Star Quality

Buenos Aires is pretty fabulous. It's a wonderful mixture. It feels much more European than an American city but it's not European at all, it's very much of 'our' hemisphere. It's got a lot of the beautiful architecture that Madrid or Paris has mixed with a healthy smattering of ugly sixties-military-dictator-style. It's got the New York lively, bustling, up-all-night, everything-you-need attitude with nicer weather and gorgeous foliage. It's great, great, great and I'll go any time.

And it's a shopper's heaven. The dollar goes far and the top designers are affordable (on American terms). The women are well dressed, but more casual than Europeans. And have less of that European 'look' (the Barbour jackets, the sweater over a blouse, neck scarf and loafers). Everyone looks good but dresses with more individuality. The Argentine designers are much more avant-garde than American ones. And their leather! I bought A LOT OF SHOES AND PURSES. It can't be helped.

We stayed at the Alvear Palace. It's a very nice European-style hotel. Very expensive with small rooms but nice amenities and service. Fantastic location (in La Recoleta). I love Recoleta because you can walk around very easily and it's so attractive and well located. There are a lot of new, nice hotels in the Puerto Madera area but it's a bit removed, especially at night. I would really recommend Recoleta.

Taxis in B.A. are so cheap, too. You can get clear across town (which is far because the city is HUGE) for $7.

The Palermo neighborhoods (split into Palermo Soho and Palermo Hollywood, no, I'm not kidding) are the chic shopping meccas. Lots of boutiques, restaurants and bars. Definitely the scene at night. I wasn't as wowed by the fashion over there - fun stuff but it felt too young and not unique enough compared to my favorite place in Recoleta. Palermo has a bit of an East Village feel to it, a little seedy but otherwise totally great. Recoleta is still my favorite, though, but they could not be more different.

They have a nice, though small, museum of Latin American art - MALBA. Very nice. But it took us about 20 minutes. The Casa Rosada is super, all I could do was sing "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" in my head. And the uber creepy Recoleta Cemetery. Edgar Allen Poe couldn't have dreamt this place up.

But which balcony of the Casa Rosada?  I expected a light pastel,

something more subtle than this!  The infamous Plaza de Mayo

is in front of it and it's pretty crappy.  (Sorry, Buenos Aires.)


Creepy cobwebs and high funerary drama were the norm at

Cementario de la Recoleta.

Can you see the two lace-draped coffins?  

There was much of this creepiness there, too.

One of many creepy mausoleums.

Crypt Katie!  This cat wandering around the cemetery looks like

my dead kitty.  Weird, huh?


Domingo Sarmiento's crypt.  There are many

sophisticated mausoleums like this.

Evita's family crypt.

The Queen of Drama herself had many a plaque, but this was best one.

Mas Mendoza

We stayed at a hotel called Cavas Wine Lodge which was neat. It was about 25 minutes out of Mendoza and in the middle of a vineyard. You drive up a loooong driveway and arrive at a colonial-looking main building. It had a similar feel to Los Notros - rustic, frontier-chic - but was a bit more sophisticated but also less cozy. All the rooms are separate, in their own Adobe-style houses. You follow long paths through the vineyards to each little house.

Big sky country, Argentine-style.

Viewfrom main building to a couple

of the room-houses.

Our house was a one-bedroom suite with a private patio and plunge pool. And on the roof was a deck with an outdoor fireplace and a fabulous view. The bathroom had stone floors and walls and was very outdoor-chic. It was all designed very well and looked great. The downside of all the rustic-ness was that there were cans of Raid on one of the shelves, just in case, and spiders in the bathroom. It wasn't awful, it was just fine, nice, really, but me no likey spiders.

One of the many fabulous views of Cerro La Plata and friends.

And the plunge pool was a great touch, especially if we had had, you know, some free time to lie around. But it was so hot in this area you couldn't be outside and uncovered for too long. So lying by the little pool might not have been an option anyway. You would have gotten quite crispy. Plus the pool needed a little once over with the net-thingy.

Not a great photo, but you can see the little pool.

The cool outdoor shower is out of the frame to the right.

I'm among the vines to get the photo.

