The Northeast

Day 9
February 14, 2013

Hey guys it's Livia blogging here today! We had a great time yesterday touring the vineyards, but today we are in the northwest area of Argentina. We had another 10 hour bus ride to get to our destination. Argentina is such a big country it requires a lot of driving around to experience the whole thing.

A sign outside the city- watch out for llamas!

The Northeast region consists of alot of vast plains with some mountains and valleys. We didn't plan on staying for long because there is not a whole lot of exciting things for tourists to do. We did pay a quick visit to the small city of Salta. The town was founded way back in 1582 and had strategic views of the surrounding areas and natural moats for protection. These factors made it an attractive settlement. We arrived in Salta at about 3 which gave us some time to walk around and check things out. We made a quick stop at Museo de Arqueologia de Mlta Montana de Salta which was the local museum. It's main attraction was a mummy that had been recently discovered in the Andes. Creepy! There were also lots of cool carnival masks on display.

Later in the day we were able to watch a futbol game at Estadio Gigante de el Norte. In America we call it soccer instead of futbol. The game was between two local teams so the crowd was fairly small. Everyone there was so excited though yelling and screaming for their favorite team. People in Argentina sure do love some futbol. It's too bad all the major league games in Buenos Aires were already sold out.

We headed back to where we were staying for the night; Hotel Marilian at about nine. Amazingly we were able to get a room with enought beds so no one had to sleep on the floor!

Today was a pretty uneventful day. I think we are all eager to finally get to the Mesopotamia region of Argentina where all the exotic rainforests and swamps are.

Vineyards Galore

Day 8:
February 13, 2013

Hey it's Lexie blogging here today! Sorry about Tiffany being all negative yesterday. She can be so sarcastic. Anyways, hopefully we all will continue to get along because this vacation is barely halfway over. On a brighter note today was yet another great day here in Argentina! We left the gorgeous Andes Mountains area and headed towards a part of the country commonly known as the wine region. We first checked into Hostel Independencia and unpacked our bags. Hostels might not be the nicest places to stay at but we are on a budget. Today we hired our very own personal chauffeur to take us on a tour of Argentina's vineyards and taste some of it's famous wines.

I'm one of those girls that is obsessed with those wedding planning shows so, to see an actual vineyard made me realize why they are such a popular place to get married at. They are simply beautiful! I'm not really sure what makes a field of grapes growing so cool, but I definitely enjoyed getting to see my first vineyard. In many of the vineyards we saw, the Andes Mountains were rising up in the distance making the view even more spectacular.

The first winery we stopped at is called Bodegas Excorihuela and is home to Francis Mallman's famous restaurant. Apparently he is a celebrity chef in Argentina, so of course we stopped to eat our lunch there. I ordered some milanesa, which is breaded fried steak. Milanesa is very popular throughout Argentina and in the rest of South America. Francis has really mastered the art of cooking , so my fried steak was absolute perfection. The chef perfers to cook on what is called a parrilla, which is basically like a barbecue grate, over hot coals. This is a method of cooking that is extremely popular in Argentina.

After our early lunch, we went to the wine museum at Bodega La Rural. They had displays of machinery and presses that make the wine. Making wine is a process that takes a lot of time between growing the grapes, processing them into wine and then storing them until they age to perfection. Wine grapes are much harder to grow than normal grapes that are found in the grocery store and also have much more complex flavors.

Our last destination of the day was Bodega y Cavas de Weinert. There, we were able to tour some of the wine cellars. I was  expecting the cellars to be super creepy and be dark and musty with lots of spiderwebs, but they were actually pretty cool. The cellars had tons of barrels full of wine that had been sitting down there for years, building up their value. Overall our day was awesome and it was nice having a  chauffeur to take us to our destinations.

