adnil1962

Thursday December 25 & Friday December 26, 2008

We headed down to Boston on Christmas Eve to spend the evening with the Andreucci/Pelligrini clan. As always we ate and drank too much (especially John who was pouring whiskey and Captain Morgan into his coffee).

We slept in Lianne’s grandmother’s condo and spent the morning at the Andreucci’s being fed again and opening gifts. I got new snowshoes!! John got a GPS system to use while hiking/skiing. Lianne made him a cute basket with supplies for him to use when he sleeps over.

Tony drove us to the airport. Originally our flight was at 4:30PM. They moved it to 7:30PM which traumatized me because I thought for sure we’d miss our DC connection. We only had 42 minutes between flights! For $79 we upgraded to first class out of Boston so that we could be in the front of the plane and get off quickly in the event that we needed to run to our connection. We got to wait in the first class lounge which was nice. We both slept for the entire 2 hour flight.

We arrived in DC right on time and were able to board the flight with 10 minutes to spare (hoping that the luggage made it!). We were seated in the emergency exit row for the long flight to Buenos Aires, not as good as Business Class, but not bad! John fell asleep before we took off. I watched a cute movie (Ghost?) then took a Tylenol PM to fall asleep.

We arrived in BA and headed to the customs line. It was long but moved quickly. We waited a very long time for our luggage to the point that we didn’t think it made the flight when suddenly it all appeared. I changed dollars for pesos $270 US for $880 pesos – not a great deal but I wanted to have some cash on us.

We exited the customs area and found the taxi stand that was recommended by our Argentinian travel agent, Isabel; it was just outside the gate. At first the taxi booth seemed very disorganized. You pay, then walk to the other side and wait. They were about 25 other parties waiting. As a new driver arrives, he walks up to the booth and out pops a slip with a number. He calls the number and the party who has that number goes with him. It was a short wait for a taxi (maybe 10-15 minutes), it seems that we just beat the crowd. It cost us $108 pesos to get to the Microtel that Isabel has reserved for us, so that we could relax all afternoon instead of sitting an airport waiting for our next flight to Mendoza.

It seemed like a long drive to the Microtel (which is 1 kilo from the domestic airport) but we finally arrived, about 2 hours after we landed. Isabel was standing outside, she seemed very worried and was glad to see us. She had been waiting for two hours.

The hotel is good, similar to a US Holiday Inn, maybe a 3 star. I think it cost about $100 US. We opted to do this since we had 8 ½ hours between flights and we figured we would be too tired to sightsee today. Isabel showed us the pool, a cute little area out back with clean, warm water. We chatted with her a bit, she is very sweet. She gave us a map, our vouchers, itinerary, etc. The room was simple – a bed with a nice shower. Next door was a golf putting range. John went to check it out but decided he was too tired. I sat at the pool for about a half hour or so to enjoy the sun, then came back in to avoid a sun burn. The temperature is 77 degrees but it seems warmer.

We went next door to a cafeteria style restaurant for a quick lunch. It cost us 32 pesos for soda/water, ravioli, salad, a beef empanada and rice pudding. The ravioli was a bit bland, but everything else was tasty.

We both fell asleep, the alarm went off at 5:30 PM. Good thing we set it, as we would not have woken up! We took a quick shower and headed to the lobby to catch a cab over to the airport. While we waited, John got us 2 cappuccino’s and water cine gas. The coffee was really strong!

The cab arrived and refused to take us to the airport because our luggage was too large. He wouldn’t even let us attempt to fit the bags into the car. He just drove away. We asked if we could walk to the airport since it was only 1 kilo away, but the hotel said it was too dangerous. The hotel called a second larger cab (luckily we had left plenty of time to get to the airport). The second cab arrive, the luggage easily fit and we were off. We passed a large body of very brown water on the way. It was a 5 minute drive that cost 10 pesos. We got picked up at 6:50 for an 8PM flight per Isabel’s suggestion.

Check in at LAN and the trip through security was fairly quick. The airport was relatively empty. I browsed a few shops while we waited, it was a very nice modern airport. We heard our flight called, boarded the shuttle bus and then on to the plane. The flight wasn’t full so we were able to carry on our three pieces. The flight took off on time. I had read a lot of internet horror stories of long delays – of course we were originally booked on the 17:45 flight and they changed it to 20:00 without ever notifying us. Good thing Isabel checked for us!!

