Waiting for more!

All due to rules for conformity of chains, and expense of overhead (facilities and staff pay) in the US. If we get rid of that, it will be cheap, but understand that our salaries will be much less and our buying power will be equally low when we travel abroad.

Feb 4 Continued
 

We got the the Plaza de Mayo, which is where the Casa Rosada (or the pink house) is located and took many pictures. The most interesting thing we saw at the Plaza, was not the house, but the protestors camped out in the Plaza. No, Occupy hasn't been exported to Argentina, but the protestors were protesting the British occupation of the Malvinas, also known as the Falkland Islands. It is getting close to the anniversary of the war and the UK sending one of their newest and best ships and Prince William to the islands has stoked the emotions of the Argentines. It is all over the news here, even on the sports channels, and in the papers.

After the Plaza de Mayo we headed back to the hotel where we relaxed until our late check-out at 4pm (another *wood Plat benefit which was granted without question - again unlike at many US *woods).

The young lady who checked us out was the same who had checked us in the day before and she remembered us (well, at least my wife) and asked about handbags, which brings me to an aside.

Yesterday, February 3, my wife purchased a red handbag. She was having issues deciding between a red handbag and a beige one and went with the red. After the Plaza de mayo but before checking out I told her that I wanted to go to McDonald's (oddly enough...very believable) and went back to Prune and bought her the beige bag and surprised her with it as a early Valentine's day present. She was very happy! :cool:

any who, my wife showed the staffer her new bags and the staffer and my wife had a conversation only interesting to women who are gushing over each other's accessories. We sat in the lobby for a little while before catching a cab over to the bus station, which was only across the Plaza, but it's a huge plaza and at 90+ degrees we weren't walking it with 4 cases.

Before heading to the bus though, we left our bags at the bell stand in order to take a cab back to San Juanino ($12AR, $2.77US). We had heard that the food offered on the buses was...well...crap...so we decided to go back to a place we had enjoyed. I had 4 empanadas (cheese and onion, ham and cheese and 2 steak), my wife had two cheese and onion and we had two bottles of ague mineral, sin gas...$78AR, $18US. Another 12 pesos later and we were back at the Sheraton where we collected our bags and got the cab to the bus station.

We got to the bus station and the fare was about 9 pesos. I think the cabbie was annoyed at taking us on such a short ride as he told me I had to pay him an additional 3 pesos per suitcase. I thought this odd as if B.A. had started allowing the cabs to charge for luggage (which the driver did not handle and I had not been charged for luggage on other trip), you'd think the cab from Aeroparque Newberry would have charged me (and he did handle the bags). I wasn't really willing to fight though as 15 pesos difference is about $3US, so it would still be a sub-$6US cab ride but I did not give the driver a tip in addition to the $24 pesos "fare."

We weltered the bus station and the sheer magnitude of this bus station puts the Port Authority Bus Terminal in NYC to shame! Almost 200 ticket windows for tons of different companies on the 2nd floor, and almost 100 bus parking spots on the ground floor. Departure parking spots were posted between 5 and 15 minutes before departure resulting in a rush to get to the appropriate parking spot where the buses load very very quickly before departing on time. We watched this process take place over 100 times (literally...for instance there were 13 buses leaving at 7pm, many at 7:15, and 31 buses leaving at 7:30pm) in the hour before we were called to board the Andesmar 1st Class Suite service to Mendoza, departing at 7:45pm.

To be continued.

The bus
 

An employee of Andesmar took our bags at the side of the bus and gave us claim checks for them and we boarded the double decker bus which had been fitted with the only seating on the 2nd deck, 2 X 1 seating. My wife and I had the first seats which meant we had a window to our side and could see out the front bus window!

