Silly Sally's Stories: December 2011

After months of planning, we finally arrived in Argentina!

Day 1 – "Nueve, Nueve, Siete"
We arrive in Buenos Aires, where it's 85 degrees and humid. My hair is back in a pony tail within the hour; Amber's feet have blown up and out of her shoes thanks to 10 hours on a plane; and Susan is taking it all in!

Our first stop in BA was the apartment where we stayed for two nights. Susan's work colleague is from BA, so he kindly arranged for us to stay at his family's apartment off of San Martin Plaza. We met his mother, who was delightful and gracious as she walked us around the small apartment and gave us directions, the most important of which was to close the windows at night so bats don't come in! Ahhhh...consider that done. The three of us had the giggles just thinking about it!
We left the apartment and started to explore the city by first wandering through San Martin Plaza, which is a charming city park a block away from the apartment, and as luck would have it, the Marriott.

The plaza was full of beautiful, blooming jacaranda trees, which gave off a light sap that felt like it was raining. It was the oddest thing to be walking in 85 degree sunny weather, but feel occassional drops of water or sap.

We had a quick and underwhelming lunch at Retiro Station and then we walked along Avenida de los Liberators to reach the Recoleta Cemetary, which was really interesting.

The cemetary is a maze of alleyways that each have rows of ornate family crypts, which you can look into.

As Susan discovered, it's definitely a little creepy to look through a window and see stacks of coffins, but there is also something very cool about it.

I joked with Susan that I'd found the Shelden crypt. There's the coffin of the beloved family member, but surrounding it is all the crap that's been hoarded for years!

One of the main reasons that Recoleta Cemetary is on the tourist circuit is that Eva Peron is buried here, so we followed the crowd to see the Duarte Family crypt.

Amber decided to bring a little disrespectful levity to the cemetary by walking down one of the pathways, pretending to beat a drum while chanting "Bring Out Your Dead! Bring Out Your Dead!"

As we were leaving the cemetary, we were treated to our first eye sores of the trip - something we like to call "Hall of Famers"...

Now, I ask you: How can a panty line like that not hurt???

And seriously? Is his stomach so hot that it needs space to breathe?

For dinner on our first night in BA, we decided that we needed to go to the top steak house in town. I'm not sure why we thought we were so high-falutin', but off we went to Cabana Las Lillas, where I had one of the top 3 meals of my life! I loved every minute of this steak house!The meal started with a sample platter of delicious salmon, roquefort cheese, roasted red peppers, mozzarella balls and roasted tomatoes and eggplant.

We each ordered a delicious steak. Here's Susan digging into her sirloin.

A whole station devoted to bread. What's not to love here?!

Check out all the cuts of beef!

After dinner, we rolled ourselves into a cab to head back to the apartment (and hopefully no bats!). Of course the cab driver didn't speak English, so Amber popped off with her version of homemade Spanish and clearly enuciated to him that our address was "Nueve. Nueve. Siete." We could not contain our giggles. First, she doesn't speak a lick of Spanish. Second, she said it so slowly and clearly that you would have thought the driver was mentally slow. Third, our address wasn't 997 as she told the driver, but 998...she just forgot how to say "ocho". What an end to our first perfect day in Argentina!

Day 2 – “We Found the Rich People”

Today, we started our day with a tour of the National Cathedral and a visit to the Tombs of the Unknown Soldier and General San Martin.

Across the street, we walked through the Casa Rosada plaza and saw the balcony where Eva and Juan Peron gave their rousing speeches to Argentinian workers and where today's president lives and works.

Amber and Susan channeling Eva Peron.

An unexpected treat was that we were able to enter Casa Rosada and see a tribute hall to all former presidents and first ladies. Everyone else was taking pictures of the paintings and the architecture. We focused on a more interesting site:

After touring the main plaza, we strolled down the street toward Cafe Tortoni, one of BA's oldest and most famous cafes.

The food was underwhelming, but the hot chocolate was yummy!

I just love when cafe's bring steaming milk separate from the chocolate mixture. There's something so European about it that I love!

