Fondues and Don'ts

Today we went to see some of the basic tourist sights for Buenos Aires. We hopped into a couple cabs to take the half hour cab ride to the Caminito area in La Boca. I sat in front since I was the only one in my cab who spoke a bit of Spanish. I noticed the cab driver had a photo of a cute little child with longer curly hair like mine. I asked him, "Es su hija?" (Is this your daughter?) I couldn't understand what he said back, but I told him "Ella es muy bonita." (She is very pretty!)

A few minutes later I looked a little closer to the picture and saw the child was wearing a tie AND had a nametag that said "Samuelo." So I basically told this man his son looks like a very pretty girl... Hopefully he chalked it up ot my terrible grasp of the Spanish language! :D

When we arrived at La Boca, we had lunch at one of the typical Caminito tourist lunch places where there is a stage with live music and tango dancers you can watch as you eat. The food is never impressive (I had the WORST gnocchi I had ever tasted in my life :) ), but the entertainment is nice. Caminito is so packed with these type of restaurants that walking down the street is like listening to dueling tango bands. Caminito always has a big "tourist trap" feel, but this year it seemed even worse than the first year we went. Fewer stores are selling the nice artisan goods, more are selling typical tourist junk like magnets, soccer jerseys, etc. Still, the brightly painted buildings, tango music and crazy statues make the area worth a visit.

I pose with one of the tango dancers after lunch. :)

After Caminito, we took a taxi over to Recoleta to visit the cemetary. The Recoleta cemetary is less a cemetary by our standards, and more a city in miniature. It is fourteen acres of mausoleums, every one of them unique, built side by side with paths going through them like little mini streets. Evita is buried here, and people still to this day bring flowers to her grave. Some of the mausoleums have fallen into charming disrepair if the family line has died out; each mausoleum is maintained individually by the family. Others are as large as a small house and have their own chapels inside. The cemetary is also home to quite a few cats lounging around on the mausoleums, under the bushes, and leaping over our heads as we walked between the rows.

El Cemetario de Recoleta.

One of the resident cats at the cemetary.

Evita's tomb.

An old mausoleum I liked.

After Recoleta we headed back to Palermo to do a bit of shopping. I have an essential store that I visit every year: Palito Bombon Vestite. It is a really cute and unique boutique store that is not too expensive - I always get really fun and funky clothes there. I bought a retro-looking sundress and a screen printed wrap shirt.

For dinner we walked to a fondue restaurant called la Rosadita. We were seated by ourselves in a little indoor loft above the restaurant. We started with a cheese fondue with loads of stuff to dip in it. We were nine people, and we ordered two fondues that were supposed to feed eight, but when it arrived appeared to be enough food for twenty... Two huge bowls of melted cheese with bread, chicken, steak, mushrooms, hush puppies-ish things, tomatoes, potatoes and more! Gavin accidentally dropped a piece of cheesy bread into his wine glass, prompting JD to proclaim, "Now that was a fon-DON'T!" :) Despite stuffing ourselves with enough cheese to feed a small country, we had been looking forward to chocolate fondue dessert all day... :) This time we only ordered one order for four to feed all nine of us. Good thing; the chocolate came with two huge plates of brownie bites, small cookies, plums, bananas, lemon bars, apples, biscotti... The chocolate was SO good - really dark and rich! Best chocolate fondue I have ever had!! Almost had the edge of a hazelnut flavor, like nutella.

The night was clear, beautiful and warm. Perfect for a romatic hand in hand walk to end our day in Buenos Aires.

A gluttonous orgy of steak and dessert

It took until about noon today for everyone to be ready to leave the house. Nothing around here opens until 11am anyway, so while ordinarily not getting out until noon would drive me up the wall (I was up at 8am...), I was okay with it today. When we finally did leave, we walked down Honduras, one of the main shopping streets in Palermo, to the Plazoleta Julio Cortaza, a little roundabout wrapped around a park, where on weekends dozens of arts and crafts stands are set up selling lovely artisan goods. Since today was not a weekend, the Plazoleta was deserted, but the cafes surrounding it had let their tables spill out into the sidewalks, since it was an unseasonable beautiful day today - 60s and sunny. We ordered some sandwiches outside at a cute little cafe. I had a smoked salmon and arugula sandwich on homemade spinach bread - yum! After that, of course we had to go get some Argentine helado (ice cream).

