A Weekend in Buenos Aires with Friends

After two months of cajoling, our friend Amy came to Buenos Aires last Thursday for a long weekend. I say cajoling because both Amy and Sarah have been talking about a shopping trip to Buenos Aires since last July as our travel plans to South America began to take shape. Initially we thought we were going to be able to meet up with Amy during Thanksgiving, that is until we realized how long the country of Chile really is and that it would have taken a bus ride north for 30 plus hours for us and a bus ride south for 20 plus hours for Amy, who is in Bolivia, to meet us halfway. And so time continued to slip by and the Austral summer turned into the Austral autumn and Sarah began to get wistful in her thinking that she would never really be able to go shopping in this town with someone other than me.

So two months ago, while still in Neuquén, we began to lobby Amy for a flight to Buenos Aires for a long weekend. She is living in Bolivia where her fiancé, Brent, is busy doing his PhD fieldwork and where she is working on her own PhD dissertation. Sarah's idea of cajoling can be boiled down into one sentence, "It would be great if you could come..." My idea of cajoling is an email that is twice as long as my wordiest blog post and is filled with reason after reason as to why the correct course of action is the one for which I am lobbying. And Amy confessed during the weekend that the promise of Argentine steak (point #19) was just as high as the promise of clothes shopping (point #2).

So when we went out to the airport to meet her at the arrivals section last Thursday, we were all smiles when she made her way out of customs and immigration. It was wonderful to see a friend from our lives in Madison. We hugged and laughed and were jubilant as we made our way to the taxi stand. As we waited in line to reserve a taxi, someone came up behind us and asked, "Do any of you all speak English?" We turned and saw Brent standing there with a giant grin on his face.

Brent had made plans to join Amy a few weeks back but he had wanted to keep it a surprise. And he was successful in this; we were shocked! So we made our way back to our apartment and had some lunch and then began walking around the different barrios of this grand city. The weekend can only be described as fantastic. We went to a live jazz show on Thursday night, ate at Don Julio on Friday night, went to a Tango show on Saturday night, and then another Tango show on Sunday, and on Monday night we drank 3 great bottles of wine and played bridge at home. During the days we shopped, drank numerous cafes, went to the San Telmo street market and tried as many different flavors of ice cream as we could.

Tuesday, Amy and Brent's departure day, came too quickly, and after we returned from seeing them off at the airport, the cloud of sadness that follows farewells began to open up in our apartment. After 5 days together, we kept expecting to be able to go out and get a beer with them at the local bar or deal another round of cards at our table.

So it goes.

Then on Wednesday morning, we realized that we had to get ready for the arrival of another guest this weekend. So Sarah threw herself back into her research and I began to make preparations for Joel's visit, including the purchase of tickets back to the lovely mountain town of Mendoza and reservations for a fútbol game here in the big city of Buenos Aires!

Pictures from the Tango Show at Café Homero

The Wines from the Weekend

Malbec
2005
Ruca Malen
Mendoza


Awesome wine. Great structure.
Great aromas. Great Taste.
Excellent start and finish.

I can't give you details because we were busy eating Bife de Chorizo, Bife de Lomo, Choripan, and a salad at the ever reliable Don Julio Parilla.

I can tell you we drank two bottles and the price was quite good too at 60 Pesos - 20 USD.





Malbec
2007
Latitud 33


Bad.
Too fruity and too young.
Would be best served close to frozen and with sparkling water.
Ugh! Stay away from drinking 2007 Malbecs in 2008. Wait two years!










Malbec
2006
Series A
Zuccardi
Mendoza

Good to okay.
A step above Latitude 33.
Goes well with a Tango show and goes down somewhat smoother than fruity, young Malbecs.

The Better Wines...

Champana
Extra Brut
Carmelo Patti
Mendoza

Excellent champagne made by a wonderful wine maker in Mendoza. If you ever see a bottle of Carmelo Patti for sale - buy it. He makes and sells very solid wines. His 2002 Cabernet blend is out of this world and pricey too but oh, what a wine.

