Coupletivity

Argentina - Day 10: Bodega Day & Ruca Malen

The window on the left was ours, about 3 feet from our table.  After visiting two bodegas (AR for winery) - Septimo & Achval Ferrer - we ended up at Ruca Malen, another beautiful winery off Route 7, the route that goes from Chile's Pacific to AR's Atlantic coasts. 

Lunch was big...and it was served to us starting at 2:30pm.  The meal was paired with the bodega's wine - a flight of wines for over 5 courses! 

We leisurely ate our way through.  Our day ended at El 23 in Mendoza for wine with a Swiss couple we had met at our hotel.  We didn't have dinner because our stomachs were replete - as in full - and there was no way we could've had a dinner after such a large lunch.  This would be a recurring theme for the next few days. 

Argentina - Day 9: Cooking class, electronic tango, and Pablo.

Day 2 in Mendoza started off with class.  A cooking class. The guy on the left is Pablo Del Rio, a chef at AndeLuna Winery's cafe.  AndeLuna is owned by Ward Lay...as in "Frito-Lay".  It's a beautiful winery with amazing views of the Andes.  Bdawg took a cooking class with Pablo, a charismatic and energetic chef with passion for cooking.  Really. 

We started off by making bread, then moved on to chimichurri, meat, cookies, and the list goes on and on.  We even made empanadas!  Bdawg was a stellar cook along side Pablo, and those two hit it off right away. I decided to stay away and do what I do best: make video. 

Pablo not only introduced us to typical Argentine cooking (there are 7 regions within AR where he gets inspiration from), but he also gave us a taste of "electronic tango".  With the iPod plugged in, Pablo blasted "Bajofondo", a mix of traditional tango with DJ's and electronic instruments.  Within an hour of starting class, the wine was poured, the kitchen was emanating smells from the oven as everyone (Pablo has 2 sous chefs) was moving about to the tango music. 

We made ourselves lunch along with some components for guests who had arrived specifically at the cafe to taste Pablo's amazing cuisine.

Argentina - Day 8: BA to Mendoza, Bdawgs Bday, the Andes.

Today was Britt's birthday. And it was time to head off to Mendoza, a town (Argentina's 4th largest) that sits at the foothills of the Andes and is just 160km's from the world's 2nd HIGHEST mountain.  More on that later...

Fabian, our tour guide greeted us at the airport and with our driver, we headed into town to get a bit of history.  It was over 90 degrees and dry.  I won't bore you with the rich history of the town, but it was certainly our kind of town.  Mendoza has more of a Parisian feel than BA.  A French architect designed the city's center, a lush area of homes and apartments and 5 parks - each placed in a square within a square. Think of a dice, with the 5 showing - that's how it's laid out, which makes it easy to navigate.  Our driver, Javier was an excellent driver, and Fabian was a great tour guide.  We had hired them for our duration, and little did we know that we'd become close to Fabian and that Javier would end up being one of our friends, sincerely.  More on that next....

 

This is the view from the roof of our hotel, the Executive Park Suites.  It was taken at around 7:45pm.

Argentina - Day 7: Las Lilas, the counterfeit caper

I'm not going to write much here.  We had an uneventful day and ended it with an argument over the passing of counterfeit money with a Taxi driver.  You can read more about it here: CLICK

Argentina - Day 6: Tango, Miami, and Mate.

San Telmo - they say it's the birthplace of Tango. The barrio San Telmo is one of the oldest in all of BA, and on Sunday's it's teaming with artisans and tourists.  Lots of them...for blocks.  It's a trap for sure, blocks and blocks of different people selling a lot of the same thing: jewelry, knitted Peruvian hats, leather belts/bags, the list goes on and on. We started at the beginning - a street called Defensa, off Plaza De Mayo.   We ended at Plaza Dorrego - a small square surrounded by Tango show-style cafes.

