Minimalism or Missed Opportunity?

When we left off I was babbling on about Rosario and here´s a shot of the National Monument to the flag. IMO, the monument is more impressive then the flag.



Also the guy who designed it Belgrano is buried here. Here´s his eternal flame.



and finally the backside of the monument



I napped twice, both good naps with weird dreams. You know you´ve had a good nap when you have weird dreams and remember them.

I went out for another Steak dinner that was incredible by the way. $15 for salad, steak, and half bottle of a really tasty Malbec. This got me thinking, why haven´t done more of this? Am I trying to be too minimalist? Sure $15 is alot to spend when you could have a $2 ham and cheese sandwich. But the beef here is nothing like what we have the states. So am I being too minimalist? At which point does extreme practice of minimalism constitute a missed opportunity?

For example, at the winery the other day, after the tasting we had the chance to taste some of the other higher end wines, but they were $5 a glass. Point is when am I going to get the opportunity to taste the first pressing of the best Malbec grapes (in Mendoza) aged in brand new french oak barrels for $5 a glass? I passed because it seemed expensive. Putting it in perspective, prices are in Pesos here and when I´m spending 80 pesos a night for a hotel room, 20 peses for a glass of vine seems pricey, and it is, but minimalism or missed opportunity? I ask again. Tawk among-st yaselves.

Back to Rosario, some cool church



When I awoke yesterday morning is was POURING!



I wanted to browse around Rosario some more but seeing as how my flight leaves from Buenos Aires tomorow night (which is now today) I figured I´d better bag this place and make the 4 hour bus ride to BA and spend my final night there.

I met an interesting chick on the bus, Carola. Shes a hip hop signer in a band and a business student here in BA.



We discussed the differences in Argentinian and American culture and how EVERY American that travels down here dresses like me. Caro says she spot an American 10 kilometers away.

Looking for a hotel I wanted to step up a little and considered going WAY upscale but couldn´t justify 10% of my entire travel budget on 1 nights lodging. Some weeks ago I heard some trophy wife looking lady mention that the San Antonio was cheap and really nice. I was sure we had diffent definitions of "cheap..." ummm please, can we just agree to use the term "minimalist", thank you.

So when I was passing by it I stopped in and inquired about a room for the night. They were $50. I explained to the desk clerk, (in my best pre-rehearsed Spainish) that I had been traveling for 3 weeks and staying in hostels and cheap hotels and this would be my last night in Argentina and I wanted a little luxury. He said he would give me a suite for 10% more.

Here´s what my (roughly) $62 bought me in BA´s Puerto Madero high end section.



Here´s a view from the other angle



Here´s the view from someone as if they were looking in the window and what they see. A non moving lunk that kicked back in the ULTRA comfy bed all night.



So I leave tonight to come back to the states. Here´s my return pose.



So I´ve done it, and on budget too. $2000 for three weeks is not too bad for a grown up traveling like a kid with bad Spainish and an even worse sense of direction. Thanks Lomania for the miles and support! also PM for holding down the fort.

So all said and done, It was a great trip. I didn´t get to see all the things I wanted to and go everywhere I wanted to, but hey, that just means there more to see on my next trip, which knowing me I´ll be planning shortly.

Ciao Caio and see you soon stateside!

Wine, Bikes and Police

Somebody said "more pictures please." Luckily i´m in an internet cafe with BLINDING speed, so here you go.

True to my word, I went back to the Parrillada for the meat lover´s meal. This one had a little of every kind of meat you could think of.



Which might have been a little aggressive considering the delicate state of my GI tract. I stuffed as much food down my gullett as I could stand, and tried a different Malbec. Pure heaven, Mate.

Here´s a cool looking building in Mendoza.



So I jumped a bus for the Maipu, the wine region, this morning and met some chicks studying abroad in BA but on a weekend getaway here in Mendoza. Sunday is the worst day to tour the vinyards here, as all but one is closed. We rented bikes for $5, and they were new and in great condiition. Here´s a shot of the girls getting bikes.



Now I forget each one of their names, but lets just call them Trixie, Daphne, Corrine, Janie, Jackie and Wanda. Here´s a shot half way to the Bodega with the snow covered Andes in the background.



As we were riding to the Bodega, EVERY carload of guys whistled, hooted or honked at the girls. Machismo is alive and well in Mendoza. The girls say they´re used to it, and don´t even realize it happening anymore.

We even had our own police escort with lights. All kiding aside.





You can see the cop, back right in the pic stopping traffic through the circle as we went through. Now if I could just get love from the police on a saturday morning group ride in Del Mar, I´d be awe-stricken with disbelief and amazement.