Unfortunately, as we were paying the check and preparing to leave, our waiter informed us that we were trying to pay with a counterfeit 100 peso bill. Agh! We figured out that when we took the cab home last night from Las Lillas, the cab driver switched out one of our 100 peso bills and gave us a bogus bill back. Over the course of our trip, we mentioned it to a few people and they all told us that the counterfeit money swap is a common occurrence with cab drivers. Duly noted, but not before we were out $25.

We left Cafe Tortoni and wandered down Calle Defensa toward the San Telmo Market. Everyone raves about the Saturday San Telmo antique market, but I have to say, I was wildly unimpressed. It was a flea market in which people are trying to turn their trash into your treasure. However, the walk along Calle Defensa toward the San Telmo plaza was really enjoyable. The walk was about 10-15 blocks, all of which were full of sidewalk vendors selling leather bags, mate cups, food, and other souvenirs. We didn't buy anything, but it was fun to wander with the masses of people and take it all in.

I also really enjoyed all of the street performers. This group even hauled out a piano! Talk about dedication!

The best thing to recommend San Telmo plaza was the street tango. Apparently, this man has been on this corner for years, entertaining tourists with this savvy dancing.

Even though Susan resisted our efforts to get her in his arms, it was very fun to watch.

Once we decided that San Telmo plaza wasn't really for us, we jumped in a cab and headed over to the polo grounds. Now, this was much more our style! Ever since we started telling people that we were heading to Argentina and BA, all of the women who had traveled here told us that we would see so many beautiful men. Well, two days in and we hadn't spotted one. Until we hit the polo grounds. Hello.

Oh, yeah. And we watched some polo, which we really enjoyed.

But, mostly we liked looking at the gorgeous men. What can I say?

We wandered around the polo grounds for a bit and finally discovered where the good-looking, wealthy people hang out. As we were wearing flip-flops and looking a little worse for wear, we took in all of the sleek men and women wearing pressed linen and summer hats. Amber summed up the whole experience with, "we found the rich people."

Before heading back to our apartment, we stopped by the Eva Peron museum, which I really enjoyed. There were exhibits about her early career as an actress, plus footage of her campaigning with Juan Peron and of her state funeral. She died at 33 of ovarian cancer. I had no idea she was so young when she died!

After the museum and a quick rest at the apartment, we went to dinner at another steakhouse, El Mirasol, which was good, but it was no Las Lillas! Afterward, Susan asked us to rally to see a tango show. Rather than spend $125 on a dinner theater type show, we went back to Cafe Tortoni for the cheap version. Sadly, you get what you pay for.

While the music was good and the dancing was fun, I was glad we only paid $25.

Day 3 – “Mucho Rapido!”
Well, today brought us a series of unexpected adventures and three new friends.

We started by leaving the apartment and checking into the Marriott. We opted to leave the apartment a day early because we felt like we had kicked the woman out of her own home, and we decided that it would be fun to stay at the Marriott one night. It turned out to be one of the best decisions we made on the trip!

After checking in, we began our day with a great tour of the Congresso building, where we were able to tour the Argentina Senate chamber. We weren't able to take many pictures inside, but it was really a beautiful building.

Our guide told us that much of the building was patterned after the U.S. Capitol building and we could tell. The mosaic floors, Senate chamber and ceiling murals all reminded us of our Capitol.

After our tour, we jumped in a cab and headed down to the neighborhood of La Boca. It's in a seedier area of town, so we were cautioned not to go at night, but during the day, it was charming!

This is a building and balcony made famous in many tour books and postcards.

Outside of several restaurants there was live tango, which was fun to watch.

The neighborhood is so colorful, with a lot of murals and puppet-type characters hanging from the walls. So fun!

We only spent about an hour in La Boca before heading back into town to tour the opera house, Teatro Colon.The building is really beautiful and our tour was really good. We were taken through the main hall, where we saw the beautiful marble staircase...

and the interior balconies, which led to private music rooms for smaller concerts. We were taken into one room that was really beautiful - murals on the walls, crystal chandeliers, gilded ceilings. We weren't officially allowed to take pictures, but the guide let us snap a few.

