not my everyday journey

Cafayate: Land of Wine, Beef and Red Sand Oatmeal

2009-11-15T23:28:00.000-05:00

When: July 20-22, 2009.

Where: Chicken-Dog Campsite to Cafayate, Argentina

We left the Chicken-Dog Campsite early (6AM) and started towards Cafayate. I remember it was FREEZING in the truck and we were all wrapped in the blankets we'd bought in Buenos Aires. When I woke up and looked out the window I discovered that we were in a cloud going up a mountain! Pretty...

I saw my first non-zoo llama and when we stopped at a gas station we encountered a shop full of llama wear. We begged Fred and Jo to buy matching llama sweaters but no luck (the shop owner wouldn't lower the prices).

(Katja chillin' outside the llama wear shop)

Looking at the photos on my computer, this must be around the time that Tania, Abby and I started to rate the toilets we were forced to use. A '1' on the scale was the absolute worst (just be thankful I didn't take any pictures of the two 1's we actually encountered!) and a '5' was pure luxury.

(gas station: no toilet paper but otherwise not too bad...maybe a 3?)

(gas station: eeee gawd...um no toilet paper, no seat and thank goodness we can't see closer...um a 1.5/2?)

After our trip up into the mountains, we came back down into a valley and stopped at the Quilmes ruins. Some people chose to stay on the truck, but Sebastian, Abby and I decided to walk up and check them out. There were lots of cacti...

(Abby and Seb and a GIANT cactus)

(We couldn't read the signs but I'm sure they were telling us not to destroy the ruins...did you hear that Sebastian?? No destroying the ruins!!)

(Dead and alive cacti)

(Seeing if I could fit through a hole in the rock. Yup.)

(We all enjoyed finding a llama in the wall)

(Ruins: here's a 4.5. I remember it would have been a 5 if the toilet paper had been better quality)

We arrived in Cafayate and set up our tents in yet another dog-filled campsite just down the road from the wineries (As I'm sure you can tell, I'm not a fan of the dogs in S.A.).

THE HOFF!!

(The Hoff in action.)

The first wine tour we went on was in Spanish and was quite short. Jayson was nice enough to translate but really I think we were all ready to get to the tasting part.

(Part of me really wants to live in this building.)

Our second tour was at a very nice winery which was less modern wine factory and more traditional winery. The tour guide was very sweet (she said 'ya' at the end of every sentence) and Jayson jumped at the opportunity to drive her nuts. He grabbed Katja's video camera and filmed her talking for the entire tour! You could tell she was trying to be nice but probably would have slapped him if she could have.

We walked around the main square and then returned to the campsite where we sat around talking. Our discussion turned to the subject of our up-coming higher altitude destinations. Katja was very adamant that the one bottle of wine Jayson was drinking at the time was actually equivalent to about 4 bottles of wine due to the altitude. Altitude makes us cheap drunks. Good times.

That night we went out for a group dinner. Disgusting amounts of beef were eaten. We were given a Dragoman shout-out by the singer in the restaurant. After dinner some people managed to eat ice cream and Seb, Abby and I spent some time in an internet cafe. When we got back to the campsite Abby and I were a bit freaked out to see the Hoff surrounded by creepy looking campsite dogs. They followed me to and from the bathroom and I had to resort to throwing a boot at one.

The next morning I woke up to what I thought were the dogs ripping at the Hoff but quickly realized it was a sand storm. With every blow of the wind, sand came flying through the windows and into the tent! We quickly packed up the tents but there was already sand and grit everywhere.

We left the sandstorm behind and stopped for breakfast near some beautiful rock formations. Freddie made some tasty oatmeal (I wasn't allowed near the oatmeal after my previous watery disaster) and I was starved. Unfortunately, just as the oatmeal was ready, the sandstorm blew in.

(Red sand in my oatmeal? Not so yummy. Unfortunately, this wasn't the only red sand oatmeal on the trip...but that's a refuge story so you'll have to wait for it...)

The plan was to drive to outside Salta to do some rafting and zip-lining but when we arrived, we saw that the sandstorm had blown down many of the powerlines. At one point we couldn't continue down the road due to them. We had to turn around. Zip-lining was out. boohoo...off to the city of Salta we went. We arrived at our planned campsite to find that trees had been knocked down and the people who were staying there were moving all of their stuff to the washroom area to get out of the storm. We hung out in the truck while Jayson tried to find a hostel for us (thank the lord!).

