Pictures!

I figured I should get these sorted before the crazyness of being back in Calgary catches up to me. My favorite ~180 photos of Argentina and Chile are now up on facebook (silly place, but easy):

Argentina Part 1 - Iguazu, Salta, Mendoza and Bariloche
Chile - Puerto Montt, Torres del Paine
Argentina Part 2 - El Calafate, El Chalten, Puerto Madryn and Buenos Aires

Eating Our Way Through Argentina

One of the best parts of our trip through Argentina was food. It’s evident by the snug fit of our pants that we enjoyed the coffee, pastries, steak, wine and chocolates a little too much. For those of you who just went back to re-read the steak part of that - yes, we do eat steak now. Along with lamb, chicken and in some cases seafood (although I don’t think I’ll keep that up).

For the first time ever in our travels, food became something of an attraction. Part of how much we enjoyed a town was due to how good the food was. Barlioche and Buenos Aires moved to the top of our lists as places to visit for food while Puerto Montt and Mendoza were less favorable.

Our favorite meal was our first steak dinner in Iguazu – great steaks and our first taste of salsa criolla, a spicy tomato onion sauce for steaks. We got a taste of the good steak and from then on we found anything but the top cut of meat to be “too chewy”. The worst meal was Jon’s foray into the world of Mr. Dog panchos (hot dogs) where he ordered the “pancho Mr. Dog” and was served a bun with lettuce, cheese and two “dogs” in it. Hard to choke down!

In between we dined on spicy chorizo sausages on crusty buns, liberally dosed in chimichurri (herbs and olive oil mix), fries in paper cones with mayo and ketchup and ice cream in more flavors than imaginable. Almost every morning started with a café con leche or submarino, and most afternoons included one as well.

I actually miss the eating, although my waist line is in better shape now that I'm not munching away. The food is one of the reasons you should be going to Argentina (if you haven’t been yet). The scenery is spectacular, but some of my best memories are of us eating!

Jonny enjoying cafe con leche in Puerto Madryn while watching whales in the ocean.
Rice with seafood - I didn't eat the guy on top but my dining companions did!
Typical bus breakfast.
A much better breakfast in El Calafate. Submarino, media lunas and cafe corado. The best part about this subarmino was that the chocolate bar came in a submarine shape.
My lamb dinner after finishing Torres del Paine. Simple presentation, but a huge amount of amazing lamb. The man who runs this little restaurant has a good thing going.

Is this available in black?

I don't dislike shopping, in fact I enjoy it, but shopping for clothes is another matter. Especially dress clothes, I avoid it like the plague. But today I needed to buy a blazer/jacket/whatever you call it. So after driving 6 hours from Hinton to Calgary with only a gas stop in Edson, I hit the mall. I immediately regretted it, 4 pm on a Sunday before Christmas and the mall was packed. I whacked people out of the way with my purse as I scanned the stores for the perfect jacket (and shoes for that matter). Nearling the end of my shopping stamina (and shopping hours) I finally found what I was looking for - thank goodness for shopping associates! The wonderful woman quickly picked out the perfect outfit and had me on my way with no awkward size fussing or huge padded shoulders.

Aww, nuts!

Since I returned to Canada I've been living with my parents while I job hunt. The job hunt has consisted, so far, of very little job hunting and lots of Christmas shopping and baking. Excellent pastimes but unlikely to help me find employment. When I find myself very unmotivated to look for work, I check my bank account balance. The low numbers there have a way of inspiring me...

I am also in the process of printing off my travel photos (starting with the WCT) and they are bringing back lots of happy memories. It may be a while before I get the completed set of Argentina photos out there though, 1300 is a daunting number to sort through.

In the spirit of Argentina, I am indulging in a submarino while I bake today. Not good for the diet but it does wonders for the soul.

We're where?

Just 33 hours after being picked up by our crazy taxi driver in Buenos Aires we were shivering in the cold of another Alberta winter. How quickly you can move from travel mode to real world mode. Cafe con leche and confusing spanish speakers seem so long ago already.

Trip summary? We had an amazing time in South America. Not necessarily better, but just different then our last trip. Looking back, all I have to say is go to Argentina now before the peso makes a come back and steak stops being less than $6US! Experience it all for yourself, just bring your own sleeping bag and spend as little time as possible in El Chalten.