This is the main stage and the seating, which is all in the shape of a U. I think it'd be so fun to see a performance here!

After our tour of the opera house, it was 2pm so we were starving! He headed over to a local pizzeria that had been recommended by Susan's colleague. We were seated at our table, I excused myself to go to the restroom, and I came back and sat at the table. Ten seconds later, Susan looked at me and asked, "Where's my purse?" Well, flash forward 25 minutes and we were back out on the street, making plans to head to the U.S. Embassy to replace Susan's stolen passport. What a mess!

We were very fortunate inside the restaurant that a couple sitting across from us spoke English, so the man served as a translator for Susan with the manager. He was extremely kind and offered all sorts of help to us. He even convinced the manager to allow Susan to watch the security video, which showed a woman walk into the restaurant, sit behind Susan and walk out with her purse - all within 3 minutes. At the man's suggestion, Susan went out to the street to see if her purse had been thrown in the trash after the woman stole the cash. I joined her out on the street to see if I could find the purse in a trash can. No luck.

The three of us got back together outside of the restaurant and decided to head back to the Marriott to see if the concierge could help us. We walked into the hotel and the conceirge, Francisco, immediately jumped on the situation with us. He gave Susan one phone, he took another and he let Amber use the computer. With me on my ipad, we were each trying to track down the right contacts at the U.S. Embassy and the credit card companies. Susan was put in touch with an Embassy worker, who told her that she could get a new passport immediately, but she first needed to get a 5x5 passport photo taken and get to the Embassy cashier, all within 35 minutes. What?!?!?

We flew out of the hotel, into a cab and off to the Kodak photo shop that the Embassy had recommended. We needed to get to the Embassy by 3:45 p.m. At 3:22 p.m., as we were still in the cab heading to the Kodak shop, I looked at Amber and said, "We never going to make it."

Well, I should have known! As I paid the cab driver, Amber and Susan jumped out and ran into the Kodak shop, where Amber yelled to the shopkeeper "MUCHO RAPIDO!" Hahaha! It was only later in the day that the three of us were doubled over with the memory of Amber flying into a store and yelling to the manager "mucho rapido!", despite the fact that there was another customer already being helped! Fortunately, the customer and the manager took pity on Susan's total look of desperation as they got Susan situated and snapped the picture. I ran out to hail a new cab - and wouldn't you know it - I got the one cab driver who didn't know where the U.S. Embassy was located! Argh!! At 3:42, we were freaking out, but unbelievably enough, he pulled in front of the Embassy at 3:44, Susan ran through security and flew up to the cashier's window at 3:45 p.m. I honestly do not know how we made it from the Marriott, which was on the exact opposite side of town, to the Kodak store, where we had to get a photo developed, to the Embassy, all within 29 minutes. Miracle!

While Susan was dealing with paperwork, we met the nicest guy from Arizona, who was in the same boat, and who had lived in D.C. and worked on the Hill. His name was Jeff, and we had a great time chatting with him about mutual friends, lost wallets, and Buenos Aires thiefs! By 4:15 p.m. we were all standing outside of the Embassy gates and Susan and Jeff both had their new passports!

After that adventure, we headed back to the Marriott, where we focused on cancelling Susan's credit cards and coordinating with the concierge about filing a police report. That's how we met concierge #2 - Isabella. She spoke flawless English, so she served as the translator . She was so nice as she loaded herself into a cab with us and took us to the police station so Susan could file her report. She needed to file a report with the police so that when she left Argentina with a new passport sans entry stamps, she could prove that she had entered the country legally. Amber and I sat in the lobby of the police station as Susan filed her report, and we were super supportive by taking covert pictures, which Amber then posted to Facebook!

The best part was when I received an email from Allen saying, "Why is there a picture of Susan in the police station in BA?" Ha! Gotta love today's technology.

While we were waiting for Susan, Amber looked at me and said, "I have a confession. When you and Susan were digging through trash looking for the purse, I ate the last piece of bread on the table. But, since then, I’ve been Johnny-on-the-spot!” Hahaha...she and I could not contain our giggles!

