Argentina

Mendoza, Miles traveled

“Medoza….Mendoza….segundo hogar de mi corazon.”
Mike’s quote about Mendoza….”The second home of my heart”.

“Mendoza….a donde mi alma se calento abajo de su hogar.”
Sara’s quote about Mendoza…”where my soul was warmed beneath your hearth.”

Mendoza….(now we are really getting poetic…..a land making its living off the vine, the Sauvignon Blanc, the Merlot, the santo Malbec. A city surrounded by vineyards, olive trees, the Andes.
We arrived in the afternoon (after a 14 hour bus ride) to our hostel, Chalet Bassi, greeted by Adriana and Cecilia. The house demands a description here. As we came up the front walk, the first thing we noticed were the large wooden double doors. Peeking out from the second floor was a beautiful arbored patio. To the left of the front door was a small patio which opened up into one of the bedrooms via two sets of French doors. Upon entering the foyer, a great marble staircase spirals up to the second floor. To the right was the dining room with a magnificent fireplace. The dining room had stained glass windows from wall to wall as a backdrop to the three small tables adorned with fresh flowers each day of our stay. The fireplace mantel and ceiling were decorated with ornate early twentieth century carvings. Overall, it was a place that provided an atmosphere of beauty and comfort.
We stayed in Mendoza a week, and our daily schedule went something like this:

10:00am Wake up and have breakfast which consisted of toast with jelly and hot coffee by the fireplace
11:00 Get ready to go out – shower if necessary. Screw around on the computer.
1:00 Leave house for siteseeing/exploring the city and its many plazas
3:00 Have lunch, which was always very good!
5:00 Explore some more and buy food for dinner which consisted of cheese, salami, bread, wine, and apples, and water, ofcourse
7:00 Hang out at home, talk to Adriana and read/write by the fireplace.
10:00 Eat dinner by fireplace and talk some more.
1:00 Go to room and play Soitaire, Hearts, or other fun computer games we get for free
2:00 Bedtime

While in Mendoza, we went on a tour where we visited two wineries, an olive oil factory and a small liquor distillery that also made chocolate. We tasted absinthe (legal up to 75% alcohol in Argentina) in honor of writers Hemminway at el. It is served with teaspoon of sugar mixed with absinthe and lit on fire. The sugar is then dripped into the drink for consumption. It didn’t just burn because of the alcohol, it actually hurts your mouth! WOW! IN honor of our forefathers we also tried mead. Good, but very mild. We explored the local museum, and the ruins of an old church destroyed by an earthquake of 1861. We went for a walk and exercised in a wonderful park that was chuck full of runners, bikers, and rowing teams(there was a lake too). Mostly, though, we hung out in town and got to know it quite well. In Mendoza, the center of town is designed with five separate plazas. The central and largest being the Plaza de Indepencia, which is surrounded by Plaza Espana, Plaza Italia, Plaza de San Martin, and Plaza de Chile. Each has its own character and charms. We got our own bus card and took the trolley and buses everywhere.

We felt very at home….so much that it was difficult to think about leaving so soon. The hospitality was incredible, especially that of Adriana… She made us feel at home storing our food, letting us borrow her wine opener, and tipping us off to local sights and customs. Her daughter, Cecilia, and she would always make sure we had a fire ready and that we never got lost or missed an opportunity to see more of their hometown. In the evening, after having our snack it was often only Sara and I in front of the fire with occasional visits by Adriana to converse.
As you will notice, no pictures this entry as we are still awaiting the arrival of our camera, hence the longer entry. I guess Mendoza was meant just for our memories.

As we entered, Argentina my dad told me that we had some cousins in Argentina. Who knew? It turns out my second cousin, Maria Elena, lives most of the time now in Buenos Aires. We had tried to contact her from Salta the first time without success. After Regina departed, we tried to contact her again. After working through my brother, my father, and finally my dad’s cousin, Alice Ann Swartz, we managed to get in contact. Alice Ann Swartz, my dad’s cousin, married a South American and moved down to South America when she was still a young lady. Brave, and cool since that gave us a branch of South American family. We first met for the first time for lunch at their apartment in Palermo, a neighborhood in Buenos Aires. They had a nice apartment with a great view of some of the parks with the Rio de la Plata and Uruguay off in the distance.



