This year instead of going home for Christmas we decided to travel through Argentina and Chile. We were gone for a little over two weeks, and we both agreed this was on of our favorite trips we've ever taken. It was so diverse and if I'm being honest, a little out of our comfort zone. We are beach goers, we love to just chill and relax on our trips. This trip encompassed so many things, the least being soaking our feet in the sand reading a book.
Our route was flying from São Paulo to Buenos Aires on Christmas Eve, taking the overnight bus (highly recommend it) from Buenos Aires to Mendoza. After Mendoza, we took a bus (about 6 hours, although the ticket said 4 hours!) to Santiago. From Santiago we immediately took a bus to Valporaiso/ Vina del Mar. After a few days there we headed to Santiago for a night, and then flew to the northern part of Patagonia--Puerto Mont (but we stayed in Puerto Varas). We spent the most time in Patagonia, and returned to São Paulo.
I decided to break the trip up into parts--countries.
Buenos Aires (December 24-26)
We ended up getting to BA later than we thought, but fortunately at the airport we picked a great taxi driver who we actually ended up using our last day. We stayed in Palermo, and the ride to our hotel was unforgettable. Apparently it is tradition for the locals to let fireworks off on Christmas Eve, so once we got into the city we were dodging fireworks and praying our car wouldn't explode.
Christmas day was a little challenging, mainly because EVERYTHING was closed. I was also not in the best of modes, partly because the heat and everything being closed, but mostly because I was missing my family. I'm so thankful we got to travel, but there is something about being home with family. We spent the day wandering around and taking in the architecture and parks, but decided we both wanted a nap and I definitely wanted to take advantage of our bathtub in the room.
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Empty BA on Christmas day |
Thankfully by the evening things opened up. We went down to Puerto Madero, a fun barrio along the river. It has tons of restaurants and bars. We strolled along the walkway and enjoyed some wine at a little bar and then headed to dinner at Cabana Las Lilas. We had an amazing Christmas dinner, I got the lamb and Jess took advantage of being in the land of beef and got a bife de chorizo.
The next day it was blazing hot, but we wanted to see the city. We were going to take a bicycle tour of the north side of the city, but decided it wasn't worth the hottness. So we called our new friend, Luciano the taxi driver, and he took us all around the city anywhere we wanted to go. We went to different barrios, but my favorite was La Boca. It is artsy (but very touristy) and just had a really chill vibe.
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| Obligatory tourist shot. |
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| Tons of colors and artwork all over. |
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| Tango anyone? |
We aren't big into sightseeing, but we did stumble upon the Recoleta on a search for the best empanadas BA had to offer. We decided to check it out. It is a huge cemetery and the graves are gigantic. They are all beautifully made and of course are constructed of the best materials. Some were actually little houses with a door and all. It was very peaceful and creepy at the same time. Before entering a man drew a map for us to Evita's site. Either the map wasn't accurate or we couldn't read it because we ended up walking up and down countless alleys to find her grave.
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| The entrance. |
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| Recoleta |
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| The map a man on the street wrote for us was not very accurate. We walked around a long time to find Evita's grave. |
Mendoza (December 26-December 30)
One of our favorite parts of the trip, and a dream come true for Jess was Mendoza. We opted to stay in the city of Mendoza, rather than out by the vineyards. I'm glad we did, it is such a cute little town and we had fun exploring when we weren't doing wine tours.
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| Streets of Mendoza |
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| The city of Mendoza is full of little bodegas and lots of parks. |
We definitely did our share (and more!) of eating and drinking on this trip. The Argentinian food did not disappoint. Jess loved the bife de chorizo accompanied with a glass of Malbec. He even said he liked it better than Brazil's beloved picanha!
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| At dinner the first night. We both had bife de choizo, but prepared in different ways. |
Of course the reason we went to Mendoza was to taste the wine. We scheduled a wine tour with our B&B. Javier, the son of the woman who owns it, gave us the best wine tour that lasted from 9 am-7 pm. Yep, almost 12 hours of wine. He took us to his favorites, which were not the big ones. We preferred the smaller vineyards to the big company run ones. Our favorite was the first stop, Dominion St. Diego. It is run, the whole process from grape to bottle, by the family--father, mother, two sons, and a daughter.
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| Dominion St. Diego |
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| Not a bad day! |
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| Cheers at Carinae! |
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| We'll take a barrel (or two). |
We also enjoyed a five course lunch pairing at Bodega Ruca Malen. Apparently, it has the number one lunch pairing out of all the wine capitals in the world. (Note to self: go to all the others and taste them too!) The food was some of the best I have ever had in my life. I honestly had to pinch myself to believe that I was eating such amazing food, enjoying fantastic wine, while looking at the Andes with my lover. Definitely a day I will always remember and cherish.
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| At Bodega Ruca Malen |
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| Heaven. |
Our time in Argentina was great, but it was just the beginning to a wonderful trip. I'll be back with our time in Chile--Valparaiso and Patagonia. Before I leave our top memories/highlights from Argentina (in no particular order).
-Christmas dinner at Cabana Las Lilas at Puerto Madero
-Our day with Luciano (La Boca, Recoleta, and nachos!)
-Javier's Wine Tour (especially Dominion St. Diego and Ruca Malen)
-First class traveling on the overnight bus to Mendoza
-Our picnic in the park in Mendoza
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