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Published: January 25th 2008
A tale of three cities...
Rosario Still soaked from Iguazu Falls, we headed back down south towards BsAs, where we would finally meet up with Brett and Daryn. After bidding a sad goodbye to Jenny and Mike and another 19 hours of busing (you'll start to notice a trend here), we arrived in Argentina's second city, Rosario. Rosario is a city of slightly more than 1 million people situated on the Rio Parana. It is still a big city, but it feels much smaller, younger and laid back in comparison to BsAs.
The place to be in the summer time is, without a doubt, the balneario (beach) of the Rio Parana. Having never lived on or near a river, the idea of a beach culture 400 miles from the Atlantic Ocean was a bit foreign to us. After a 5 mile bike ride, we downed a couple of Choripans (those delicious sausage sandwiches we wrote about before) and Fantas and hit the beach. The beach was packed, the water was warm, and the speedos and thongs were plentiful. If you looked out at the water, you'd know you were on a river, but if you looked towards the beach,
Che was born in this Rosario house
He´s probably more popular than Jesus down hereyou might as well be in South Beach...Bars and restaurants everywhere, music blasting and people drinking everywhere. Rosarinos have it good in the summer. Understandably, we tried to spend most of our time at the beach (unfortunately, we have no pictures of it because we didn´t want to risk getting our camera stolen).
We also checked out El Monumento Nacional a la Bandera, which is a huge (you guessed it) monument, dedicated to the creation of the Argentine flag. Argentines sure love their flag! Very impressive, with an elevator to the top which allows you to view the entire city and surrounding rivers.
All in all, Rosario just felt good, with a great beach culture and young people everywhere.
Back to BsAs We were back to our homebase in Argentina for one week where we finally met up with our friends Brett and Daryn, the Kenneth Lay and Martha Stewart of tomorrow. After a week of scaling/jumping off of mountains in Rio de Janeiro, they were ready to take it easy. Aside from showing the guys all of BsAs famous sites, we mostly just ate and drank ourselves sick...and fell asleep at a bar or two (Sarah).
Cards and Booze
Reoccuring themes this week We ate at La Cabrera, probably the best steak house in a city known for steak, and we also ate our weight in fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, and empanadas. Brett and Daryn were a blast to hang out with, and hilarious to watch fight with each other over just about everything...Daryn usually won (Brett, disclaimer: John wrote this blog). While reminding us of our uncertain futures when we return to California, they, as working men, assured us that we are doing right now is an amazing thing. Soon after saying goodbye to Brett and Daryn, we would say goodbye to one of the coolest cities in the world. Next an overnight bus to the wine region of Mendoza for Christmas.
Mendoza We thought it would be a great idea to spend Christmas on a vineyard at the base of the Andean Mountains. But since rooms were going for around $300/night, we decided to stay in Mendoza city (Mendoza is also the name of the province; the vineyards are accessible, but outside of the city). Mendoza is a very beautiful green city filled with restaurants, bars, plazas, parks and amazing views of the Andes (something we would get accumstomed to in
Christmas day picnic in the park
Salami and cheese sandwiches, fresh fruit, oreos, and a little Moet & Chandon. Yes, we are ballers. the next month or so). We stayed in a really cool hostel on the main street, Villanueva. For those Santa Barbarians, Villanueva is a little like State Street, but maybe with more bars, and they are outside.
As we had feared, everything was closed on Christmas Eve. What were we to eat? Luckily Marcelo, a very chill Argentine who prefered speedos/spandex to pants, cooked up an amazing chop suey dinner. It was a pretty cool experience; dinner next to the swimming pool with 5 Argentines, 5 Aussies, and the two of us...lots of food, fireworks, dancing and champagne- a perfect night. On a side note, the beautiful fireworks in the sky gave way to M-80's and other explosives, so much for
silent night ; all was not calm, all was not bright, it felt like Christmas in Iraq.
As for wine, we got a little unlucky. There are 3 primary wine regions in Mendoza, we're pretty sure we picked the wrong one (Maipu). We were hoping for something green, picturesque, and lots of wine. What we got more closely resembled a Mexican border town. We decided to rent bikes for a unique wine tasting experience...so unique, in
Vino
The 7 reds we tasted at Tempus Alba fact, that we only saw about 500 other gringos on bikes that day. As for the wineries, they were pretty spread out and difficult to find (anyone ever heard of a sign?). Another disappointing aspect of the day was the fact that the tastings were not complementary, as we were previously assured, and the prices were comprable to tastings in California. One exception to an otherwise disappointing day was the Winery Tempus Alba...amazing wine, amazing facility, amazing views. If you see their wine anywhere in the states, give it a try.
Next stop, Santiago, Chile en route to Valparaiso for one crazy New Year and a week long avocado binge.
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Ash
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um...i LOVE YOU
That was amazing! It warmed up my cold 30 degree day in NYC! I am so glad to see that BG is STILL falling asleep at bars, you guys are still loving food and Jon G is looking like Jac Cousteau (sp?) with the 'tache miss you guys! love you!