The bathroom and patio were quite sexy, really. (If you can forget about the spiders. I think I only saw two, but still. Ick. And the cans of Raid, while never necessary, were unsettling.) There was a big claw-footed tub in front of a sliding glass door, looking out onto the outdoor stone shower, patio and vineyard. And the indoor shower was all made of stone and very kewl. And you were tucked way into these vineyards so it was all very private.

Argentina's Wine Region, Mendoza and around

I feel badly saying this since Argentina, and the trip, was so awesome but I found the wine region a little disappointing. In Mendoza's defense, the glaciers and the lake district are extremely hard acts to follow. We probably should have gone here first.

God bless Jeff but by this point I had had one day 'off' to lie by the pool at Llao Llao (the other Llao days were spent exploring the area) so I was looking forward to drinking wine, having massages and generally hanging out. However, we arrived late at night and the next day we had a 9:30 AM appointment at a local vineyard for a tour and tasting followed by a full day of the same. Only my husband would want to drink wine before breakfast. So, I also look back at Mendoza in a haze of exhaustion and with longing for another 5 days by the Llao pool.

We didn't stay in Mendoza itself, where we flew in. I've heard very mixed reviews about it. It sounds like there is some lovely colonial architecture and some nice hotels and restaurants but it's also a stereotypical Latin American city: the rich are very rich and the poor are very poor and there is quite a lot of crime if you step too far out of the good neighborhoods. We went in for a great meal at an underground (as in clandestine, not below the surface) restaurant and we were told that the driver should wait for us through our meal. And, as we drove around the city late at night, you got the feeling that there was a very unsavory underbelly. Perhaps it was the not-stopping-at-red-lights-for-fear-of-getting-carjacked whenever we drove around at night. It was a little creepy.

The region itself is spectacular. It's flat flat flat and then from out of nowhere the Andes pop up. In this region the Andes are at their highest, with Mount Aconcagua (the highest in the world outside of the Himalayas, weighing in at about 24,000 ft.) just 25 miles or so away. All the mountains visible in this area are over 20,000 ft. Suck on that, Rocky Mountains.


Cerro La Plata at sunset, which happened to
be at 11PM. La Plata was directly in front of
Aconcagua so we were never able to see it.
Notice the snowline in the middle of summer.

The grapes are irrigated with glacial run-off and grow in soil that has the highest mineral content of any wine-growing region in the world. It is also the highest wine region with an altitude of 3-4,000 ft. above sea level. And with 22,000 foot mountains looming close by, that gives you an idea of how abruptly this range cuts through the landscape.

The wineries are small compared to Napa wineries as far as production is concerned. Many don't even have bottling capabilities on site. At one winery we witnessed this outsourcing at its best: a mobile bottling truck. During harvest, they use migrant workers from Bolivia to pick the grapes. The fill huge bins full of grapes and are paid by the bin. It was very upsetting to see the bins they use and to learn how much they make. There should probably be serious discussion about boycotting Argentine wine. Especially for Jeff and me since we know what we know. It's bad, you'll have to trust me and we'll leave it at that. Ugh.


Mobile bottling truck

Only big wineries really have the horsepower to export their wines so what we can buy at our local liquor store is entirely ho-hum compared to what is available in Argentina. However, see above. Ugh.

There was a beautiful drive we read about in the guidebook that took you way up into the mountains, en route to Aconcagua, but I have a pretty paralyzing fear of heights so Jeff thought it was a bad idea. Now, I wish we had done it. I have a strange relationship with mountains: I love them but they terrify me. After the Episode on the Grossglockner Pass in Austria Jeff is pretty reticent to take me on any more of these drives (hyperventilating, hysterical crying, projectile tears). I do prefer to admire their majesty from below than to behold the view from above. We did do a little drive up into the hills and saw a thunderous river, guanacos and lovely views, including Cerro los Siete Colores.


I think I only see cinco colores but who's counting?!

And just a little geography lesson, Mendoza is the airport that the Uruguayan soccer team left from, en route to Santiago, Chile, before that big crash. The Andes do not kid around.

We Interrupt This Programming...

I'll finish up posting about Argentina soon enough. Relax yourselves. Especially since we hope to embark on Gland Vracation '09 to Asia - imminently.

