the typical bars on the windows. However, I do find this city to have more attractive buildings than others. Per capita, it appears that the whole downtown and surrounding areas are older 1900 classic style Argentine building. Much more here and obvious than Buenos Aires.
There are 80 bodegas around here. We don’t plan on visiting all of them, but a few of them are within biking distance. We will buy a bike for Jen with a baby carrier. (I guess Payton isn’t a baby any longer, but like my parents tell me, I will always be there baby!) Some of these bodegas are still manually grinding the grapes!
There is tremendous investment potential down here, especially it terms of bodegas and real estate. It appears that North Americans are openly accepted here. There was an article in a new tourist pamphlet that intereviewed recent Oregonian’s, in their 60’s, who moved down here to retire and live. From the interview, it appears that they like San Rafael and plan to stay.
On our winery tour we met two guys from Seattle and three girls from McCall, Idaho. Really
nice people. Instead of the tour, we talked for 30 minutes before the winery closed. It appears the guys, including myself, are in agreement that we would all stay here longer, however, the girls on agreement that they are homesick and miss a lot of the things we all take for granted back in the U.S. It was good for Jen to meet these girls, not only for emotional support, but someone else to confide into…Payton appears to be liking boys now. She kept on asking Jen what the boys names were. She appeared to be fascinated with them. I don’t know if I can handle Payton be curious about boys yet. She should be saying “Yuck!” I guess I will have to work on that. Number one goal! “Boys are Yucky!!!
Here is a photo of a passenger barge touring a reservoir near San Rafael. Look at the front of the boat. It was taking water the whole time. I was a little nervous for them!
Neuquen
Neuquen
It’s an ugly town. There really isn’t anything here, except the notoriety of being the business hub of northern Patagonia (Neuquen province). One thing that this town has going for it is the fact they have the largest carnivore and herbivore dinosaur remains in the world. We visited an actual current archeological dig site a few kilometers from town. It was very interesting and Payton was interested for the first 20 minutes before thinking the small rocks on the ground were more valuable and important than the dinosaur bones that were bigger than me in length. Oh well! We had a good time. In addition, almost the entire tour was in Spanish. We understood 30-40%. Which is huge for us! We visited a wonderful bodega after our paleontology
tour, Schroeder Bodega. We had a 5 star lunch at the restaurant. It was by far the best food we have had so far in Argentina. The
wine was very good as well.
Afterwards we spent 6 hours driving to San Rafael and ended up arriving in town late in the evening (9:00pm). We splurged for the suite at a nice and expensive hotel, only so we could get a room quickly in order to get Payton to bed. After parking, checking in and setting up the room it was 10:45 before her head hit the pillow. We decided to find a different hotel the next morning so we could get 
back on track with our budget. We found a cute place that looks like Melrose Place hotel…
Chile
We finally decided to leave for Chile. This time we rented a Volkswagon Gol. Not Golf, but Gol. It basically looks like a newer version of the Volkswagon Golf. Do they still make those in the U.S.? We had to downsize to two bags to fit into such a small vehicle. Most of you probably didn’t think that would be possible, but we did it.
Chileans are all about paperwork and they are very thorough. They double checked all of our documents, our luggage and our vehicle before allowing us to enter and leave the country. For a quick moment I felt like I was an incognito double agent attempting to steal vital information from Argentina and take the information over the border. My day dream quickly ended when I thought about the possibility of a cavity search…
We found Chili to be beautiful. We saw many waterfalls, an abundance of trees and lush greenery everywhere with a few volcano's (look hard at the pic top left) I didn’t realize how much of Chile's land is used for agriculture. We also found Chile to be very clean. We drove for a significant distance before seeing any trash on the side of the road and we actually viewed, what appeared to be, an entire classroom of children picking up trash on the side of the road. They had on latex gloves and were also wearing surgical masks. It was a little over kill with the masks, but hey, what a great idea to get the kids involved in cleaning up the environment!
The first town on our list to see in Chile was the small town of Frutillar. After arriving at the
town we decided that it must only be open during the summer because the town appeared closed. The information office was closed, the hotels we stopped at were closed and even the restaurants appeared to be empty. We decided to continue on and not spend anymore tine in this cute, but deserted town and head to the second town on our list. We drove a shprt distance 
to Puerto Octay, where Ryan and Laurie Ness stayed at the hostel Zapata Amarillo (Yellow Shoe). Ryan and Laurie wrote about this hostel in their blog and they recommended it highly. If a friend recommends a place, you have to check it out. We arrived at the Swiss family run hostel and found the setting to be beautiful and the owners to be very nice. Also, to our benefit, we were the only guests at that time so we had the place to ourselves, except of course for the owners and their two children who live in the house. The best thing about the hostel is that it is very environmentally conscious. Ten years ago they started construction on the main house, which has a grass roof. The owner, Nadia, stated that they received a lot of peculiar looks and questions when they first built the roof. The most exciting thing for me, was the fact that they recently completed an additional building which was built with straw insulation. According to Nadia this was the first time a straw house has been built in the region. I like this idea, due to the fact that if we ever build again I would like to do something like this in the U.S. Within the last few years in Bend, OR there have been a few of these homes being built. Nadia stated that due to the weather in the region, it was an experimental house for the next 3 years. As long as there is no mold or mice, they will build more…I think you could say that they live a carbon negative lifestyle.
