Loca en Locales

I’m back from my 2 week trip to Argentina! I went with one of my best friends who I went to SC with, studied abroad with and lived in Santa Monica with post college. We both think traveling is the greatest thing in the world, we both love to eat and drink delicious food and wine, we both love jumping and yoga pose photos and we think anyone we are with should join in on the fun. Last year we went to Iceland, this year Argentina and who know what next year will bring… possibly Nordic road trip!

Here is a quickish (quickish is such a lie) recap via photos:

We flew into Buenos Aires and hung out there for the night. Immediately became obsessed with dulce de leche, medialunas, cafe con leche and empanadas.

ohmygod i want 100 million of you right now

We met up with our third Patagonia travel buddy and hopped on a flight to El Calafate.

Our hostel!

My awesome friend Lindsay!

Happy Halloween from Patagonia

This is our third friend John. We call him Jooouuuaannnn (it’s John in Portugese).

El Calafate chic

After lots of food, massages and malbec we made our first stop in El Chalten to hike Fitz Roy.

you are so pretty

We luckily met a nice Brazilian dude at the microbrewery the night we arrived because the next day the three of us were standing staring at an arrow for Laguna Torres just wondering which way the arrow even pointed then life savior Brazilian walked by. We asked him for directions then he said “if you take this you won’t see Fitz Roy.” COULD YOU imagine if we travelled 2 hours by bus and missed Fitz Roy? The Fitz Roy loops was about 12 miles and we did it in 6 hours and didn’t stop for lunch. Hardcore. This is me being hardcore:

hard.core

We hopped on the bus and went back to El Calafate for the Big Ice the next day. The Big Ice entails hiking Perito Moreno glacier for 3.5 hours. It really is a site to see. The glacier is about 20 stories high and moving 2km a day (I think) and big chunks of ice break off and make thuuunderous noises (fact). Really cool.

you are huge

"ya no jumping or yoga pose photos in crampons. dangerous..."

I can’t believe this is my second glacier hike (first was New Zealand) but like… who hikes glaciers?! Anyway, see that blue water? It was SO BLUE. I tried to stop and look in the opposite direction of the group and just take in the natural wonder that I was standing on. Hard to grasp but I tried to embrace the moment :)

Once we got back to El Calafate we ate A LOT of meat. carne platter para dos por favor!

yes please

Side of dulce de leche with 3 scoops of calafate helado? sure!

guess which part we finished?

After a very fun 4 days in Patagonia we went to Buenos Aires to be locales. Buenos Aires was awesome. I want to be back there as I type. We were so lucky that we were able to stay at Lindsay’s friend’s place because she introduced us to her friends, told us about the local spots, gave us keys and we basically lived her awesome BA life for a week. It was fun practicing our spanish “quieres charlar conmigo?!” was our token line and we actually were able to order food and get around and have a simple conversation! shocking right? no this is sad since I took 6 years of espanol. tragic.

We spent a day doing lots of touristy things like the Recoleta cemetery, this massive metal flower that opens and closes with the sun, the Malba museum and Puerto Madero. Our second touristy day included La Boca (the super colorful buildings), tango show and San Telmo market. In between we were being locals, dancing, going to Uruguay and eating and drinking x 10.

Recoleta Cemetery

Behind our awesome matching umbrellas is the metal flower

tango. pure passion.

just being locals. no big deal.

La Boca (I thought ALL of BA was like this. false)

oh more dolce de leche? yes!

We really wanted to see Iguazu Falls in the north but it was $600 round trip and we could not justify. We almost bought a flight to Iguazu for $300 and the site changed the date to November 20th. Luckily the transaction didn’t go through. Soo we went to Uruguay! Why not? My friend Laura has family in Montevideo so we thought it’d be nice to meet them, see local life in Montevids (as we called it) and eat a home cooked meal. We took the Buquebus to Colonia (met a local restaurant owner Guido in BA who recommended La Florida so we obviously had to stop in Colonia), hung out there for a few hours, bus to Montevideo and ate, shopped, drank, then bus to Punta del Este the next day. Punta is like the St. Tropez of South America. It is spring down there though so it wasn’t “bumpin'” like it would be in the summer (and kind of cold boo). P.S. the Buque part of the Buquebus is awesome. It’s like a cruise ship.

Colonia

snack time in montevids

Punta del Este!

Our Uruguay trip ended with Casapueblo, the coolest most beautiful place ever.  It is a hotel/museum by Uruguayan artic Carlos Paez Vilaro in Punta Ballena.

amaazing

We wanted to come back just for a Wednesday night in BA because it was a big “after office” night at Terrazas. After office is our version of happy hour. Our version of happy hour consists of a few discounted drinks at a bar around 5pm and Argentines consider happy hour a full on dance party at a massive outdoor/indoor club type place at 9pm. It.is.awesome. I think my favorite part about Buenos Aires was the dancing culture. People are salsa dancing everywhere! Even at our little pre party people started dancing! I learned how to dance bachata. Love it. How can you not? It goes… 1,2,3 hip bump, 1,2,3 hip bump. Amazing.

Terrazas

This is what BA Chic looks like if you're wondering

The big earrings are SO trendy there right now. Don’t I look Argentine?

The next day we were off to Mendoza to go wine tasting. It was great and Argentina Malbec is unreal and cheap and delicious. I feel a bit spoiled having grown up in beautiful California where you can go wine tasting, tan at the beach and snowboard but being in Argentina next to the Andes wine tasting is a bit cooler.  We lived the life of luxury even though we are 26 and shouldn’t be living some luxurious life, but for 24 hours I think it was worth it and much needed and a great way to end the vacation.  We went to Zuccardi Family, Luigi Bosca, Archaval Ferrer (owned by 5 friends who just wanted to start a winery. so cool) and lunch at umm I forget the name but it was some amazing 4 course wine pairing type lunch.

wild boar bbq. yes those are bacon wrapped french fries.

the Andes

triangle pose in the vineyard? necessary

vino

Honey moon style. Don’t worry we went RIGHT back to being grungy travelers when we discovered our flight from Mendoza to BA may be cancelled because of ash in the air and a strike. Considering we had a flight to catch 7 hours after our Mendoza flight back home we couldn’t really risk it sooooo we hopped on a 14 hour overnight bus! First class though. Lay down bus beds. Bingo and wine. Awesome.

I never thought my last day on this vacation would be hanging out with the locals, eating helado in the park, tanning at a friend’s apartment pool, and watching boys play video games but that’s exactly how my vacation ended. I kept delaying the cab 15 minutes but then I actually had to leave. Hands down one of the best vacations I’ve been on.

nuevos amigos