It's my blog. I can be offensive if I want.

Llao Llao & the Lake District

Jeff made all the arrangements for our Totally Awesome Honeymoon. However, I made it very clear that we had to go to San Carlos de Bariloche, in the Lake District, and stay at Llao Llao. We could do whatever else he wanted but Llao Llao had to happen.

Since I compulsively read about and research travel, destinations and hotels, I had heard about The Llao (as I call it) years ago. And decided whenever I finally got to Argentina we needed to meet.

The hotel is lovely. There is the old part of the hotel, in the original lodge, and the new part. The lodge is based on that very old school, country hotel model: small rooms, rustic design, not a huge amount of amenities. The idea is that you are not in the room much. The new part is great: big rooms, brand new fixtures, very 5-star. Not sure the old section is quite so 5-star.

The public rooms are great. It's decorated like a country, hunting lodge. And when I say hunting lodge I am not kidding. I suppose the place is not for everyone but I thought it was fabulous.


Sorry, Bambi, these chairs were everywhere. And
there were some cowhide ones, too. Sweet!


And antler chandeliers all over. That's Jeff's cigar smoke.

We drove around the area, which is stunning, but the best part of The Llao is the location. It is literally in the most spectacular location in the entire area. Whoever designed the hotel picked the most perfect spot.


Driving up to the hotel.


From the driveway, your first glimpse of the hotel.

Views in every direction:












Lying by the pool was the best. Gorgeous views.


The patio attached to our hotel room. Monte Tronador
in the background. (Thunder Mountain!)


Birds of prey were all over these here parts. This guy
was right outside the breakfast room and was stalking
a hawk's nest. He was a big boy, up to my knee. His
toupee looks lopsided, doesn't it?


Mama-hawk is getting pissed.

The Lake District is in northern Patagonia, and as in the glacier region, Argentina proves it's natural beauty is without rival. The lakes here are huge and very, very deep. And the mountains are very, very tall. And they rise of out nowhere. No rolling foothills, no graceful slopes - it's like walking into a pop-up book. The Andes are the Alps on steroids.

San Carlos de Bariloche, or Bariloche as it is called, is pretty tacky. It's a touristy ski resort town and it feels like it. Llao Llao is several miles out of town, so it's easy to fly in and out of Bariloche while avoiding that. Bariloche was built up in the 30s and 40s when the upper class from Buenos Aires could no longer travel to Europe because of the war. So a savvy developer decided he would make a Swiss-style resort for the Porteños. Everything is very Alpine and mountain lodge-y. I think this Swiss-Austrian-Bavarian vibe the Argentines seem to love probably also feeds right into their bad reputation for harboring Nazis. Seriously. It makes me feel badly for them because the Argentines are such lovely people.

The local restaurants were excellent. We never had a bad meal. We went to one run by an Austrian expat (yup, insert Nazi joke here) and the menu said 'cash only' which we were not prepared for. When we told them we didn't have the cash to cover the bill (before we ordered) they asked where we were staying. When we told them Llao Llao they said, "oh, no problem, leave an envelope with the concierge and we'll pick it up in a few days." I also left my guidebook at a restaurant across the lake and the concierge called them and they brought it over on their boat.

We were told Villa La Angostura was a beautiful town across the lake (Lake Nahuel Huapi). We drove over and had lunch at a nice hotel called Las Balsas, part of the Relais & Chateaux chain. This is where I left my guidebook and they motor-boated-ed it back to me. Lunch was good and the hotel was elegant but rustic. But it couldn't compare to the situation of the Llao. And the town, in our opinion, was tacky. It got such rave reviews from so many people we are sure we must have missed something. It was tacky like Bariloche, but not nearly as big. One main drag a few blocks long and that's it.


En route to Las Balsas. There is so much cattle-raising
that there are now wild cattle everywhere.


And then our steak knives arrive in sheaths!
Yikes!

The moral of the story is that every time we tried to explore off the grounds of Llao Llao we were disappointed. Bariloche - meh. Angostura - meh. Las Balsas, very lovely but not comparable. Stay elsewhere at your own risk.

Next time, I'd sort of like to try San Martin de Los Andes, which is several hours away. It's supposed to be a much nicer town and also in the Lake District. But I fear disappointment.