We also met their pet, Rocco, who is a monster sized Rotweiler who loves to give kisses to his dad, Hernan (Elena’s Husband).


We had a great visit talking family while they treated us to pizza and empanadas. I saw some pictures of my(our) great grandparent Swartz’s at their trailer in Dade city. (Funny because Sara has Swartz grandparents in her family, too. No relation—that we know of!) It was very interesting to see people and places we had both visited at different times. Also I saw the famous, Uncle Bill, in several of the pictures. For those of you who don’t know, he was my grandmother(Victoria Jane’s uncle) and my dad would sometimes be called “uncle Bill” by her! We spent the whole afternoon together, we visited the Chinese neighborhood ,and then went to a famous Buenos Aires café for desert . This turned out to be an enormous platter that we couldn’t finish even with four of us. We planned to meet again on Friday to see Hernan jump with his horse for the first day of the jumping contest.
The previous day we had moved to our new digs in La Boca(a different neighborhood). We visited Evita’s museum, some love her and some hater her, but hey, she’s famous right? After that we went to a tango show at Café Tortoni. The live tango music impressed us as well as the theatrical and acrobatic tango performance. The tango theater is in the basement of the café in a room that gives the impression of being in an underground cave. It is the oldest café and very traditional in Buenos Aires. Sara give a thrilling reenactment of the tango on our tile floor at the hostel and ended up slipping and crashing to the floor. She bounced back up and completed a few more moves before preparing for bed. I was very concerned, and thought she might have a concussion. She still reassures me that she was fine even though she thought she might have a bruise.

The next day we packed our things to head over to Stay at Elena and Hernan’s apartment, which they very graciously offered. After waiting for our laundry at our hostel and working on our blog, we set out for downtown to pick up Sara’s newly altered fashion pants. She also got a new coat! Buenos Aires had their biannual snow that week. I got a sweet pair of jeans for $13. AWESOME shopping. We made it just in time to leave our bags at the apartment and get to the German Equestrian Club for the competition. The competition was fantastic. We met many interesting horsey type folk. Sara spotted this beautiful horse across the field and said, “That horse is most beautiful. His coat is so shiny and the color is amazing.” Turns out that the horse was Lorenziano, Hernan’s horse. He jumped awesome even though he was hyper frisky from the cold and threw in a couple “show off kicks” during his run. We had some beer an incredible pastry and Hernan and Lorenziano got fifth!



The next day we went to the rural fair with Elena. The Rural is an impressive display of all things agricultural in Argentina. Hernan met us there for coffee before we parted ways for the evening.
Sara and I ate/drank at Lupita's and then at the Soul cafe. We enjoyed ourselves immensely while Hernan and Elena were at a friends birthday.

The next day Sara and I did some sight seeing and went to mass before going to see Hernan and Lorenziano in the 1.5 meter day of the jumping contests.

This was another in our string of fantastic days in Buenos Aires. We were very sad to say goodbye to Elena, Hernan, and Rocco that evening as we boarded the bus to Mendoza. They were great hosts in a great city, and we hope to see them again soon.

Well, it looks like we forgot an entry! So, let's take a break from Buenos Aires and take a look back at one of the great natural wonders.......Iguazu Falls! Thanks, Mike Shawver! Way to keep us on track....

Miles traveled 378.

Thanks to Mike Shawver, we arrived at the Hostel Inn in Iguazu Falls, where the party never ends! Ahh.. the Hostel Inn was brimming with young backpackers, the atmosphere was such that we felt like we were back in college! The Inn was packed with activities: foosball, ping-pong, pool tables, swimming pool, and snack bar to name a few. It was not quite what we expected with entertainment every night and music “til the break of dawn”. Our room was nice though, hot water and heat were plentiful. Sara was happy to be warm finally.

Iguazu brought temperatures in the 70s with high humidity. We had entered the jungle and were pleased with what we found there. We took the bus to the park entrance on the first day. From there we took the park train back to the “Devil’s throat”. When the train stopped, we traversed about a mile over the river on metal catwalks about 8 feet wide. We could hear the rushing water in the distance and see the rising plumes of mist. Once approaching the falls, we were astounded at the convergence of water that plummeted in a near 360 degree ring of falling water. Many of these falls were over 100 feet high. The sheer sound of the rushing water was incredible. Even after being on the overlook for some time the sight of the falls was still mesmerizing. The three of us were almost giddy with the thrill of being so close to the falls and feeling the spray from the water on our skin.
We then boarded the train and headed back to the main falls.