Here´s Trixie and Janey doing "glamour shots" on the bikes



and again just goofing off, they had a lot of personality, which is refreshing.



Finally we arrived at Carinae, a small boutique winery specializing in Cab Sav and Malbecs. Its good to know that it was "Opened"



Starting the tour



The wine is made artesanal style here, with little modern technology. The weather is very dry (you could feel it in the air) but water runs freely from the Andes down small aquaducts next to the road.



Heres the inside of the winery with the exopy lined fermentation vessels right and left.



Interesting to note that they only use the french oak barrels 5 times before getting rid of them. The newer the oak barrel the more oak flavor it imparts on the wine, which is exactly the opposite for whiskey and tequila. The more used the barrel, the more oak flavor.



Here´s our guide Andrea



Barrels as far as the eye can see plus a stained glass crest of the winerys logo in the background. Carinae is a constellation in the solar system and all the areas of the vinyard are named afters stars and solar systems.



Instead of budget hotels, I d be happy with a sleeping bag, a spigot and funnel in here. The smell of wine was intoxicating in and of itself.



and finally the wine tasting... ahhh...



While the Malbec is big here, "possibly ginormous," they also make a pretty good Cab Sav, and a very interesting Cab Sav Mablec blend. Normally, being the beer wine purist that I am, blends seem a little like mixing italian and blue cheese dressing ,which actually I do from time to time. But the Malbec, while a little grapey in flavor, blends really well with the Cab Sav, balancing it between dry and fruity. In addition to that It almost sounds like I know what Im talking about.

After the tasting we were all pretty hungry so we hit up Kiosko Omar for a boatload of empanadas. They were really good. I grabbed a few for tonights bus ride.



Here´s a shot of Fred and me on the way back.



Fred´s a journalist from France on vacation for a month here in Argentina. Fred is possibly cheaper...ummm rather more "minimalmist" then I. I told him I was spending 80 pesos ($19) a night on a hotel room and he almost had a heart attack. Of course he´s sweating it out in a 8 person dorm with a few snor-a-saurouses.

Its interesting, everyone I meet here says "Are you on Facebook." My answer is always, "reluctantly, yes." Facebook kind of annoys me because it seems like its a game to see how many possible "friends" you can have. "Juan has 353 friends" maybe 2 of which he´d recognize if they approached on the street. Really, do you want the internet connected population of the world to know you´re camping this weekend and steal your flatscreen, dog and your grandmothers three handled moss covered family grudunza?

It also seems disingenious to me because you cant always say what you feel. I mean do really want the whole world to know everything you´re feeling? For example, a post that starts like "I feel like shit today, my dog died" might be followed with a thumbs up that says "5 people like this." Does that seem "genuine" to you? Boo to that, I say.

That being said, I´m starting to come around to Facebook a little, here comes the about face, ready?) Its kind of handy to keep in touch with people you´ve just met traveling and whos path you might cross again, at least in the world of wishful thinking anyway. So while I´m not a believer, lets just say I´m keeping an open mind to the possibiliites.

One word on the PSDS. I´m very excitied to report that after cafeful scrutinization, I´m raising the PSDS, (Paul´s Spainish Defcon Scale) to a rich optimistic 6 on the 1 to 10 scale. I´ve started to understand the spoken word here a little better and calle and cashe not longer confuse me. Also, while hardly scientific, Ive encountered many people that also thought they could speak Spainish "until coming to Argentina." While this does reflect a small one point drop in PSDS from where it was at the start of this trip, it also means that cats and dogs are safe from crossbreeding and religous fanatics the world over can keep killing each other in the name of god without fear of the apocolypse.

After the worlds worst bus ride, I quite possibly had the best ever last night. A bus cama, no seat next to me and sleep the entire ride.

I´m now in Rosario, Argentina and I´ve got to say, this is quite possibly my favorite city in Argentina. It has all the big city feel of BA, without being too big, culture and architecture and a beach culture on the rio Parana.

Heres my $19 a night hotel room, and the word "budget" is starting to get a little... TOO budget.



So I´m down to my last 2 nights in South America and seriously considering some luxury for my final night here.

I guess wine bikes and police do mix after all, whod da thunk it?

Mendoza in Jurassic Times

I´m feeling better so here´s my juvenille attempt at humor.

Hopping the bus to Mendoza, I never realized I would be involved in a flashback to prehistroric times, but this being friday night the bus was PACKED. Not an empty seat in the house and all the windows were dripping with condensation. This bus ride was easily my most brutal yet. Surely if H1N1 was alive and well in South America, and someone on this bus had it, everyone on this bus would be infected on arrival in Mendoza (just poetic license KR, EASY!)