More about Isabel: We probably exchanged about 100 emails. She was really wonderful, especially since we booked so late. She had other clients in the past who couldn’t get New Years Eve reservations and had to eat in their rooms so she waited in line at a restaurant for us and used her own cash to get us a reservation at one of the best steak houses (at least all the tourist reviews that I have read make it sound wonderful). She also choose that restaurant so that we could walk back to the hotel since she had also had an incident where one of her clients couldn’t get a cab on New Years Eve and she had to pick them up herself.

She booked us on a private city tour, a tango dinner show, gave us tips, restaurant suggestions, a calendar listing our day by day itinerary, a map and got us a room at a new boutique hotel in Buenos Aires. She also asked us to call her when we arrived at the hotel in Mendoza so that she would know that we made it safely. I don’t even think my mother ever worried that much about me!!

Anyway, back to our journey. We got little snack boxes on board with yummy chocolate wafers and another chocolate covered cookie filled with caramel. The sun sets very late here. It’s now 8:30PM and it still looks like mid-day. Our flight was short (1 hour 30 minutes). Our luggage arrived quickly and we found our driver, Julio, immediately. He was nice, informative and spoke English well. The drive out to our hotel was about 30 minutes. We chatted about Mendoza history, practiced our Spanish and talked about life.

We are staying at the Cavas Wine Lodge. It is down a very long dirt road. Our driver explained that we could see owls at the entrance at dusk. Since it was now 9:30PM, it was too dark.

We were greeted in the Lobby with two glasses of white wine (yummy) and were taken to see our room #9 where we found a welcome plate of snacks (almonds, cookies, etc.). The room is fabulous. It’s a large adobe like building. There is a stone shower room with a rain shower, a large bathroom area with a double sink and tub. The bed is large. They provide slippers and robes. The bath towels are really wonderful. We never needed the air conditioner all week, the ceiling fan was sufficient. There is a separate room that is a sitting area with music playing, outdoor shower, outdoor sitting area and dipping pool, a large walk in closet and a desk. The floor is stone, color and artwork are warm. Upstairs there is a great outdoor fireplace with a large sitting area – basically the size of a king size bed where you can lay and enjoy the stars and the mountains. It really truly is one of the nicest places I have ever stayed, worth every penny!

We returned to the lodge for dinner. It was also fabulous. We sat outside on the balcony at an intimate table. It was a perfect evening temperature wise - warm with a cool breeze. Juan gave us some wine tips and helped us to pick something nice. We ordered homemade empanadas with salad as an appetizer. OMG – they were unbelievable! John had the lamb with really fresh roasted veggies. I had the papparadella pasta with tomato, mushrooms and olives. We tried crème brulee and three types of ice cream for dessert (passion fruit, chocolate almond and dulce la leche). Dulce la leche is my new favorite food! Everything was really wonderful.

After dinner we meandered back to the room and headed to the top deck where John started a fire. We laid out for a while, gazing at stars. We headed to bed at midnight and slept quite well.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

We rose at 7AM to take photos from the top deck. It is so beautiful – we viewed the snow covered Andes, surrounded by vineyards while listening to roosters calling.

I killed a giant bug that ran into the room when I opened the door. It looked to be some type of spider. There is a giant can of Raid in the room – they have thought of everything.

We headed over to the main lodge (after I got John out of bed – he’s a bit cranky from lack of sleep). We sat out on the deck where we could view the vineyards and Andes. We had coffee and I had the buffet breakfast – meat, fresh fruits, juice, breads, cheese, yogurt, granola and cereals. John tried an omelet. It made for a perfect morning.

After breakfast we showered (love the rain shower! I need one for my house) and hung out on the lounge chairs on our patio. Then we were off to our private cooking class with chef Daniella and translator Jessica (who had lived in Toronto, Canada during elementary school) – both were really nice. We learned to make crème brulee with dulce la leche and a green pea and prawn risotto. It was fun. We got Cavas aprons to wear and take with us and we got to eat our creations when we were finished with white wine and fresh bread dipped in olive oil.

John wandered a bit and found a cute little work out gym/spa with a treadmill while I took a nap. We slept for almost 3 hours and then took a walk down the road. There was a cloud cover and cool breeze. We saw a few cool birds, olive trees and grape vines. The sun came out and it was very hot so we headed back. I relaxed with a book that I found in the Lodge while John headed to the gym. Turns out he borrowed a mountain bike and headed down the dirt road (about 3 miles); he saw the baby owls.

