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Hello
Its been a while.... and what a big blog I have for you
I am still discovering Argentina and here is what has been happening, to me, Age, Becky and new found friends.
Yoga, ommmnnnn
The Hare Krishna Yoga farm just outside BA was really fun. I didnt actually know it was HK when booking this little week retreat for Becs and I, but never the less, we were pleasantly suprized by the whole experience, I may not go quite as far as saying we were enlightened, but definatly educated, relaxed and stretched!
After 1 quick cab ride, a train, 2 buses and another bumpy cab ride we arrived at the yoga farm, slap bang in the middle of a yoga session, the taxi driver pulled his battered old rusty blue fiesta right up next to and nearly onto the fellow yoga retreaters who were mid position and practising on the grass outside the ashram, quite an entrance we made! But great we were just in time to experience our 1st yoga session followed by Cake Time!! Debbie and Jonathan had the giggles during this 1st yoga session, this imediatoy set mine and Beckys nerves at ease, you know what its loike sometimes when you have to be all calm and serious and you look around at one of your friends and you just get the fits of giggles, this place was gonna be fun.
Straight after Yoga, its 6:15 and this is offically CAKE TIME! I think this should be introduced into everyones daily life, what a great idea, and you all know how much Cate loves Cake, I was happy as a pig in poo and yes, I did have 2nds mmm mmm. This is where Becky and I both realised that there would sadly be no weight loss this week as we might have earlier anticipated, but hey, its not the end of the world. Days on the farm pretty much revolved around meal times, up at 7:15, sling on your oldish clothes, big breakie consisting of stewed or cut banana and apple, 2 chipaties, maybe something sweet and a cup of hot fruit drink at 7:30am. Then the jobs for the day were allocated to each of us. Lots of people doing lots of hard hoeing oin the garden, mud huit building (yey I love dirty jobs) a kitchen helper, basically cleaning (this HK lot are pretty mesy and a bit dirty in the kitchen) or painting garden furniture, fences, gates, walls etc. We would then work, bloody hard, really working up a BIG appetite untill 1:30, then quick wash of the hands, or full body if you the hose has got the better of you inthe garden or mud in the mud hut! and you know me and mud!!! Long lunch, the food was so so tasty, all vegetarian and sometimes vegan, and no eggs, or onions or garlic (something to do with these veggies growing mainly at night, and whatever happens at night ,is a bit naughty so, forbidden) There would always be chipatties, various veggie concoctions, rice, lentils, lots of squash, so so good and always 2nds to be had, I restrained myself sometimes you and my dresses will be glad to hear! Then we had free time from 2:30pm (after someone does all of the dishes outside in cold water) till 4:30, so in this time, on the hotter days we (Bee, Becky, myslef and Debbie) found a secluded spot and sun bathed, gossiped etc, or napped. Or on 1 particular day and the picture shows me and becs, when it had been raining solidly for 2 days, took a very muddy slippery slide to the local shop which was 1km down the mud dirt track rd to fritter our money on contraband chocolate, cookies and jelly sweets for us and our llittle group to later enjoy on the sly onour bedroom. Such a hilarious walk as we handt anticipated just hpw muddy it would be, were both in flip flops of course and actually managed to stay off our bums for the whole trip! Then, dinner is at 8:30pm, more lush veggie treats to be had, then we usually played noisy card games or watched films. This was so cute as it was like being on school camp, all inocent, no booze, just cards, and any other games you could think of and make out of some paper and pens, lots and lots of laughs and our bed times just got later and later. Especially once the rain set in and we were unable to work on the farm for 3 days, this led to later starts in the morning, trips into town for illegal lovely mugs of hot choc and coffee and yet more games and cards cards cards till 1am! Brilliant.
Yoga was everyday at 4-.30pm, we bent and stretched & meditated for 1.5hrs, I really enjoyed it. I ve taken pics of the inside & out of the ashram for you, such a calm, peacefull place, usually anyway apart from those moments when looking round at Debbie or Bee and having to contain a huge smile and burst of laughter. There were also certain times of the day when oferings were give to Hare at the alter in the ashram and one of the madres or Thakur would sing with a little minature guitar, and praise him, this was actually really moving.
