On Thursday April 23rd Jenn's mom Vicky drove us to the airport for the start of our South American adventure. Light drizzle in Tacoma. Our flight was at 12 noon connecting through Atlanta. I was a little nervous because our connection time was only 42 minutes. We had a marvelous flight, smooth, no turbulence, on demand entertainment. Marvelous that is until our approach to Atlanta.

Lightning hit the control tower at the airport and took out power to their air traffic control system. After circling for an hour we had to land in Huntsville Alabama. Nothing against Huntsville but, double yuck. We made it to Atlanta about 2 hours after our flight to Buenos Aires departed. This left us trapped in Atlanta for over 20 hours. Thank goodness for Travelguard travel insurance. Their concierge service helped us secure accommodations at the Westin hotel. After 9 hours on a plane and the frustration of not making our destination the Westin’s heavenly bed was heavenly.

Jenn and I slept for 8 hours straight. Since we didn't get to bed until 2:30 AM that was awesome. On Friday April 24^th, by the time we finished rearranging all our flights, transfers, hotel option and tours it was well past lunch time. We finished lunch at about 2:30 pm. We spent the rest of the day lounging around the Westin, mostly reading by the pool.

Our flight to Buenos Aires was scheduled to leave at 8:30 PM. We taxied out to the runway and we were next in line for take off when the pilot announced we would have to return to the gate because of a warning light on his control panel. At least they pulled back into the gate and let us off the plane so we weren’t stuck there sweating.  Jenn began to wonder if this was a sign that meant that we should just turn around and head home.  I think it was a sign to change the oil filter or something.  Alas, 3 hours later we finally departed.  We had smooth sailing all the way to BA.

The scheduled Friday arrival in BA was now Saturday.  We arrived at the international airport 3 hours late and still had to get to the domestic airport to catch our flight.  We had all of our bags as carry-on bags so we were set to leave as soon as we cleared customs.  Just for good measure I changed $100 dollars at the  airport Cambio.  This is the only time I was robbed the whole trip.  no pickpockets, no knives, no guns.  It cost me 14 dollars to change a 100.  Ouch.  Our transfer in BA from EZE to AEP was through A&K, Tamara Apipet was my contact there for several parts of our trip.  Our driver was named Fabien. His religion was football and he spent the entire 45 minutes of our drive enthusiastically evangelizing about the sport and his Team River Plate. His enthusiasm didn't stop there. He was just as passionate about Coca-Cola and Ford motor cars. What a hoot.

Our flight to Iguazu was originally scheduled on LAN but we had to rebook on Aerolineas Argentina as their flight schedule better met our new needs. A weird thing about AEP is that they don’t assign gates to their flights until about 20 minutes prior to departure.  This left us scratching our heads and nervously pacing the terminal for fear of missing our flight.  We made it none the less and enjoyed a smooth 1.5 hour flight to Iguazu, delicious airline food was included.  The specialty of the house was a queer looking ham sandwich about as thick as a bookmark; in fact that is what Jenn used hers for.  I ate mine. Yum!  The Sheraton Iguazu arranged our transfers from the IGR airport to their hotel.  The drivers name was Hector.  It was only $20 dollars from the airport to the hotel.  Jenn used her Spanish to find out a restaurant recommendation and a plan for the evening.

We arrived at the hotel at about 2:pm Chad and Sara met us in the lobby with ice cold beers and warm hugs. It was great to finally see them after traveling for 2 days straight.  The falls were in full view right behind the reception desk.  What a view.  The falls are a spectacle of nature.  Jenn and I went up to our room and freshened up for about 5 minutes.  We promptly return to the lobby were Chad and Sara took us for a walk through the park.  Filling us in on the highlights of the day tour we missed, but were re-scheduled to take the next day on Sunday the 25^th.  The Wild life was abundant, Five minutes into our walk Jenn was attacked by a giant tarantula.  Well not really, but we discovered one on the path and it was really cool.  We saw all kinds of lizards and raccoon thing called Coatimundi, known as Coatis.

For dinner that night we went to aqua in Puerto Iguazu. Hector, our driver from the hotel set it up. The place was packed with locals. We had a great dinner. Puerto Iguazu was a sad little town.  But the restaurant was fantastic.  I had a local river fish they call Dorado, Jenn Chad and Sara all had giant Argentinean sirloin steaks with Ice cream for desert.  We walked down the block and looked at trinkets and trash but never bought anything.  We returned to Sheraton for a nightcap in the lobby bar over looking the falls and catching up with our Friends.