At 6:30PM we met with Pedro, our hiking guide, who came right to the hotel. He told us about 3 hikes. We picked on to do on Monday, cost was $300.

We next headed down to the wine cellar to do a tasting. Juan was running it. It was really fun. There were 5 other couples participating. Four of them were from NY, one girl was originally from Easton, MA and had gone to college in Maine. We tasted two whites and a red. While we were doing this, Juan passed around bottles with scents and had us try to guess the smells – we didn’t get any of them! We chatted with the other folks in class, mostly newlyweds, everyone was very nice.

At 8:30 we got ready to go to Club Tapiz. Julio picked us up again. It was about a 20 minute drive He was planning to wait for us and then head to his uncle’s 100th birthday which would go until 4AM.

Club Tapiz was a small restaurant (maybe 10 tables). It was a neat place – high ceilings and interesting artwork. Our waitress didn’t speak a word of English, so I got to practice my Spanish a bit.

I ordered pasta again; John got the beef (like a pot roast) and we split a bottle of the house wine which was excellent. Apps were camembert cheese and skewered shrimp – both yummy. We got a taste of something from the chef – a yummy cheese/tomato type roll and we had fresh bread with an olive oil dip. Total was 300 pesos plus a 30 peso tip.

One of the couples from the wine tasting was there. They didn’t speak a word of Spanish, so I helped him order. The guy tried goat. He said it was really good – tasted like turkey.

We headed back to the room and fell asleep instantly!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

We rose a 8AM and headed over for breakfast. Jessica (from yesterday’s cooking class) was our server. I got scrambled eggs and John had French toast. We shared fresh oj, fruit and really, really yummy chocolaty chocolate brownies from the breakfast buffet.

This place is very quiet in the morning, not too many folks get up early. When we told Pedro yesterday that we normally start hiking at 5AM at home, he thought it was hysterical (of course we are normally in bed by 9PM, here that is even too early to get a dinner reservation!)

We returned to the room to get ready for white water rafting (so not on my top 10 list, but John really wants to go). I can’t find my wallet anyplace, I wasn’t drunk last night so I don’t know where I put it. Hopefully I didn’t drop it someplace!

We headed to meet our driver. Julio was there, but he wasn’t driving us today. We did search his back seat for my wallet but no luck. Luckily last night I only had one credit card with me and 100 pesos or so, thanks to Isabel’s tip.

We had a new driver today, Miguel; he was young and a 7 month newlywed. His wife is from Minnesota. They have plans to move back there so that he can attend school for aeronautical engineering. He has never left Argentina in his life. Should be interesting for him – Minnesota… He spoke English very well. He gave us lots of information during our 45 minute drive to the rafting place. Most interesting is that the reason the vineyards plant rose bushes out in front, is because they are susceptible to disease. If the rose bushes get sick, the vines will become sick soon after.

The drive to the rafting place was beautiful. There were lots of mountain ranges of various colors and a deep blue river, bluer than I have ever seen. All of sudden the river turned grey.

The rafting place was big. There were lots of tables out front, clean showers and a changing area. I think it was called Argentina Rafting Adventures (it was recommended by Cavas and Pedro). The cost was 200 pesos and the credit card machine wasn’t working (phone lines were down – I guess it happens frequently). We had to pay cash, which left us with only 60 pesos (they did offer to call Cavas to see if we could charge it to our room).

We sat out in the sun until 11:30 or so (rafting was scheduled to start at 11). It was a beautiful sunny day with a nice breeze. They split us into two groups for the safety talk – one in English the other in Spanish. We went with Michael’s group. He was from California. The talk scared me a bit but afterwards he told me that there were only class 2 and 3 rapids and it moved quickly. I felt a little more at ease.

We put on wet suits, wind breakers, life jackets and helmets. There were lockers but Miguel offered to put our belongings in his car. We headed off on the bus, it was a 15 minute ride. We were divided into groups of 5 or 6 (there were 40 of us altogether). We had Michael as our guide. He gave a talk on commands and then had us all sit in the raft and practice.