More Glaciers

No, I cannot stop writing about glaciers. Once you see these they will be all you think about, too.

Glacier stats:

Perito Moreno
1 mi. wide (each 'snout')
200 ft. high
30 miles long

Upsala
7 miles wide
200 ft. high
40+ miles long
--This is the largest glacier in South America

Spegazzini
1 mi. wide
400+ feet high
18 miles long


Upsala: This is a monster. It goes on and on. Just enormous.
And receding very rapidly. The boat stopped at one point and
we were told that the glacier used to reach as far as 'here' as
recently as Reagan's 2nd term. It was so many miles from
the current 'snout' we couldn't even see the glacier yet.


Spegazzini: The other beast. This thing was so tall.


More Spegazzini. The weather is very changeable.


Still Spegazzini. See how the weather has changed in just
a few minutes? This was our companion boat. The boat
was pretty darned close to the glacier.


Onelli glacier. Doesn't compare to it's neighbors.


Three glaciers meeting.

These truly are the greatest natural wonders I've ever seen and by a long shot. Nothing comes even close.

And the cold wind that whips off these things. I was literally blown over. I fell right on top of an Italian lady. It was mortifying. I think she thought I was tackling her. What's worse it you could see the wind coming at you like a little tornado. But I had no idea it was so strong!!!

Once you have seen things like this it's heartbreaking to know how we are destroying this planet. If everyone in the world could see this there would be no need to negotiate how to manage climate change. It would just get done. Period.

There was something like this on an earlier post but it's just so cool:
http://gosouthamerica.about.com/library/blArgspacepix3f.htm

The Titanic Never Had A Chance

We took an all day boat trip through the lakes to see some other glaciers. Perhaps I covered this already but one of the reasons Perito Moreno is so famous - beyond its general awesomeness - is that you can get there by land. The other fab glaciers in the area are reachable only by boat. So that's what we did.

It really was all day. Like 10 hours or more but we got to see lots of super cool icebergs and three more glaciers.

I took hundreds of photos of icebergs alone. They were amazing. And they get bigger and bigger the closer you get to these gigantic glaciers. Seriously, now I understand why the Titanic sank. I always was sorta like, really, it hit an iceberg? How does it sink a huge ship? This is how:


Scale isn't obvious from this image but you could
park several cars on these. Plus look at the
background! Come on! Is there anything prettier?


Blueberry snowcone!


This reminds me of one of those aluminum doggie
bags that are made into weird animal shapes.


OK, now we are getting serious. This thing was HUGE.
You could drive a bus through that hole. This was
bigger than a house. This was half a block or more.
And stories high. I looked on the captain's radar and
you could see how big it was under the water. Only
10-15% of an iceberg is above water. This whole thing
must be 20 stories high or more.


The other side of the same iceberg. This was the
other boat we travelled with. (For safety they travel
in pairs in case there is a Titanic moment.) Granted
the iceberg is in the foreground but still, it's gigantic.

Nothing prepared my brain for the scale of things in Argentina. Everything was huge. It felt prehistoric to me, evolution hadn't come to the landscape yet. Everything was still dinosaur-sized.

Los Notros

Los Notros, as mentioned previously, was our hotel by the glacier. It is the only hotel in Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. Everyone else has to drive in from El Calafate which is an hour or more away.

We flew into El Calafate. It's a small town, very frontier-y with a sort of Western feel. The airport is tiny and has one small runway. I can't say much about it since all we did was drive through a couple of times. But as soon as we landed you got the distinct feeling that you were very far away. From anything. It is remote to say the least.

Los Notros is a fabulous hotel. It's not super luxurious or swishy like a Four Seasons or the George V but it was better in pretty much every way I can think of. It doesn't have the elegance of a big expensive hotel but it also didn't have the stuffiness. It was extremely comfortable and casual. The decoration is very Western and frontier-y (you are going to hear that a lot from me). A lot of natural wood, exposed beams, rugs by local Indian tribes, cow hide-covered furniture, fire places, etc. It had huge plate glass windows all along the side facing the glacier. So whether we were in our room or eating in the dining room all you could do was admire Perito Moreno.