Breakfast was included in our TA promo rate at the Sheraton.  It was quite the spread with all kinds of delicious breakfast food.  Our guide met us in the Lobby of the Sheraton at 9 am.  His name was Ricardo.  I saw 2 toucans.  We hiked and took the train.  We took a jet boat under the falls.  It was exhilarating.  We got a super late check out for 3 pm.  I’ve never kept a room that long.  We then transferred to the airport with a new driver.  At the airport we ate lunch of a grilled cheese sandwich at the airport café.  Our flight was at 5:30 pm, Chad and Sara left at 2:PM

We had a smooth flight with no issues.  Wee took a cab from the airport to the hotel.  Sheraton Libertador.  It was a quick trip and only cost 5 dollars.  We could pay for everything in Argentina with US dollars.  We hardly changed money again.  Chad and Sara met us in the hotel lobby bar, again.  They found a great restaurant for us to visit in the Recoleto.  The restaurant was a bit of a tourist restaurant right next to the cemetery.  It was called la Chacrita.  It was delicious.  Huge meal.  The restaurant was across the street from the cemetery.  Next door was a really cool hotel called the urban hotel recoleta.

On Monday morning we were met in the lobby of the Sheraton Libertador by our A&K guide Ariana.  She was a beautiful Porteno woman born in BA to Eastern European Jewish immigrants.  We had a private Car and driver.  We visited the Presidential Palace and the May Square in the Center of the old town.  The most spectacular place we visited was the Cathedral in the center of town.  Next We visited Café Tortonni for Medea Lunes (Sweetened Croissants with sweet cream cheese on top) and Coffee.  This is a classic 200-year-old café that has been home to poets and artists even up to today.  Jenn had to buy a charger for her Camera.

Our next stop was the Boca District.  This is the Ghetto of BA.  It has some kitchy features and draws a number of tourists.  This is where the bombarina stadium is located, the Home of the Boca Futbol team.  Boca is one of the 2 main teams of Buenos Aires.  The Other team is River Plate.  The tourist area is about 4 square blocks and filled with restaurants dedicated to tourists with campy tango displays and shops stuffed full of trinkets and trash.  There are treasures mixed among the trash though.  Many arists inhabit the area and Jenn bought a beautiful painting.

We left Boca to head to lunch.  Enroute we traveled through Puerto Madero and visited the Faena Universe hotel.  This gorgeous hotel could rival to finest hotel in Downtown New York.  We had incredibly delicious Empanadas for lunch.  The Restaurant was called el Sanjuanino.  The restaurant was 200 years old and the empanadas had been refined to perfection. Jenn at a Cheese tomato Basil empanada she is still raving about.  Our next stop was the Recoleta Cemetery.  It was a true gothic experience much like the Perez Le Ches in Paris.  Saw the Grave of Ava Peron and a number of Arists.

After leaving Recoleto we drove through the Palermo district home to River Plate, BA’s other main soccer team.  It has beautiful tree lined streets and foreign embassies in old mansions.   Then we returned to our hotel.  That night for dinner we had our best Argentinean meal of the trip.  We went to a restaurant in Palermo called Las Cholas located at 308 Arce street.  It was awesome.  We didn’t eat until 10 PM like true Portenos, but even that was early.  The place was packed and the food delicious.  We walked back to the Sheraton Libretador. 

The next day we headed off to estancia De Los dos Hermanos.  Our driver had sunken eyes and drove like a Mario Andretti on meth.  It was a terrifying ride but we made the hour and a half drive in one piece.  When we arrived we checked in to our bungalow.   It was really rustic.  Jenn is not a huge fan of rustic.  The trip to the ranch was her idea so she was ok with it.  We rode the horses with our friends Chad and Sara and an Australian Couple from Perth named Brad and Ava.  They were fun to spend the day with.  The ranch was not attached to any wilderness areas so all of our riding was through the pastures or down old country roads. 

In the morning we rode in circles through the pastures.  After riding for 2 hours we returned to the barn for lunch.  It was awesome.  We ate some delicious deep fried empanadas for an appetizer.  Then we were served 4 courses of meat and some awesome salad.  Lunch included all the beer wine and soda we could drink.  After lunch we lounged in the hammocks for a bit and then waddled back onto the horses.  We enjoyed a 2 hour ride in the afternoon.  Galloping the horses was a great time. 

The highlight of the ride was the trip past what our guide described as a cocaine farm.   It was a quiet ranch with no livestock, 10 foot electrified barbed wire fences with an army of Doberman pinchers and Rottweilers.  It was a little intimidating.  We were able to run the horses for long periods so it was really fun.  Upon our return to the ranch we again lounged around and waited for them to feed us.  Jenn and I learned to play Ucker, a gin type card game.  We ate gnocchi for dinner.  Afterwards we played a dice game named Farkle with our guide Francisco.  He drank a lot.  For desert we cooked smores.  I brought these from home.  They loved it.

