living more simply

el bolson has been pretty charming. mountains, fairly good food, chill people and hippies. well, i didn´t see the hippies till we went to the craft market yesterday and that was a treat. we wanted to get tons of stuff because everything was so cool. it was probably the best craft market i´ve been to ever. we ended up buying some hippie pants that looked too comfortable to pass up plus i was in need of some new pants that fit. we also got some delicious peas, raspberries and this strawberry/milk drink that was very tasty.

we´ve been camping in el bolson and last night was by far the coldest. i couldn´t really sleep because i was a little too cold and when my feet don´t stay warm, i have trouble sleeping. anyways, morning finally came. sweet jesus. a little warmth.

katherine exited the tent only to discover that one of the backpacks was missing - mine. awesome. i´ve always wanted to start mornings looking for shit that someone took from me. katherine´s had been ransacked but was more or less there. we spent the next 2 hours looking around inside the camp site. nothing. the two guys who run the place looked outside the property. nothing (one of them thought it was dogs. but very zipper of katherine´s bag had been unzipped and dogs don´t open every zipper). two hours later we file a police report. the police officer didn´t look too hopeful. and by hopeful, i mean he said that he thought it was next to impossible. so now, an hour later, i have a police report that says i´m japanese and that i lost some things. including a black and blue bag that was muy grande.

off to perito moreno.

the elderfoos´ visit and recent activities

the elderfoos came to visit us in south america and we plushed out a bit. we visited a few vineyards in chile and one in argentina and had a bottle to drink with dinner every night. my parents introduced katherine to the asian drink, shandy (half seven-up, half blanca beer of your choice). i think she likes it a bit.

in chile, casa lapostolle and montes were the two bodegas we stopped by. both with splendid, massive buildings. casa lapostolle just won wine spectator's best wine of the year award for their 2005 clos apalta. look out for 2007 wines from that region...

in argentina, we stopped by the smaller albeit very charming la abeja vineyard. all their equipment is from the 19th century and imported from france. they make their champagne using the traditional method and is only sold at the vineyard. we got a bottle of the rose bubbly and shared it on december 14th, for the elderfoos´ 28th wedding anniversary.

we then drove across the country to buenos aires (capital federal). it was a pretty overwhelming city with lots of people, cars and pollution. i felt like i was going to die from inhaling too much second hand smoke or too much vehicle exhaust. however, we also had the best meal there since we arrived in argentina and unexpectedly at an all organic vegetarian joint in the nice, swish neighborhood of palermo. i´d like to spend more time in BA. we didn´t get to explore much of the 40+ neighborhoods it has over the 4 days we were there. one recommendation: avoid the tango bars. we went to one and it sucked.

after the elderfoos left, we headed back to life on the farm in tunuyan. that lasted for about 4 days before we decided that 10/12 hour workdays with no weekends in the heat wasn´t our thing and that traveling should commence! two days and a sixteen hour bus ride later, we´re in el bolson in the south of argentina. it´s a nice little town flanked by mountains. katherine made reservations at the best restaurant in town and we had a fabulous 3 hour long dinner accompanied by lots of wine for christmas eve dinner. in a few days, we leave for the glacier perito moreno and maybe torres del paine.

oh! current plans are to take a bus ALL the way up to mexico. colombia, here we come!