We determined that Susan lost a Coach purse and wallet; an iPhone; $250 cash; the passport; and credit cards, her driver's license and temple recommend.

All's well that end's well - we walked out of the police station at 7:30 p.m. with a police report in hand, a new passport in our purse and a series of cancelled credit cards. It was a 5 hour adventure, but we were assisted throughout the day by very gracious and generous people who made a miserable experience a little bit more tolerable. And the best news: Susan still had a smile on her face at the end of the day!

Day 4 – “I’m a hostage in BA”
Today was an extremely frustrating and disappointing day. We woke up at 4:30 a.m. to take a 7 a.m. flight to Iguazu Falls. Unfortunately, a volcano in Chile that has been active since June erupted over the night, creating a huge cloud of ash that inhibited all flights.

We sat at the airport until 10 a.m., hoping that the cloud would disapate, but we finally decided to go back to the city and come back in the early afternoon for our rescheduled 2 p.m. flight.

After walking around Calle Florida and Palermo Soho (and soothing our sadness with a cup of delicious Freddo chocolate almond ice cream!), we headed back to the Marriott to learn that all the flights that day had been cancelled and that we couldn't get to Iguazu for five days. That news killed any chance we had of going to Iguazu. We were so disappointed. There were two things I wanted to see in Argentina: penguins and Iguazu Falls. I made the choice not to go south to see the penguins in exchange for seeing Iguazu. It was beyond disappointing to lose them both.

After learning that our flight was cancelled, we all went back to the airport to collect our lugguge and re-check in for the night. Thank goodness the hotel had available rooms! Once we got settled, we realized that our cancelled flight to Iguazu might jeopardize our flight out of Iguazu to El Calafate. So, off we went to the Aerolineas Argentina office, where we sat for an hour waiting for an agent.

At this point in the day, our goal was to keep smiles on our face. Amber and Susan are forcing them!

Once we confirmed our flight from B.A. to El Calafate we went back to the Marriott. It was now 5 p.m., so for 12 hours all we had done was sit around and correct cancelled travel arrangements...totally annoying. It was only after we got back to the Marriott that we decided to use the next day for a side trip to Uruguay. So, out came the map so we could figure out where the Buquebus station was located.

We decided to take the ferry to Colonia del Sacramento. I was crawling out of my skin to get out of B.A., so I would have been happy going anywhere. For dinner, we settled back at the Marriott Executive Lounge. We just couldn't bear to go back into town. Argentina won today.

Day 5 – “Uruguay. Who knew?”

This morning, we boarded a ferry to Uruguay and I could barely contain my excitement. I was so ready to get out of Buenos Aires!!

We arrived in Colonia del Sacramento about 2 hours later and found the most charming village. We loved it!

Along a stucco wall were several wood carved musicians - adorable!

The cathedral.

The city is full of bougainvilla plants, which were so beautiful!

Colonia del Sacramento is known for its tiles, so I loved this tile mosaic that depicted the old fort town.

For lunch, we stopped at an ocean-side restaurant.

Amber decided to be brave and order the Uruguay's national sandwich: chivito.

It looks nasty, but it was surprisingly good. The massive sandwich had bacon, ham, olives, a thin filet steak, mushrooms, onions, eggs, mozzarella cheese, and mayonnaise. I'm glad I didn't order it for myself, but I'm glad I took the chance to try it.

After lunch we climbed to the top of the lighthouse, which was a lot of fun and had great views of the village.

After a day of touring, we boarded the ferry and headed back to B.A. This is Amber five minutes after leaving the harbor...

It's hard work being a tourist!

Since the past couple of days had been rough - a stolen purse and passport; cancelled travel plans - we decided we needed to treat ourselves with a sure thing. Back to Las Lillas we went! Yet again, we had a delicious dinner that we each enjoyed!

Amber going "forks up" while displaying the security precautions we're now taking these days - keep all bags in front!