We all had such an amazing time on the HK farm, I learnt thinkgs like, you have to wash your mouth and hands before entering the kitchen area. Sex or kissing etc is banned unless your married and its to make a baby. They dont use knives, only for cutting food in the kitchen, you eat with spoons or forks (forks can be tricky cutting pizza or when we hadthe pizza party and spoons even more useless when trying to shovel spagetti in your mouth) Dirty cutlery can never go into the kitchen, when you ask for 2nds, the madres will take your bowl but you always keep hold of you spoon or fork. Nothing can be killed, even pesky flies. Single woman usually wear white, but can wear other colours but rarely do and men wear orange,a lot! Hare Krishna is represented as a blue boy then a man, apparently in the town of Vrindavan in northern India where he was from, his mother looked into his mouth when he was eating soil one day and she saw the whole universe.. and there it all started. Oh and men are above women (this bit obviously needs re thinking severly)
Ooh on the pics of the loos, the toilets inside our little sleeping building were long drops! and the had a major problem with poo flies, take a look at the white walls, the black dots are flies, hundreds and hundreds of the pesky buggers, I cant explain and the images dont do it justice and cant even begin to give you the horrendous idea of what they were like. Its the most flies ive ever seen in my life, all in 1 place, litreally a thousand! and when you lifted the lid to the lo,they came swarming out - like something out of a horror movie! the stench was revolting too. Just so you know, it wasnt all quite plain sailing. Luckily there were real actuall 21st centuary toilets outside, a little bit tricky afte rthe rain when youhad to wade through the mud but so worth it!
It was really refreshing to learn yoga and meditate for 1.5hrs a day. So lovely to meet all the young beautiful girls who had converted to HK and were dedicating their lives to him and the beliefs because they wanted more meaning in their lives. Amazing to make such great new friends from all over the world (well england, Oz and America anyway), to laugh so much with and hopefully be friends with for life. To do manual bloody hard work and eat the results or sea them take shape, like in the mud hut. To feel so physically exhausted that you are ready to drop. And to detox, especially after crazy over indulgent times in BA. A bloody great time had by all. I stayed a week, then left to meet AGE in BA, and left becky there with Jonathan and Debbs for a few more days of sillyness.
On my last few rainy days on the farm, thoughts of seeing Age in Buenos Aries were creeping more and more into my head. I had been traveling only with Becky for over 3wks now and had last seen Age in Salta in the North. We were to spend his last week exploring BA doing lots of fun things before he flew home and I continue on...
As you can probably imagine with Age and I, fantastic food and wine played a HUGE part in our reunion and the happy days that followed.
La Cabrera is one of BA´s most famous MEAT restaurants, and as Argentina is BIG on MEAT! and I had heard lots of good things about this place, it was a must on my list to take Age too. After all I had been veggie for the last week and practicaly for the last month as Becky is a vegetarian and so I followed suit, and was happy too, but when in Rome.... it was time for meat.
Age and I were very excited to try this place and it was in the lovely Palermo, a quaint part of town that Becky and I had previously stayed.
I will tell you 1 thing about this crazy city, It NEVER sleeps! It sets a time all of its own and beats to its entirely own funky rytham! this is a city where ANYTHING can happen and you just go with it as fast as you can trying not to lose pace or pause for breath for too long, its electric energy and compulsive vibe carrying you along and keeping your head above water. A thought is maybe to move here for a year or so and work in production for a magazine, once my Spanish gets better that is....
Sunday night and Age and I having had a late ish Sushi lunch in the decadant yet slightly crumbling and unkempt area of San Telmo, after wandering for hours around its beautful antiques market head home, just before an incredibloe storm starts, for a rest before heading out, quite late in the night for our fabulous meal. It was so lovely, we had a small cosy room in the eaves, and french windows, so we lay on our bed in a big blanket, with the windows wide open and just watched & listened as the rain came splashing down, and the whole sky lit up, continuously every few seconds from the most incredible lightning, all this whilst drinking lovely red wine that Age had carried all the way from Cafayate in the north, so perfect...