This however would be the least of my worries as the gentlemen to sit next to me was a 6´5" 300 lbs grumpy goliath with sleep apnea that I affectionatly will refer to Snore-a-saurous (credit to Skzmmth for the original name). No sooner did we disembark as Snore-a-saurous began sawing logs shaking the windows as we rumbled along our 13 hour nocturnal journey toward Mendoza. It would not have been wrong for Snore-a-saurous to purchase 2 seats as his body mass encroached into the passenger space next to him which was however unfortunately, occupied by ME.

As this was more then I was willing to tolerate, I awoke snore-a-saurous by shaking his shoulder and informing him that he was snoring the whole bus awake. Now not to get on my high horse, Í haven´t always been known as the quietest sleeper, but when I´m upright with my inflatable head pillow I´m generally harmless.

I nudged Snore-a-saurous back into consciousness some 5 times until he finally grumbled a threat, "Don´t touch me again."

In Kung Fu we have a saying, "speed kills," and I´m pretty sure that in an open setting a 6´5" 300lbs Snore-a-saurous isn´t moving at lightning speed and I could take him no problem. But we aren´t in an open setting, I´m in a window seat and he controls the isle. So I started coreagraphing a close in fighting confrontation in my head, remembering my Fu. Left outward block, right leopard fist to the throat, left eagle claw to the eyes, and right elbow to the temple. That should do it.

Thankfully it never came to that. I decided to retaliate passive-aggressively, and by passive I mean passing gas and wafting it directionally toward him. Given my recent GI distress this could be considered a violation of the Geneva Treaty and most certainly a chemical weapons assault.

After a few gassing episodes the Snore-a-saurous muttered something faintly surrendourous that sounded like it contained the word "mama," but I cant be sure.

Apparently chemical warefare was not enough to deter the aggressions of the Snore-a-saurous as we rumbled and bumbled down the road rocking out to the Flinestonesque not so sweet music.

I gave up at this point, dropped another half a xanex and tuned out.

Arriving in Mendoza, the Snore-a-saurous was the first one off the bus. Maybe there´s an upside to chemical warfare after all. Here´s breakfast at the train station, Costco esque hotdog, called a Poncho and cafe con leche.



I took the walking tour of the town, there´s really no better way to aclimate yourself to the surroundings, (ie find internet cafes, hotels ect.) Here´s the fountain at the Plaza Independencia



I tooled around for bit and Mendoza is a big Skiing hub for the Andes above. There´s a whole street dedicated to ski eqiupment rental and tours. Ahhh, next time...leg heal...want ski...real bad...want come back... fire good(OK kidding on that last one)

LP says Mendoza has 111,000 residents, roughly 1/3 the size of Sante Fe, but it feels larger and more populous. The streets are wider with more lanes and everything feels bigger. Apparently after an earthquake in 1861 the authorities anticipated the next earthquake by rebuilding the street wider with larger plazas so the people would have a place to escape and the rubble could fall harmlessly into the street. Kind of cool looking streets here.



I settled in to the LP budget hotel recommendation, "Laser Hotel." The only thing remotely modern about the "Laser Hotel" is that the word "Laser" appears in the name.



This is by far the the most... ummm... "budget accomodations" I´ve had since I´ve been in SA. They were all out of single rooms, so I had to step up to a double. This is what $19 night buys you here.



I don´t know if you can see it but the bed has a remarkable concave shape that should only add to its luxurios comfort.

And of course the obligitory shower in the middle of the bathroom never felt so good.



My appetite returned and so has my spirits. I treated myself to an EXCEPTIONAL ´late afternoon meal. An awesome steak, green salad and an 1/2 bottle of an INCREDIBLE Malbec for $14. So good I think I´ll go back for a late dinner and have the same thing! Me dejiste Pablita.

Tomorrow I´m renting a bicycle and riding the Wine tour loop, 40 km and taking a tour of the only vinyard open on Sunday. 40 km is what about 24 miles? Not that much but it depends on what type of bike. So Vamos a ver!

Se abre el cielo

On the eve of my departure from Montevideo it was Juan´s 26th birthday celebration and another potential "Big Party Night." I calmly and rationally explained that although I really wanted to party until sunrise again, it would violate the terms of service (TOS) of my life-contract as my 2 big party nights were used up for 2009.

Actually I just said I was tired.

So the clouds parted and sun came out (somewhat) in Sante Fe. Its a quiet little town with not much to offer in the way of sights. Theres a 16th century monestary/convent
with a cool church inside. Here´s where they bury the sacerdotes



Heres what the courtyard looks like.