Day 6 – “Sweet, Sweet Freedom!”
Today was another touch-and-go day, but all's well that end's well! We went to the Japanese tea garden, which I really enjoyed. There's something about Japanese gardens that I really like.

After spending a while there, we headed back to the Marriott to collect our bags and head to the airport for our flight to El Calafate. As we were leaving the Marriott, Susan asked us, "Do you think the Marriott team is going to have a huddle this afternoon and say, 'The Shelden party finally checked out. Good work people; they were a challenge!'?" Hahaha...we were like bad house guests that would not leave!

We made it through the airport and to our gate only to learn that our flight was delayed 45 minutes. Then 60 minutes. Then 90 minutes. Then it was showing as "closed." I honestly was done with Argentina. I wanted to go to the international counter and head home to Dulles. After spending a day in the Embassy and police station; followed by a day shuttling back and forth between the airport, the airline office and the ferry company; followed by the realization that we had spent 6 days in B.A. when we only wanted to spend 3, I was ready to throw in the towel and go home.

Fortunately, they finally announced that we would be boarding and heading to El Calafate. Our flight went as smoothly as possible, which was a great thing because the attendants did nothing but pass out drinks! They never asked us to turn off our electronics (Amber and I read on our Kindles the whole time), they never instructed us to put our seat backs and tray tables up, and they never collected any trash. The three of us were laughing the whole time, thinking "this sure ain't United Airlines!"

We arrived in El Calafate, which is a barren outpost in the middle of NO WHERE. It was the craziest thing to land and see nothing but a desolate landscape, especially having left the major city of BA. However, when we arrived in downtown El Calafate, we found a charming town. We checked into our B&B, Kau Kaleshen, which was really great.

The best part was our row of beds, which Amber dubbed our Huey, Duwey and Louie beds!

After a yummy dinner at La Cocina, we hunkered down for the night and prepared for our big adventure the next day!

Day 7 – "This is the craziest ass thing we’ve ever done. Well, this and the donkeys.”

I loved today! We arranged for a tour of the Perito Moreno glacier and we had a great time!

We were picked up this morning by Hielo y Aventura and taken by charter bus to Glacier National Park, which is about 45 minutes outside of El Calafate. Our guide, Walter (who was adorable!), gave us a quick 10 minute description of the glacier and then let us wander along the "boardwalk" paths overlooking the glacier.

The three of us thought the glacier was so cool - especially when we heard some calfing (when large chunks of ice fell from the glacier). Unfortunately, we didn't get any videos of the calfing, but it was still great to see and hear it happen!

I love this picture...

Which one grew up in Colorado and which one has a mantra of "I don't do nature."? Hahahaha!

After we spent time on the boardwalks, we jumped back on the bus and headed to what I think is the west side of the glacier, where we took a short, 20-minute ferry ride to the base of the glacier. Our guide, Walter, walked us along a dirt path for about 10 minutes and then led us to this hut, where we all put on crampons to hike the glacier.

As Amber and I were being fitted for crampons, I started to get nervous and remarked to her that "this is the craziest-ass thing we've ever done....well, this and the donkeys in Greece." Hahaha...we couldn't stop laughing!

Before even setting foot on the ice, I knew this would be an experience unlike any other. I mean, when was the last time I went on vacation and needed equipment like this???

In honor of our missing comrade - Chappy - Amber and I decided to make total fools of ourselves by pretending we were penguins sliding down the glacier. Susan was horrified to take the picture and the other 15 people in our tour group were horrified at our immaturity....but we got a funny picture!

Day 8 – “I’m sorry. Did he say 14 kilometers?”

Before we left for Argentina, I found this awesome place called Estancia Cristinia that is only accessible via a boat ride and is the only place to see one of the world's largest glaciers, Upsala Glacier.

I did some investigating on the website and decided to sign us up for the "High Adventure" experience, which included the two-hour boat ride, 45-minute 4x4 ride, tour of fossil artifacts, and a hike. The website cautioned that the High Adventure package was for those in "good physical condition", but I wasn't concerned.