Later after the storm... me in my long, flowing, aztecy green Mancora dress and Age wearing a smart casual turquoise fine jumper and deep blue jeans jump in a cab and head east, to feast. I had tried to book a table earier in the day, but had no response but as it was 22:15pm Sunday night we were living in hope that the restaurant may have calmed from the evening rush and we would be seated asap. (Even though the rumour has it that you get champagne if you have to que) We were in luck. The restarant however was buzzing, of course, this is BA, people come to eat as late as 12 as the restarant doesnt close till around 1:30am. We were taken straight to our table, in amongst 40 other happy dinners revaling in the treats layed before them, mmm we couldnt wait to dive in! Age ordered and we had decided on the Kobe Wagu beef, with a side salad of mozzeralla, tomato, sun dried tomato and basil, ooh and spanish style chips with egg on top, ahhhh give me a moment, im just reliving the anticipation of this amazing feast. Ooh and a tip, the meat must be asked for Rare as Argis Really like to cook their meat and so rare comes medium, so realy could have asked for blue... next tme. Now the wine, well I have been learning a little about wine and its process over the last few weeks, mainly by drinking it and making a mental note of the bodegas I like. As I was heading to Mendoza next, I decided to pick a wine from their, I love Cab Sav and decided to treat ourselves to a bottle of Septima Dia, wasnt quite sure what this would be like but was feeling lucky. The wine, was a deep plumy red, and smelled of rich forrest flavours, perfect to compliment our rich meal (blad-eh blah but you have to get into the spirit of things dont you)
So, the feast arrives and oh my goodness, there is SO much food!! A signature of this restaurant is the accompaniments that your dish comes with, on the huge wooden board that our 2 slabs of Wagu beef arrived on were 6 pots filled with an array of delights, ranging from, quail egg salad, pickles, a light green spicy sauce, herb mayonese, then, on a whole other plater came 8 more white pots filled with sweet potato puree, red salsas, creamy mashed potato, roasted garlic & onions, sweet apple sauce, aubergine & courgettes, sweet red pepper dip wow I cant remember anymore, but it was so fantastic, I thought these things would just be little sauces but they were large & varied enough to be small side dishes and enough of them to be quite substantial - brilliant! We ate like King & Queen, and enough for King, Queen, prince, princess & corgi´s! wow I feel full just thinkning about it, but Im sorry I dont have apicture of this, Age has them on his camera but If I retrieve one Ill be sure to post it next time just so you can picture this moment.
Ooh and a bonus was at the end of the meal when the waiter brought us another bottle of the lovely wine we had had during the meal, to take home with us, maybe it was on offer or maybe he just liked us - result!
Our wk in BA was filled with great food, sushi, salami & cheese platers, lots of ice cream (sometimes 2 in a row - see pics attached) A fab little heladaria called Dylan in San Telmo, we chose our yumi flavours, for me Bariloche Chocolate & the addictive dulce de leche & for Age erm, probably something fruity like lemon & I think if my elaphant memory serves me correctly fruits of the forrest. Then, whilst were slurping our ice cream down outside by the side of the rd, we saw this lady come out of the door with what looked like a chocolate mountain, well, we had to know what it was and then, I couldnt believe it, Age suggested we get one, straight after finishing ours. So we did! What yu do it, select the size cone you want, choose the ice cream flavour, it was Ferrero Rocher (I knew Age would love this one, and he did) then the kind ice cream man dips it in gooey melted hot dark chocolate and before you can say what if it dribbles, its all frozen into a neat cone! Voila! bit sickly to be honest, but well worth a try.... fatties on tour of BA continue.
Thai, mmmm tasty spicy thai, Argentinians dont do spice and we have become quite acostomed to a bit of heat, and I love Thai food so we searched for the only Thai restaurant in BA and went there early to fill our boots. It was owned by a really large, very camp man from Chicago, luckily after talking our ear off bigging up his restaurant for about 10min before he even gave us the menu and a drink!! he buggered off home and left us to enjoy our meal in peace. This gave us the energy to dance the night away at La Bomba, I had to bring Age here after Becky had brought me 2wks previously as I knew he would love it just as much, and he did!! Its such a funky, energetic place. We danced and bopped around a bit trying not to spill our drinks, and me standing on a colomn just to try and see an inch of the stage! oh to be 5ft 3 at a concert!