Our reactions:
Paul: Smells of honey, grapefruit, pear. Has a frontal attack with a mellow grapefruit taste. Light, tart, with an unsweet finish and a middle to strong dryness.

Sarah: smells like spring, like tulips rising from fresh earth. Fresh like bread. Dry, fine bubbles, bitter aftertaste almost like arugula.

Amy: smells like there couldn't have been a better surprise to fulfill and complete the lively connections of the weekend. Yeasty.

Brent: Mountain fresh scent mixed with lemon scented Mr Clean. I'm glad its bubbly. Perhaps it will make my teeth shine.

Translation of the Bottle:
This noble product was made in the Champenoise Method (fermentation in the bottle) with a selection of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes from the zona alta from Lujan de Cuyo. Its maturation for a period of 15 months in the barn and its minuscule care has resulted in golden reflections, salmon tones and fine bubbles; aromas of toasted bread and hazelnuts on the nose; flavor of matrix fruits, equilibrium of acid with great structure in the mouth.



Malbec - Malbec
2004
D.V. Catena
Catena Zapata
Mendoza

Sarah: plumy on the nose, peppery aroma, bitter chocolate tannins at the end, velvety smooth in the mouth, hints of black cherry

Paul: prune/plum and raisin aroma. Smooth sweet taste, peppery, oak, tobacco flavors and hints of chocolate.

Brent: Great legs. I like bolder wine. But this one is super suave like Rico.

Amy: Fabulous. Not as crazy (as the previous bubbles) as distracting me from doubling or redoubling. (We were playing bridge while we drank these wines.)




Particular
Malbec
2004
Bianchi
San Rafael

Paul: tobacco, coffee, oak spicy aroma with hints of mushroom and fruits like raisin. Strong start with cinnamon finish. Has tastes of pepper. Tannins with a dry middle.

Sarah: sharper aroma almost like Parmesan and anchovies. It ignites the nose hair and tongue with full and beefy taste finishing with strong tannins.

Amy: pungent with salty sweat of the laborer's brow from clearing rocks in the field.

Brent: Fine aroma, bold taste, covers your teeth like leg warmers of wine's piernas (rocks).

Extra pictures:

A Sample of Argentine Wines

During our two months in Neuquén we tried as many different types of Malbecs as we could find in the grocery and wine stores near our house. At first we made the same mistake as we had made in Chile, we only bought the most affordable lines. After two or three dinners with okay Malbecs, we decided that it was well worth it to spend more than 9 Argentine Pesos (3 USD) for a bottle of wine and bumped up our price ceiling to 25 Argentine Pesos (8 USD). As you may have guessed a whole new world of aromas and flavors adorned our dinner table. Below are a few of the better quality Malbecs and Malbec blends that we enjoyed while in Patagonia.

It is worth noting that many of our Argentine friends serve their red wine cold. When we would bring a bottle of wine over they would immediately put the wine in the refrigerator for an hour or so before drinking it. Another custom is to add "agua con gas" (sparkling water) to the red wine and serve it out of a ceramic jar that is oftentimes in the shape of a penguin. While both of these methods seemed unorthodox, we were curious and eventually came to find ourselves drinking cold red wine and wine mixed with bubbly water. And, at times, the wine tasted better.

It is also worth noting that the main wine growing region in Argentina is Mendoza, a province 12 hours north of Neuquén. San Juan and San Rafael are two regions close to Mendoza geographically and also in terms of their annual volume of wine production. Argentine wine makers have also begun to invest in vineyards in the Neuquén and Rio Negro provinces. Salta and Cafayate are two other regions to the north of Mendoza that are beginning to be recognized for their wine varieties and flavors.




Valle del Atuel
2004 Malbec
Bodega Valle de Atuel
Mendoza

Decent Malbec.
Nothing worth special mention.
Lower in cost.










