San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

After departing Argentina, with high hopes of finding better food, we made our one and (sadly) only stop in Chile...in the desert!  We took a long bus ride to get there...and found some relief from the tediousness of it in the form of a lovely new Aussie friend, named Jamie, who we ended up spending loads of time with once we arrived!
San Pedro was a delightful little town...adobe houses, unpaved, dusty roads...sadly no tumbleweed, though.  There are a large number of hippie tourists who arrive there and decide not to go home...which translates into some really good veggie food options (yay!!!).  The scenery was incredible, the history fascinating, and the energy of the place was really something special!
The best moments came care of a tour that we did, with the aforementioned Jamie, and another Aussie friend Caroline.  We hired a private guide, at a cost remarkably similar to what we would have paid for a 'sheep tour'.  Our guide Dan was an absolute delight...well-informed, spoke perfect english, recited a monologue from Braveheart upon request...you get the picture! 
We were treated to some amazing archeological sights, as well as the Valley of the Dead (an unfortunate name for a really, really beautiful place).  At days' end we found oursleves atop a mountain watching the sun set over Valley of the Moon, with a wonderful bottle of Mendoza red...one of those aaaahhhhhh kind of moments.
As we trekked back down the mountain I saw an opportunity to satisfy a burning urge I'd had all day...to make a sand angel in the dunes!  With the Fun Police out of sight around a bend, I leapt from the marked trail, threw myself down (on the surprisingly hard sand), and flailed away in all my glory...so satisfying :o)

Salta, Argentina

Hola Chicos!
It's been a long time since the writing of the blog has fallen into my capable (?)  hands!  Nice to be back :o)
Let me cast my memory back a few weeks...oh yes, to Argentina, the last stop on our tour of said country.  It was the city if Salta.  A cute city, with some interesting architecture, and nice parks & plazas.  We remained fully immersed in the terrible, yes terrible, Argentine cuisine during our stay here!  Random tangent...Argentine food sucks!  There, I said it...with the exception of a few great meals at Vegetarian restos in Buenos Aires (take that carnivores!), food in this country was underseasoned (bordering flavorless), and the veggies passed off as salads were largely wilty and brown...ummmm, ewww!  Don't even ask about what they consider breakfast...
And I'm back...Salta...we stayed in a hotel that was a converted convent (strange), that was really charming, with lovely little courtyards, and a good wi-fi connection (not always easy to find...hence the necessity of the mention).
We took the Train to the Clouds while In Salta, which was a looooonnngggg day!  It departed @ 7am and returned us promptly at 1130pm!  The scenery was pretty incredible, and we met some nice people during the trip!  Also, we both had our first experience with Altitude Sickness...not entirely un-expected since we were at 4400m!
We also did a tour of local wineries, which produced some of the worst wine I've ever tasted! 

Enjoy the pics!

A pretty good indication that you're about to try some stellar wines!!!

Mendoza - the wine region!!

After an 18 hour overnight bus ride from Bariloche, we got to the city of Mendoza in the middle of Argentina's wine region!! 

We bummed around for the first day to relax and recover from the bus ride.  The next day we went on a bit of an excursion near the Chilean border and went kayaking on a beautiful still lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains - really peaceful and some much needed exercise!

The following day was a really amazing day...a wine tasting tour with some new friends from the hostel!  Since there was only 5 of us, the owner of the hostel (Brit Mike who'd been living in Argentina with his wife for 5-ish years) took us on the tour in his own vehicle.  This issue, however, was that it was a small car for 4 passengers, so Andre and I took turns in the trunk (it was a hatchback).  We went to 3 wineries and had some really amazing wines.  Lunch was included at the second winery - a 5 course gourmet meal with a pairing for each course.  I had the best steak I've had in ages (they listened when I said rare!).  They made Caroline a wonderful vegetarian dish as well, but I'm not sure the wine pairing worked out the same. 

Another few days in Mendoza, and we were off again!

With new friends, fellow Canadian Andre, Mike, Norwegian Oydis and Aussie Caroline

Bariloche - Lakes District

Sorry for being absent for so long - we've been doing a lot so we've got quite a few updates!

San Carlos de Bariloche is in Argentina's Lakes District in the south-central part of the country.  In the winter, it's a wintersports mecca and the town itself is reminiscent of a Swiss village.  At least the tourist part is.  The residential part of town is a mess of unpaved roads and poverty...quite a contrast.

The biggest adventure/scare we had was renting a car for two days.  There are a couple of qualifiers here: 1) I've never owned a manual transmission vehicle, and while I've driven them before, I would never say I was completely comfortable  2) The car rental place only had manual cars available, and 3) road "rules" in Argentina are almost non-existant, with signs being even less common.   Even though I stalled the car a few (a dozen?) times, squeeled out of an inclinded driveway, and had a lot of near misses, we had a fun time and had some well deserved drinks when it was over.

That being said, the scenery was beautiful, and at times, reminded me of the drive from Vancouver to Whistler.  We stopped and bought some artisan chocolate, some nice souvenirs, and had an amazing fondue! 

The view from our room on a windy morning

Caroline making the right types of friends, as usual