It was very expensive, not the kind of hotel we would normally stay in. But if you are schlepping yourself all the way down to southern Patagonia it would be sort of crazy not to spring for this place. I can't imagine commuting back and forth to El Calafate. Everything was included, all the food and the excursions. And everything was perfectly done.

The food was excellent. We got fat quick. We had three courses at every meal - I'm too full for dessert but we've already paid for it! The excursions were fabulous - cruises around icebergs and to other glaciers, glacier-trekking, etc. And the guides were very, very knowledgeable.

The staff was really excellent. (Yes, I need to expand my vocabulary.) They are all young and imported from other parts of the country. The hotel, because of the latitude / weather, is only open 8 or 9 months of the year and the staff all have contracts for that season. They all live in 'dorms' on the property though a couple of people commute from El Calafate. The hospitality industry is booming in Argentina and a lot of young, smart, articulate and very nice university graduates flock to this place. Not only was the service excellent in every way but they were all very excited to be there. They all knew it was a special place, too, and were delighted to share it with us.

We found this throughout the country. They weren't cocky about it like, say, the French (pardonnez-moi, citoyens). They were very humble (mais, oui, you luf Fraahhnce, why would you not?). When we told people that we were on our honeymoon they seemed shocked that we would pick Argentina and always wanted to know if we were enjoying ourselves. When we said that we loved it they were so excited but at the same time would say, it is very beautiful, isn't it? It was a lovely combination of gratitude and pride. It was very sweet to be around.

Our room wasn't terribly big but it had a gorgeous view. And the bathroom was behind the room and had a plate glass window that opened into the bedroom so you could see the glacier through that window. Make sense? It was cute.

The only alarming thing was that there were some rules you had to follow because it was in a national park. There was only limited sewage treatment so when you went to the loo you had to throw away - not flush - your toilet paper. No matter what. That was hard to get used to. And pretty gross. And all the water came from a local waterfall so the hotel had to close when the waterfall froze in the winter.

The weather was pretty temperate considering you were a few hundred yards from a giant block of ice and as close to Antarctica as I have ever been. It was maybe in the 50s? On - and close to - the glacier the temperature dropped a lot. And freezing wind would whip off that thing like I've never experienced. But every time we returned to the hotel there were fires going and it was so cozy.


I took so many photos of the glacier I didn't take
too many indoors. This gives you a tiny bit of flavor:
eating homemade cotton candy with indigenous
textiles hanging behind me. Notice the sunburn
from reflection off the glacier!

Los Notros, which is a kind of bush that grows in the area, was just awesome. Rustic comfort. Enh, now I want to go back.

Glaciers

It's almost impossible to convey how amazing the glaciers were. Or I'll restate: it is impossible for me to convey. I'm not a very good writer (yet I have a blog!) but no one really reads this so I guess it doesn't matter too much.

I've never really seen another glacier (technically I have but it wasn't glacier-iffic. It just looked like snow.) so I have no basis for comparison. But my friends who have been to Alaska and Norway say that our pictures don't compare to what they have seen (as in what we saw was AWESOME). I've never been to the Himalayas and I don't know what their lake situation is so I could be lying here but I feel confident in saying that Parque Nacional Los Glaciares is like nothing else in the world.

The glaciers are huge, both in how wide their mouths are, and how high they are. They are all very fast moving, meaning it doesn't take long from when the snow falls on the top of the mountain to become the compacted ice that calves off into the lake. Perito Moreno, for example, is super fast - it takes about 400 years. Many glaciers take tens of thousands of years. That's how they find woolly mammoths.

Below are an assortment of photos since I think you can only see for yourself how majestic these glaciers are.


The view from our hotel. It's too foggy, but you
can see the glacier going up in different directions
toward the top of the mountains.


This image makes the glacier look small.
It's at least 150 feet high.
The mountain is enormous.


It's amazing how smooth the 'snout' looks.
This is probably a half a mile wide or more.
Probably closer to a mile.


This is the pressure of the ice buckling
as it hits land. A small peninsula juts
out into the lake and creates two 'snouts'
on the glacier. This is one mouth hitting
that peninsula.


Up close, the glacier looks like meringue.
Look how it goes on and on.


