For dessert: road rage

so...Chris and i just got back from a great Argentine dinner ( as you can see...it was nothing out of the ordinary)...the usual: steak and wine. After a full day of walking around and visiting various outdoor artisan fairs, we decided a cab home would be great. Pretty easily, we flag one down. We get in the cab and tell him our home address. The driver is a big, heavy set man with salt and pepper hair. He doesn´t strike us as overly friendly, but not many of them are. Driving on a 5 lane avenue and less than 10 seconds later, we notice a hatchback (which is a standard size for the cars in Buenos Aires) one lane left of us...one car back. Our taxi driver pulls up next to it and yells spanish profanities ( i probably shouldn´t translate)...then, he pulls dead in front of the car, cutting him off like nobody´s business, and stops the taxi with the emergency break!....next thing you know, our driver gets out of the car, in the middle of speeding traffic, leaving us in the backseat, and pounces on the hatchback with all his body weight and two full fists...denting the hatchback and shattering the rear right window!! It was CRAZY! Our driver gets back in the taxi, with blood running from his hands/fists and continues driving us to our destination as if he just stopped to get some gas! He said nothing...Chris asked him if he was okay and he said ¨yes, yes¨. Next thing you know, we are weaving in and out of traffic ( trying to flee the scene and backlash from the other driver)...there are two lanes on the street at one point, and our taxi driver decides to make a 3rd, right in the middle of two cars! Wow.....it was, by far, the most ¨adventerous¨cab rides in South America yet. All we had to say, was thank goodness that we were not in the United States....because that would not have ended so peacefully.


attached are some other photos from these past couple days....basically, what you see is a visit we took to the ¨Rosedal¨, a rose garden in Buenos Aires´ version of Central Park. After that, we visited Recoletta cemetery, which is most known for Eva Perone being buried there. It´s a beautiful cemetery with lots of old and newer moseleums. After about 4 miles of walking around, we stopped for a big fat juice smoothy....mmmmmm....not so interesting but sooo worth it ( notice the shirt Christopher is wearing...he´s come out of the closet with his Argentine futbol jersey).

Today, we went back to Recoletta to visit their weekend artisans fair´and moved on to an area called ¨Palermo¨, where there was another fair going on. The fairs here are great...lots of realy cool jewelry and hand crafted ceramics and wood carvings. Chris and I have found these artisan fairs are just what we need to stretch and grow our marriage ;)

Tomorrow we visit yet one more fair, in one of the oldest sectors in Buenos Aires, San Telmo. Then we meet up with Gaston for lunch before heading to a River Plate soccer game! Oh yea...more pics to come!

Bariloche

We just got back from 5 days in Patagonia, in a city called Bariloche. It was GORGEOUS!...perfect, really. Our pictures don't do it any justice...and seeing them on computer certainly doesn't help...but, we're going to bambard you with them anyways :)

The trip began on Tuesday afternoon. We took a 25 hour bus ride from Buenos Aires to Bariloche. The ride wasn't too bad...it was worth it. However, the food they gave us was vomitous...as you can see...by the far our worst meal in Buenos Aires yet.

On the other hand, our first night in Bariloche, we went to a spectacular steak restaurant called " El Tarquino"...this may be our BEST meal in Argentina yet. The steak was delicious and we found our favorite Argentine wine, "Familia Gascon", from Mendoza. Wow...for those of you who know me (Ang) you know how I appreciate food...this dinner made my week! Plus, the restaurant itself was beautiful...all made of wood. I know it sounds weird to get so passionate about a restaurant but we loved it! It was perfect...so much so, we decided to go again on our last night.

The highlight of our first day, or should I say Chris's highlight, was me getting my hair stuck in the blow dryer...my hair knotted up into a ball that I could not get out for the life of me…the blow dryer started to smoke making our hotel bathroom smell like bad bbq ... finally, we both lost- the blowdryer lost it's life and it took a good chunk of my hair with it. Chris was laughing his butt off at me as I’m screaming “my hair is on fire!” Thanks to that little incident happening the first day, I had to walk around with wet hair and now have a full blown cold :(

Thursday we took 2 excursions, the first was called "Circuito Chico" (Small Circuit). We took a chairlift up the mountain and at the top was a breathtaking view. It was called "Cerro Campanario". It was absolutely beautiful. The lake was surrounded by gorgeous mountain peaks and a bright blue sky. There are 7 lakes in total in Bariloche...all of them different colors and so pretty...from deep blues to bright torquoise....certain parts looked like Carribean waters.

After finishing Circuito Chico, we took a ferry ride over to “Isla Victoria” and Parque Nacional de Arrayanes. The Arrayanes trees are specific to Patagonia. There is a story that says Walt Disney visited the area many years ago and found his inspiration for the movie “Bambi” from the trees in the Parque Arrayanes.

Friday, we took an excursion to “Cerro Tronador”. We stopped by “Cascada Los Alerces” (waterfall), where we drank some awesome hot chocolate (Bariloche is know for it’s great chocolate….we brought some back…sorry we can’t share) and ate some little fried dough stuff that pretty much tasted like a really yummy doughnut. After the waterfall, we visited Cerro Tronador, which is the glacier you see in the pictures. The Tronador loses parts of its glacier every so often making this thunderous sound, which is where it gets it's name from....we got to hear it twice. One side of the mountain is in Argentina and the other is part of Chile. We heard a few comments about the history between the Argentines and the Chileans and what “the Chileans thought should be their land but the Argentines didn’t…” etc.,etc. etc.… It was funny to see the Argentines get all worked up. They are as passionate about their land as they are about their futbol.

Saturday and Sunday we just chilled…walked around town, ate more amazing food, rested and took naps….really just enjoyed our time. We visited the Chocolate museum (you can guess whose idea that was ;) walked around the town’s artisan’s market, walked by the river, shopped around a bit.

Anyways, Bariloche was fantastic. Exactly what we hoped for...scenic, restful, fun, beautiful.

We are now back in Buenos Aires for the next 9 days and are looking forward to hanging out with our friends here and enjoying the city again :)

Having a blast in Buenos Aires!

Well, we are having a BLAST in Buenos Aires! We will definitely be writing more about our time here, later...for now, here are some pics :)

We STILL can't figure out how to label our photos...so, we'll have to list them out....

Picture #1: The Sanchez family ( We spent a Sunday afternoon with Virginia Sanchez's family, eating delicious parilla (BBQ meat). Virginia is one of our closest and dearest friends and it was soooo great to finally meet her family.
Picture #2: Siga La Vaca- a popular restaurant that offers ALL YOU CAN EAT meat, salad bar, great wine, and dessert!
Picture #3: Crazy man dancing in the street
Picture #4:Congresso (Congress)
Picture #5:Casa Rosada (Literally means pink house) (Their White House)
Picture #6:Plaza in front of the Casa Rosada
Picture #7: El Tigre ( An island along the Rio de Plata, where many people have summer homes)
Picture #7: Los Valazzas, who we're staying with (Arnoldo y Mercedes) with Chris on our first night here

We head out tomorrow to a place in Patagonia called "Bariloche". We hear it is absolutely beautiful...so, get ready for lots more pics!