I´m finding myself wishing I would have bussed it out this morning instead of hanging around. I left myself a lot of time to kill here with little to do. I did the LP walking tour which was less then exciting. Out of my first 24 hours here I think I slept 18 of them.

Here´s a statue to Juan de Garay, he´s the founder of Sante Fe and a Spainish Basque Conquistador.



The leg is much better today and I can pretty much walk normally on it, which is good because I did A LOT of walking today.

The digestive system is much better today too, the Cipro and Loperamide are calming things down, but there´s still a lot gurgling going on inside my midsection which my head-section a little nervous.

I catch a 930p bus to Mendoza, but first I was going to treat myself to a nice steak dinner at a LP recommended restaurant, but I´ve lost my appetite.

Not much to report today, sorry. Plus its a little hard to be witty when your funny bone aches.

Ciao Ciao Montevideo and the NO cotton poicy

Apparently I´ve wronged someone named Montezuma, because he´s getting his revenge on me. How can I say this delicately? Luckily its the unidirectional variety and not the dreaded and incapaciting bidirectional type. Although thats a silver lining, its of little comfort to me at present.

Gastrointestinal issues have to be the worst. If your shoulder hurts when you lift something over your head you can just use the other one. Its not like you can stop using your stomach. My appetite has vastly decreased, I think its more the advance knowledge of whats to come than lack of hunger.

I consulted my Lonely Planet guide which of course listed the drugs needed, and this being South America, they are available at every pharmacy on every corner just for the asking.

So this being my last day in Montevideo, I explored the city center and I´m sorry to report that although I had many very nice pix to show you, when I tried to upload my photos the virus checker at the last internet cafe deleted them. Not just those pictures but ALL my pictures. So I switched memory chips and will try to recover them when I get home.

Meanwhile there´s a interesting fellow staying here at the hostel, Clayton. He´s from Texas and a die hard Bush supporter. He´s a self taught wine afficianado and trying to start a wine importing business (and I didn´t know they had wine in Texas) and is here doing "research." He´s seems like a nice guy even if he is a bit of tool. By tool I mean he carries a hunting knife around with him 24/7 (in case he hits a dog on the road and has to put it out of its misery or for self defense) and even packed his playstation to bring to Uruguay. I had a picture of him, I´ll have to upload it later. Lets just use this somewhat less then accurate picture to visualize him. By less then accurate I am referring ONLY to the nipple ring.



So Ciao Ciao to Montevideo (Ciao Ciao is how they say bye bye here like when hanging up the phone.) Taking the bus to Sante Fe last night, I arrived at 6 this morning. It was one of those double decker sleeper buses, a bus cama they call it. The only real difference is that theres one less row of seats on one side. The seats DO NOT fully recline as I expected. I got the first window seat on the second level which gave me a unique perspective.

And away we go...



Part of the reason for the overnight bus is to avoid spending money on a hotel while saving a day in transit. After a very uncomfotable bus ride (see opening paragraph) I couldn´t wait until 1p to check into a hotel with a PRIVATE BATHROOM, so I wound up paying for 2 nights anyway. I checked in at 7a beat tired, went to sleep and didn´t wake up until 3p this afternoon. I´ve been hard charging, or hard hobling as the case may be, since my skiing mishap and had planned a day down. The leg is still angry and swollen, but better after the 24 hour rest I gave it. It´ll probably be after I get back to the states before it loves me again.

It has been pouring rain here in Sante Fe, and when I say pouring I mean POURING!



Here´s where my no cotton policy pays dividends. I can be soaked in a downpour, get out of the rain and be dry 5 minutes later. With these waterproof Merril shoes (which I´m palping proudly because they ROCK!) 5 minutes and I never even knew I was wet.

So whats in Sante Fe? Argentina´s prettiest women (they must be hiding, or more likely staying dry) an ultra modern brewery which I wanted to tour until I tasted their beer, which is budweiser-esque, and just a day off. Its also a half way point to my next destination, Mendoza. 75% of Argentina´s wine comes from Mendoza, like the much revered Malbec. After that, where the wind takes me, quien sabe (who knows).

Hit and Run in Colonia del Sacramento

Good news! I´m pleased to report no change in the overnight PSDS. In fact I´m considering raising it to a 6 (stay tuned as things change fast here.) After a lengthy conversation last night with a Chilean couple in which I acquitted myself most adequately. They commented how good my Spainish was but a few sentences later I found myself saying "what?" and "say that again." Its the equivilent of someone saying what great hearing you have and your reply is "huh?"

Speaking of good mews, heres a shot of Gomez the house gurn sitting at the table. We´ve become buds.