Ventus
Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
Bodega Fin del Mundo
Neuquen


Bodega Fin del Mundo is a large vineyard outside of the city of Neuquén. They have a large presence in restaurants throughout the province and sell their wine throughout Argentina. I would not be surprised if their wine also is sold in the U.S. I suspect though that much of their wine, like this line, is more of a table wine.

We liked this blend. It was in the 15 Arg. Peso range.
Don't have high expectations, but it has some structure and is good either cold or after breathing for some time.





Tempranillo 2005
Bodega Vinas de Narvaez
Mendoza


Good Tempranillo.
Good value at less than 20 Arg. Pesos.












Malbec 2004
Diego Murillo
Rio Negro


Good table wine.
Best served cold or with sparkling water.










Pedro Del Castillo
Malbec 2006
Bodega y Cavas Weinert
Mendoza

Sarah:
Aroma: tangy and sharp; still young
"Feels like rough bark on the tongue with an initial taste of unripe berries."
Sharp at the back of the throat

Paul:
Sweet bouquet, smells like the sweetness of darker fruits, dry. When warm, round and sharp. It has a bland initial taste. It is young and lacks a unifying taste.
"Perhaps it would be better cold, the way Argentines indulge in wine."





Santa Julia
Syrah Rose 2007
Bodega Familia Zuccardi
Mendoza


Very fun Rose. Great for hot summer days and sitting on the porch. Slightly tart but still sweet and crisp.

Zuccardi is a huge wine operation and this wine is surely available in the U.S.










Malbec D.O.C.
2004
Nieto Senetiner
Mendoza


A very good Malbec for the money. 25 Argentine Pesos. We drank it with friends while eating pizza. Our friends, Argentines, mentioned that it was too good to mix with sparkling water and almost too good for pizza. We don't have any notes but remember that the bouquet was warm and that the structure and taste were surprisingly good.

A Place in Palermo

A week ago Monday our bus pulled into the Retiro Omnibus Terminal, a sprawl of 80 passenger loading platforms, and which serves as the main hub coming into and departing from the capital, Buenos Aires. Our bus was an hour and a half late and the hour was fast approaching 10:30 a.m. We had planned on meeting the apartment rental agent at 10 a.m. To make matters worse, our only cell phone was out of batteries and the only number we had for the agent was an office number. Arriving late is a fact of life in Argentine society but our lateness was beginning to border on not arriving at all. And so we began to worry.

Added to this worry was our luggage. We had numerous bags and boxes to get off the bus and through the bus terminal, and we were perplexed as to how we could squeeze all of our stuff into a taxi and leave enough room for ourselves. We decided to take our time (since we were already late) and wait at the end of the line for getting luggage from the bus, and in so doing we met a porter who owned a dolly and hired him on the spot.

We loaded the boxes and large duffel onto his cart and put on our backpacks and followed him down a flight of stairs to a temporary storage locker service. After completing that step in the process, we made our way back up a level to a telephone kiosk and tried to get in touch with our rental agent. No luck at her office, and she hadn’t left us her cell phone number. It was now close to 11, and we had noticed on our way to and from the storage locker that all the taxi lines were 50 people deep and they were so long that they snaked back inside the terminal. To make matters worse, the taxis were few and far between.

Our worry grew. We had already given the rental company 200 dollars as a deposit. We couldn’t get ahold of this agent. We were over an hour late. We were in the country’s biggest bus terminal and the taxi lines promised to make us 3 hours late. The innocent four letter word, scam, began to creep inside and lodge itself into our brains. Had we missed something and been duped out of 200 dollars with a company that didn’t exist? Where would we stay for the night? Where could we find an affordable room that would accommodate our stuff? Where was this woman and why was she not in her office? Were we doomed to live in a hotel for 5 weeks? Ugh…Travel! Ugh…Argentina! Ugh…this city! We thought we were experts at this travel thing. We thought months on end abroad had given us an edge over the newbies who make their first trip to a large city in a foreign country and spend 50 dollars on a cab ride that should only cost 3. Who were we? What were we doing? And why were we stuck in this bus terminal in the middle of the morning not knowing where we would be unpacking our bags this afternoon?

