Night Life

I cannot walk through the suburbs in the solitude of the night without thinking that the night pleases us because it suppresses idle details, just as our memory does. -Jorge Luis Borges

I spent last week in Buenos Aires and was continually amazed by its size, its diversity, its volume and its night life. I am not a night owl by nature, but when in Buenos Aires, you simply have to stay up late just for the experience. A couple of nights ago, I was in a taxi at 2:30 in the morning and stuck in rush hour traffic! The streets were packed, along with all of the restaurants and bars the taxi passed on the way back to my hotel.

Every day I explored a new neighborhood but I didn´t even scratch the surface of the place. Some of my favorites were Palermo and San Telmo. I am pretty sure that I had the best steak of my life in a random bar with a Cuban band playing at Plaza Dorrego in San Telmo. It really is that kind of city!

In Buenos Aires I had to say good-bye to the Dragoman folks as they were continuing their journey to Rio and at the same time, welcomed Karl to Argentina. We all went to a tango show at the famous Cafe Tortoni and Karl brought out flaming absinthe at the bar after the show. Powerful stuff!

I´ve been spending most of my trip trying to enjoy the local cuisine of the area (although I have to admit that I did not try the guinea pig in Bolivia). However, in Buenos Aires I broke down and went to some foreign restaurants, including a hare krishna vegan restaurant and a Mexican restaurant.

One of the main highlights of my time in Buenos Aires had to be the soccer match between River Plate versus Dom Merlo. The fans danced, jumped and chanted for the entire two hours. It was amazing! The stands were literally writhing...

The two teams with amazing fans in Buenos Aires are River Plate and Boca Juniors. On my first night in town, a few of the Dragoman folks and I tried to get scalped tickets outside of the Boca Juniors stadium. Two of the guys got tickets and the other four of us ladies were left outside to listen to the roar of the stadium. The ladies took a cab back to the center and watch the match on TV, feeling pretty "green" that the guys got into the game. We found out later that night though that they got part way in and their "escort" with the game tickets disappeared into the crowd and they were each relieved of their $50...However, Julie, Felix, Karl and I were undetered and bought the "tourist tickets" at a higher price but with transportation and two guides to get us in and out of the stadium safely.

On our last night in the city, Karl and I splurged and went to the famous Las Lilas restaurant on the river in Puerto Madero. It was simply the best food I´ve had on my trip so far and definitely the best presentation of any place I´ve been so far (including Atlantis in the Bahamas, Patrick!). It was a great experience and well worth the expense.

After struggling a bit with finding out how to get a bus ticket and hostel in Mendoza, Karl and I finally got ourselves organized and hopped on an overnight bus to Mendoza last night. More on Mendoza in my next entry...

Ciao,

Kelly

Wine, Beef and Horses

The last 10 days of my trip have been all about wine, beef and horses...Our drive to Salta Rafting from Salta was luckily a short and beautiful one. We arrived at the river mid-afternoon and took much needed naps in our tents after our big night in Salta the night before. The cooking group for the day prepared a wonderful camp meal and we all enjoyed it with a glass (or two) of Sangria.

The next day we had another relaxing morning and then spent the afternoon rafting the fast flowing Class III river right outside our camp. The raft guides hosted an Argentinian "asado" that evening and we giggled at the photos taken of all of us on the river earlier in the day (I´m still hoping to get them from one of the other folks in my raft so I can add them to the blog...).

Everyone hated leaving such a beautiful place the very next morning, but we were on our way to Cafayate and wine tasting. Cafayate was truly hot when we arrived at the campsite and everyone felt a bit wilted during our winery tours at two of the local wineries. The wine we tasted was marvelous though and "lifted our spirits" quite a bit. The local grape varietals were Torrontes, a white varietal, and Terrat, a red varietal. We learned about using egg whites to "clean" white wine and bone marrow for organic reds (veggies watch out!). Each tour took us through the entire wine-making process step by step, from vine separation to the special cellars set aside for the most expensive wines on the property. It was a fascinating tour and much more complete than any tour I have been on in the U.S. or Australia.

Early the next morning we packed up our tents and my cooking group and I fumbled through preparing breakfast before jumping back on "Amber" for hot, dusty and sweaty ride to Estancia, a cattle and horse ranch near Rio Ceballos, Argentina.

The Estancia ranch really was an amazing oasis. Some of us camped in the fields in front of our host Kevin´s house and others stayed in the dorm attached to the main house. Kevin´s family has owned the ranch since the late 1500s and he has been hosting Dragoman groups for almost 30 years. He has 120 horses on the ranch. They were the most beautiful horses I´ve ever seen! We spent the first evening drinking Kevin´s special "Estancia Reserve" wine and the next two days riding horses on the property. It was truly relaxing.

