Good Airs

We leave Buenos Aires on Monday morning aboard a ferry to the Uruguayan town of Colonia.

We haven't updated anything in a long while, which implies a certain amount of business on our part--we're on vacation, after all.  This is partly true.  There have been periods of travel with little time to gather our thoughts.  There was an amazing bus-ferry-bus-ferry-bus-ferry-bus trek from Puerto Montt, Chile up through Patagonia and to Bariloche, Argentina. It was a truly spellbinding journey.  There was our time in Bariloche, which we loved, and then a couple days in El Bolson, which is now on our shortlist of favorite places on the planet. Then there was the 22 hour bus ride to BA--which, surprisingly, was very nice.  There were several meal services, the chairs folded into completely flat beds, and there was tons of room.  The best bus ride, ever.

 - Our cabin in El Bolson, Argentina

We have had the past 4 weeks in Buenos Aires, some of the time which we have spent taking in the sights and walking the streets and eating the food.  A lot of it we spent working, or writing, or cooking, or sleeping, or any of the other things we do when there is time to spare in a foreign city.  We got to know BA a little bit; we had high expectations, which were met and exceeded, and were pleasantly surprised in addition.  BA is a great city, and has much to admire, and much to return to.

 - A public tango show we stumbled upon one Saturday

We've done a lot of walking across BA, and we've had some excellent food.  Here's one example of that food, from an amazing pizza place just around the corner from us in the San Telmo neighborhood:

 - a Galician pie, which includes such things as onions, tuna, olives, and delicious spices.

There were also some really great sights, such as Palermo where we found a rose garden, a duck pond, and a Japonese garden.  Then there is the other side of town, the poor part of town, where can be found such things as this:

 - La Boca.  It's a little touristy, but once you get away from the sweating American and European tourists, you get to see another remarkable part of this great city.

There's history here in BA, as well.  For example, I had a coffee con leche and sweet croissants (medialunas) at the oldest cafe in Argentina, Cafe Tortoni:

We're sad to be leaving this great city, and our wonderful apartment.  But there's Uruguay, Bolivia, and Peru to come; there's many new wonders and experiences, and hopefully a few well-known and fondly remembered ones to re-visit as well.

It's difficult to say when we'll be able to update again, but know that our journey is incomplete, our travels continue, and we're following the whiff of experience and the call of wonder wherever it leads us.

I hope this finds you healthy and hale, wherever you are.

Happy travels.

Santiago

just starting our 7th day here in Santiago.  in case you were wondering, we made our flight in Bogota; in fact, we got off our plane and waited while they cleaned it and then got right back on. no security check, no changing terminals. so that was convenient. we got in very early in the morning, but had no troubles there, either. our hosts/landlords marcello and jim are very cool and very nice.  they're also involved in the restoration of this historic neighborhood, and are working with a university, from whom they received a large grant, developing strategies for preservation as well as cataloging items of historical and cultural significance.  it's all really cool and means that we got to look at over a dozen walking tours they've put together on the computer, and we're the first to be given the opportunity to walk them.

the first few days we just stayed around the neighborhood. we're very close to plaza brasil and plaza yungay, the latter of which is where in the early days of the city the merchants set up their private residences; later on the chilean aristocracy moved in as well, and there were architectural races, of a sort, to see who could create the most unique and interesting palaces.  there's a lot of cool buildings here.

we've only eaten out a couple times, but every time the food has been fantastic. there's a great place around the corner where their house special pisco sours include fresh minced green chilis.  the smell is really interesting, and you get the chili on the tongue when you drink, but the pisco and lemon kill any afterburn you might expect, so it's just a really good, complexly flavored drink.

yesterday we took the bus downtown to plaza armas and walked around a bit. we climbed santa lucia, a hill nearby with a fort on top.  later we made our way to an artisan market, where they have all kinds of cool craftwork: wood and stone carvings, clothing, leather goods, lapis lazuli jewelry, musical instruments, etc.  nora got a skirt/dress that she's thrilled about, but i have to be honest i think i'm even more excited about my purchase: a leather messenger bag.  i've been looking for a suitable one for over three years now, and i think i finally found one i'm satisfied with.  all in all, a successful day.

nora's classes start tomorrow, and the classes i teach have been moved to a new format, so there's a lot of work for me to do getting ready before they start on sunday, so the next few days may not be as exciting.  still, this is a great city, and we're in a wonderful part of it if you like walking around and taking in the ambiance--which we do.

oh, one last note to all of you in the northern hemisphere reading this: it's hot here. thankfully, there's a constant breeze and wind blowing through, but even then it's quite warm. nora got a sunburn on her nose yesterday. those of you back home who just got snow dumped on them, enjoy it while it lasts, but here's to hoping it doesn't last too long.