Just a quick update to let all know we are well. We decided to day-trip to Montevideo today for a change of scenery. To start the day we caught a little bit of sun on their beaches. Then we spent the rest of the day checking out different neighborhoods of the city. Our impression of the city is that it´s a little quieter version of Buenos Aires, but with a laid back beach vibe.
We stumbled upon a couple of different things we weren´t expecting. First, we saw a movie being filmed in the streets of Old Town. The people being filmed were dancing in the streets to music in a choreographed manner - High School Musical, Montevideo style. Later as we made our way to the City Center, we happened upon a street festival that caused their busiest part of the city to be closed for about 15 blocks. We don´t yet know what the occasion was, but it´s allowed us to walk more freely through the shopping district.
Well, that´s it for now. We need to head back to Punta del Este so that we can take off early tomorrow morning for Buenos Aires. ¡Adio´s!
It´s our third full day in Punta del Este, which means we´ve had two days worth of sun on the beach by now. Our first day we went to Playa (Beach) Brava, which is on the ocean side of the peninsula and where the famous fingers in the sand statues are at. Our second day we went to Playa Mansa, which is on the river side, but actually a little nicer because there was less wind.
But after two days on the beach, it was time for us pale skin Portlanders to take a break from getting ourselves more red than we already are, so today became a day to explore the local area. We drove a little bit through the town of Maldonado, but didn´t really do much besides drive by some amazing houses. We then went to Punta Ballena (whale point), where we stumbled upon a really unique beach spot called Las Grutas. As you can read from the link, inside the sea caves used to be a disco. Not any more, but the place was pretty interesting because there were paragliders taking off from the hills above, and the beach are was pretty secluded (at least today it was).
Also at Punta Ballena was Casa Pueblo. Massive and beatiful house of the famous artist Carlos Páez Vilaró, it also overlooked one of the most scenic views we´ve seen in Punta del Este. After lunch there, we drove around the neighborhood, gawking at some really amazing houses in the area and near the beach.
But the big story (for us, anyway) of the day was tea shopping. Julie fell in love with Cedron (lemon verbena) tea when we were in Ecuador for our honeymoon, but the box of teas she bought then had long run out. Not to have that happen again, Julie bought FOUR BOXES and THREE BAGS of loose leaf cedron when we finally found it here at the grocery store. Troy was on a tea kick too, picking up his third bag of Yerba Mate and second mate gourd and bombilla (straw).
But as hooked as we might seem to be on tea, we´re nothing compared to the locals. When we look around in almost any direction we see an adult holding his mate gourd and thermos filled with hot water ready to pour another serving. It´s even more prevelant than seeing Americans holding a Starbucks cup, believe it or not.
Well, that´s it from us for now. Time to go get some coffee or tea to have us stay awake for dinner (served typically between 10pm to 1am here).
We arrived bright and early yesterday to Buenos Aires, Argentina. The plane trip was fine - got some sleep, but not much. Before the trip we had booked a ferry ride that would take us to Colonia, Uruguay, and we went to the ferry station right from the airport, thinking we'd have 3 hours of buffer before our ferry took off. But once we got there, we found that our online tickets were actually reservations, and not confirmations. So the bulk of our time was spent trying to obtain real tickets, of which we got in hand and boarded the ferry with a few minutes to spare.
Once in Uruguay, we rented a car for driving the four hour trip to Punta del Este. We drove through Montevideo on the way, the capital of Uruguay, and found it interesting enough that we'll probably make a day trip there sometime this week. One funny thing about driving in Montevideo, though, is that you have to be on your toes. One minute you're going 40 MPH with the flow of traffic, and the next thing you know there's a horse and buggy or bike in your lane ON THE HIGHWAY. Actually, though, driving in Uruguay has been kind of fun. Troy even likes driving here more than on the Autobahn in Germany, mostly because you always have to be aware at all speeds, no matter what kind of car you have.
We made it to Punta del Este Saturday night. We were pretty tired, so about all we did was eat dinner then go to sleep at 10:30pm. And sleep we did - this morning we woke up at 10am! We ate breakfast then went to the beach, read, fell asleep some, then walked around town. So far Punta del Este is really nice, and might even be the safest city we've ever traveled to in South America. Weather for the week looks warm (high 70's to low 80's), but windy.
So off we go. We need to head to the grocery store to pick up a few items for the week. More later.
Adios!
Tomorrow morning we leave for a week long trip to Punta Del Este, Uruguay. We'll also be spending a little time in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and maybe doing some daytrips in Uruguay since the Punta Del Este weather isn't forecasting to be as beach friendly as we were hoping for. We also hope to be updating this site with blog posts and pics of the trip, but that all depends on if we can find a card adaptor that works with the Micro SD card we have in our new camera.