"Bad Rock"

Day 7:
February 12, 2013

Just some random cows wondering the campgrounds

Hey, it's Tiffany blogging again! Anyways, we woke up at five this morning to catch the bus to take us to some inactive volcano. Oh, I forgot to mention we are staying at a campsite. Gross. There are about three nearby hostels that we could have easily stayed at instead, but no of course we are going to spend the night camping out. Anyways, I had no part of planning out this part of the trip. Our campsite is called Piedra Mala which means 'bad rock'. I guess no one realized when they booked the campsite it was called this because a huge rock blocks out the view of the volcano from the campgrounds. Absolutely fantastic. However, this day won't go to waste because we are right on a beautiful lake and the camp had some kayaks that we could use. We had a great time kayaking around and enjoying the mountain scenery.

Our new friends getting ready to fish

We soon came to the realization that it was too late to go to the nearest town to grab a bite to eat and we hadn't planned on bringing food with us to cook. Personally I thought we should take advantage of the two random cows wondering the campgrounds but everyone else seemed horrified by that idea. Luckily we made some new friends at the campsite who had fishing gear and taught us how to fish. Only Lexie and Livia caught any fish and they both argued over whose fish was the best. Both fish were about the same size but Livia thought that hers had prettier scales. It didn't matter which fish had the prettiest scales though because our new friends soon taught us how to scale and cook the fish. It ended up being a pretty good meal! Anyways, I'm excited to get back to somewhere that is a little more civilized tomorrow. Sorry for being such a downer (and a little sarcastic) today, it just hasn't been a good day for me. Argentina is still amazing even if this was a little out of my comfort zone.

Bambi!

Day 6:
February 11, 2013

Hey guys, Rachel blogging! We traveled west today towards the Andes Mountains and the border of Chile. We are going to be making some stops to experience the nature for the next couple days as we travel back up North. After a 10 hour bus trip to get here we arrived at about 3 this afternoon. Our destination for today was the beautiful Los Arrayanes National Park. The park was created in 1971 to protect the amazing arrayan trees that grow there. Their roots are so delicate a wooden path had to be created for tourists like us to walk on so we won't damage the tree roots. Apparently it is normally pretty windy here and today was no exception. Luckily I had a ponytail holder with me to keep my hair in place.

The artist who drew the scenery for the Disney movie, Bambi, spent a lot of time in this forest for inspiration. This is pretty evident because the scenery in both the movie and in the forest are really similar. We may not have seen Bambi, Thumper and the crew along the way but we did get to see some of the native Huemul deer that live there. Overall, it was a really cool experience spending the day wandering on wooden boardwalks around this amazing forest.

Oh I forgot to mention our hotel accommodations for the night. We are staying at the Sol Arrayan Hotel and Spa. It's alot nicer than some of the other places we have been staying at recently. Our room had a gorgeous view that looked out onto the mountains. We also had a great time taking a quick dip in the nice indoor pool. We all enjoyed it while we could because tomorrow we are going further north and making another nature stop for the night along the way. Don't tell Tiffany, but we are going camping! If she finds out, she is going to freak because she absolutely hates camping.

Heading South...

Day 5:
February 10, 2013

Hey guys it's Sydney blogging here today! We ended up getting on our bus leaving La Plata at about seven last night and we made it to Peninsula Valdes at noon. It was the longest I have ever been forced to sit down for, and everyone's butt was in major pain after the first eleven hours. And I thought our ten hour layover in Chile was bad! Anyways, the temperature here is a little colder than what we have been used to the past couple days, it's in the mid 60s today. In Argentina the farther south you travel the colder the temperatures get since it is located beneath the equator.

Image of Valdes Peninsula from above

We checked into our hotel, Faro Punta Delgado, which is one of the few hotels on the peninsula. It was strange to be staying in a hotel where when you look out the window instead of just seeing tons of buildings and people you just see a wide expanse of land. It is so beautiful and quiet here. The first thing we did after checking in to the hotel was go to the Visitors Center. In there is a small museum which introduced us to the the unique flora and fauna that we might encounter. I learned that the Valdes Peninsula is almost an island, it is only connected to the mainland by 11 kilometer strip of land.

A colony of sea lions!