People talk about how good the gelato in Eurpoe is, but I think the best ice cream I have had anywhere is in Buenos Aires. We stumbled upon what is as of today my favorite heladeria, an artisan ice cream shop called Persicco, where the ice cream is served in comma shaped sugar cone dishes, or you can take it home in comma shaped styrofoam dishes with lids. Dulce de leche ice cream is definitely my favorite, and that particular flavor is ubiquitous to Buenos Aires. I have tried it at many different ice cream shops over the past few years here, but Persicco blew them all away!

After ice cream, Gavin and I tagged along with Jeremy and his son to the Natural Science Museum. It had a really nice dinosaur skeletons exhibition, along with the usual array of taxidermied wildlife, bugs skewered on pins, etc. We were pretty much the only people in the museum, and I guess we looked like troublemakers, because the security guard stalked us the whole time. :)

After the museum, we headed back to our house to chill for a bit before dinner. We and a large group of people from the conference had a reservation at La Cabrera, one of our absolute favorite restaurants in the WORLD. The steak is INCREDIBLE; we look forward to this all year! :)

Since we were a large group of 25 people, we did a prix fixe dinner instead of ordering from a menu. From the moment we sat down for about three hours, we were "subjected" to plate after plate of amazing food and bottomless glasses of malbec. Avocado and beet salad, two kinds of baked herbed cheese, the best potatoes au gratin-ish thing I have ever had, chorizo, blood sausage (I got brave and tried it - ew), and of course, steak, steak and more steak. Lomo (tenderloin) is my favorite cut by far - exceptionally tender, and I even ate it pretty much rare (I NEVER order rare steak), but they also had bife de chorizo, a few scattered plates of chicken and pork. After we were all slowing downand had pretty much cleaned up these massive amounts of meat, they brought out ANOTHER round of plates - this round was steak wrapped in BACON. We bravely ralleyed ourselves for round two, and managed to put down this second serving of absolutely incredible steak. After that, we thought we were done... But then the waiters came by and put down new paper table coverings... and HUGE plates of desserts - there was about one of these plates for each four people. Each plate had a pound (NOT an exaggeration) of flan, a pound of tiramisu, a little chocolate lava cake, ice cream with berries and a dish of dulce de leche to top it off. We once again managed to almost finish off those plates, and then the waiters brought ANOTHER round of the same!

Yes, the food experience at La Cabrera never ceases to amaze, nor leave us 10 pounds heavier than when we walked in the door. :)

After dinner we plodded back to the house, where I lie down in one of the outdoor lounge chairs beside the pool to enjoy a few last breaths of the delicious night air, while inside Gavin and the others opened yet another bottle of malbec. Then we dragged ourselves upstairs to crash into into dreams of steak and wine. :)

The incredible dessert plate.

Gavin and I happily gorging ourselves in La Cabrera.

"Beefing up" my yoga practice

I practiced yoga on a cow skin this morning.

Not a piece of leather or a rug, an actual cow skin, hair included, still in the shape it was when it was removed from the cow. I guess it is a little un-yogic to practice on the skin of a dead animal, given the yogic tenant of Ahimsa, or non-violence to all living things, but hey! I didn't kill it! :) (and I forgot my travel yoga mat...)

These cow skins are all over the place - there is one in every room of the house, they are used as table cloths at restaurants, etc. (even if one seeks out the few vegetarian options for meals, one still has to eat on a dead animal table cloth. :) )

Lest you think I am a more dedicated vacation practitioner than I actually am, my vacation practice only consists of a few minutes of essential postures, not a full practice. Though I did bring a light, foam yoga block this time; supported fish is the posture I miss the most on vacation, especially after long hours crammed into a plane. It was definitely worth the extra space it took up in my backpack, and will be a vacation essential from now on. :)

Our beautiful, sunny bedroom, complete with cow skin "yoga rug." :)

Those taxi drivers get us every year!