We woke up on Day 8 and were greeted by an official from Estancia Cristina, who drove us to the harbor, which was about 40 minutes away from our hotel. We really enjoyed the boat ride, which took us past fields of ice bergs, which I'd never seen in person before.

Amber saw this picture and yelled at Susan and I, "Why didn't you guys tell me I looked like Mr. Puffintop?!?" That had me doubled over for a minute!

After a two-hour ride, we were loaded onto an open-air pick-up truck, where we drove across the ranch property and up to the top of a mountain.

We got to the top of the mountain, and our guide, Alejandro, told us to put on our warmest clothes, which he hardly needed to do because it was FREEZING! He then cautioned us that this was the only "turn-back opportunity." If we didn't want to do the hike or thought we'd be too cold, we had to turn back now and go back to the ranch in the pick-up truck because there wouldn't be any helicopter or ATV that would come and pick us up. No one opted to leave, so the truck pulled away and we all circled up to get our instructions.

It was at this point that Alejandro said, "Ok, we're going to go 14 kilometers and we need to be back at the ranch by 3:30 p.m. to catch the boat back to El Calafate. Did everyone bring their lunch?"

It was at this point that I turned to Amber and asked, "I'm sorry, did he say 14 kilometers??" Her reply, "I guess we should have brought lunches!"

That's hiking nine miles in 3.5 hours in the mountains with no food! This would be the moment when I remembered the importance of reading the fine print!

Despite my idiocy, we managed to do great. The first 30 minutes was a bit intense, but we were rewarded with a beautiful view of Upsala Glacier. It's one of the largest glaciers in the world and the only way to see it is to hike in to the vista spot.

A quick photo of the three of us with the glacier behind us. I just have to love Amber...she's on top of a mountain, overlooking a glacier, and she still remembers to bend her knee to show herself at her slimmest angle! Never mind the ski pants and parka!

Alejandro showing us the fossil prints in the shale rock.

This was the spot where we sat down for "lunch." Alejandro told us that we'd be taking a break, so the other 10 people in our group found a spot, sat down and pulled out their turkey sandwiches, trail mix and apples. What did we do? We pulled out our can of Pringles, two granola bars and hard candy. Bottoms up, ladies!

As Coloradans, Susan and I felt so stupid being on a 14 km hike with only Pringles and a granola bar to keep us going. We know better! As we were all searching our bags for food, I blurted out, "Oh! I have gum!" As if that was going to do anything to get us through the remaining three miles!

We suffered through lunch and then suffered through a discussion about a bathroom break. As is evident in the photo below, not a lot of trees in them 'thar hills! As Amber was milling about after lunch, I remarked, "I need a banos." Amber replied, "Yeah, well I just almost stepped in someone's banos, so apparently anything goes around here!"

As we walked up and down valleys, Amber remarked that this was the most remote place she had ever been. We realized that she was right - we took a 2 1/2 hour flight from BA to El Calafate; a 45 minute bus ride from El Calafate to the harbor; a two-hour ferry ride to Estancia Cristina; and a 45-minute truck ride to the top of a mountain. We were indeed hell and gone from anything.

We made it! In the distance we saw the white huts that comprise Estancia Cristina. Those huts meant working bathrooms and food!

Kudos to us! We did a 14 km hike deep in Patagonia and survived without real food or a bathroom break! What women!

Day 9 – "Oh, how charming!"
This morning, we said a sad goodbye to Amber as she left to go back to Washington and we headed north to El Chalten, the hiking capital of South America. We boarded a bus early in the morning and took a three-hour bus ride through Patagonia to arrive in El Chalten mid-day.

We were picked up by the proprietor for our B&B, El Pilar, and driven another 30-minutes to the B&B, which is along a river and 10-mile dirt road. Very remote but very charming!

Since we arrived around 1pm, we ate a quick lunch and then headed out for a short four-hour hike to see Mt. FitzRoy. It was a little clouded over, but we managed to get a quick peak before the clouds went over it again.

We returned to El Pilar and had what was probably one of my top five meals ever! We had a delicious dinner of pumpkin soup and lamb with mushroom sauce. I was practically licking the plate by the end of the meal!

