Stuck in Palermo

December 22, 2018 by Nicole Harrison in Argentina

When we got back to Buenos Aires from Mendoza, we spent some time wandering around the botanic garden and the Japanese garden.

The view from the rooftop deck of our Palermo apartment (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A fountain in the botanic garden (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Yerba mate plants (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A giant crane in the Japanese garden (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Because the area where Buenos Aires is located has few large native plants, many larger trees were brought over from similar climates in the southern hemisphere - eucalyptus from Australia, jacaranda from South Africa (the jacaranda trees were blooming when we were in Buenos Aires, which was a really beautiful sight). There are also a lot of palm trees, which lends a slightly tropical feel to the city.

In order to get another country stamp on our passports, we took the ferry over to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, for a day. Colonia is one of the oldest towns in Uruguay and right across the river from Buenos Aires, and there are several ferries that go back and forth every day. Luckily, we had bought our tickets for the day before the G20 shut down all of the ports in the city, so we were able to get out (and back in) to Argentina.

Colonia del Sacramento, which was passed back and forth between the Spanish and Portuguese a ridiculous number of times, has an old town center that’s designated as a UNESCO world heritage site. It’s really adorable, with colorful historic buildings, a lot of art galleries, and good food.

Cute streets and cars in Colonia (Photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the classically old streets (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The beauty of Colonia (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Colorful buildings (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The lighthouse, which was built on top of a ruin (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason tried the local specialty chivito, which is a sandwich with steak, ham, cheese, an egg, and condiments. It was quite good but thoroughly excessive.

After we explored the town and had lunch, we still had some time until the boat back to Argentina, so we spent some time walking along the water, sitting in trees, and taking lots of pictures of birds (that was mostly Jason).

A preening green parrot (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Another bird (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Pigeons taking flight (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The second half of our trip was highly influenced by the presence of the G20, which we learned about 6 days before the leaders of the world descended. For the two-day summit, the city shut down the trains and subways, the domestic airport, and all of the city’s central ports. When we disembarked the ferry from Uruguay on the 29th, Trump had already arrived, and customs was vastly slowed because immigrations was making handwritten lists of the names, nationalities, birthdates, and passport numbers of every individual entering the country.

On Thursday night we went to one of the classic jazz clubs in Palermo, Thelonious Club. There was a big band playing, and despite not understanding much of the commentary from the band, we had a great time sharing a bottle of Malbec and listening to the music in the intimate room. Since there were so many players, a lot of the audience was friends and family, which gave the place a cozy, welcoming feel.

The performers at Thelonious Club (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Friday, because we were not able to take a biking and kayaking tour to the Delta el Tigre, (the train to the delta was not running), we booked a tour that took a boat from Buenos Aires up the river and explored the delta area. The tour organizers had their work cut out for them to make sure the tour could run with all the road, train, and port closures - we had to meet in Recoleta in the morning, then a minibus took us to a port far enough from the city center to be open. On the way to the port, our guide told us about how porteños (residents of Buenos Aires) love the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd to an unhealthy degree, how they are heavily influenced by the heavy Italian immigration after the First World War, and how their passion for futbol is supported by 32 professional stadiums in the city.

When we arrived at the boat, the skippers congratulated our guide on making it. Then, we set sail (er, motor) into the delta. Tigre’s delta is the third-largest river delta in the world, and its canal system is extensive. The locals who live in the canals are not able to drive to and from their houses, so there is an entire boat system to support them. There are grocery store boats, taxi boats, and even pool delivery boats.

A beautiful private dock (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The house of President Sarmiento, which is weirdly encased in glass (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A bus on stilts (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A grocery boat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A boat delivering a pool (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After we went through several of the main canals, the boat docked at the town of Tigre and we got out to explore. Our guide took us to the Puerto de Frutos market, which used to be a fruit market and is now a combination of artisans products and surprisingly upscale, hipster home furnishing stores. After we spent a while wandering, we drove back to Buenos Aires through San Isidro, where we got out for a few minutes to take some pictures of the rather impressive cathedral.

Approaching Tigre (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Securing the boat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A man and his dog heading out to the canals (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A three-sided mural (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A San Isidro Cathedral (Photo/Jason Rafal)

When we arrived back in the city, our guide dropped us off at El Rosedal, where we were disappointed to see that the rose garden was already closed for the G20. We walked around outside the fence anyway before heading back to our apartment to get ready to go home.