(Jayson chatting with the local police about the downed power-lines.)

(Freddie with his HUGE steak and his HUGE beer)

Our hostel turned out to be pretty basic. Tania, Abby, Katja, Fred and I (along with some random Spanish guy) were in one room. No hot water. The heater did nothing. Over the next 3 days we managed to break the sink off the wall and the handle off the toilet. Oh Salta...

Next time: learn how to play the Salta vs. Hull game, hear how reading Anthony Keidis' autobiography aloud can be awkward and how we almost all went insane in the city of Salta.

I ♥ Amber.

2009-10-16T20:42:00.004-04:00

(After I discovered I got kind of car sick on bumpy South American roads, I spent a lot of time sitting near the front of Amber, staring out this front window. Whoever I stole this pic from, nice photo!)

Date: July 15-19, 2009.

Where: B.A. to an estancia near Cordoba, Argentina.

Info: We met Amber at 6:45 AM. She was waiting for us across from the hotel in the dark. I don't what I had been expecting but she was huge! And crazy awesome. I was so excited, I threw my bag in the back and climbed in.

(Here she is folks! Meet Amber, my home for 6 weeks this summer. Even though she had a few issues, she still rocked.)

We all found seats and soon we were driving down the street and turning onto the huge Av. 9 de Julio (Abby and I were impressed!) and we were off! We passed the obelisco and waved goodbye to Buenos Aires. A while later we stopped for a break and Jayson explained how Amber worked and told us our jobs and cook groups,etc. I was put on recycling/hand sanitizer duty, which I later found out was the 'old person' job. Thanks a lot Jayson. (Although, I did get in a bit of trouble later in the trip due to not emptying the recycling bins....and I might have tried to blame it on Tania....heeheeheeooops! Love ya Tania!).

(Gas station lunch. We must have been quite a sight - 12 people jump off a big orange truck, pull out stools and tables and make lunch!)

At about noon we pulled over and found out that Amber was having some (alternator??) problems . Us passengers were dropped off at a gas station restaurant and Jayson took Amber to be fixed. For the next two hours we drank coffee, talked, watched early 90's music videos (Take That!) and looked at Mick's travel videos. When Jayson returned, we were off again and stopped a little while later at a supermercado. My cook group was on duty that night. Woohoo. The Girl Guide Leader (one of the other Canadians) took control and decided on chicken with rice for dinner. Johan and Freddie weren't thrilled with this and since they'd been on the truck since Rio, I felt they knew more about shopping in South American supermarkets than the rest of our group....That wasn't our last supermercado battle with the GGL...

(Johan has some mean meat arranging skills.)

Jayson and Mick found us a campsite that night so we didn't have to 'bush camp' (aka camping behind a gas station, which would have killed my parents to hear about). The campsite was pretty empty and kind of sketchy. After a tent demo, Abby and I got to putting up the Hoff. Yes, that's right - our tent was named David Hasselhoff (others included George Clooney, Tom Selleck, Johnny Depp). Later, Katja and I went for a shower only to be horrified when we found them (see picture below). They reminded me of the movie 'Saw' and were falling apart and gross. I somehow showered, while trying to avoid a huge spider and afterwards put on every single piece of warm clothing I had brought with me since it was FREEZING.

(TERRIFYING!)

Dinner was interesting and a bit stressful. Girl Guide Leader was freaking out about how the boys were chopping vegetables and meat in a variety of sizes and I had no idea how to make rice for 12 people. The stir-fry turned into a kind of stew but I don't think anyone minded. It was freezing so after cleaning up we pretty much all went to bed. The tent was comfortable but someone nearby was snoring SO LOUDLY that Abby and I couldn't stop laughing. Around 2AM a train went by right beside the campsite, lighting up the tent and shaking the ground. I was so cold I hid inside my sleeping bag and tried to get some sleep.

