Advertisement
Published: November 16th 2010
Edit Blog Post
e squared about to be EVERYWHERE!
The journey begins at the Charlotte, NC airport on November 3, 2010... ¡Buenos días desde Argentina! 5 1/2 months, 22 1/2 weeks, 159 days, 3,816 hours, 228,960 minutes and 13.7 million and some extra seconds... we are off on our worldly ventures as newlyweds! Our travels begin with 7 weeks in South America, and after having been here for 8 days already, we are due for our first true travel blog, so here goes...
After leaving a gray November day in Blowing Rock and saying a very teary (well, for me at least) good-bye to our puppies Raven and Kymani, Mom d. took us to the Charlotte airport, packed lunch and all. The airport was empty and every single employee was shockingly pleasant - an anamoly in today's age of crowded and grumpy airport travel. Mom d's lunch was incredible and even had good luck ladybug stickers, thank you thank you thank you! Our first of 3 flights went the wrong way. Instead of heading south, we flew north to JFK, which is what happens when you book around-the-world airline tickets on a budget - you don't always get the most direct and convenient route. Ah well, a few $9 beers at an Irish pub was certainly worth the trip to JFK😉.
Santiago Nubles
Our descent into Santiago, Chile was picturesque with the Andes poking through some morning clouds. We flew LAN Airlines to Santiago, and then from Santiago to Buenos Aires. LAN was an impressive airline - good food, free wine that was actually great, unlimited movies, tv shows, documentaries and more during the 10 hour flight. The only real nuance of the trip to South America was that our backpacks were lost in transit, but LAN did a great job and delivered them to our B & B in Buenos Aires the night we arrived. Juan Carlos picked us up at the airport (a friend of the owners of our B.A. accommodations), and was an extremely nice and helpful porteño. All in all, the 26+hour trip from Blowing Rock to Buenos Aires was pretty smooth.
In Buenos Aires we stayed at Mansilla 3935, a B & B if you will. We stayed in one of 6 rentable rooms in a large private family home, complete with wifi and a private bathroom. Marta and Carlos owned the place, and were simply lovely and gracious hosts. It reminded me so much of my home in Sevilla with Señora Ana where I lived for 6 months, although quite a bit larger and Mansilla had a more elaborate breakfast (bread,
La Recoleta
The impressively ornate cemetary in Buenos Aires where the rich and famous are buried, including "Evita" Peron. croissants, homemade jams and dulce de leche, fruit, cookies, cakes and more sweet things... and my favorite, té con leche). It really was a nice, quiet and cultural escape from the busy streets of Buenos Aires.
With 2 1/2 days to see Buenos Aires, a city of over 3 million, we had a lot to do. We must have walked 30+ miles in those few days, seeing almost everything there is to see - Palermo, La Recoleta and the cemetery where Evita is buried, Plaza San Martin and Avenida Florida, Puerto Madero, El Centro and the infamously phallic Obelisco, Plaza del Mayo, San Telmo, the gorgeous and fragrant Jardín Rosedal...hmmm, what am I missing? We didn't do La Boca, the blue-collar neighborhood where the Boca Juniors stadium is located, but we did just about everything else. Along the way, we had some great food, wine and drinks. Some of our favorites: the ginger lemonade at Baraka, the margarita pizza at Filo, the gelato at Fratello, the grilled veggie salad (one of my favorites, not Eli's) at Origen in San Telmo and the malbec, humita and empanadas at La Peña del Colorado. After walking most of the day, we had
La Recoleta
The essence of La Recoleta cemetary, where the architecture is both incredibly amazing and a bit morbid at the same time. to take an "evening nap" before going out after 10:00pm for dinner (I forgot how much I have missed the lively latino nightlife since my time in Spain). Our last night in B.A. we went to La Peña del Colorado, a really cool Argentine place with live and local music every night. With our great bottle of malbec, delicious humita to share and fresh-baked empanadas, we enjoyed Mercedes Sosa, a mostly male vocal group singing traditional Argentine songs. While we did not go to a club since we wore ourselves out during the day, we did happen to stumble upon our fair share of craziness at the Buenos Aires Gay Pride festival in Plaza del Mayo, quite the spectacle! We were simply going to see Plaza del Mayo and Casa Rosada where Evita gave her famed speech from the balcony, but instead, we got to see rainbow tents, transvestites, horrible rock singers and a lot of raw insanity. While some people may have been upset to realize that their quiet tour of Plaza del Mayo was not going to happen that Saturday, we were stoked to be witness to such an event! After a few quick and fun days in
Ombu Trees
These beautifully old and impressively huge trees make you wonder what el barrio de La Recoleta must have looked like before it was colonized and became the wealthiest district in B.A. busy Buenos Aires, we caught a flight to El Calafate in southern Patagonia to enjoy what we love most - small towns and big mountains.
Until we have some time to step away from the Patagonian splendor, que te lo pase muy bien...
e squared everywhere (written by Erin)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.067s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.039s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Mom C
non-member comment
Photo!!!
How great to see the photo jounaling as well as you written journal. It all looks and sound so amazing! Fun being able to chat on skype yesterday, albiet a bit rough on my end...like I said the lunar landing had better audio to earth;)...but not at all complaining. As "Eli the prize guy" would say... "Keep on, keepin' on", just be safe doing it (a Mom talking of course;) Love you both!