We set off. There were about 7 rafts and 4 kayakers (safety guys). It was fun. Then about 5 minutes into the ride we hit a wave hard. I leaned forward and John backward. His helmet hit me square in the nose. It hurt, but I just kept paddling. All of a sudden, the girl next to me screamed, “she’s bleeding”. I looked down and there was blood all over my lap. I had a full stream bloody nose.
I got Mike’s attention and he pulled us off to the side. All the other rafts immediately followed as did the kayakers – I got the bleeding to stop, one of the kayakers took a look, nothing was broken. Mike told me I could keep going or walk back; I opted to continue as the road didn’t look all that safe. After it was over the guy behind me said it reminded him of the volleyball scene in “Meet the Faulkers”. Everyone got a good laugh!

We continued downstream, hit lots of good waves. No other incidents, the rafts stayed afloat and no one fell in. The water was cold though!! In total it took about 40 minutes to get back to our starting point. We pulled the rafts out and took a bus for the last 5 minutes.

Miguel walked down to meet us with our stuff. We changed but didn’t have enough to tip the guide or eat. Miguel offered to give us pesos and said that his company could just charge Cavas who could add it to our bill. Another couple from our hotel was there, they had had Cavas pack a lunch for them which they offered to share. We took them up on their offer, had brie sandwiches and pistachios. John got us a quart size bottle of Andes beer to share, it was pretty good. We also got one buffet lunch – salad, tomatoes, roasted veggies, beef, chicken, empanadas – all very tasty.

We headed back to the wine lodge, Miguel veered off a bit to take us to a scenic area overlooking the beautiful blue river.

I laid down for a nap, with ice on my nose in the hopes to keep the swelling down. We slept until 6PM. I finally found my wallet; it was lodged underneath the safe.

Tonight we met Martin, the owner of Cavas. He was a very nice entertaining man. His family owns a tea company. We chatted with him for awhile. The hotel had entertainment this evening. We arrived early and sat outside on the steps to enjoy the weather and some wine. The tango dancers and musicians began at 8PM (there was an accordion and a keyboard). It was really great. We have been taking Tango lessons at home so when they asked for audience volunteers we got up with another couple and learned a few steps. It was fun. The show lasted about an hour. They passed out little bites of food (prosciutto, pear, cheese, etc.) and kept the wine full.

We next headed to dinner (at Cavas) and choose the BBQ menu – chorizo and sweet bread, blood sausage and salad as an appetizer. Then for dinner the best steak I have ever had in my entire life!, with little plates of tomatoes, potato salad, salsa, roasted green peppers along with a wine that Martin helped us select.

We had flan with our new favorite dolce la leche for dessert. The service and staff at Cavas is really marvelous.

Juan approached the table with cigars. John had one with a glass of port. We returned to the room, John built another fire and we star gazed for awhile. There are more than I have ever seen, this really is a magical place.

I headed off to bed at 11PM while John opted to stay up until 1AM to finish another bottle of wine.

Monday, December 29, 2008 (my birthday)

We had the buffet breakfast. Pedro met us at 9AM for the hike. He is a great guy; personable, great sense of humor and very serious when it comes to safety. We drove for about an hour; then we pulled over and Pedro had us smell some of the plants and herbs that grow in the wild (one a natural Viagra). We drove another 30 minutes up a switchback road and parked in a ski area lot.

We started hiking very, very slowly up the hill (we started at 10,000 feet). It was pretty cold (I would guess in the 50’s). We crossed a few streams. The flora was beautiful – the Andes were unfortunately in the clouds.

All of a sudden John started to feel sick. He couldn’t breathe well, his arms and legs were wobbly but he said he wanted to continue, attributing it to a late night and a bottle of wine. Pedro pulled out a device and put it on John’s finger to measure his oxygen. He was at 85, I was at 91. Pedro said John was too low and that we needed to turn back (I guess it’s genetic). He offered to take us to another spot at a lower altitude. John’s quote of the day, “ Today I have hit rock bottom in my life”.

We drove for awhile past Argentinean country homes, horses, dogs and great scenery; you could see for miles. After awhile we drove up a really, really steep rocky path and parked. Pedro set out a nice picnic lunch we had prosciutto/lettuce and brie/olives complete with a checkered table cloth. The picnic basket converted into a little chair.

While we were sitting a giant condor flew by, I wasn’t fast enough to get a photo. We watched him for awhile – he was amazing. We also saw an eagle.