After a breakfast of watery oatmeal (sorry people, I also don't know how to make oatmeal for 12!) we were back on the road. The extremely flat scenery started to change and we started driving up into rolling hills. At some point, Mick honked the horn as another Dragoman truck drove by us in the opposite direction. We followed them steeper and steeper and finally turned off onto a narrow dirt road towards the estancia. The road was seriously narrow and I had visions of us rolling down the side of the hill, which would not have been a good start to my overlanding experience.

(one of the estancia dogs making himself at home on Sebastian's tent)

(The estancia farmhouse. We ended up sleeping in here after the first night because it was so frickin' cold.)

We found out that the other truck ('Cindy') would be leaving the next day and there would be a bbq (asado) that night to celebrate our arrival and their departure. Abby and I set up the Hoff in a field full of other Drago tents and horse crap. We wandered back to the farmhouse, where the owner explained what would be happening over the next two days. Abby declared he was 'mad as a box of frogs' (!!)(Abby, you rock!) and I felt like we'd stepped back in time when farm employees in aprons started handing us cups of tea. Bizarre.

(estancia owners)

(Argentinean bbq = Lots and lots of beef.)

(Amber and Cindy. Cindy people were kind of crazy. I'll bite my tongue and not write anything else about them!)

(Mick on the roof. I don't know why. Taking care of serious Dragoman business, obviously.)

(Dinner was delicious. Got to talk to some people who'd already been to the places we were headed. There was also a lot of wine)

After a night of beef, booze and more extremely loud snorers, we woke up to find the field beside the tents full of horses. The Cindy people packed up their stuff and left while we were having breakfast. Later we were each assigned a horse and the owner gave us a quick lesson on how to handle the horses. My horse was named Sal (Salt) and he pretty much followed in behind the other horses. The countryside was beautiful and I was amazed how the horses were able to pick their way through the rocky hillsides.

(Abby's darling horse, affectionately nicknamed Cow)

(Estancia owner giving us a lesson on how to ride a horse)

Oh Sal...how you didn't want to go on this ride. Apparently he'd been out the day before and just didn't want to cooperate. At one point he stopped and refused to continue down a hill. One of the riding instructors came by and gave him a slap on the butt. He immediately bolted down the hill with me holding on for dear life! Fun times...

(moo)

That night the estancia owner provided a wine tasting of local wines. We learned about Argentinean wine, beef and how his family came to own the land. I don't actually remember any of this information...perhaps due to the amount of wine we consumed that night. After dinner we continued drinking and Fred, Johan, Sebastian and Tania tried to teach me how to play poker. Somehow with Abby's colour strategy (2 reds = bet high) I managed to win. We slept on the floor of the kitchen that night. It was too cold to sleep in the tents!

The next day was our long ride. I was given a different horse (I guess Sal needed a rest). Floppy (ha!) was apparently one of the nicest horses to ride on the estancia (I was just hoping we wouldn't go flying down any more hillsides!). We rode across fields and down rocky hills. We stopped beside a stream for lunch and then continued up the mountain to the top. What a view.

(ride leader)

(Jayson looking all serious on his steed)

(I forced them to all look in the same direction before I took the photo)

At the end of the ride we ended up at the estancia's guest house (so gorgeous) where we were greeted with hot chocolate by the staff (again, weird). After a look around we were given a lassoing lesson and let loose on a group of poor little calves. I almost lassoed the practice tree trunk but got no where near the calves. Tania ended up lassoing a hoof and was declared the champion!

(Johan, Abby and Tania being all gaucho)

We returned to the farmhouse by pickup to find that Amber and Mick were gone. He'd taken her to town to get the brakes fixed (always a good idea). Unfortunately, dinner was in the fridge on the truck so we did the smart thing and started drinking. A local singer came to perform and Jayson couldn't resist borrowing his guitar and serenading us with a bit of Wonderwall. After the performance, the night kind of deteriorated into a mess of red wine and drinking games (I never need to play Ring of Fire again, thanks).

(A very happy Abby and a very intoxicated Sebastian. Tabarnac!)

(An example of what you find on your camera when you accidentally leave it in Jayson's safe keeping)

The next morning we woke up to discover that Mick had returned with Amber at 2AM. Abby and I packed up the Hoff and we all piled into the truck. It was a long day of driving to our next campsite (the infamous chicken-dog-campsite!)