I was expecting to see a lot of tango dancers, but surprisingly, we only saw two.  It wasn't the romantic scene I had hoped to capture with my camera.  So we walked back up and decided to head over to Puerto Madera, a newer part of BA and home to Las Lilas (see previous post).  PM is a huge contrast to the rest of BA and it looks a lot like Miami, however, hidden behind it is an area that is frequented by the locals.  Along the Av. Tristan Achaval Rodriguez is a REAL local market, lined with "parillas" and "portenos" who are enjoying a nice stroll.  I highly encourage you to visit this area, although it can be somewhat "dodgy", it's completely safe - there are Naval Police walking around who are also responsible for the security of Puerto Madero.  We had met our friend Alexandra and her friend Meghan, who guided us through the area, strolling the booths of crafts and watching dancers perform salsa in the Plaza Haroldo Conti.  We had been out for almost 8hrs and it was time to rest.  Meghan invited us to her apartment for "mate" (pronounced mah-tay) or chimarrão, a traditional South American infused drink. It is prepared from steeping dried leaves of yerba mate (llex paraguariensis, known in Portuguese as erva mate) in hot water. It is the national drink in Argentina. 

Meghan escorted us to her apartment in San Telmo, just off the area we had just been.  There is a "process" to drinking mate & preparing it.  First, you pack the yerba into the cup, traditionally a wood cup - and place the silver straw at an angle.  You NEVER stir it.  You simply pour hot water in.  You NEVER boil the water.  Once prepared, we follow the mate etiquette: one person will pass the mate and will take it back, re-pour, and pass it to the next person.  This continues until you say "thank you", which signifies "I'm done". 

Argentina - Day 5: Vodka for Breakfast, shopping, at Home.

Fried chicken is good.  Fried chicken with a "passion fruit" vodka is even better.  All of the above at 11am in Palermo Hollywood is....wait for it....AWESOME!  We took a stroll a few blocks from our Palermo Loft to check out Olsen Restaurant, a Scandinavian joint nestled deep off the gritty street, an oasis of wood and open space set in a minimalist theme.  Once your amazement at the decor settles, and you find your seat at one of the various tables that surround the large open fireplace and a direct view of the kitchen, it's time to order.  Brunch here is done right.  Bread is served warm, and they have vodkas.  Lots of them.  I ordered the passion fruit vodka which was perfectly done, the vodka not overpowering.  It was my version of the bloody mary - but only because it was vodka and it was being consumed before 12pm. 

Fried Chicken caught my eye and so I summoned the strength and courage to order it. Actually, it was simply my stomach growling.   A mix of colds greens along with a cold soup that was an excellent palette cleanser for the oily goodness.  However, what amazed me was how NOT oily and greasy the chicken was.  It was as if it were a dried breaded chicken and not necessarily a traditional fried version.   Frommer's says "Fish is the main point of this place, and a few of the meat dishes, though flavorful, tend to be on the dry side."  I simply ordered a 2nd vodka and ate everything.

Sedated and slightly buzzed, we ventured out onto the street to do some local barrio market shopping.  6 blocks away lies Plaza Serrano, a circular lot where local artisans come and sell their wares.  It's surrounded by cafes, or "resto/bars" as they are called, so the entire area is practically closed to cars so the hundreds of locals (and tourists) can easily walk, perusing the many items by artists.

It was a drizzly day, but warm, so being outside was fine.  That's what I love about BA, the weather can be bad but accommodating.  We continued our stroll around the plaza and the local shops.  It's amazing how fast the days go, with brunch at 11am (early by BA standards), and then a few hours of walking around, it was already 5pm!  Happy hour! We decided to walk back over to our side and head over to a boutique hotel called Home.  We had heard that drinks here were fun and the backyard/cafe area was a nice place to rest your feet with a cocktail in hand.

 

Home Hotel is a unique boutique concept, a retro-future style with an amazing outdoor area AND pool!  We nestled ourselves at the bar to avoid the drizzly day, ordered and simply talked to the nice bartender.  It was a nice way to end the day.

UPDATE: Days 5 till Present.

UPDATE: We've been in Mendoza having a spectacular time. We'd had no internet access at our 4-star hotel, such is Argentina. I write this as we are sitting at the airport in Mendoza on our way back to Buenos Aires for our last two days. Since my last post, a lot has happened. Britt went zip-lining. We rode 4-wheel quads through the desert foothills of the Andes. I rode horses like Gauchos (Britt galloped) in the river beds of the moonscape land of the Porterillos campos. We even saw the 2nd highest peak...in ALL the world. I have tons of photos and reports to write, so please check back tomorrow.