Travels and travails part two

With irate men staring on, and children sleeping blissfully, I had to wait until the bus "conductor" came back on board to tell me where we could go. He led me to the back of the bus, next to the toilet, but luckily, with three seats in a row.

At least for the next two stops. After Kai gets kicked out of his seat by an older, very heavy set man with few teeth, we spend the rest of the bus ride in two seats, next to the toilet, sweating, and hoping no one else comes to collect another seat.

No one did. Whew.

Luckily the rest of that day went smoothly.

In contrast, while the kids and I were traveling to Temuco, Rob was driving through a rain storm back to Bariloche. He stopped in Villa La Angostura, got a hotel, had the best lamb bbq of his life, got drunk with the chef and made it to Mendoza uneventfully the next day.

Kai on Argentina

I love Argentina. LOVE kai

travels and travails to mendoza

We made it safely to Mendoza, though we finally had our first travel challenge. we loved Bariloche and our rental car so much, we decided to travel through chile by car, rather than by bus and return to Bariloche, then fly from there.

Unfortunately, in the day and a half between when we made the decision, drove to Chile and found our next internet connection to book the flights, they were sold out. Crisis. Hotel reservations and wine tours would go to waste!

We decided to split up. kids and i took a bus to Temuco to catch our original flights from Temuco while Rob drove back to Bariloche to catch the only seat on a flight from there. We would reunite in Mendoza at a wine tasting. It sounds romantic, right?

Kids and I hop on the bus in our reserved front seats. They are thrilled. Five minutes into the bus ride the ticket guy comes by (buses here are more like Amtrak. I thought it was a direct bus ride, no stops, to Temuco. Wrong! We stopped no less than 15 times on the way). Bus ticket guy looks at our tickets, once, twice, three times, then goes to the front of the bus to consult with the driver. UGh. not looking good. He then informs me that our tickets are for Sunday. Luckily, he says no problem. I sit back, relaxing, but waiting for the other shoe to drop.

It does. Within 15 minutes, both kids are asleep and I love bus travel. Five minutes later, we stop and a whole crowd piles on to the bus, including three irate older men, insistently wanting their seats (i don´t blame them).

to be continued....

Pictures Random

Here are some shots from Angostura. The first is a mountain lake right next to the shortest river in the world - Rio Correntoso. It's the Lago (Frio) Correntoso behind us with great beaches and ski area in the distance. The next shot is one of the many rivers we stumbled on driving the lake district. No one around, we spent an afternoon here, looking for rocks, crawdads, fish and logs. The last picture is Rob and I on the boat trip out to the Arreyanes national park. It was a perfect day, the park is a forest - the only one like it in the world. There was one in Hiroshima, but that's obviously gone. It is supposedly the forest that inspired Walt Disney forest in Bambi.

Chile, land of beautiful cloud forests and german beers

Migrated from Agua Calientes to Valdivia today. Incredible scenery, very similar to Nor Cal except that the rolling hills were clear cut and replanted, you could see the tree lines that were planted w/ different varieties of timber. Once in Valdivia we checked out the fish market by the river. The kids were going nuts when the guys filleting the fish threw the guts over into the river and the sea lions fought over them. South American Sea lions are very different than ours, their heads are at least 2 feet wide, amazing creatures. We ended up finding a small cabin in a suberb, w/ a big play ground for the kids and a few german campers who had kids the same age. We also came across a great german brewery, labelled "Kunstmann". Say it quickly. Please. Or maybe it's only funny after the "pequeno" beers they serve in large, large glasses. some fantastic brews and sausages. Even better was the playground, within sight, but out of hearing range. Unfortunately we are only here for a few days, Chile is another trip~! We are off to Mendoza and will report back in a few days.

Ciao or Chow as in what we have been doing the last two weeks.

Rob Goes Fly Fishing and Eats more than He Catches

Incredible scenery, huge mountains, beautiful lakes and huge trout.....just not on the end of my rod. The local fishery boasts one of the most productive trout fisherys in the world. Huge Brown, rainbow, and brook trout inhabit the local streams and lakes. Unfortunatley the conditions were against us, drought conditions resulting in low water levels in the rivers, lake temps were up making the fish sluggish, and brillant water clarity so they could spot you a mile away. Regardless, I had an incredible time, landing on nice brook and improving my flyfishing skills, using streamers. Patagonia is windy, and the afternoon brought 15+ knot winds. I quickly realized that you need to alter your approach in these conditions when the wind caught my fly in implanted in into my cheek. Enclosed is a picture of huge brook that my guide caught. Also included are pictures of teh asada that he cooked for us at an abandoned rangers station. Smoked cheese and deer, w/ several different types of salami, followed up by huge bone in ribeyes and sausages......washed down by a beautiful cabernet, then back to fishing. I highly recommend this area for any of you flyfisherman.

Farewell Villa La Angostura, and we've just learned how to pronounce you

Sitting in a cafe (again). It's a bit surreal as Sublime is playing in the background and the kids are playing Battleship. You would think we were in the US, until the perfect cappucino arrives, in three different colors, with perfect foam, chocolate shavings and some crazy dulce de lece whipping cream.

Mia is asking for ice cream. Apparently, it's a cultural thing to eat ice cream every day. It seems to be the way they wash down the midday meal. Mia thinks she was Argentinian in her last life and has adapted to the ice cream every day quite nicely.

Kids are practically fluent as they say por favor and gracias without a hesitation. Of course, they don't know any other words, except helado (ice cream). There is less english spoken than I anticipated, so Rob and I are pretty comical cobbling together spanish sentences. Rob has finally realized that people don't address each other as "amigo" like they do at taco shops in San Diego.
After five days in Villa La Angostura, we finally learned that they pronounce Villa like Vi-sha. No wonder everyone looked at us funny when we told them where were staying.

We met our home exchange hosts yesterday. They have two cabins on their property and arrived yesterday and treated us to an amazing and authentic asada. Otherwise known as a fancy all day bbq meat feast. They are truly the nicest people in the world. We spent several hours getting to know each other over various cuts of steak and saugage, Quilmes (the local beer) and bread. Dan (our host) showed Rob the techniques for the parrilla (Argentina style bbq) and Rob is already trying to figure out where he can put one in our backyard...