Day 10 – “Get me off this #$(*@$ mountain.”
When I go about my day-to-day life, I never have the thought, "I should go on a hike this weekend." Never. And yet, when I go on a hike, I really enjoy it. I really enjoyed our hike on the glacier; our hike at Estancia Cristina; and our afternoon hike yesterday to see Mt. FitzRoy. That's three days of hiking when I'm used to zero.

So, this morning, when Susan announced that she wanted to do the Lagos de Los Tres hike, I immediately grabbed the guidebook in a panic. Twenty kilometers! And a gentle warning by the author, "This hike is difficult, especially the last half mile. The last half mile is straight up and will take at least 45 minutes." CRAP.

But, little sister was determined, so off we went. It started off well enough - we went through beautiful forest and even spotted a few woodpeckers.

Our first taste of success was when we saw this beautiful glacier across the valley floor. We timed our arrival just right - the clouds passed over and the sun came out.

We continued to set out for the three lakes. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of photos from this hike because it got to the point where my sole goal was not to die or use the foulest of languages. We hit the mid-way point and I desparately wanted to about-face to El Chalten, but Susan pushed us on.

When we arrived at the base of the final assent, I have to say that I was exhausted. As was Susan, but not nearly as bad as me. She kept pointing out the people at the top of the peak to give me a frame of reference for where we had to go, and I nearly died. It was so high and so steep!

The guidebook said it would take 45 minutes. Try 90. It was an absolutely brutal assent, but Susan was so great and paced herself slowly so I didn't fall too far behind.

At the top, we were treated to a beautiful view. All three lakes were covered with snow, but it's quite something to be at the snowline of a mountain.

After spending about 30 minutes at the top, we began our descent down and back to El Pilar, which took several hours. In the course of the hike back, my knee popped out and was so painful! Four days of hiking and I was D-O-N-E. Susan kept glancing back and chuckling because apparently I didn't have the sweetest look on my face. When I realized that we still had another hour ahead of us before we got to the B&B, I yelled down to Susan, "Get me off this F-ing mountain!" Not my most charming moment, but one of my most honest!

Fortunately, when we arrived back at El Pilar and rested a bit we were treated to another delicious meal: steak with blueberry sauce. Would never have thought of that combination myself, but it works well! Especially after a 20km hike!

Day 11 – “This wouldn’t be so bad if there was air conditioning. Well, there’s not so it is.”

Today was strictly a travel day. We left El Pilar early in the morning and hopped on a 3-hour bus ride back to the El Chalten airport, where we boarded a two-hour flight to Esquel. We were headed to Bariloche, Argentina's answer to Vail and Aspen. It's a winter playground of ski resorts and winter activities, but it's equally beautiful in the summer.

Unfortunately, the Bariloche airport is closed for runway renovations, so we were forced to fly into Esquel and take a four-hour bus ride to Bariloche. Susan and I were among the first to board the bus, so we hiked to the upper level and got the front-row seat that overlooked the mountains. I was terrified of being motion sick riding in a bus through mountain passes, but I did just fine. The problem was the lack of good air conditioning and the 90-degree heat. It was so blazing hot! Susan I were sweating buckets and giggling at the idea of Chappy being on the bus with us. Chappy is hot standing in front of a freezer, so she would have been in hell had she been on the bus with us. After 2.5 hours of the bus ride, Susan leaned over to me and remarked, "This wouldn't be so bad if there was air conditioning." Seriously, Captain Obvious? My quick retort: "Well there's not, so it is!"

Fortunately, we made our way to a delightful hotel right on the lake and we treated ourselves to an upgraded room overlooking the lake.

After the hellish day of planes, buses and cabs, Susan and I were ready to hunker down into some luxury!

Day 12 – "I want to learn Spanish so I can speak to these people. They're so friendly and nice!"
We had a rental car delivered to our hotel last night so this morning we set off early to explore the Llao Llao peninsula. Our first stop was Colonia Suiza, which is a very small little community of artisans and craft boutiques.