Taking pictures of hummingbirds kept Jason busy (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A dog chases geese in the park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The incredibly beautiful canopy in one of the parks (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A Holocaust memorial (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An adorable collection of stores under the train tracks (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Saturday, our last day in Argentina, we spent the day walking around Palermo Soho and eating. We explored Parque Centenario, which had a weekend fair happening, and sat by the fountains for a while.

The making of a mural (Photo/Jason Rafal)

In the evening, we got in a taxi with plenty of time to get to the airport, started driving, and…our driver couldn’t get on the highway. Police were blocking off the exit. Our driver, who spoke no English, made a frustrated noise and took off on the frontage road. We took frontage roads for an hour and a half, fighting the traffic from everyone else doing the same thing, and then finally came to a complete stop because the police were blocking the frontage road as well. Many people called out to our taxi driver, asking him what was going on, but he hadn’t heard anything about the highway being closed. At this point, we were getting fairly anxious about missing our flight. After we sat still for about 15 minutes, the driver started talking to the people around us again. After a few moments of our driver trying to ask us something and us not understanding, we figured out that someone had yelled over to our driver that the police had said the highway on ramp would get reopened at 9. Our flight was at 9:15, and the driver was asking if we wanted to try to take a back way and see if that would work. We enthusiastically said yes, worried that our 15 wasted minutes sitting would make the difference in catching our flight.

Our driver spent the next 15 minutes winding through side streets until we got to the very last entrance onto the only highway to the airport. And it was blocked off. We resolved ourselves to missing our flight and our driver went outside to smoke a cigarette.

After a few more minutes, we saw a huge group of police motorcycles drive past, followed by a motorcade with American flags. Trump’s motorcade had made us miss our flight.

Fifteen minutes later they reopened the road, but we only had 15 minutes before our flight at that point, and they wouldn’t check us in. We spent the next hour and a half rebooking our flights for the next day and trying to find a hotel that we could actually get to, since there were so many road closures. Eventually, we found a hotel back in Palermo, and we had an hour and a half to get there and check in.

It was a 40-minute drive back to Palermo, but the road to the airport had been closed for hours, which meant taxis hadn’t been able to get in and pick people up, which meant the taxi line was insanely long. After several minutes of waiting in line, we noticed that some people were going over to the drop-off point and hailing taxis as people got out. We went over there and I was immediately able to hail a taxi, and we ignored the traffic controller yelling and scrambled inside. We made it to our hotel with half an hour to spare, checked in, and ate some fish and chips down the street.

On our unintended bonus day, we were excited to be able to visit El Rosedal, which had reopened since the G20 ended. It was really beautiful, and I’m glad we were able to go. Between the gardens and the story we got out of out delayed flight, I think it was probably worth the very stressful six hours.

El Rosedal (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A giant bee (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Coated in pollen (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Planetario Galileo Galilei (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An adorable pair of dog friends (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Adventures in the Mountains

December 13, 2018 by Nicole Harrison in Argentina

On Sunday, we flew to Mendoza for a couple of days. We booked two tours while we were there - a wine tour, as one tends to do in Mendoza, and a gaucho day (gauchos are the Argentinian cowboys). We also spent our evenings walking around the city of Mendoza, which is an interesting mix of working class areas and very loud tourist parties.

The view from our apartment in Mendoza (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We have a habit of visiting places while fountains are under construction (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A performer at a weekend craft fair (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Monday morning, our guide Tim, our guide-in-training Tomás, and Syrah, the company owner’s dog, picked us up in a small truck and we began a 90-minute drive into the foothills of the Andes. By some ridiculous stroke of luck, no one else had booked the tour for that day, so we had two guides to ourselves. Tim and Tomás were great conversationalists as we drove past the man-made Potrerillos reservoir, through the little town of Las Vegas, and finally arrived at Daniel’s ranch.

Mist over the Potrerillos reservoir (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The reservoir, which is low from an alarming lack of snowfall in the past couple of years (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Daniel, his wife Marisa, and his son didn’t speak any English, but they were very nice to us. Immediately upon our arrival, I was handed a four-day-old goat, which was probably the nicest thing they could have done for me. The working ranch had a sizable herd of goats, quite a few horses, some cattle, and 12 dogs, who all eagerly asked for attention. I carried around my baby goat and watched as Daniel saddled the horses and his son let the goats out for the day. After I reluctantly handed back my baby goat, we had some mate and sopapillas for breakfast before mounting our horses and heading up into the mountains.