After lunch we hiked around the area on a dirt path for a bit over an hour. It was warmer; the flora was unusual and beautiful. There were little cactuses and cow poop to avoid. We heard thunder in the distance so we headed back to the car. On the ride back we saw some horses just walking alone, a truck full of fruits and veggies for home delivery, a basket of melons on the side of the road and lots of trucks. We got back to Cavas at 6PM. It was a long day, but very enjoyable.

We only had time for a quick nap, since we had dinner reservations for my birthday. We decided to have a snack at Cavas first – we split an appetizer of focaccia bread with tomatoes and goat cheese- best tomatoes ever!! We also tried a mate – it’s a traditional tea in a little leather mug with a built in straw. It was very bitter (but supposedly healthy) – so I added lots of sugar.

At 8PM we went to the lobby to meet our driver. The Cavas staff presented me with a birthday gift. It was very sweet of them – a Cavas hat and a CD with the music that plays in the lobby. John had to go back to the room to change – no shorts or flip flops allowed at 1884 where we had reservations.

Alex was our driver. We first headed to find an ATM so that we could pay Pedro. The first machine rejected my card. The second would only give me 500 pesos, I had to use it three times to get 1,300 pesos, Alex said I was very lucky that it didn’t “eat” my card.

We drove to 1884, where Cavas had made reservations for us. The door was locked. Alex had to call on his cell phone to get them to let us inside. We had requested an outside table. The hostess said there must have been some type of mix up because she had us seated indoors. She brought us to a table. We were the only ones in the room; every other guest was seated outside. It was very hot outside. I explained that it was my birthday and I really wanted to sit outside. We were told no.

There were plenty of empty tables. We were told that the open tables were for cocktails only. We decided to have a cocktail outside. We asked if we could also have an appetizer with our drinks, the woman told us that we could not. Once we were seated, I asked the server if we could get an appetizer (and of course threw in that it was my birthday). She let us get some empanadas. After the drink and appetizer we decided to skip dinner. We were both exhausted and really didn’t want to sit inside. We headed back to Cavas, arriving at 11PM. Imagine if we had a full dinner, it would have been 1AM!!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

We both woke up with head colds; John has a sore throat too. We had breakfast, which made us feel a little better, Jessica was our server again. We had our last “rain shower”, hung out on the top patio for a bit enjoying the sun and the view, packed and sadly left the room.

Today we got Emilio as a driver. He was nice, but not as talkative as the others. We set off on a wine tour, visiting three in total.

At the first (Achaval Ferrer), we sat outside on a comfortable couch overlooking the vineyard. We tasted 5 wines (very large servings). There is a fee for the tasting but they waive it if you buy something – we got two bottles of red wine and a bottle of olive oil.

We arrived late to the next winery (Ruca Malen), so we skipped the tour. We sat outside for a 5 course lunch and more wine tasting. The food was terrific (and the wine!) – cheeses, steak (unbelievable), quinoa, and flan with dulce la leche… We probably should have sat inside, it was very hot. We almost skipped the third winery (Decero) as we were tired hot and not feeling great. Turns out that we were glad that we went; the grounds and winery were beautiful. John really liked the Malbec so we bought a few bottles.

We headed back to Cavas and finally met Cecila. She was really nice. She had been away for a few days because she was trying to breed her dog, apparently the dog wasn’t interested.

We headed off to the airport and got there 2 hours early. Apparently that is a “no no”. Security turned us away. You are not allowed to get your boarding pass or go through security until one hour before the flight. We sat and had a few diet cokes (18 pesos).

We arrived at the hotel Synergie in Buenos Aires at 11:30PM, it’s in what is called the Palermo Soho section. It’s a great find (thanks to Isabel!!) We had a suite with a king size bed, plasma TV, 2 white leather couches that fold out into beds, 2 large closets, a “funky” shower that shoots water down and also hitting the back of the neck, head and lower back. There is a large balcony overlooking the bar/breakfast area below. In the lobby there is a computer with free Internet and there is wireless in the room. Everything is a clean white with modern art work. Prices were really reasonable.

We still both have head colds; the front desk gave us medicine before we headed to bed.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

We slept well – got more medicine from the front desk and then had coffee, oj, croissants, toast and dulce la leche delivered to our room.

Our guide Lucia (arranged by Isabel) picked us up promptly at 9AM. We toured a variety of areas in Buenos Aires driving and walking. Lucia was very knowledgeable and spoke perfect English. She was about 23 years old, lives with her parents and attends University.