I bought a small cutting board, but otherwise, there wasn't anything that drew either of us in. What we both loved were the fields of wild yellow flowers that grew along all of the roads. They just looked so pretty against the blue skies and green trees.

From Colonia Suiza, we drove to the chairlift overlook, which we loved.

From the top of the chairlift, we had great views of Bariloche and the Llao Llao peninsula. Everything was so blue!

After visiting the overlook, we drove out to the tip of the peninsula to visit the Llao Llao Hotel. Oh my gosh, what a hotel! Amalia stayed here when she visited and I tried to get in, but at $500 a night, we decided the price was too steep. Visiting the hotel, however, I'm not so sure we shouldn't have just paid the money! What a hotel!

We opted to have lunch at the hotel and we loved it. We both got lamb burgers with fries and they were the best dang lamb burgers I'd ever had! Our waiter was the most adorable man, who took care of our every need with a huge smile. I don't know if it was the five-star hotel, the five-star burger, or the five-star service, but Susan blurted out, "I want to learn Spanish so I can speak with these people! They're so friendly and nice!" She's right; the Argentinian people are unfailingly kind and gracious.

This was our view from our lunch spot:

We drove to the other side of the grounds and took a picture of the hotel. You can hardly beat this real estate!

This is a beautiful one-room church across the grounds from the hotel. We loved the charming stone and wood exterior and the simple interior. Perfect for a late afternoon wedding!

Day 13 - "This is so sad."

We were lucky forour first 36 hours in Bariloche, but unlucky for the last 24. This was our view when we arrived:

And one our last day.

The volcano erupted again overnight and created a huge ash cloud over everything. We decided to brave it and drive to Villa Angosturra, which is a charming mountain town on the other side of the lake. We enjoyed our morning there but our ability to see much was definitely clouded by the ash. It was actually very sad to walk through the village, which is only about 35 minutes from the volcano, as there were huge piles of ash along the streets and the trees were covered in ash. Everything just had a beige and smoky feel.

We decided to drive back to our hotel for a siesta, which we desparately needed, and then we opted to return for lamb burgers at Llao Llao. Yes, they really were that good!

Day 14 - "He's an animal!"
Another unadventurous travel day. Just as we had to spent an entire day traveling to Bariloche, we had to spend an entire day traveling out of Bariloche. Early in the morning, we boarded another bus to travel to the Neuquen airport, about six hours from Bariloche. While it was a long ride (six hours!), it flew by fairly quickly with the assistance of my Kindle.

Susan wasn't quite so lucky. While she also had a book to keep her occupied, the man sitting across the aisle from her was severely lacking in basic hygiene and manners. Rather than use a much-needed Kleenex, he just kept snorting. For six hours. He also took off his shoes and socks and started picking at his feet. If anything sends Susan over the edge, it's people's feet. Especially when they're picking at them in front of her. By the mid-point of the trip, I turned around to look at her and saw the most disgusted look on her face.

"How ya doin?"

"He's an animal!," she replied. "A disgusting animal!"

Hahaha...as if it wasn't bad enough that we were on a six-hour bus ride, we were riding with human yuckiness. We were definitely ready to return to the five-star life!

Day 15 – "Time to go home."
After a good night's sleep back at the Marriott in Buenos Aires (we're back!), we had a lazy shopping day. We first stopped at the Pacifico Galleria, where I picked up a nice leather traveling purse that I really like, and then we wondered down Calle Florida and the Palermo neighborhood. We wandered through a few parks and stopped by Amalia's must-do restaurant, Olsens, which we found to be absolutely gross. It was sort of a low-point way to end our trip, but cie la vie!

All in all, I loved Argentina and it was the perfect 40th birthday celebration. The people are exceptionally gracious, the food is delicious and the country is beautiful. We definitely had some missteps and disappointments along the way (Iguazu Falls!), but it was a wonderful trip and Susan and I are already talking about our return!

Silly Sally's Stories

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Hair Checkup

Now, That's a Massage!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas Celebrations with Mom

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Mini Car Mats

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Annual Gift Card Exchange

Is it Really Christmas?

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Viva Argentina!

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