A cup of mate with breakfast (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Syrah, who is clearly not allowed in the house (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The baby goat that I wanted to keep forever (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Daniel’s son monitoring the goats (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A dense crowd of goats waiting to be let out (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A baby goat stuck in the fence (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The goats running to their daily grazing (and a cranky mule) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Dogs in the yard (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The foothills of the Andes are beautiful on any day, but while we were in Mendoza there were low-hanging clouds that gave the entire landscape a misty mysteriousness. It was both stunning and completely surreal.

The riding was at a surprisingly intermediate level - we rode up and down steep gullies and across streams, and we spent some time trotting and catering the horses through the flat areas. My horse, a blue roan gelding, was very calm and surefooted, and we only sometimes argued about the best path to take on a steep hill. Syrah and five of Daniel’s dogs came with us, and they all ran alongside and randomly took off barking at cows.

Finding the route (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Heading up the hills (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A pretty great couple’s photo (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We got up to about 9,500 feet and stopped for lunch. The low, heavy clouds were threatening rain, but Daniel and Tim got a fire going and we feasted on cheese, sausage, bread, asado, and the mandatory Malbec. The dogs alternated between defending us from nearby cows and begging for the scraps. Tim and Daniel put up a tarp roof in case it rained, but it just got very cold and damp for a while, and we huddled around the fire.

Putting up the tarp (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Snacks on a makeshift table (Photo/Jason Rafal)

My favorite dog, begging for scraps (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After lunch, wine, and conversation, we got back on the horses and headed up to a lookout point, where we could see the reservoir and the rest of the valley below. From there, it was a steep ride down the mountain and back to the ranch.

The view from the top of the lookout (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Crossing streams on the way home (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A hen among the saddles (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Puppy toes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

It was a truly great day.

On Tuesday, we had a much fancier tour of the area. We were picked up by our guide and joined two other couples in a minibus on the drive to the Uco valley, Mendoza’s new hip wine region.

Jason and I made the mistake of assuming that because we got picked up at 8, which is very early in Argentina, we were going to be fed breakfast. The fact that we were not fed was through no fault of the tour, because everyone knows the harm in assuming, but it did mean that we were very unprepared to drink the equivalent of 6 glasses of high-alcohol wine before lunch. By the end of the first tasting, I was definitely feeling it.

The first winery we went to was Bodega Piedra Negra, which was is one of the foundational wineries in the valley. They had roses planted next to their roses, not because they needed to see signs of fungus like in France, but as a nod to the beautiful, rose-edged French vineyards. Our guide at the winery, who was from Minnesota and fluent in English, Spanish, and French, walked us through the spotless fermentation and barrel rooms, where we were able to try wine directly out of the barrel. One of their prize wines was a combination of Argentinian and French Malbec. Weirdly, the Argentinian Malbec is an older strain - after grapes were originally brought over from Europe, all of the Malbec in France died from the phylloxera epidemic and had to be re-seeded from the grapes in Argentina. This means that now, the strains in Argentina are a closer relative to the original French Malbec than current French Malbec is.

The beautiful front view of Piedra Negra (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Walking onto the terrace (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A room of white wines (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Trying Malbec straight out of the barrel (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The second winery, Corazon del Sol, is owned by an doctor based in Texas who also has wineries in Napa and the Willamette valley. He bought a plot in the communal network called The Vines, which is a growing town that will eventually have 10 boutique vineyards, a resort, and shopping within a consolidated area. Corazon del Sol is interested in mixing different types of grapes to create the most well-balanced wines, instead of focusing on the traditional Malbecs of the area. Our guide at this second winery was great, and we were also getting pretty drunk by that point. We learned that the only real threat to grapes in Mendoza is the devastating large hail, which can ruin a crop for multiple years. Some vineyards are not traditionally in storm patterns, but for those who are, their only real protection is nets that need to be removed to allow the grapes to get light, and then replaced when a storm is in the forecast. It increases labor in the vineyards quite a bit, but it’s better than losing a crop. They also bomb the clouds to try to prevent hail,but the effectiveness of this strategy is very debatable.

Baby grapes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Signs of a recent spray (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Humidity being pumped into the barrel room at Corazon del Sol (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our third stop was Alpasion, which is a combination of the words for soul and passion (you may be sensing a theme about the romantic quality of Argentinian winery names). There, we drank four wines over a four-course lunch. Jason and I were delighted to eat more than crackers, and the lunch was delicious. The view was also pretty amazing.