Stay tuned for stories about winery tours, annoying winery tour participants (ahem, Jayson), ginormous steaks and a sandstorm!

B.A. - Biking through traffic, meeting my truckmates and grave-hunting...

2009-09-06T13:00:00.002-04:00

(According to my map this is Torre Monumental de los Ingleses...All I remember is trying not to get hit by one of those cars!)

Date: July 12 & 13

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Info: I woke up in the freezing hostel, ate breakfast (hello dulce de leche) and headed to Plaza San Martin to meet my bike tour. As most of you know, I have this weird love affair with bike tours in traffic-filled foreign countries. I don't bike at home in Toronto but put me in a new place, preferably with tons of traffic and I for some bizarre reason feel the need to get on a bike.

(Puerto Madero - new condos, new bridges, expensive restaurants)

I found the Plaza no problem (Steph, I think my map skills are getting better!) but when I arrived, there were no people on bikes to be seen. I ended up walking around the neighbourhood to avoid the homeless men in the park and about 1 million pigeons who were coo-ing and flapping all over the place. Just before the tour was scheduled to start I returned to the plaza and found Ana and some bikes. Since there weren't any other customers, I got a private tour. I jumped on my bike and followed Ana out into traffic, across train tracks and bridges and through parks...

(Ana rocked. She's a university student in B.A. and we talked about uni, music and travelling...)

(Last time I rode a bike was in Bangkok (remember that Elz?!). Luckily this time we didn't bike through any markets with guys frying stuff in vats of boiling oil, canals filled with green slime or streets filled with tuk-tuks)

We stopped for about 30 minutes in the neighbourhood of La Boca, where the buildings are painted bright colours, artists sell paintings and tourists are hassled to eat lunch at overpriced cafes. One waiter saw the Canadian flag on my bag and tried to impress me with his hockey knowledge. Dude, do I look like I play hockey?

(This kid was not happy that his mother made him sit there and get a caricature drawn...)

(Can't remember for the life of me what this monument was for. I just remember that I had to bike up a huge hill in the park behind it and that I almost ran over a stray dog in the process.)

Our last stop on the approx. 3 hour ride was the famous Plaza de Mayo. Getting here was insane! We biked through some awful traffic and I came very close to denting a few cars....

(This area reminded me of Paris)

(The Presidential Palace (the pink building). If you squint, you can see the balcony where Madonna...uh, I mean Eva Peron gave her famous speeches)

After dropping my bike off at a hotel garage I said goodbye to Ana and headed back to my hostel to pick up my pack and walk to the hotel where I'd meet my tourmates. I arrived at the new hotel, checked in and was taken up to my room in a tiny, cage-like, probably 100 year old elevator. The room was nice enough but FREEZING (again) so I climbed into my sleeping bag and fell asleep.

The tour's initial meeting was later that night and when I arrived I met the two Dragoman leaders/drivers, 'Nick' and 'Ray' *(see footnote) and my fellow travellers. We discussed our itinerary, stuff we'd need for camping in cold weather and paid our kitty money. Our tour was made up of 3 other Canadians, a German and 5 Brits. I met my roommate, Abby and we hit it off right away.

That night we went out for drinks with some of the people from the last tour, which had ended in B.A. We went for dinner at a restaurant where there was a tango performance, which was great and not too touristy. The guy sitting beside me somehow fell asleep even though we were seated right near the stage. (We later discovered he did this after almost every meal. No joke.) Check out video of the tango performance below.

The next morning Abby and I joined Ray and an other passenger, in a quest to find some camping stores. Some people hadn't brought enough camping stuff and Ray thought we'd need extra blankets when going from Argentina to Bolivia. Remember people, it's winter in South America...(although in B.A. it was about 15 degrees and people were wearing fur coats and hats!)

(Abby and I met these dogs while trying to find the entrance to the La Recoleta. The one wearing the jacket in the middle was terrifying and wanted to attack/eat us.)

We finally found some blankets and some too expensive camping stores and then returned to the hotel for an episode of CSI on the fabulous AXN channel. Later Abby and I hopped in a cab and headed to La Recoleta. This cemetery is similar to Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris in that it's filled with lots of famous people with extremely large and ornate tombs. The most famous person in La Recoleta is without a doubt, Eva Peron.