Perhaps it was because of all this panic that we listened to a young man in a neon orange shirt with tattoos snaking up and down his arm as he asked us if we would be interested in any of the local Youth Hostels. We let him talk and it was because we were panicked with no place to go, no actual street address that we let him get past the typically annoying tourist vendor question, “Looking for a hotel?” His presence was comfortable in a time of turbulence and even though we promised ourselves that we didn’t want to stay in another big city hostel, his offerings didn’t seem too bad. We even entertained the idea of heading straight to one of their 7 locations in the greater Buenos Aires area.

We took the free Youth Hostel map, took our 10% off voucher and made our way to the taxi stands. This International Youth Hostel tout did have one good piece of advice for us – if we wanted a taxi, we should head out of the terminal and make our way to the street. And this is exactly what we did. We must have shaved 40 minutes or more off of our lateness by following this advice and walking 300 or so meters to the street. It was there that some guys were flagging down taxis (maybe they sold flowers or cd cases at other points of the day?) that were on their way into the terminal. The taxi drivers were more than happy to pick up a quick fare without having to drive into and around the one way traffic of the terminal and we were more than happy to be on our way. We had finally decided to take our chances and head to the street corner listed as the cross streets of the apartment. (Most online apartment searches in Buenos Aires only give approximate locations, not actual street addresses.)

When we told the driver Soler and Gascón in Palermo, he asked for a specific address and we just repeated: the corner of Soler and Gascón. So when we pulled up to the corner, we just figured we would find a café and a nearby phone kiosk and try the rental agent’s office one more time. As Sarah stepped out of the cab, an older woman, who was sitting at an outside table at the corner café, made eye contact, smiled and began to rise. I asked Sarah if we wanted to head to the café and she said that she thought that woman over there was the one we wanted to meet. And as we crossed the street, this woman, Beatriz, said, “I’ve been waiting here for 2 hours!”

And good morning to you too, is what we thought. But within an instant all of our worries and panic and fear evaporated. We had found our rental agent and she showed us into our new home in Buenos Aires.

































In the afternoon we went back to the bus station for our 2 boxes and large duffel. As we unpacked we realized that we had lugged a number of items across the lower half of this continent from Temuco that we could have just as easily have left in Neuquén. For we soon found the apartment had cutting boards, wine openers, mixing bowls, pans for baking and hangers for clothes. However, to our disappointment, this new apartment did not have wine glasses. Qué barbaridad!*

Don’t worry, we focus on the positives in this life and in this apartment. The following is a list of items that this palace in Palermo does have: a juicer, real towels (it has been 8 months!), a real kitchen with actual counter tops, a real kitchen table, real chairs (that actually provide back support), a real bed with real sheets, an actual closet, radiator heat, and a washing machine. To top it all off we have a patio above the apartment that is roughly the same square footage of the apartment and as if that weren’t enough, it even has a built in barbecue. Yee-haw!

So you can see why we didn’t make a fuss with the rental agent when we discovered there were no wine glasses to be found. We simply shrugged our shoulders and scurried off down the street in search of a new set, which we have since put to very good use.

More pictures of the apartment and the upstairs patio.

* "Qué barbaridad!" means "How awful!"

Our Last Days in Neuquén, the Palindrome of Patagonia

Last Sunday was our last day in Neuquén. While Neuquén will hold a place in our hearts for its lively Plaza San Martin, we left it with mixed emotions. I, for one, was tickled pink to be living in a city whose name is a palindrome, one of only a handful in the world. However, it would get old real quick when trying to navigate around the streets as the town father’s had decided long ago to give every street a palindrome name. Attempting to remember if Queneuq was north or south of Pueneup was trying.