We received great recommendations from Nadia about where to go after leaving Puerto Octay, she helped us plan the rest of our trip in Chile. We left Puerto Octay headed for Valdivia. I think it’s a struggling town trying to find an identity and at the same time deal with its growing population. We went to the local Brewery The beer was awesome and it was true Bavarian beer. However, it was not served in Bavarian style. Most importantly, there were no breasts on the verge of popping out from the confines of their blouse, nor liter sized glasses. Payton loved the brewery the most, they had a playhouse at the side of the building and she played there for over an hour. The food
was good and HUGE!!!. We took a picture to prove it. The sandwich was 7 USD and I think this was the cheapest food we had in Chile. Chile is NOT inexpensive compared to Argentina. Why? I do not really know. From there we drove to a spanish fortress
Later that day we drove to a great secluded and quiet beach town called Mehuin. Initially upon
entering this cove we were a little
leery of the hotel we may be staying in. However, the Swiss/German/Chilean owner, world-renowned Skat player (bridge), had a wonderful hotel/restaurant. This was the only hotel in town. We walked on the beach and picked up sea shells till dusk and started looking for more first thing the next morning.
We left Mehuin for Pucon. The drive was uneventful except for the many tolls we had to pay on 
the way. We entered Pucon hopeful and excited. We drove to a few 3 & 4 star hotels and quickly decided that Argentina has better quality hotels for the price and their condition. We ended up staying at the Villarica Park Lake Hotel. A five star hotel right on the Lake. The General
Manager, Mr. Fleming (forgot his first name) is an Australian who has been in Chile for 9 years. Very nice and friendly gentlemen who made our stay very enjoyable. This hotel is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 
BY US. It truly has five star amenities at 3-4 star prices, by US standards at $190USD/night. Very expensive for us, but worth every penny, especially to our surprise when they had an American buffet breakfast. I think Jen and I gained a few pounds. Payton loved having bacon everyday. Pic to the right is at the indoor pool, they made us wear these shower caps for sanitary reasons. I
climbed Volcano Villarica and once again, not big on the tours, but I didn’t have crampons nor an
axe and I was told that a guide was necessary. So I payed the money and sucked it up and went with a guide. My group reached the base of the Volcano, which is also a ski resort during the winter, and we were quickly informed that we could save an hour of the hike if we take the ski lift up for an additional 10USD. Not surprised here. A few of us (including three other Americans) decided to save the 10 USD and walk. It wasn’t an additional hour, it was 30-40 minutes. I think the 21 year old Americans were surprised when I started talking about 
our trip and experiences. Needless to say, they pooped out and I left them and continued on for the top of the ski lift. I was 20-30
minutes ahead of them, the guide at the top of the lift stated I could continue ahead on my own and catch up to the other group 20 minutes ahead of me if I wanted. HELL YEAH! I reached them in 10 minutes and started the slow turtlish pace up the mountain. After 20 minutes of climbing with the group I decided to check my pulse. 85 bpm. Do you think this is sub aerobic…Another reason not to be with a group. Worst of all, my IPOD battery was dead (even though I charged it the day before) and the camera was acting up.
A couple hundred yards from the top a few of the girls were having difficulty, the guide said I could go ahead by myself. Thank god! I reached the top in no time at all. The winds were BLOWING! The winds were well over 100mph. I ran for cover before being blown into the opening of the volcano. Luckily, the weight I have gained during this trip finally paid off. It's like my body knew to get fat, so the wind wouldn’t blow me away. –side bar- You think I’m joking. A Brazilian who was 6'5” and probably weighed 220 was told he could not climb to the summit 
by his guide due to the danger with the strong wind gusts. The group I had started the climb with showed up approximately 20
minutes later, I met up with them and we had to join arms and like a train we went down the mountain. The best part of the trip was the glissading down the mountain and running on the skree. A drink after the climb...
We stayed and played in Pucon for a few days. We found a few restuarnats and Art stores that
were beautiful.
After spending a week in Chile and spending American equivalent dollars, we were happy to get back to Argentina. We stayed one night in St. Martin de los Andes, Argentina. It’s a really pretty town, quiet, with many things to do in the periphery. However, it rained the whole time we were there and it was supposed to rain for the next week. Therefore, we stayed the night and left the next morning for Neuquen. Our only reason for staying in Neuquen was to break up the long drive to San Rafael which was a 10 hour drive from San Martin. Way too long for us in a car.
I almost forgot our amazing hot springs outside Pucon. This place was amazing! There were 17 different pools with varying temps. We had a great time. Payton enjoyed the cooler pools. She didn't want to leave. After 3 hrs we decided that was enough. I think Payton is enjoying the finer things in life...