A sunset picnic in the park was our last meal together. V romantic, in the Japanese gardens, well close by anyway as the sun was fading fast and eating in the dark in the middle of a field next to a large lake wouldnt be quite the same. As Age and I are always always late for things, its amazing we ever get anything done, it was meant to be a lunch time picnic in the sun, but, through lots of packing and lounging and general faffing time drifted on, but actually the end result of us sitting down to feast on our lovely picnic treats as the sun set over head was just perfect, couldnt have been better if planned. As is always the way with us :)
We had so many types of salami and ham, wheaty breads and crackers, I made salsamole ( a real great gem to add to any picnic, introduced to me by Becky, its a mixture of avocado, tomato, red onion, red peper, lime & chili so so good & fresh) cold beer and a brie, gouda and blue cheese mmm mmm I love love love picnics in the park! this one was perfect. Follwed by a quick dash across town so Age coulod buy his Italia top and then I actually, by chance tried on a perfect fitting pair of cute, light denim jeans, so all in all this topped of the day nicely,that and a couple of glasses of red back at hotel yey!
Ahhh Mendoza
One of the reasons why I love Argentina, is because, great, tasty, fruity full bodied wine is always just a bottle away, just waiting to be sniffed, swilled and sipped till my heart is content. And drinking this beautiful wine it usually is content. Mendoza is a large wine region, I think the largest in Argentina. You arrive in the region by aother long bus ride from BA, and wake up with the sight of fields and fields of lush vine yards, bright clear blue skies and the Andes perched behind trying hard to blend in but obviously never can, due to their sheer size and grandure. WOW. I really love this about over night journeys, you fall to sleep in one amazing place and usually wake once or twice through the night, peer through the naff polester blue curtains onto the black black night sky filled with the most amount of glowing stars, and if your lucky a large, orangy yellow full cheese moon. Then, after falling back to sleep and having bizare dreams you awake to this whole new place, a landscape probably like something youve never seen before and it pulls you out of your hazy broken sleep-like state and into this entirely new world, thus injecting you with a burst of child like energy and an eagerness to discover all it has to offer as soon as stepping off the bus!
I met Becky in Mendoza, we shared a very packed cosy (a bit too cosy) dorm room, with smelly boys. This is where the action packed week started. Its Autumn now here but still warm enough to sun bathe inthe park, which we did with glorious picnincs on many occasions that week. Along with wine tasting at a place called Vines of Mendoza, where you get to try 5 or in our case 8 wines because it was the end of the night and we had a really nice wine man (sorry cant remember the technical term for this) to explain all about our chosen selection of red, white and a rose wine. We also indulged in a fantastic cheese board to acompany this wine tasting, oh my goodness, what a really lovely sophisticated charming evening. We learnt, we quaffed, we didnt spit! and we feasted on cheese & this amazingly tasty sweet spageti squash chutney, what more you could want... (actually what we could have wished for was the man on the stool next to us to just bugger off and stop interupting our evening, but hey you cant have everything!)
The next day, more wine tasting followed, well, when in Mendoza, queen region of wine... be rude not too. off Becky and I toddled to Maipu, and rented bikes for our 24km wine tour cycleathon!!
Brilliant! A wine museo to start, a quick look round the humongus wooden barrels & old equipment used, a slurp of free red, back on the bikes. Cycle cycle, rest, cycle, rest cycle, through a beautiful canopy of trees for most of the way, vine yards on either side of us and also the Andes as if the view wasnt incredible enough! We reach our furthest bodega, best to start at the furthest and crawl home we thought. Good planning you see. This was such a sweet bodega, owned by a couple in their early 60´s who had retired and moved to Argentina and now this keeps them ticking over, nice work if you can get it hey!? The man is obsessed with Stars and planets to this is little theme running through the bodega, small starry stain glass windows here and there & the names of the wines & packages feature constalations etc, I thought this was rather lovely, Becky thought it was a bit cheesy and a little marketing trick, so cynical. Anyway, we got to try 5 wines, 2 new and 3oak aged. I loved the Malbec, so rich and really intense deep flavours but then I swilled the cab sav aroun dthe glass, looked ats depth and the slightly orange hue around the edge, it smelled fruity and almost a bit sweet but heavy too, then, I sipped it and wowee! a little party in my mouth, the first smell and taste was almost buttery and smooth, then the tangy deep fruit flavours seep through to give an intense full bodied flavour without any of the tangy tanin aftertaste. Of course I bought a bottle. Also the lady said that these Oak aged wines taste even better left for 5-8yrs - incredible!