Hopefully this gives an idea of the scale.
The white-ish dots on the mountain, on the left,
is our hotel. The line of ants in foreground is another
group trekking on the glacier. Our hotel was the only
one in the park.

Argentina, part one of a million

I think I will just warn readers (if there are any) that I'll probably sound like a broken record. Argentina is awesome.

A W E S O M E .

I guess I will start chronologically because I don't know how else to dive in.

We went for our honeymoon, which I would do again and again, though in most respects it's not a great place for a honeymoon. There is too much to do and the newlyweds need a location that offers far less temptation for activity.

It's an 11 1/2 hour flight to get there, 10 1/2 back. At least it's a direct flight to Buenos Aires. We flew to B.A. on Monday night and got there about mid-day. It's 3 hours ahead. We spent the night in B.A. but I will come back to that. We flew economy because I wouldn't let Jeff buy business class seats. It's an absurd waste of money and I have Ambien, so what do I care?

The next day we took a 3 1/2 hour flight to El Calafate, in southern Patagonia. Our destination was Los Notros, the only hotel in Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. It was a horrible flight. I hate flying and this was up there with the bad ones. We were crammed in like lemmings. We bought business class seats only to find out that there is no business class on regional jets so we got the ones that were picked over by economy fliers. The absolute suckiest seats on the plane, way in the back where they added in extra seats and the middle aisle got really skinny.

The only good part of the flight was the view. I had my face plastered to the window the whole time. I watched the terrain change from gigantic metropolis to the pampa (their agricultural heartland), to way under-populated countryside, to steppes. I felt like an astronaut. It was marvelous.

We finally land at El Calafate. Truly a frontier town. The airport had a single runway, ending in Lago Argentino, that largest lake in Argentina. Apparently Lake Titicaca in Bolivia/Peru is bigger. But it must be like an ocean to be bigger because Lago Argentina is gigantic. Like Great Lakes gigantic, easily. Here it is from space: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Lago_Argentina_from_space.jpg

So, we get off the plane on this single airstrip and I really feel like I am at the end of the earth. This place is so desolate. But magnetic.

The airport at El Calafate

The hotel has a driver that meets us. An older couple from London, Ben and Ruth, were getting a ride, too. I was pooped. We hadn't started the relaxing part of the honeymoon yet. We had been travelling a lot. Los Notros is going to be the big relaxation. Nothing to do but stare at the glacier. I asked how far the drive to the hotel was. Jeff said it wasn't in El Calafate but in the park, it was a ways. Like 45 minutes? Yeah, at least that. So, I asked the driver. Two hours. Two hours!? I was so tired! When does my vacation start?! I was horrified.

But again, I spent the ride with my face plastered to the window. I felt like I was on the moon. The terrain was so different. The countryside was all hills and valleys and vast. We were driving due west, toward the Andes, and began seeing mountains. The landscape is indescribable - everything is enormous. I felt miniature, like I was visiting a land of giants. Coming from a girl from New York City, surrounded by huge buildings, I think that says something.

Once we drive into the park, we were more than half way there. About five minutes from the hotel our driver told us we were going to stop and look at the glacier.

Our first glimpse of the Perito Moreno Glacier

Perito Moreno glacier is special for many reasons. The first is that it's the only - yes ONLY - glacier left on the planet that is not receding. It's not advancing, it's stable. It's also the largest glacier in the world that you can get to by land. This area is the most temperate area of any major glacial site in the world. In fact, it's an ice cap, and the only other ice caps are in Antarctica and Greenland. The latitude is the southern hemisphere equivalent of London. The ice cap can exist this far north because of the weather. The warm humid air from the south Pacific blows over Chile and bumps into the Andes, meets the super dry air of the Patagonian desert, the temperature of the air lowers and then the humidity turns into precipitation which in turn becomes crazy amounts of snow. Ergo, glacier HQ.

Our driver spoke no English. When we stopped, I asked him how much the glacier advances every year. His response: six feet per day. Give it a minute.

That's nuts! Everyone thought my Spanish was crappy and my translation sucked. But I asked again and that's the answer. But it's not advancing because so much calves off every day.

I think I could talk about the glacier forever. More on the park and Los Notros later.