Of course, I lie. The streets are not named in Palindromes, except for Avenida Racecar. I lie because everyday while living there I had wished the streets had Palindrome-esque name as they would have added an excitement and linguistic spice to the otherwise wind swept town that is lodged between two rivers. The city, technically, is an oasis in the high, Northern Patagonian plain because of its extended river valleys. The soil is well suited for Apple, Pear and Cherry Orchards which are all over the place outside of the main urban area. In addition several new vineyards have been planted within recent years.

All of this being said, Neuquén living, for me, boiled down to reading, drinking coffee and hanging out with friends. And because our apartment was tucked into a deep corner of our apartment complex, we did as much as we could in a location other than the apartment. So, in short, we spent a lot of time at friends’ houses. As we packed up our 5 bags of computers, clothes and gifts and our 2 boxes of books and documents we realized all the good-byes we needed to say and we even began to miss the brief, uber-social life we had in this city of dust storm inducing winds.

Technically, we left Neuquén two weeks ago. That is the day we moved out of our apartment. But before we could shuffle off to Buenos Aires we had to head to Chile for a few days as we had to renew our Argentine visa. So we stored all of our excess baggage at Adrian’s house, stayed a night and took a bus across the border back to our old stomping grounds of Temuco. An experience that made us appreciate all the more Argentina living.

And so, on our return to Neuquén on our way to the Capital Federal, Buenos Aires we stayed one night with Adrian and his family (last Saturday night) and we had a feast. We drank Espumante (Argentine Champagne) from a small grower Miguel Mas in the province of San Juan, ate bife a la criolla (a dish of beef cooked in oil, onions and wine), and played a round of cards before the night was through. We listened to Argentine and U.S. music and laughed and joked and talked about all the tears that each of us would have in the coming week – tears of sadness for me for not being able to eat anymore of Patricia’s Limon Pies and tears of joy for Adrian for being able to return to speaking Spanish at its normal, Argentine speed. Little did Adrian or I know that our tears would be for real and be due to the ash of Volcán Chaitén, ash which has been blowing across many parts of Argentina since last Monday. In any case, we were and are very lucky to have friends like Adrian and Patricia. We are so lucky, in fact, that some might label this luck, a blessings from heaven.

And so it came to pass, that on our last day, a day that was as quiet and peaceful as it was filled with good-byes, kisses on cheeks, and hand waving send offs, that we were blessed again. In fact we were double or quadruple blessed. Yes, the Lord above was looking over us and tending to a few of us who live in his flock, for last Sunday, we had our last supper with Jesus. And what, you may be asking, was this meal Jesus, our Shepard, prepared? Why, it was a meal of delicious oven grilled lamb. Oh yeah, there was wine too. And even more, Maria was there sitting by Jesus’ side.

For those of you who don’t know, Jesus loves to cook meat in his oven. And when he is away from his oven, he loves to grill lamb. He is a happy fellow, who doesn’t say much, but he is almost always smiling and shuffling his feet to an unknown beat. He has a mustache and he loves mixing his red wine with soda water. In fact, the only troublesome characteristic of Jesus is that he roots for River Plate. Doesn’t he know that Boca Juniors is the only team?!? After all, God not only walked this earth, he also played ball for Boca Juniors.

Jesus is the short guy in blue in the picture above.
From right to left: Paul, Jesus, Maria, Patricia, Adrian, Sarah and the oven.

A Day in the Life in Neuquén

Living in Argentina has been great. The food is good, the wine is affordable (sometimes downright cheap), and the people we meet love to laugh, to idly pass the time talking and sharing stories. Every street corner seems to have a café and when you have luck that same city block also has a pastry shop, which will inevitably offer row upon row of snacks made with dulce de leche, a caramel type spread. Dulce de Leche is to Argentina what real butter is to Wisconsin; it is the nation’s spread of choice. But perhaps one of the greatest things about living in Argentina is the laid back way of life.