We were in Suite class which meant there were only around 20 seats on the bus and every seat reclined 180 degrees into a fully-flat bed. There were dividers for every row so there was quite a bit of space between passengers. We had our own TVs for on-demand audio and video. The bus had two drivers who sat on the lower level and an attendant who served the 14 or so passengers on our bus. Based on passports being used for ID with the tickets, I'd say 90% of the passengers were not Argentinian. I wasn't really surprised as Andesmar charges $115US per person for this service, a huge premium over cama or semi-cama services. Indeed we met two Germans, and 4 other Americans while waiting for our bags to be "checked" under the bus.

We pulled out right at 7:45 for the drive to Mendoza. The attendant came around with soda and candy and offered BINGO cards. My wife and I did not partake as we were paying too much attention to the scenery as we drove by.

As you may have figured out by now, if I am in something that moves, I can sleep. Fortunately, this does not extend to when I am driving...so I fell asleep soon after it got dark and we were given shoe bags and pillows/blankets and did not wake up until the attendant woke me up telling me that we were about 1 hour out of Mendoza so I missed dinner and breakfast (yes, they even serve meals), but my wife (who does not sleep well unless in her own bed), told me that the food was inedible so I did not miss anything.

We arrived in Mendoza right on time at 8:45am and we took a cab for $12AR ($2.77US) to the Sheraton. I gave the driver a big tip because he not only helped with our luggage at the bus station, he helped at the Sheraton when no staffers were outside to help with baggage.

Next: February 5

February 5 - A day of rest
 

We got to our hotel in Mendoza just after 9am. We were greeted efficiently and told our room was not ready (no surprise and also no problem given our very early arrival). I asked about local coffee shops where we could have breakfast and the young lady at reception said that due to it being early on Sunday nothing was really open and the hotel lobby restaurant was our best option.

We were cool with that and had a very good meal from the buffet (eggs, bacon, sausage, french toast, waffles, pastries, breads, fruit, nuts) for $75AR per person ($17.50US).

After breakfast we took seats in the lobby to try to decide what we wanted to see. My wife wanted to see the local aquarium and then we decided we'd just relax in the hotel as we are sure my Chilean friends will be keeping us busy once we reach Santiago. While still in the lobby a staffer came up to us and let us know our room was ready if we'd like to check-in before heading out. Sure! We got a platinum upgrade to a very large, modern, true one-bedroom suite with views over the city and to the Andes. Very nice!

We walked to the aquarium, perhaps a ten minute walk down tree-lined streets and paid the 11AR per person entry fee. The aquarium was a touch depressing. Maybe 25 tanks, about 25 gallons each. Each tank had 1 or two fish. We felt most sorry for Jorge, a huge sea turtle whose enclosure gave him barely enough room to turn around in the water. Mrs. dcstudent was very perturbed by the aquarium.

We walked back to the hotel, stopping at a pharmacy as one of my ears had been bothering me and Mrs. dcstudent was having digestive issues with her diet of cheese and bread. Pharmacies in Argentina (and for that matter the rest of the world) make so much more sense than in the US. Let's face it. Sometimes we have small ailments that do require medicine of some sort, but not a doctor's visit (which visit would create large healthcare costs). Here in Argentina pharmacists can prescribe many medications without needing a prescription from a MD. I explained our predicaments and the pharmacist presented ear drops for me, and pills for my wife.

At the hotel Mrs. dcstudent took a shower and decided to read her book and I took some time to swim in the large indoor pool on the 2nd floor. After my swim I showered and we headed to the restaurant on the top floor for lunch. I had lamb medallions with potato and malbec-rice, the Mrs. had cheese ravioli. We both had salads and the Mrs. finished with a rich chocolate desert. With lunch I had two glasses of Malbec, one coke, one coffee and agua mineral. Mrs. Dcstudent had three glasses of Malbec, one glass of sparkling wine and agua mineral. We were then told that because we were Plat our lunches were gratis! The restaurant had a live saxophone player and my wife requested a Sinatra piece which he gladly played (and earned both the adoration and a good-sized tip from Mrs. Dcstudent). We went up to lunch at 2, and did not return to our room until just after 4.