We began at the town center and learned of “the mothers”; saw the rose petal that closes and lights up at night; the bridge that resembles a tango dancer; had coffee at the pastel colored La Boca (great people watching) and ended at Recoleta Cemetery to see Evita’s grave. The cemetery resembled more of a gothic village than a graveyard. Each mausoleum is larger, more ornate, and more statue/gilt/marble embellished than the last.

At 2:00 we stopped at a sandwich place (I forgot to write the name down), and had salads.

Then we headed back to the hotel for more medicine and naps. We both felt terrible….

At 8PM we headed off for La Cabrera (also organized by Isabel, this is the place where she waited in line to give a cash deposit so that we would have someplace to eat on New Years Eve – and she had never met us before and there was no guarantee that we would ever pay her back!). It was a 10 minute walk from the hotel so we arrived VERY early. We got a glass of wine and sat outside at a table and chatted with some women from San Fran. At 9PM we seated ourselves inside. We were the very first to arrive! The waiter quickly served us several different kinds of breads with green and pink dipping sauces (both yummy!) and a head of roasted garlic. We ordered wine as well.
I ordered a tenderloin rolled with ham, cheese, sun dried tomato, John got a rump steak with chorizo. The steaks were large enough to feed a family of 6! We also got 19 small plates of things like tapenade, potatoes, artichokes, beans, sundried tomatoes and lots of things we couldn’t identify, but it was all fabulous!

Dessert was crepes with dolce la leche and ice cream and tiramisu. Yummy!

Total was 237 pesos without tip ($80), and they apologized that it cost so much! They said that because it was New Years they had to charge an entertainment fee which I believe was about $25 pp.

We still felt lousy (even though the wine helped), so we opted to head back to the hotel. It was a beautiful evening. We were in bed by 11PM, me reading while John “skyped” with his kids. We made it to midnight but were both sound asleep by 12:05.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

We had the same breakfast delivered and then headed off. We hailed a cab (making sure that there was a phone number on the side of the cab, the hotel hadn’t been able to reach the cab company). We got dropped off on Florida Street. Nothing was open except the junk shops and there was trash everyplace. John was warned by two different groups of people to hold his camera in front of him.

We walked to the waterfront and found a restaurant right near the bridge that looks like tango dancers. We had salads, mushroom carpachio and empanadas (they served us 6 different types of bread). They tied John’s camera to the table with something that looked like a bread tie. Total was 137 pesos. I forgot to write down the name again, it was a nice place. We choose to sit inside but you could sit outside overlooking the river.

After lunch we strolled along the river and ran into some people that we met on one of the wine tours in Mendoza. We chatted for awhile then continued over the pedestrian bridge and caught a cab at the Hilton. The driver only spoke Spanish. I tried to talk to him but only got about ½ of what he said. He dropped us off and we headed up for an afternoon nap.

We got up around 8 and although neither of us felt great we went to find food. We walked from our hotel and ended up at “Meridian 58”, JL Borges, 1689 Palermo Soho. We selected a table upstairs with two armchairs. The waitress didn’t speak any English so I got to practice my Spanish again.

We split empanadas, beef cheese and chicken, a tomato mozzarella salad and a very spicy chicken dish – all very good. We had wine, coffee and dessert and then headed back to bad with the hopes that our head cold would dissipate by tomorrow.

Friday, January 2, 2009

This morning we had the same breakfast but down in the quaint breakfast room. Still not feeling well…..

We took a cab to Recoleta cemetery and headed right to the Pharmacia where we were able to explain our bad head colds. They gave us some pills and a drink and within minutes we both felt numb and sleepy (even though I had said “no duermo”). We sat and had a coffee at a sidewalk café (where someone warned John about his camera again).

We then wandered a bit. John was excited to see the artisian store described in the guidebook, but it was closed. We looked through shops and an outdoor market (I bought a mate cup and some tango coasters) then headed to lunch. I got a ham and cheese sandwich on a baguette and John got a flattened ham and cheese with tomato plus we split papas frittas (fries).

After lunch we wander some more. We went back to Florida Street. The mess had been cleared and the shops were open. After window shopping we headed back for naps. We had a message from Isabel to remind us that she had booked us at a Tango dinner this evening.