Here we met a lovely english man called Richard, very sweet & well mannered Becky and I thought, we later bumped into him at the next bodega and then he stuck with us till the end, so we all quaffed, swilled & got a bit merry together. he also came in handy when Becky got a flat and nearly passed out from the sheer strain of peddaling it to our last bodega of the day, poor girl. They were all very differnt and really interesting in various ways. We explored wine cellars, where hundreds of dusty old bottles surrounded us, just laying there, aging, becoming fruitier and more intense inflavour by the day. We tried sweet wines, which I love, intense reds, a Tempranilo which im not normally keen on but was very pleasantly suprized. Same for the Chardonnay, I think I really appreciate oak aged reds but not whites, my opinion is changing, for the good ones anyway. Its also brilliant how you can access lots of really good wine in the smallest of supermarkets and stores, it would be silly if you couldnt in this region but I just love it that it is always at your fingertips. 7pm and Becky and I return our bikes, pretty knackered, bit pissed, bit educated and were imediatly handed yet another glass of wine, super! Later we ventured out onto the main strip of bars and restauants, this was on our rd by the way, for Mexican with Richard and a girl from his hostel, a really fun evening, amazing strawberry daquiris, fajitas and the worst waiter in the world - good times.
This place was to become a regular of ours, purely for the amazing cocktails.
The next day, Debbie, a really lovely bubbly girl from London we met at the yoga farm, joined us in Mendoza, so many more fun times follwed. Here it is, in short hand.
Horse riding and white water rafting. We get dropped off in the Andes, wait for 2hrs for our horses to show up so amuze ourselves in the garden of this little cafe by doing various yoga poses, writing mesages in leaves to Jonathan, a mexican californian who was part of our little yoga group (he´s the dark haired one with the beard doing silly poses in pics above) Then, a little treck on our horses through the Andes, a bit wild west, I think at one point I even galloped! Anna Im no match for you but I think im getting better in the saddle yey! Quick, off the horses, and get driven whilst trying to eat our cute packed lunch, courtesy of Becky, in the back of a bumpy van. He drops us off at a lake side where we meet the rest of our rafting team and we get given what we think are super sexy wet suits and other clobber to try and keep us from getting hypothermia once were in the mighty cold autumn glacier river water. Well, as you can imagine, 3 silly girls, thinking their Charlies Angels, dancing and striking poses all over the changing rooms, well, that bubble soon burst once we saw the pictures of ourselves and realized we were mopre charlie from Eastenders than Angels!! bugger!
Rafting was freaking cold on our feet as they were constantly submerged in the water in the bottom of the boat but so so much fun!! nMoost of it wasnt very hard as the river was low in this season but it gave me the jist of what it would be like every now and then and eased me in gently ooh and I only nearly fell out once, and managed to regain my composure before actually doing so, thank goodness! Our teacher was a good guy too and we all just giggled our way down the rapids, paddling like mad every now and again and willing it all to go faster yey!
We were meant to then go out for dinner but only managed as far as the cocktail place to sip on a few of those delights, take many silly pictures and nibble on yumi quesadillas - perfecto.
Lots of wine, picnics in the park, tasty food, huge portions, so so so many dulce de leche (caramel) ice creams (for me that is, ice cream is my weakness, the girls managed to restrain themselves)
Our last eveing out consisted of, great wine, sat outside a cool bar under a lovely warm heater, dinner during ladies night at a really cute swanky restaurant, then home, back to the hostel for impromtu dodgy gin fueled dancing to cheesy MTV tunes till 5:30am! Again, good times....
Becky left on the friday, Debbie and I stayed on for a couple more nights in our cute little room, then we met her friends for one last lovely meaty lunch including great strong mojitos, thenI said my goodbyes, and left for my 19hr bus ride south and Debbie was to head north to Peru.
Am on my own again,for the 1st time on Months, a new adventure, but I can do it. And to be honest im hankering after a few days of quiet, calm, cold and lots of hot choccie curled up on a sofa in front of an incredible view - and this is luckily exactly what I have found.