After lunch we returned to our room and took a siesta until 7:30pm.

We awoke and while my wife readied herself for dinner I took to find the Super Bowl on the TV. I found that ESPN Latin America had the bowl on its channel, but Fox Sports Latin America was providing the commentary in Spanish and they were using NBC's TV feed.

At about 9pm Mendoza time (7pm D.C. time) we headed to dinner at Montecino, and italian restaurant recommended to us by our waitress at lunch. We had asked her where she goes with friends when she wants pasta and she immediately mentioned this place. Even arriving at 9:15pm by walking we arrived too early for Argentines and were one of two couples in the entire restaurant. The food lived up to its billing, I had an amazing lasagna con carne and my wife had a pasta tossed in olive oil with grilled fresh vegetables. We had ague mineral and a bottle of malbec (of course!). Total cost $150 AR with tip or $35US. We left the restaurant just after 10 and it was just starting to fill up.

We went back to our hotel, watched the last quarter of the Super Bowl and headed to bed. After all we have an early day today (February 6) as we'll be taking a bus over the Andes to Chile!

-Just a note, my friends in Chile do not have internet in their home in their small town. So I may not be posting again until we reach Iquique on February 10.

Thanks!

Awesome report! Just can't believe how expensive the taxis and entrance fees to the falls etc were... Seemed like a rip off!

Yes, the taxis around the falls were quite expensive by Argentine and Brazilian standards, given the short length of the ride. The prices were also non-negotiable, I tried. If LAN had not screwed our schedule up we would have been able to do it much cheaper.

Our original plan for Iguazu was to spend one full day and fly out at 6pm on the second day, so have a full day on each side of the falls. Unfortunately, LAN cancelled the 6pm flight a couple weeks before we traveled so we ended up on a 2pm flight forcing us to try to fit everything in on one day and therefor we needed taxis.

Should our original schedule have held we would have been able to take public buses. From our Argentinian hotel we would have taken a bus from the main bus station towards Foz de Iguazu, after crossing the border we would have gotten off at the first roundabout, crossed the street and boarded a Brazilian bus to go to the Brazilian falls (and repeated the process in reverse to return). This cost would have been only a couple of US dollars.

To go from the Argentine side to the Argentine Falls you just take a bus from the main bus terminal. It's all very simple but does take some time.

We have arrived in Iquique, updates to follow
 

Hi all, we have arrived in Iquique, a very nice and interesting beach town in the desert (seriously) in the North of Chile. We have found it hard to break away from the Ocean but tonight will update with our fun times in Melipilla, Chile!

Tomorrow we leave for a 4 day tour of the Atacama desert and will again be without e-mail until our arrival in Arica on the 15th of February so we hope to get all of our updates done tonight.

Off to the beach!

February 6, Over the Andes
 

February 6 will be remembered as one of tithe most spectacular days of this trip.It was on this day that we crossed the Andes by land.

It started with a wake-up call at 6am, and checking out at 7. I was surprised to see that there was a charge for our lunch on the bill as we had had lunch in the club lounge and we were never presented a menu or bill and two staffers told us it was free for plats. The front desk associate said that was not the case and I wasn't in the mood to argue. Plus, given the amount we ate and drank the $35US equivalent charge was ok.

Our cab got us to the bus station in under 5 minutes where, just as in Buenos Aires our bus got posted only 10 minutes before our scheduled 7:30am departure. Efficiency was not a high point on this departure and we did not pull out of Mendoza until 7:51, 21 minutes late.

We took Andesmar again, and were on their semi-cama service, which was basically a double decker Greyhound bus. Again, we had secured seats on the top deck in the front row so we had a panoramic view of what was to come.

Mendoza is nothing to talk about but once we entered the Andes the scenery was spectacular. Tall mountains, and very arid like the mountains in New Mexico. The road was paved, but only two lanes and a double striped center line meant nothing to anyone, including our bus driver.