We're back home in San Francisco now. But we didn't forget about posting pics from our last day in Buenos Aires. We spent the first half of the day going to the old, well known San Telmo district. We checked out lots of old buildings, some pretty unique antique stores, and the cafes and flea market in Plaza Dorrego.
Afterwards we then decided to spend the rest of the day in our favorite area called Las Cañitas, which on Day 5 we called the Belgrano. It's not as edgy hip there as Polermo, for instance, but it reminded us of some of our favorite neighborhoods of San Francisco, Chicago or New York. Street after street, block after block, under an eye-pleasing tree and building canopy, just a never-ending string of cafes, shops, bakeries, and other commerce places that make city living convenient and enjoyable. In other words, the perfect place to relax and have our last coffee, tea, and tostado mixto (sort of a grilled cheese with ham, but much better).
We had a wonderful time. Hope you all enjoyed the pics and short stories as well.
Pictures today come from the exterior of the modern art museum MALBA (http://www.malba.org.ar/web/en/mission/index.php). We didn't really know what to expect, but it was pretty obvious that it was a private collection of one person's impression of art, plus a little Diego Rivera, Frida, and other artists mixed in.
We also took a picture of our hotel, the Grand Boulevard, finally. It served us well - centrally located, close to the subway, and relatively cheap.
A couple of other pics include the Obelisco - sort of a Washington Monument, but in the middle of the widest avenue (15 lanes) in the world. Another pic is of the neat pink/purple sky and clouds that seemed to come out of nowhere before the lightning storms came in tonight. Julie of course enjoyed seeing lightning again since we never see it in San Francisco.
And lastly, a pic of where we had dinner tonight, El Norte. The best grilled steak we had all week - which tasted even better when the bill came to $12 including a half bottle of wine.
Happy Thanksgiving from the Southern Hemisphere, all! We actually ended the evening with a Turkey dinner and mashed potatoes tonight, believe it or not. We happened across an american expat group that was putting on a charity event for homeless children in Buenos Aires, and figured it as good a time as any to find out what modern Buenos Aires was all about. The dinner was good, as was drinks and conversation with people originally from San Francisco.
Pictures today show some of the crazy rubber trees you see in town. Their bases and branches are just different than what we're used to seeing back home. We even found out the other day that at the cafes where rubber trees are on the property, most often the branches are supported by wooden beams to keep them from breaking under their own weight. One of the pictures today too was of the National Library. It's definitely different in design, but not our taste. We also included an old red brick building that just seemed different than the brownstones we would've seen back in Chicago.
Besides that, just more walking, as usual. We stumbled across another cool and developing neighborhood that our tourist book failed to mention, the Belgrano. Apparently the neighborhood is developing so fast that none of the websites I wanted to link to seem to show the modern conveniences of city life that we saw today. It really was a charming area, and its main tree-lined area reminded us of of the Bay Area's Walnut Creek when lit up at night.
Hope you all had a good Turkey Day.
Not many pictures today, folks. We got off to such a late start after tango the night before, that we didn't really do much more than walk, shop and eat in the chic Palermo district. We only managed to take two photos as well. One inside a shop that had figurines of every character under the sun, including the photo we took of Bush, Castro, bin Laden, Che Guevara, and Hussein ones. The other photo was of what looked to us like the most racist chocolate we've ever seen in all our travels.
We've really liked our stay so far here. One nice thing from the trip is that we've found we both really like Argentina's main red wine grape, Malbec. It's very smooth, and tastes somewhat like Zinfandel or Syrah, so of course it goes well with all the red meat here.
You've probably read or seen in the news by now that one of Bush's daughters recently had her purse stolen in a neighborhood of Buenos Aires. We've felt pretty safe here, but like traveling in any big city in the world, you need to be on your guard. We'll continue to try our best to "be careful out there", Tom.
Today was the day of bargains (relative to the prices we would pay in San Francisco). Troy and I both started the day getting our hair cut. The prices were too good to pass up. For a haircut for the both of us, and a full color for me, the price tag was less than the cost of a cut for one person in San Francisco! After getting our haircuts, we wandered over to a more modern part of town called Puerto Madero. With lots of new construction and restaurants, it is a controversial part of town for portenos (a Buenos Aires native) who prefer to keep the city as it is. We found it to be interesting, but not the most exciting part of Buenos Aires. We did have some darn good Dulce de Leche ice cream before leaving this part of town.
After a long siesta, we ventured out to try the best pizza in town,
recommended by a couple we met on Monday. After dinner, we headed to Confiteria La Ideal to experience the tango. For the bargain price of $5 we had 4 hours of tango entertainment. During this time, we watched tango lessons, locals dancing, live music, and a short professional show. The whole experience was so unique, and we felt like we had stepped back in time. We finally made our way home at 1:30am, which was early by Argentinian standards, and as a result slept until 12:30 today.
More to come...
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