Getting around the peninsula coast on our own would have been a challenge so we went on a brief tour with InterHabit Tours. Peninsula Valdes is considered to be one of the best places to go whale watching in the whole world, but unfortunately it was not whale watching season. However, that did not mean that we didn't see lots of other cool animals along the way. The tour was mostly on boat, and we saw some colonies of sea lions when we passed the villa of Punta Piramides. Luckily we had brought binoculars so we could see the cute faces of the sea lions better. We also saw penguins and sea elephants on the coast of the town Caleta Verdes. Mostly on the tour we just got to take in some of the natural beauty of Argentina. It was really relaxing to be in nature unlike the past days that we have spent in cities. We then headed back to the hotel room where we could finally get a good night of sleep in.

La Plata

Day 4:
February 9, 2013

Hey guys it's Livia blogging here today! We were all really tired after staying up late at the carnival last night so we slept the whole bus ride down to Mar de Plata which is a city in the Pampas region. The Pampas is a region in Argentina that is right by Buenos Aires and is well known for its awesome beaches. It took us about an hour to get to La Plata via bus.

The first thing we did after was take a taxi fifteen minutes out to the Caballos a La Par, which is a  family owned horse ranch. They give people free two hour horseback riding lessons and it was a lot of fun! The horses were all really beautiful and well taken care of. Our instructor was really friendly and helpful, and before you knew it we were all off riding through the forest. It was so relaxing trotting through the forest on a horse. The horses were also so tame and well behaved, and afterwards we were allowed to feed them carrots and sugar cubes. I wish I could have taken my horse home but I don't think horses can get past airport security!

Afterwards we returned to the city of La Plata and went to the famous museum there. The Museo de la Plata opened in 1888 and it's collection has been growing ever since. They have everything there from fossils, bugs, artifacts, sculptures, and paintings. We walked around checking everything out for awhile. In the bug exhibit dead bugs were pinned everywhere for people to view. I thought that was really sad and gross to see all these dead bugs for display, but Sydney on the other hand seemed fascinated by all the beetles at different stages of development. Personally my favorite part was all the fossils. They had an original fossil of the Titanosaurus and it was amazing!

After we were finished exploring the museum we still had some time left in the day to visit the beaches of La Plata. The area by the main entrance to the beach was insanely crowded! We managed to grab a small chunk of sand to put down on our towels. We only stayed for an hour or two because it was so crowded it was hard to have a good time. We then gathered up our stuff and headed over to the nearest bus station. Our next stop is Peninsula Valdes and it's going to be a long seventeen hour bus ride to get there.

It's Carnival Day!

Day 3:
February 8, 2012

Hi, it's Lexie blogging today! All five of us slept in a little bit to catch up on sleep so we wouldn't be tired during the huge carnival we went to today. We got up and ready at eight and then we went downstairs for the inns' breakfast that comes along with the price we paid for the room. We made sure to eat a lot since there was a full day planned for us!

The first thing we did this morning was head out to Argentina's most historical theater. We were so happy that we managed to find affordable tickets to see the ballet performance "Onieguin" in the famous Colon Theater. The theater was built in 1857 and it's amazing what they managed to build without having all the technology that we have today. It is acoustically among the five best opera houses in the entire world! They had just finished refurbishing in 2010 so everything in there was really new and looked nice. Watching the ballet was a really cool experience even though we could barely see from our cheap seats. 

After the performance was finished we jumped on a bus and headed down to the city of Gualeguaychu to see the famous carnival! The carnival used to be a way for people who were Christian to have fun before Lent started. Now it has basically turned into an excuse for everyone to get together and have a great time. It took us three hours to get there but it was definitely worth it to see the carnival that has been compared to the Rio de Jeneiro. Crazy performances took place in tons of amazing, huge, colorful floats. We got tickets to sit in the grandstands so we could get a good view of all the festivities. All of us agreed that it was one of the best days in our lives! There were so many dancers, singers, and people everywhere, just being happy and partying on carnival day. We really got to experience the Argentinian culture and I think we all loved it. There is nothing that is this fun and crazy back in Apex. Anyways, we didn't get back to Buenos Aires until about two in the morning and now it's about three. I better get going to bed because who knows what adventures tomorrow will bring?