At about 11am we reached the Chile/Argentina customs stop where inefficiency was in great force. First we had to line up at an Argentine line where we got stamped out, then move next to a Chilean line where we got stamped in, then go outside to collect our "checked luggage" and put it through x-rays, and then, finally, submit to a personal inspection of our carry-on bags and person. I much enjoyed the personal inspection as it was carried out by a cute beagle, and since Mrs. Dcstudent and I own 3 beagles it was nice.

Two hours after stopping we were again on our way and immediately started down 27, yes 27, switchbacks all in a row. It was amazing and we got some cool pictures we will post to our Flickr account as soon as we get home. There were no guardrails and especially when we overtook vehicles by driving on the wrong side of the road, on a switchback, on a road barely two lanes wide...well lets just say the experience was something else! Indeed on the drive into Santiago we passed a major accident where a tractor trailer had...taken a tumble and there were all kind of police and highway workers directing traffic and cleaning up.

We arrived in Santiago over two hours late (about 4:30pm, 2:30pm New York time) and were met upon exit by one of my closest friends who we would be staying with these next few days.

February 6 - continued
 

We headed out of Santiago on Route 78, a privately maintained toll-road which took us to Pomaire, a small Chilean town about 1.25 hours from Santiago which features many local artisans. We perused the merchandise while we waited for my friend's husband to arrive with their two children (2 year and 8 month old boys). When they arrived we headed to a restaurant in a quiet corner of town for an authentic Chilean meal.

We had great fun and the buys were a delight. We were introduced to the 2 year old as Tio and Tia and indeed that is what we were called for the remainder of our time with our friends.

After eating we drove on local roads the 10 minutes or so to my friend's house in Melipilla where we all caught up (as the last time I had been in Chile my friend did not yet have children and I was single).

February 7, a lazy day in Melipilla
 

We woke up quite late on Tuesday, maybe 10am or so and my friend was feeding her sons breakfast and informed us that her husband was still asleep! We had a very nice breakfast of breads and jams, cheese and meat (well I had the meat ;) ) and yogurt.

After my friend's husband woke up and got ready we dropped both boys off at nursery school and headed to the Melipilla fruit market. The fruit market was insane and amazing! Over 100 farmers had come from the country-side and the fruit was so good and so fresh and so cheap! 500 pesos (a little over $1US) for a kilo of fresh grapes, 100 pesos for a kilo of green peppers, onions, watermelon, honeydew, blueberries, blackberries, carrots, corn the size of my head, pumpkin...it was amazing and we purchased quite a bit of fruits and vegetable which we would enjoy eating over the next couple of days.

Our next stop was Lider, or Wal-Mart Chile. Wal-Mart entered the Chilean market by buying Lider and kept the name but changed the store-brand products to Great Value just as in the US. My friends told us Lider, and their domestic competitor Jumbo, we quite popular as they were very cheap in comparison to the little local shops.

However, my friends said they still bought their fish and fruits and vegetable from the local market as it was much fresher than Lider.

After Lider we headed back to our friends house where Mrs. Dcstudent and my friend started shucking beans and prepared a very fresh Chilean soup full of fresh vegetables for all of us to have for lunch. The four of us had a very relaxing lunch and soon realized it was 6pm and time to pick up the kids from nursery school.

After picking up the kids we headed back to their house where we played with the kids and the dog until having a light supper and my friend went about putting her kids to bed. Afterwards, we sat around drinking Chilean wine and talking until almost 1 in the morning before hitting the sack!

February 8, Vina del Mar, Valparaiso and birthday celebrations
 

Wednesday, the 8th we woke up at about 10am and had a light breakfast with my friend's family before dropping the boys off at nursery school and heading to Vina del Mar a resort town on the pacific coast about 1 hour or so from Melipilla via a winding back road that was much more adventurous than the road over the Andes. We arrived Vina and proceeded to park in the lot of the Sheraton so we could wander about and take pictures. Vina has quite a bit of beautiful landscaping and a clock made out of flowers and we took a ton of time walking around before having a late lunch on the beach.