At 8PM we headed out (John in sweatpants and sneakers! - next time I pack for him!). We had our photo taken with the tango dancers and then were seated. Our tablemates were from Brazil and Mexico City. The food was okay – empanadas, buffalo mozzarella, pasta with basil sauce, dessert and unlimited wine (cost was $200).

The tango show was really great – dancing, singing, live orchestra and great costumes. It lasted about an hour. We headed back to the hotel for more medicine.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Our last day….. John woke me up at 7AM to let me know there was a 2 inch long bug in the bathroom. I let him know that it was a boy job to capture it! He got up enough courage to capture it in a towel and flush it (I didn’t look).

We both are finally feeling better… We set off on the train to find a little town with a market that my Spanish teacher (also named Isabel) recommended (I didn’t write down the name and a year later as I type this I forget. I will have to ask Isabel at class Sunday). I had to teach John how to use the train (and this guy is a world traveler?). It was actually pretty easy.

The market wasn’t really active so we found a coffee/pastry shop and then an ice cream shop (with chocolate covered ice cream) and then browsed some shops, stopped for pizza and empanadas and headed back… We walked behind the zoo to a the Palermo Gardens stopping to watch a giraffe. We hung out at the park people watching and taking photos of roses and butterflies (it was very hot outside).

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at an outdoor café (and again got a camera warning). We had wine and cheese… Then we found a market in Palermo – after that browsed the shops in that area (mostly upscale) – then sat at another outdoor café and people watched. What a great place! I wish we had felt better and were able to come down to this area every night!

We had the hotel get us a cab to the airport. We had 4 hours (per Isabel’s instruction). John asked the driver how long it would take to get to the airport (in English) and pointed to his watch. I think the driver (who didn’t speak English) mistakenly thought that we were in a hurry. I have NEVER been so scared in my life! I think we got to the airport in record time. As he unloaded our bags he gave us a big smile, pointed to his watch and gave the thumbs up sign. Lesson learned – don’t let John try to communicate with anyone when we travel.

We paid the $18 exit tax, checked our bags and got to sit in the lounge. We were starving and there wasn’t any place to get food – so we had cookies. It took us less than an hour to get through customs and check in… The flight was overbooked, they were offering $800 and a hotel to give up your seat. Very tempting – but we both have to work Monday. We sat in the middle of the plane, both on an aisle. A guy was sitting in between us, he heard us both hacking and begged to switch seats so that he didn’t catch our sickness. I felt bad and took the middle seat. The flight was long – almost 11 hours. We connected in DC without problem. Our friend Tony picked us up at the airport. We hung out with them for awhile, stopped at Kelly’s Roast Beef and headed on the 3 hour journey home.

crellston

Excellent report. The length and detail compensates admirably for the delay!

avrooster

Thank you, adnil1962, for your wonderful and entertaining trip report!

Some comments from yours truly:

1) To all forum readers: Please DO NOT, repeat DO NOT, change your currency into pesos at the conveniently located (in the luggage pickup area) booth operated by Global Exchange, unless you wish to donate about 15% to these crooks' favorite charity. Decent exchange merchants pay over 3.80 pesos per dollar, at this time, versus the 3,26 pesos per dollar adnil1962 got.

2) Isn't Isabel just GREAT!!!!

3) Isn't dulce de leche GREAT!!!!

4) About the bad service received at 1884, I would suggest writing a separate report, maybe on TA, to make sure as many people as possible hear about it.

When should we expect you and John back, adnil1962?

adnil1962

Thanks avrooster!! Yes - LOVE Isabel & Dulce la leche (even better than Nutella which used to be my favorite food!)

We are headed to Italy this year for 6 days of hiking , a day of bike riding and a cooking class!

But we hope to be back to BA and surrounding area next year! I am still taking Spanish lessons on Sundays and we meet to practice conversation on Monday evenings. I hope to do an immersion class for a week (or two) with a classmate sometime in 2011.....

avrooster

Great!

taconictraveler

Thanks for a very entertaining report. I loved Mendoza, and you reminded me of my lovely time there.

Might we see some of the photos that John took with the much guarded camera? I am hoping, even though I haven't the fainted idea how to upload photos to this or any other site.

Thanks again, and happy trails.

BostonGal

Thanks for the report!

And here's another request for John's pictures?

My husband and I are both serious amateur photographers and I am slightly worried about carrying our equipment around... any suggestions?

Thanks again!