Tania, one of our tourmates had gone the day before and had a hard time finding Evita's tomb. We got instructions from one of the Canadians ('turn at the monk'....I think the monk turned out to be a statue of Jesus!) and found her more modest tomb surrounded by tourists. We took a few snaps, got out of the way and wandered up and down the rows.

It was really interesting to see the varying condition of the tombs. Some were well kept, others not so much. In some you could see coffins, pictures, urns of generations of family members. Some were just downright creepy...

(One of the many stray cats which live among the tombs at La Recoleta. How is this position comfortable?)

Abby and I walked back to the area near our hostel (it was a nice walk through some very expensive neighbourhoods) and decided lunch was our next order of business. We found a place with a lunch special and tucked into a huge-ooozing-with-cheese pizza. We quickly discovered that the majority of the pizza in South America is way too heavy on the cheese.

After a search for postcards we headed back across the huge Avenida 9 de Julio (one of the world's widest roads), where I took a quick video in an attempt to show just how crazy driving and walking across this thing is. Check it out below.

That night we were both too exhausted to go out so we relaxed in the hotel room and watched tv. If I recall correctly, we had to meet the truck at 5AM so it was an early night.

Next Post: We meet Amber....our truck, visit some Argentinean gas stations and experience the 'Saw' shower. Oh, and Abby and I sleep in the Hoff. 'Nuff said.

*I was going to try to use code names/initials for people but it was way too weird to write (and there were way to many people with names beginning with 'J'). If you still want me to change your names people, leave a comment...

'Nick'=Mick

'Ray'=Jay

Clearly, I don't have a strong enough imagination or rhyming skills to make up 16 code names.

Mission: Get to Buenos Aires...

2009-08-31T21:27:00.004-04:00

(Even the beautiful views of Chile couldn't make me feel better...)

not as easy as you might think...

The Original Plan: July 11 - go from Nashville, TN (I was there to attend Steph & Tony's wedding) to Miami and then on to Buenos Aires.

Oh, if only it had gone that smoothly. But where's the travel challenge in that route? Here's what ended up happening...

1. Get a phone call at B&B in Nashville telling me the flight to Miami was delayed from 2PM to 4:45PM. Thanks American Airlines for letting me know. That was very nice of you.

2. 4:00PM - Taryn drops me off at the airport where I'm told that there's no way I'm getting to Miami in time for my connecting flight. They re-direct me to Dallas/Ft.Worth and then to B.A. Thanks American, for lying to me when I talked to the rep on the phone but whatever.

3. Land in Dallas with over an hour before my connecting flight. Unfortunately we sit on the runway because there isn't a gate for us. For the next hour we watch other planes come and go...they have gates. I FINALLY get off the plane and am told by the gate attendant to run to my next flight because they're still boarding.

4. Problem - Dallas is one of the world's largest airports and I have to take a seriously slow monorail thing around 3 terminals. Run to gate. Get laughed at by the gate attendants. Plane is long gone. At this point I'm getting really tired of AA people.

5. Get put on plane to Santiago, Chile and then a flight to B.A. Not before I make a call home where I sob to my father about events #1-4.

(Finally flying over Argentina...only took 24 hours)

6. Emerge in B.A. to find that my huge-full-of-everything-I-need-for-the-next-6-weeks-backpack has been left back in Santiago (I hate you American Airlines!) and after waiting for 40 minutes at a counter am told it will be delivered to my hostel sometime that night. I am doubtful. Very doubtful.

7. Get ripped off in the cab. It was scary. I was threatened by the two drivers...that's all I'll say about that incident.

(Crappy grocery store dinner I had to buy in order to get change. OK, the dulce de leche oreos were damn good.)

8. Make it to the hostel alive. Can't pay with 100 peso bill because Argentina has a shortage of change. Bloody hell. Go to a grocery store. Beg for change. Email home describing my ordeal. Bag magically arrives at hostel. I go to my room (thank god I booked a single) and collapse into bed. Wonder whether this trip was such a good idea...

Next post: I indulge my penchant for bike riding through traffic-filled cities, meet my Dragoman crew and end up in a cemetery. Yeah, I bet you're interested now...