Bariloche
(The Lake District) its actually a bit like the Lake District in England & quite a bit like parts of Switzerland due to all of the chocolate shops and wood cabins and the cold, mind you its not disimilar to Blackpool today, the lake resembles the sea due to the wind blowing a gale and its mighty nippy! ooh and it could be a little like Scotland (I imagine anyway as I have never actually been, so couldnt really say for sure) and maybe parts of Italy too, its really quite a sweet place. It is Autumn and the tress everywhere are all glowing golden and orange and deep red, its so so pretty. Autumn in Mendoza is still sun bathing weather, not quite don the bikini poolside but definatly in the park with your summer dress on and a picnic (as various pictures above will demonstrate) but Autumn here and I imagine deeper south too, is mighty cold. Kind of England cold in Autumn/Winter. Now, I have been very lucky on this trip and have managed to chase, at my leisure, summer for the past 8 months, so, let me tell you, it is quite a shock to my system to have to wrap up, put layer upon layer of thermals on (thanks Mum for these and the gloves, they are much appreciated now) whenever venturing outside. I´m having to ease myself in slowly slowly cheeky monkey. At the moment I have been here 3 days and can only stay out for a few hours in the morning, before rushing back to the cabin (large alpiny house but sounds cuter) on the top of a hill for a warm up & a large mug of Guatemalan hot choccie! this is my daily ritual. From this point I read, (at the moment The Time Travelers Wife) email, cook up healthy treats (although my appetite does seem to have gone some what, but do you know what, this will do me no harm at all) and curl up on the comfy white sofa in the sun shine in the large bay window over looking Lake Nahuel Huapi & the surrounding snow capped mountains - perfect, this will do me fine. However... I do feel pangs of guilt every now and then that im not actually out there trecking in this wonderful landscape, but not that guilty, I can see lots of it from here and with any luck, my next mamouth 20hr bus journey further south will cover all of the sight seeing scenery I need from the comfort of my semi cama chair horrah!
Weather wize, I think I am a little bit pathetic, but still dont know myself and my glowing fair skin will ever become acustomed to a cold climate again!!??
I have to venture out properly and explore this totally breath taking land scape. Tomorrow I think, the weather is meant to be pure sun shine and cloud and rain less - heres hoping.
Well, I´m really not going to leave it this long next time, I promise, it just takes too much out of me to write something this long, and, well as you know, Im on my own now, so this is a really good way of chatting to you all, without actually having any of you around.
Untill the next time, im off to pour myself another glass of red and make a tasty veggie fritata for me and Natalia, a nice girl whos on hostel duty tonight and just maybe wrap myself up warm, gloves and all & venture out into the cold night for my 1st Bariloche ice cream, its meant to be the best in Argentina, so, its my duty to see if that is actually true, this could be a slippery slope..... im hoping anyway, into ice cream heaven - whoooopppp!!!
Actually, this blog is taking some time, its now a day later, im still eating my mediocre fritata, its only 6pm so not quite onto the wine yet, but so nearly, have tried an ice cream for lunch, was good but not amazing, so still on the hunt for the best one in Argi! Had my daily walk along the lake shore, froze my bits off, this cold malarky really isnt working for me! plus I do have limited atire for the cold weather so do not appreciate wearing the same 5 layers each day, my winter look is getting boring! roll on summer sun in Oz! or maybe sooner if I can squeeze a bit in somewhere else in the mean time, thats another thing I´ll have to adapt to, not being able to just head to the beach for a few days of lazing in the hot sun every few weeks! Oh how will I ever cope.
Now its wine time as its now 8pm and Im still writing, maybe this is what it feels like to be a full time writer, meeting dead lines and working late into the night!
I am going a little delirious, partially from this although I am really enjoying reliving these tales to you but partially due to being in my own company for 3 days now, after weeks of being with the girls and Age and contantly around lots of people.
P.S its yet another day later and I did venture out, I have had the best day, near perfect! And seen some of themost beautiful landscapes I have EVER seen - I have so so many pictures, but this is for another blog, ill do in the next day or 2, once I recover from my next 26hr bus journey south to El Calafate to treck on a HUGE GLACIER- cant freakin wait, it all starts tomorrow, wish me luck xxxx
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