We walked the Lower Falls Trail through the lush vegetation and down a series of stairs and walkways to capture different views of the various falls. At some points the walkway went over a fall, and we could see it rushing below us. At another point it would be a small distance away from the cliff face, and we would be staring at the water as it tumbled down the cliff in front of us. We witnessed the beauty of St. Martin’s Island framed against a backdrop of enormous waterfalls, and we got so close to the base of one of the falls that we were buffeted by the wind and drenching vapors of the pounding water. The tremendous walk only lasted a little over a mile, and it packed in a million memorable sights and sounds.

Darkness was falling, and the last train was leaving to return to the main entrance, but none of us wanted to leave. We got our tickets stamped with the hope of returning the next morning to venture to St. Martin’s Island and see the Upper Falls Trail.
It was standing room only on the bus as all the awestruck visitors returned to their hostels.
Unfortunately, after eating and resting we awoke to a torrential downpour the likes of which are rarely seen outside of the rain forest. Sheets of water poured off the eaves of the building and the sidewalks and roads were submerged in water. So instead of visiting the falls again, we got laundry done, and chose a movie to watch from the Hostel Inn’s selection. I looked for “The Mission” again, but they did not have it. We tried to download it again, but it did not work. We wrote some blog entries, and uploaded some photos…attached for your enjoyment. We thought about staying another day, but the forecast the following day was rain as well. Plus we had plane tickets in hand for our flight to Buenos Aires, BA… Big Apple. It was with fond glances behind us and a hope of returning that we left Iguazu Falls.

enjoy the photos courtesy of our buddy Regina
Casa Rosada

Plaza de Mayo

Columbus monument

cemetary

Peace,

more soon
Sara and Mike

BA...miles traveled 669.
As we left Iguazu, a dense fog settled in over the forest. When we arrived at the airport, they told us the airport was closed because of the fog. The flight that was meant to take us to Buenos Aires had to return there. Luckily, the delay only turned out to be a couple of hours. We landed at the Aeroparque, practically in the center of the city, around four o’clock. We encountered a garrulous taxi driver who showed us ½, and explained an additional 1/4 of the landmarks of the city on the way to our hostel in San Telmo. It was a little disconcerting when we arrived at our hostel that none of the owners/workers were there. A fellow traveler let us in and we awaited someone to confirm our room. The owner, a very young man, arrived. Ironically, the room was not ready because Sara made the reservation mistakenly for the FOLLOWING day. Lucky for us, the room was already available. The house was small (only 5 rooms for rent) and very nice. High ceilings, wood floor, marble staircase, and highly decorated façade are typical of the neighborhood.
That night, we left to have pizza at one of the local joints. The pizza was even more delicious than we hoped, and we returned to the hostel with high hopes for Buenos Aires. Highlights of our initial time in Buenos Aires were a visit to the Plaza de Mayo where the “Casa Rosada” of the President is. We were very surprised that we could walk almost up to the gates of the President’s residence, who is currently Cristina Kirchner. A great deal of the architecture of the government buildings is done in the elaborate colonial style. Statues adorn the roofline and the windows and doors are often massive and beautiful. We visited the cemetery of the aristocratic part of town where Evita Peron is buried. ( Turns out her body has traveled to across the ocean and through several countries before coming to rest again in Argentina via the actions of various coup governments.) Her monument was moving, but paled in comparison to the grandiosity of some of the other monuments in the barrio Recoleta “City of the Dead.” We also visited the antique fair of San Telmo held each Sunday. There was live music and Tango exhibitions, as well as, a great abundance of antiques and local folk art (a Sara favorite!)
We also visited the theater district and attended a play “Marat-Sade” at the theater of San Martin. The play explored the psychological implications of pre and post French Revolution thought. After, we had dinner at the famous Chiquilin Parilla, recommended by our taxi driver. We also attempted to contact my second cousin Elena several times throughout these days without success.
The words are few, but Buenos Aires in these first days left a great impression. Pics to come in the next blog!