As is always the case though, dark clouds follow silver linings, and the dark cloud of life in Neuquén has been that life has just been too good to spend my time writing about life being laid back. I could drum up all sorts of reasons for the all too few April blog posts, such as the fact that we did not have internet in our apartment or that I was busy reading. But the truth was that I was enjoying Argentine life too much to record all the small happenings that make up daily life in a small Argentine city.

It is now the first week of May, and we have moved to the bright lights and big city of Buenos Aires. We have an apartment that can only be described as luxurious after our cave in Neuquén. It is spacious and to top it all off it has a patio that is roughly the same size as the interior space. And to top it all off, we have an internet connection in the apartment. Oh, praise be to the little things that make such a difference in daily living. I never would have thought that a connection to the web would make life significantly easier, but it does.

So I wanted to offer a glimpse into how we spent most days in Neuquén. For Sarah, it was easy; she worked and read War and Peace. She was usually off doing research in a library or conducting an interview or chasing down a new contact that she needed to meet. For me, it was easy too; I didn’t work. In fact, I did my best to do anything other than work. While this may seem like an easy vocation to conceptualize, I must confess that it is a hard occupation to describe with accurate verb usage. Doing nothing is quite different from procrastinating which in turn is different than having coffee which, as it turns out, in Argentina, is quite distinct from taking a break. And then there is the entirely unique category of taking “mate”.

My days in Neuquén were like the cloudless skies of late Patagonian summer – spacious, vast, open and glaring in their emptiness. And just like the sky they were brilliant in both their subtle shades of difference and change in color. Sometimes something happened but oftentimes nothing did. Of course I filled my time with small errands but by and large I lingered in the last of the autumn days. And I am glad I did as our time in Argentina grows shorter by the day and there is still so much more nothing to do.

Doing nothing in Argentina is an art. There is a part of me, I think it may be the North American part, that speaks up every once in a while and tries to reason that “to be in Argentina and to do nothing” is a waste of time. But I found in Neuquén that I have become very adept at ignoring that little voice and in so doing, I learned how to assimilate and embrace the culture of life in Argentina.

To join this culture, the act of doing nothing is the very act of doing something. And trust me, doing nothing is not easy. Have you ever successfully taken an hour to drink a cup of coffee? It is downright hard to stay focused on nothing at all.

Seinfeld may have put it best on Letterman a few years ago when he said, “Doing nothing is not as easy as it looks. You have to be careful, because the idea of doing anything, which could easily lead to something that would cut into your nothing and that would have to force me to drop everything.” Yes, doing nothing takes tremendous practice and skill, and it is an art form that is best learned from the masters of the South, the Argentines.

Bueno. Now that you know about daily living in Neuquén, let’s have some Yerba Mate. Si?

Photos of the apartment.

Our front door, upper left, and two view of the interior studio space.

Outside the Apartment.

The apartment block's front doorway, on the left, and our view of the outside world. Yes, we lived behind McDonald's and an YPF gas station.

Volcán Chaiten Erupts!

For those of you who haven't heard, Volcán Chaiten is erupting! There hasn't been this much exciting volcanic activity since January 2, when Volcán Llaima, 80 kilometers from Temuco, erupted!

The picture on the left and the one below on the left are what we think was the old cone of Volcán Chaiten.

We have read that the entire village of Chaiten, the place we flew into in late January and out of in early February, has been evacuated. We have also read that the village of Futaleufu, the picture below right, may be evacuated within the next couple of days (reports seem to vary on this point). Both villages are covered in ash - between 6 and 12 inches.

We thought you all might be interested to see some of the reports we have been watching.

Here is a link for a longer video from the BBC.
This is a link for a collection of images on the BBC website.
And here is a news story with some of the best photos we have seen, courtesy of The Telegraph. (To see the photos, look for the link "Chaiten Volcano in Pictures" once you get to The Telegraph's website.)

Volcán Chaiten, below left, and the village of Futaleufu, below right.