Our view for lunch (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Spring in South America

December 09, 2018 by Nicole Harrison in Argentina

Jason and I picked Buenos Aires to visit for a few reasons: it was in the southern hemisphere, which made the weather favorable in our chosen travel time of late November; Jason’s sister Emilie had lived there for a few weeks after college and liked it; and it had an interesting reputation as a European-feeling city in South America, which just sounded cool. Having already decided to save Patagonia for a separate trip to Chile, we decided to focus our time on the city of Buenos Aires, with a couple of days in Mendoza for good measure (and good wine).

Our first Airbnb apartment was in San Telmo, one of the oldest areas of the city. It’s known for great food and great tango, as well as more classic architecture. Our apartment was historic and quirky and adorable. It was also right on the Plaza Dorrego, where there was always something going on - outdoor dining, tango lessons, a street fair. During the day at our apartment in San Telmo, we were constantly serenaded by our neighbor’s slow, classic music, which was occasionally punctuated by the tango playing in the square outside, a bird on the roof, or a child crying next door.

The under construction, cobblestone streets of San Telmo (not entirely practical for vehicles but essential for maintaining charm) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The beautiful blooming trees (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A random paint party in a park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A line to take pictures with the blooming BA sign (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Police near the Casa Rosada (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After we landed in the city and got checked in to our apartment, we started walking. We visited Puerto Madero, which is full of chain restaurants and new modern housing developments; we found a marijuana legalization rally in one of the plazas; we went to a classic Argentinian restaurant for dinner. On the first full day, we started our 15-mile walk by visiting the incredibly European-feeling Cafe Tortoni, which has been around since 1858, where we got some coffee and medialunas (sort of like softer, sweeter croissants). We saw the Recoleta Cemetery, where I could not stop marveling about how much all of the marble must have cost; visited the El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore, which is definitely the grandest bookstore I’ve ever set foot in; we marveled at the giant Floralis Generica, which apparently closes and opens with the sun. After a visit to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, which has a great collection, we visited a local brewery. It was a good day.

The ceiling in Cafe Tortoni (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our breakfast at Cafe Tortoni (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Beautiful murals were everywhere (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A delicious apple pancake thing (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Reflections at the Recoleta Cemetery (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A cemetery cat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The sky from the cemetery (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Through the window of the Teatro Colón (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The amazing El Ateneo Grand Splendid (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Floralis Generica (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A painted outdoor staircase at the national library (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A brewery with a surprise skate park in the back (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Saturday, we started walking to the La Boca neighborhood, where we quickly understood that the Boca Juniors were playing a futbol game that evening. It was an ill-fated futbol game, but we didn’t learn that until later. As we walked through the neighborhood, the energy was high. There were block parties, but there were also just people walking around the neighborhood waving flags and singing, punctuated by the supportive honks of the city’s drivers. Later we learned that the match had to be postponed because fans of River, the other team, threw rocks at a La Boca bus and hurt some of the players. It was a huge disappointment to everyone who had traveled for the game, and the rematch was removed from Buenos Aires as punishment. Everyone we talked to about the incident was adamant that it was really unusual for things to get that out of hand.

Game excitement (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Street party (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A mural next to the Boca Juniors stadium (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Street mechanics (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eventually, we got to the iconic painted streets of Barrio La Boca. Buenos Aires has an incredible number of murals and colorful buildings, but La Boca in a league of its own. The buildings in a small cluster of streets near the river are all painted bright colors, and many of the restaurants and bars have life-sized dolls hanging out of the upper windows and leering at the people below. It’s all quite surreal, but incredibly picturesque. We found a restaurant with a great outdoor courtyard and ate some choripan, which I would definitely recommend to anyone.

Paint extending to the river (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Dolls hanging from the balconies (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Classic colors (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Painted buildings in La Boca (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The courtyard at lunch (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A classic grill (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A very, very large door (Photo/Jason Rafal)

During our time in the city, I began to understand why it is so special. It is definitely very European feeling - a large percentage of the population is actually from Italian decent - but with some local flair. This was my first time in South America, so I didn’t have much to compare it to, but Buenos Aires had a unique feel that was both sophisticated and friendly. The language was Spanish with some Italian influences, which made it even more difficult for us to understand, with our limited amount of Spanish and almost no knowledge of Italian. Everyone was very nice to us and accommodating, though, and the language barrier never felt like a real problem.

On Sunday, we hung out in San Telmo before flying out to Mendoza. We started the morning walking through the San Telmo street fair, which had a mile of craft stalls, then spent some time in the San Telmo market, where we ate some really delicious choripan at La Choripaneria. It was a lovely goodbye to the area.