We arrived in Buenos Aires, got our bags and got through customs pretty quickly. We met up with the rest of our friends who were arriving from New York, and walked outside to catch a taxi. We knew from previous trips to go catch the taxi from the stand outside because it was cheaper. A guy standing right next to the taxi stand asked us if we needed a taxi, so we said yes and he called two taxis that could hold all seven of us. I got into the taxi while Gavin paid the guy for both taxis. After the usual 40 minute drive to get to Palermo district and our rental house, the two taxi drivers informed us that we needed to pay them 400 pesos apiece for the ride. Martin, the managed of our house, came out and basically told us we had been scammed at the airport. Gavin hadn't gotten a receipt for what he paid the guy at the stand, so we had not proof of payment. Also, since we had not agreed on a fare beforehand with the taxi drivers, they were charging us double price. Welcome to Buenos Aires, b%@@$es... (900 pesos is about $200, plus the double price cab rides were another $90 extra that we shouldn't have paid...) We have been scammed by taxi drivers before in Buenos Aires, but with little stuff like the meter was set to the wrong rate, or they don't turn on the meter and then charge whatever they want, but we've never been scammed this badly. We know exactly what we did wrong - we didn't actually talk to the person standing INSIDE the taxi stand; this guy was standing 1 foot away from the stand OUTSIDE it. Grr. Well, we'll chalk it up to lack of sleep, we are normally more vigilant. :)

After getting the scammer taxi drivers out of our hair, we were instantly put into a better mood as Martin showed us the beautiful house we are renting. We are a group of nine people, so we were able to rent an absolutely AMAZING place on VRBO.com, our vacation staple for when we are going to be staying someplace for a week or more. And lodging in Argentina, to stay at someone's vacation home, is relatively cheap. Our house has a huge living room, an outdoor pool, a pool table, a full kitchen, laundry, three bedrooms and a separate guest house that is like a studio apartment. Gavin and I got lucky and are staying in the amazing master bedroom, complete with a huge walk in shower/jacuzzi. All very much welcome after a long night of traveling. :)

Our house and pool, as viewed from the courtyard. I LOVE the ivy covering all the bricks!!

Inside the huge living room, and kitchen area, complete with flatscreen tv, pool table, and my favorite - two huge bouquets of beautiful fresh flowers!

After settling in for a bit, we went to the grocery store to pick up snacks and breakfast food, and most importantly, several $2 bottles of malbec. :)

Malbec, as I mentioned before, is our favorite red wine. But the malbec in the states tastes different than the malbec in Argentina, even though almost all malbec in the states is imported from Argentina. We did a wine tour a couple years ago here, and they mentioned that Argentine malbecs don't have any sulfites, but the bottles in the states still have the normal sulfites warnings on the labels. I think this accounts for the difference in taste. Also, malbecs here don't give any kind of typical dry mouth effects (from one or two glasses) or hangovers (from one or two bottles :) )

In Buenos Aires, buying malbec is cheaper than buying bottled water. So what would you choose to drink? :)

Later in the afternoon Gavin had to go to his conference for a bit, so I decided it was finally time to catch up on a bit of sleep, and I was in good company with pretty much everyone else in the house. :) Plus, in Argentina the locals don't eat dinner until 10pm. Resturants that cater to tourists open at 8pm - there is no food to be had at the usual 6-7 American dinner hour, but walking around at night in Buenos Aires is so nice that the later dinner hour doesn't bother me at all.