The tues noon group ride in Montevideo, no helmets allowed.



I took the bus to to Colonia del Sacramento, just a hit and run daytrip. Colonia was founded by the Portugese in 1680 to smuggle goods across the river into BA. The Spainish captured it 1762. Cool little cobblestone streets and lots of charm. This is a little more of what I want to see.



Some of those battlements are still around.



Heres the light house (19th century)



and the view from it



I know what you´re thinking, "Paul, this is cool and all, but do they have giant petrified mushrooms?"



Why yes, yes they do. (picture not mine)

Paraguay is out. They wont let me in, they must have heard I was planning on coming. Actually it takes to long to get a visa for me to go, plus they want to charge me $100 to get in. Undoubtedly we´re screwing their citizens so turnabout is fair play. Brazil, same thing. So I head off to Sante Fe to explore more of Argentina on a Bus Cama, meaning the seats fully recline into beds this time.

from there maybe Mendoza and who knows after that....

La Jolla on Steroids

After a well derserved, relaxing and not to mention REQUIRED night of sleep, I can still feel the effects of "Big Party Night." I think I have maybe energy or the desire for about 2 "Big Party Nights" per year and I´ve used them both up in 2009. Although 2010 is right around the corner....

I decided to do a little daytriping until I jet off to my next destination. I´ve heard that the happening spot in Uruguay is Punta del Este, the playground of the rich and famous. Naturally it sounded like something worth seeing because at this rate I´ll never be living there so I went.

I took an overpriced tour bus with a guide that spoke both Spanish and English that costs $50 for the day. A little overpriced considering they were probably getting kickbacks from the "recommended" stops.

Our first stop was a small beach peninsula of Pirapolis with an ancient chair lift up from the port. The view was something behold.



Of course its all about how to screw the tourists, so our first stop was a small curios shop at the top of the hill (with a monument to some saint, probably the excuse to stop there) where I´m sure the proprietors have a "profit sharing arrangement" with tour company. That never fails to piss me off, so I bought frigerator magnet just so I had the right to feel abused. The Saint was something of this or that or maybe the other. They all kinda blend together after a while.



There was also a 60´s-esq chairlift up from the port that I was dying to ride but time wouldn´t permit. Not exactly a high speed quad at Mammoth, this baby took 15 minutes to get to the top and another 15 minutes to get back down. It would have been cool to say I rode some sketchy "you could die" type chair lift in Uruguay though.



The high point of the day was the visit to the CasaPueblo, home of an artist named Carlos Paez Vilaro. He also built a museum and resort next to his house. This guy didn´t miss a marketing beat as even the entry tickets had a rafle for one of his paintings AFTER you give him your personal info of course. His style is sort of Picasso-esq and he has pictures of himself with Picasso and a room dedicated his style.



The building was done in Gaudi style architecture, minus the mosaics, which of course is the key to Gaudi.



Punta del Este is the point at which the ocean meets the Rio de la Plata that separates Argentina and Uruguay. At one point in the street you can water on all four sides, front back, right and left. Its also where the super rich have houses, not just the super rich Urugauyans, but rich from all over the world. Its so exclusive the houses have names instead of numbers. This one is called Aguamarina and belongs to some princess.



They call this section Beverly Hills (no joke.)

I spent most of the day walking around with Kristina and Steve, a couple from Minneapolis. Steve is one of those laid back guys that is funny but doesn´t really laugh. It felt good speaking English for a change and I spoke a lot of it. My brain needed the rest after working so hard decifering Argentinian Spainish. Of course "Big Party Night" was not exactly aiding my mental acuity at this point.



Argentinian Spanish immersion for the native English speaking traveler can really be mentally taxing. Here´s another small example. I´ve mentioned the "SH" sound replaces the "Y" in speech here. Good enough. but that also extends to the double "L" too, so "calle" becomes "cashay", "Ella" becomes "Aisa" and worst of all is someone introducing themselves. Normally you might hear "Yo me llamo" but here its "Sho me shamo." I´m hearing "Show me Shamu" and thinking of taking everyone I meet to Seaworld, home of the killer ballenas. Here though they are bashenas.

I´ve stated before that for a native english speaker I´m probably a 7 on a scale from 1 to 10. At this time I would care to revise or amplify that statement. In fact I´m lowering Paul´s Spanish Defcon Scale or PSDS to a conservative 5. If we reach 1 then cats start sleeping with dogs and the world comes very close to apocolypse.

My stop off the bus caught me by surprise and I forgot to tip the guide. Maybe they can take it out of the cost of my fridge magnet.

Actually it wasn´t a bad day, just not a great one. They can´t all be home runs right?