After a nights sleep in our rustic cabin they served us breakfast on the porch.  We paid 160 USD each person for our day on the ranch.  Roundtrip transfers out to the ranch were $30 dollars per person.  This was the most expensive activity we did on the trip but it included 3 meals and one heck of a good time.  Argentina’s very own Mario Andretti returned for trip back into town.  What a crazy ride.  We made it back to BA in time for a Thursday afternoon rotary meeting.  It was the annual Montevideo BA joint rotary meeting to celebrate their non-rotarian of the year.  They are very formal and I showed up to the meeting without a tie or sport coat, so I had to head back to the hotel to re-dress my scrubby self.  We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering Florida Street looking at BA shopping at it’s finest.

That night we went to the Esquine Carlos Gardel Tango Experience for dinner.  It was a very cool Tango show.  The show was presented in the format of a series of vignets put together almost like a musical play.  The them was describing the history of the Tango.  The dancing was really fun to watch and the singing was great even though I barely understand a word of Spanish.  The trip included a return to our hotel via motorcoach.  It was well worth the $100 per person we spent for the entire evening experience.

On Thursday April 30^th we spent the day wandering the streets of BA.  From our hotel we headed down to Puerto Madero on foot.  Our intention was to walk the malecon and see what there was to see.  The walk was great.  The renovated Puerto Madero area is really great.  We ate lunch at an argentinian chain restaurant called El Gatto.  It was either that TGIFriday’s or Hooters.  Chad and I lobbied hard for Hooters but were overruled by good taste and our wives.  You gotta love America.  Lunch was good.  We wandered through the river plate park and bird sanctuary.  It would be a great park to ride a bike through.  We saw wild guenea pigs in the park.  That was fun.

That night was the  highlight of Jenn and My’s trip.  I went to a football game and she bought a new pair of shoes.  Soccer is the religion of Argentina, so the football was really great to watch.  The shoes are hand-stitched leather sneakers from 28 Sport and are super cool.  I was actually a little jealous of the shoes, but let me tell you about the football game.  What an experience.  Our guide at A&K set it up for us through a company called Go Futbol.  They are on the web at http://www.gofutbol.com.ar/.  We paid $100 for $35 dollar tickets.  This included transportation to and from the game and a tour guide, Pablo, that went to the game with us to ensure we were kept safe and sound from soccer hooligans.  It was money well spent.

The game itself was an incredible exhilarating experience.  Totally unbelievable in intensity.  The crowd sang through the entire 90 minute game.  It was the final match of the regular season and by winning the match the team wa to move on to the finals.  During the game their star striker, Martin Palermo, score his 200^th goal.  A huge milestone.  The crowd went Crazy.

That night we headed back to Palermo SOHO for another great meal at Los Cholas.  Jenn Showed off her new kicks and we ate an amazing feast.  We caught a cab back to the Sheraton Libretador, had a nightcap and went off to bed.

The next morning we prepped ourselves for departure.  Packing our things and getting ready for our flight.  We realized we were on 2 separate flights.  This was day 3 of the Global pandemic of the Swine flu.  Everyone was told they were going to die if they left their homes without wearing a surgical mask.  When we got to the airport the porters, police and everyone working there were wearing surgical masks.  What a joke.  We got in line at the LAN counter.  It took forever.  When we got to the front we realized why.  Our flight had been cancelled and we were to be rebooked on the next flight.  That flight was also messed up.  It was scheduled to leave 4 hours late.  Yay!  4 hours in a foreign airport with nothing to do.  They gave us vouchers for a “steak” at the cafeteria.  Now ordinarily you would expect to get a steak on a meal voucher from the airline, nor would you want to eat any such meal from an airport cafeteria, but hey this was Argentina so of course we did and because of it being Argentina, the steak was actually really good.

After a four hour delay we boarded our plane and made the smooth flight off to Santiago.  We flew on a brand new Airbus A340 with leather seats and seat back entertainment.  It was quite something.  The airplane was great and the flight was only about 2 hours.  Our arrival in to Santiago’s brand new airport was a little curt.  Since the US charges Chileans a visa fee, Chile charges US citizens a reciprocity fee for entry into Chile.  It was $100 dollars each.  Not a very cheap ticket.  From the airport we took a cab to the Ritz Carlton Santiago for only $20.  The hotel is gorgeous.  It is in a commercial district of the city and we arrived on Friday May 1^st.