Tonight for dinner we went to Don Julio, a steakhouse favorite of ours for the past couple years. Very simple preparation really lets the flavor and texture of amazing Argentine beef shine through. Yummy, but this restaurant is more like a "prequal" to the better restaurants to come in the next nights... :)

I really like Don Julio because it feels very "homey," even though it is full or tourists due to Lonely Planet recommendations. The walls are decorated only with shalves upon shelves of empty bottles of wine, all signed and graffitied up by customers past wielding Sharpie markers. Our waiter, who I recognized from previous years, is an older gentleman with a beautiful smile - his whole face wrinkles up into a topographical map of smile lines. He laughes good naturedly when he tried to pour me a glass of wine and discovered his assistant neglected to remove the cork before handing it to him... :)

With my halting Spanish, I somehow managed to order only a quarter of a steak, which was the perfect size, about 4 ounces. (I meant to order a half size steak...) But the advantage was, I of course had room for dessert. Becky and I ordered dulce de leche "panqueques" (= crepes) and chocolate mousse, knowing that once the others at our table saw our desserts we would be obligated to share, even though they clamied to not want dessert when we ordered. :)

Dulce de leche ANYTHING is my favorite dessert here, and this was no exception. :) The crepes were so soft, and they had a burnt sugar crust on top, reminiscent of creme brulet. They were served almost scalding hot they were so fresh! The chocolate mousse was also amazing; I normally am not a fan of chocolate mousse, preferring my chocolate in cake form, but I loved this! I had about three bites of each dessert because, as we predicted, everyone wanted a taste once it arrived.

After dinner we walked to an ice cream place to buy some ice cream to take back to the apartment for Jen, who had to stay in and watch her daughter. Then we walked through the warm, clear night back to the house, where Gavin promptly passed out on the couch while I wrote and Becky and JD shut down their ATM card, which they left at the airport. It's been a bit of both a rough and lovely day for all of us, but looking forward to exploring tomorrow!

The joys and trials of overnight flights

I unfortunately am starting this trip with a massive upper respiratory infection. During our seven hour layover in Newark, I actually hacked so hard I pulled a muscle. Despite the fact that we were there for SEVEN hours, I made us the last people on the plane because I decided suddenly I NEEDED to get some Robotussin right before boarding. :)

You know I'm desperate for relief when I will drink that nasty stuff voluntarily. (just thinking about the taste makes my throat close up reflexively) But I thought maybe THIS would be the wonder remedy that would allow me to sleep on an overnight flight... and make me stop hacking, which would keep half the plane awak all night...

As far as sleeping on overnight flights, I have tried everything - melatonin supplements, Benadryl, separating myself from the environment as much as possible with blankets, pillows, ear plugs and eyemasks, and even Ambien, a prescription strength sleeping pill. (even that didn't make me sleep, but evidently it had some effects that kept Gavin entertained through most of that flight... All I can remember is trying to eat my airline meal and missing my mouth with the fork, hitting various parts of my face with it instead, and also dropping food in my lap and not being able to get my body to gather enough coordination to get it back out of my lap...)

I did sleep a tiny bit, which is actually impressive for me. When I do wake up, one of my favorite ways to relieve myself from the cramped quarters of coach class is to go stand by the bathroom and do various yoga postures to get my blood circulating again. My favorites are crescent lunge, wall dog, figure four, frog squat (with a bind), side angle (with a bind), triangle and forwarf fold with a chest expansion. My little mini yoga practice never fails to evoke comment from either a passenger or a flight attendant. :) (my favorite has to be "When was the last time you ate a hamburger?") One of the flight attendants on this particular flight told me he runs and weight trains, but a friend took him to a yoga class and it was the hardest thing he had ever done. :)

Well, according to the popping in my ears, we are starting to descend. Time to open the blinds and close the computer to get our first look at Buenos Aires! :)

A brilliant sendoff. :)

Today we left for Buenos Aires. This is our third trip there, since Gavin has a conference there every year. But I got such a joyous surprise this morning because I got up, looked outside in my front garden and saw ALL my iris had started blooming! Why is this especially joyous? Because some of them I planted four years ago, and I have NEVER seen them bloom; we have been in Argentina during "iris season" for the last three years, and I have always come home to see the blooms all dried up! The regular iris varieties I planted last year and also have never seen them bloom. But on my last day in the states my front garden is a splash of lavendar, burgundy and ONE white and purple bloom, plus the royal purple and yellow of the Japanese iris, giving me a colorful "Buen trabajo!"

In honor of the burgundy ones blooming on my last day here, I am naming them "Malbec irises" in honor of my favorite red wine, a major staple of the Argentine diet. :)

My lovely irises!