It was a very short drive into Cordoba, Argentina from Rio Ceballos and I spent most of the day shopping for clothes to wear in Buenos Aires and trying to cool off in cafes with Fiona and Julie. After 7 days of camping, I was happy to have a bed in the Aldea Hostel even though it was probably one of the warmest nights I have ever experienced. Cordoba was hot, hot, hot! Despite the heat, Cordoba was a charming city (Argentina´s second largest) and after finding out that a few folks from Summit County, Colorado were either living or visiting Cordoba at the same time, I was really disappointed that we left at 5am the next morning for Buenos Aires....I also couldn´t believe that I was nearing the conclusion of my month-long travels with the Dragoman group and my two new amigas, Fiona and Julie!

Bolivia

After thoroughly enjoying La Paz, our group traveled off-road to the tiny village of Livichuco on the altiplano of Bolivia. We stayed in the community center, toured the village with the "presidente" and listened and danced to the village band. We ended up watching the band the morning that we were scheduled to leave, because the night before was carnaval in the town some kilometers away and our interpreter informed us after dinner, "I have bad news, the band is drunk...¨

Early in the morning on the day we left I went on my first run of the trip (at 13,500 feet) with our Dragoman guide, Ivan. It was cold and windy, but I enjoyed every minute of that run. The scenery was incredible. We were nestled between two huge peaks, with a beautiful river running through the valley. Ivan and I crossed the river and ran to the next village and back. Amazing!

After Livichuco, we drove to Potosi. Potosi is a mining town at 4200 meters and claims to be the highest city in the world. The air was thin, but the sun was shining and everyone was happy to be warm for the first time in many days. The mountain looming above the town, Cerro Rico, has been mined since the days of the Spanish conquistadors. I elected not to visit the mines, as the conditions are fairly dangerous, even for visitors. Instead, I wandered up and down the steep streets shopping with some of the other travelers in the group. I even attempted a run and got lost, spending much more time running up Potosiś hills than I would have liked!

I was so excited about our next stop...Salar de Uyuni! Uyuni was one of the main reasons I booked this trip and it did not disappoint. Salar de Uyuni is a huge salt flat. When you look across the flats (with sunglasses as the glare is incredible), it looks like you can see into infinity. After a hot, dusty ride at high speeds, the group piled out and took ¨mind-bending"photos of the flats...We then visited a train ¨cemetery¨ and traveled back, exhausted, to the town of Uyuni.

The next morning in Uyuni, I saw my first Andean flamingos! There are 3 different species of flamingos in the Andes, and according our guide, only 5 species in the world. After that first morning, on our way through the Bolivian desert, we saw 1000s more of those amazing birds...

The journey across the Bolivian desert of the altiplano took 2 dusty, driving days. The views were incredible and we topped 5020 meters at one point. A lot of people on the truck were sick from the altitude and everyone was happy when we dropped down to the tiny village of Villa Mar (middle of nowhere). We visited the Valle de Rocas and stopped off at a hot springs on the way (where I left my watch!). We spent one night in Villa Mar and were on the road again by 5 am the next day for another long day on the road to Chile.

We crossed the Chilean border in the evening and stumbled out of the truck into San Pedro, Chile. After everyone set up their tents for the night, we ventured out into the town to find dinner. The town was small and dusty but lively and set up for tourists. It was a welcome change to the very basic villages and accomodations we had been experiencing. I ate Chilean salmon and drank delicious red wine that night. The salmon cannot compare to Alaskan salmon, but I enjoyed eating my first ¨fancy¨ meal since Cusco.

Later that night, 3 of us decided to stay up late and took a star-gazing tour that lasted until 1am (after getting up at 4am that morning). San Pedro is located on the edge of the Atacama desert, the driest desert on earth and an incredibly good place to observe the stars. The English tour was not available so the 3 of us attended the Spanish version. Amazingly, I understood enough to make the experience enjoyable. We found the Southern cross, discussed the differences in the view of the sky in Alaska versus Chile, and saw the rings around Saturn through the powerful telescopes at the observatory.

Again, we piled onto ¨Amber¨ early, early the next morning for another long drive...This time to Argentina. After an incredibly long journey through ever-changing landscapes, we arrived late last night in Salta, Argentina. The differences between Salta and the places we visited in Bolivia are stark. Salta is a bustling and completely modern city (although this computer is rather ancient and slow...). Today, everyone has been going crazy buying clothes and sunscreen and other supplies that we have not seen in quite a while. I have just enjoyed watching people on the street and taking in city life from a cafe table.

Tomorrow we are traveling to a camping spot about 100 kilometers from Salta for 2 days of white water rafting.

Ciao for now,
Kelly