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Villa La Angostura
We arrived in Villa La Angostura on Tuesday, April 17th. We will be here for one week. We drove into Angostura excited. We had a good time in Bariloche, but we were ready for a little change. Villa La Angostura is a relatively new town, less than 80 years old, it's much smaller than Bariloche, in addition, we were told that it caters to the wealthier Argentines. From my research, Angostura, is supposed to have some awesome mountain biking as well! We arrived in town and found a place to stay, Cabana
Akermann. This place is beautiful. See the pics…The service we received at the cabana was truly exceptional. I’m all about the little things that make the difference. Cabana Akermann included those little things, ie. Special hand soap, Listerine, personal coffee bags, candy on our pillows and most importantly they remembered how much dulce de leche to have on the table for Jen and Payton at breakfast.
Wednesday I made a new friend, his name is Marcos. I met him when I went to Pegaso bike shop in Angostura. This shop has the typical upper end athletic clothes and bike rentals. I initially went to the shop inquiring about mountain bike single-track trails. After a couple of translation problems, Marcos decided that he would take me out on a ride. As I was leaving, one of other employees informs me that Marcos is an X-terra participant. Oh shit! Angostura, just had the Panamerica Xterra race 1 month prior. We left that afternoon in the pouring down rain. Let’s say that Marcos is in great shape. He has a single suspension bike that is geared for racing. On the other hand, my Yeti dual suspension bike is made for 
x-country with an emphasis on downhill. Marcos kicked my ass on the hills (on the road/dirt, not on single track) but technically, I was better. Much has to do with the bike I’m sure, but I’ll credit my skill and ability as well. After an amazing ride doing the Panamerica circuit I had one broken chain, bent hanger (rear
derailleur) and my rear tire started to leak. All in all, hell of a fun day. What’s better, is that we are planning on going riding again later in the week.
The weather hasn’t been the best for us while staying in Angostura. One of the good things however, is that Payton found a friend. She is the granddaughter of the owner, her name is Martina and she is 3 1/2 years old. They have played a few times so far and Payton’s loving the time running in the parquet around
our cabana. Thursday, we drove the Seven Lakes drive to San Martin de los Andes. It was a beautiful drive, despite the rain, which I do recommend if you have the extra time. Otherwise, if you have limited time in Argentina, there is more to do and see than this particular route. Oh well, it gave the 
Kangoo another day of driving on dirt and adding another layer of filth to the car. We haven’t washed the car in nearly 3 weeks. I should add, we haven’t vacuumed the car since we purchased it back in January. Very unlike us! The biggest reason we haven’t taken care of our car is the lack of accessibility to public car wash/vacuum.
Friday, another amazing ride with Marcos and his “triathlete specialist,” friend Caesar. Once again we did the Xterra circuit, but this time we added Cerro Bayo to the ride with amazing downhill. I tried to take pictures to show everyone the trails, but my camera battery died. I will always have my memories. Caesar reminds me of my friend Matt, lean, fit, and even handles the mountain bike in technical terrain the same. Caesar, again like Matt, knows how to push pedals. Unfortunately, Caesar isn’t as comfortable on his mountain bike as he is on a road bike, he took a pretty nasty spill attempting to climb a ladder bridge and fell backwards onto a jagged log. He ended up with his pride and nasty bruise on his left iliac crest.
Saturday we reented a bike for Jen and we all went on a ride to Parque Nacional Bosque Arrayanes. I pulled Payton in the
Chariot. It was a little steep at first, but the 26 km round trip excursion was well worth it. Payton slept most of the way to the Bosque Arrayanes and back. We had lunch on the pier and enjoyed our time mesmerized by the views. We followed our biking adventure with a hike Sunday to Cerro Bayo and walked to the same trail I went biking 
on Friday to enjoy the views of Villa La Angostura, the lakes and mountains. Despite the weather, it was a good uphill climb with worthwhile views. I think it was easier riding my bike up the trail than carrying Payton in my arms. Oh, we also washed the beast, the Kangoo, on Sunday. We washed away the layers of dirt and borrowed a vacuum from the owner of the cabana to clean the inside too. It is like a new car again!
Monday, I was feeling a little under the weather. The worst thing,
I had to tell Marcos I couldn’t ride with him today. I hate cancelling, mainly because I hate when people cancel on me. We exchanged emails and salutations. I will miss riding with Marcos. Hopefully he will be able to go to the states and stay with us some time to ride. I told Marcos that we have Xterra in Central Oregon. He appeared excited at the offer. Before we pulled away from the shop in our vehicle Marcos ran over and gave me a bike jersey with the logo of the bike shop, Pegaso! I feel awkward receiving gifts! That’s just me. It was very nice of Marco to give me a gift. I had thought about giving him my Deschutes Brewery jersey prior to going to the store, but I didn’t think it would fit Marcos.
We rented a car and left Tuesday morning for Chile. I am very excited about leaving Argentina and experiencing a little taste of Chile. We initially plan on going to Osorno, Frutillar and then to Pucon. We will have to wait and see how it plays out. You never know, we might not like Chile. Which in the long wrong would be better. It's supposed to be more expensive.