Japanese irises

"Malbec irises" :)

The single, solitary white and purple iris.

Adios Belize!

Today after having one last sunrise breakfast on our veranda we left for home. We had about a three hour drive to the airport in Belize City from Hopkins. Luckily, our hosts Rita and Greg corrected our iPhone's directions; it had us driving over twenty miles on the dirt road called "Coastal Highway." I guess if something is named "highway" Google Maps thinks it must be a good road. :) Instead of Coastal Highway, we got to take the lovely Hummingbird Highway again through the jungles, orange groves and Maya mountains.

We encountered yet ANOTHER hazard of Hummingbird Highway... an unmarked ice cream truck! As we were driving down the highway, we saw a van parked half on half off the road, with a couple people on bicycles standing across the road from it. This did not seem unusual to us at all, as parking and standing on the highway seem to be a national Belize pastime. (we had started joking about "speed bump attendants" because almost every speed bump had some person standing beside it just staring at the cars going by...) However, as we were about to go past the van going about 50 mpg, a ten-year-old girl sprinted RIGHT in front of us bearing three cones of hot pink ice cream! We slammed on our brakes, and I am sure our bumper probably brushed her leg hair as she crossed in front of us it was so close! The kicker is, she and the adult with her did not seem the least bit concerned that she almost got flattened!

If we hadn't almost smashed the girl, I would have had Gavin stop the car for some ice cream. :)

When we had previously traveled from the Belize City airport, we had passed an "interesting" looking facility called the Prison Gift Shop. We hadn't previously stopped, but after reading in Lonely Planet that it was a great gift shop with lovely art made by prisoners, we decided to stop this time. It must have been visiting hours at the prison, because the parking lot was FULL of cars and there were tons of people waiting in line to see the prisoners. I was a little (or maybe a lot) nervous stopping with our car full of luggage. Gavin tried to assay my fears by saying, "The people visiting the prisoners aren't criminals." My slightly stressed reply was, "That's because they haven't been caught yet!" :) The gift shop itself was pretty empty, just a few wood carvings, carved wall panels and one carved chair, plus the shop attendant in an orange jumpsuit... We left in about 30 seconds.

At the airport returned the rental car, checked our bags and got on the plane. Flying out of Belize was one of the most incredible window-seat views I have ever seen. We flew east away from the shoreline, so we could see the variations of color in the water from coral, sea grass and white sand. The ocean stays shallow, only 3-12 feet deep, for several miles away from Belize. We flew over Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker, and then from the air got to see the barrier reef. On the west side of the barrier, the water continued with its shallow Caribbean-green color variations, then at the line of the barrier reef the sea suddenly became deep blue as the depth almost instantly increased... What a nice view to say goodbye to Belize.

Summary of the trip:

Belize has an incredible variety of experiences for such a small country. In only eights days we got to jungle hike, go spelunking, go tubing in a cave, swim under a waterfall, zip line, dive and snorkel. Other experiences that we didn't have time for were water sports, Mayan ruins, ocean kayaking, bird-watching and more.

Food, which is one of our favorite experiences on any vacation, was kind of a let down. Though we picked some good restaurants, Belize didn't seem to have a food that was especially distinctive - a lot of Mexican food, basic rice and beans (which we generally love, but it was kind of bland here), fried seafood and American food catering to tourists. We found ourselves dumping delicious Belize-made Marie Sharp's habanero hot sauce on absolutely everything to give it more flavor. :)

People in Belize are lovely, very warm and friendly, from natives to ex-pats from other countries. They really want to make you feel welcome, and will bend over backwards to help you out. English is spoken by almost everyone, at least in the areas we traveled, making it an easy destination for Americans who only speak English. (anyone I tried to speak Spanish to replied to me in English.) The pace of life is slow and relaxed, which Gavin and I found contagious; being surrounded by relaxed people makes us relax by default.

Would we go back? Probably not, as we did and saw what we wanted to do and see, and there are so many other places to visit in the world; life is short! Would we recommend Belize to anyone else? Most definitely! You will have an "Unbelizeable" vacation. :)