After lunch we headed to Valparaiso the next beach town over and connected to Vina by a causeway. Valparaiso is a working-class town with a Naval Base and the largest port in Chile. The homes and buildings are built into cliffs overlooking the ocean and many are brightly colored.

We stopped at the Naval museum which overlooked the port and was located in an old colonial house. The exhibits were first class and the admission at a little over $2.00US per person was fine. My friend and her husband got in free because she is a Captain in the Army. I am a fan of military history and enjoyed learning about the Chilean civil war, the two wars against Spain and the war against Peru where Chile captured Iquique and Arica.

We left the museum and were running far too late to pick up the boys on time (the school closes at 6:30) but fortunately my friend's husband grew up in Melipilla and they were able to reach his mother who picked up the kids and Mrs. Dcstudent got to meet his mom when we picked the kids up.

We went back to the house and relaxed for awhile before heading to Tierra at 8:30, a really nice restaurant just off the main square in Melipilla. As February 9th was the birthday of Mr. Friend of Dcstudent, we wanted to treat the family to a nice meal as both a birthday present and a thank you for their hospitality. (The other thank you was a huge box full of toys for the boys that we had mailed just after Christmas.)

We all had mineral water, Mrs. Dcstudent and Mr. Friend had a beer and Mrs. Friend had a mixed drink (I had a coke) as we waited on our appetizers, which were devine. Mr. Friend had ceviche Mrs. Friend had a fish dish that I can't even explain, I had Trio Gringo (chicken wings, french fries and onion rings...all of which were awesome by the way). I ordered a ver nice bottle of local wine for dinner and Mrs. Dcstudent had a cheese pizza (that she ended up not eating because even though it said 4 cheese and did not mention meat, it had bacon), Mrs. Friend had pasta, I had a pepperoni pizza, and I forget what Mr. Friend had. For dessert everyone but me had chocolate cake, but with my chocolate allergy I stayed with homemade apple pie and ice cream which was awesome.

Total bill, including propina (tip), 50,000 Pesos, or $104US

After dinner we headed back to our friend's house where after the kids were put to sleep we all sat outside drinking more wine and talking until Mrs. Friend and I finally went to bed at 1:30am. Mr. Friends and Mrs. Dcstudent stayed up talking until almost 5am!

Possibly out of touch until February 15
 

Hi all, sorry that I was not able to completely catch-up on updates. Our private guide arrives in 20 minutes to take us into the Atacama desert for 4 days/3 nights. The accommodations in the desert towns are not the best so I don't know if I'll have any internet access until our return to civilization on the 15th.

Write soon!

February 9, A short but exceedingly fun day
 

Given our late night on the 8th, Mrs. Dcstudent and I did not awake and start putting ourselves together until almost noon. We stepped outside of our room to find my friends playing with their boys.

After lunch we decided on a plan. We all went to drop the boys off at nursery school and then the adults headed to Lake Esmarelda, about a ten minute drive outside of town. It is a private man-made lake, with entry-fee paid by car, not person, so it was $2000pesos for all 4 of us (about 5 or $6US total). The lake was wonderful. We just swam and sunbathed (no extra charge), but we could have paid extra and gone windsurfing, sailing, canoeing or kayaking.

We stayed for only two hours before we went to retrieve the boys as it was Mr. Friend´s birthday and my friends were hosting a large party at their home. We dropped Mrs. Dcstudent, Mrs. Friend and the 8 month old at home before continuing to Lider with Mr. Friend, myself and the 2 year old. We purchased beef (from Australia...all beef is marked with its country of origin), chorizo hot dogs, and of course everything else you need for a good celebration.

We arrived back at my friend´s house to find that guests had already started to arrive. Mrs. Dcstudent and I were made to feel very welcome by all of the guests and our Spanish is passable so we were able to participate in many conversations.

Far too late given our flight out the next morning we went to sleep.