For Countries outside the US with a mild socialist bent to extreme communist flare, this is a national holiday.  International Workers' Day (a name used interchangeably with May Day) is a celebration of the social and economic achievements of the international labor movement. May Day commonly sees organized street demonstrations and street marches by millions of working people and their labour unions throughout most of the countries of the world — though, rarely in the US.  This is strange being that International Workers' Day is the commemoration of the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago in 1886, when Chicago police fired on workers during a general strike for the eight hour day, killing a dozen demonstrators.

Fortunately for us there were no riots or demonstrations, just dead silence as it was a national holiday and a 3 day weekend for everybody in the country.  It made Santiago seem quieter than it actually was, almost deserted.  We arrived in the late afternoon.  Checked into our hotel and had a look around.  Let me tell you the Ritz Carlton Santiago was quite nice.

We had to scramble a little bit to get ready for dinner.  We had a Travel Leaders function That night on the top floor of the Ritz.  They converted the pool area into a an elegant event space.  It was gorgeous.  The food was awesome and then they had some entertainers perform some kind of indigenous dance / epcot schmaltz performance.  It was a little Cheesy but fairly entertaining.

The next day was Saturday May 2^nd.  After an awesome breakfast buffet, which we didn’t have to pay $38 dollars for, as it was included in our rate, but that was the price.  We went on a winery tour with our whole group.  The bus transfer was about an hour and a half.  The tour was to the Santa Rita Winery & Museum in one of the winery regions just south of Santiago.  It was harvest season.  The wine was mediocre but the winery was topnotch.  The lunch they served us was incredible.  Empanadas, wine and hot dogs were the appetizers.  They all tasted awesome.  Next they served us a salad buffet and 5 courses of meat.  All totally delicious.  They have a pre-Columbian museum at the winery.  It was a really nice museum containing artifacts from the Indigenous peoples of Chile including a section dedicated to Easter Island.  Our bus ride brought us back to Santiago at around 2:30.

Jenn and I went off to explore the city.  We had a great time.  We went to the mall and tried to buy some shoelaces.  We didn’t have any luck.  We got a ride there in a cab an headed home on foot.  Every time we stopped to pull out our map we had people jumping out of their shoes trying to help us.  Dinner that night was at Liguria.  We went out with Tim Kennedy and his wife Margot, Jackie and her guest and of course our friends the Butruffs.  The dinner was great, except for my meal.  I ordered crab cakes.  Unfortunately for me it turned out to be cheese and crab pudding.  It would have been great for an appetizer but a little too rich for an entrée.  The walk home through DT Santiago in the middle of the night was really nice.  We never felt threatened or unsafe.  Chad kept us thoroughly entertained throughout the walk.

On our 3^rd day in Santiago we headed off on a full day tour to the Costal Resorts of Cachagua & Zapallar arranged by the DMC Santiago Adventures owned by Brian Pearson.  Brian can be reached via the following methods; Phone Chile: 56 2 244 2750, Fax Chile 56 2 244 2749, Cell Chile 56 9 9131 7044, Phone US: 802 904 6798, Web: http://www.santiagoadventures.com.  We headed out of Santiago on a mini bus designed for 10 with12 people jammed into it.  Our guide was Leonardo.  He was a hoot.  Along the way we took a 4 hour detour to La Campana national park.  To get there I think we drove along a dry river bed instead of a road because the ride was so bumpy I sprained my neck.  The visit was a little weird because we spent a long period of time for not much purpose.  We went on a 3 mile up hill trek in dress shoes, toting along with the group were some less than fully able bodied participants.  It was a little weird.

In total we spent about 2 hours at the park and an hour getting to and from it.  Next we jammed ourselves back in to the mini bus for the 60 minute odyssey back to the highway, past the goats and down through the river bed.  Then drove another hour or so to arrive at the coastal town of Zapallar.  It was a rich man’s retreat that had a captivating story attached to it that no one on the bus could muster any interest in as we were beat up from all the driving.  We ate lunch at an incredible beach side restaurant right on the shore of a quaint little bay. The food was good and we had a great time.

By the time we finished our lunch we had to cram ourselves back into the bus for the 2 hour drive back into the city.  We missed the penguins in Cachagua because we had to rush back to Santiago for our grand Gala Reception, Performance & Dinner at the Santiago Historical Municipal Theatre.  Aside from almost running out of gas our return was uneventful.  Most everyone slept on the bus.

The Gala reception was spectacular.  The food was incredible and we were serenaded by 5 great opera singers.  They sang vignettes or arias or whatever from some famous operas.  Totally enthralling.  The evening was capped off by some fine cigars and good company in the hotel lobby bar of the Ritz Carlton. 

Monday was a free day.  We almost went to visit the coast again.  We were going to take a trip to Valparaiso and Vino Del Mar.  Instead we did a self-guided tour of Santiago using the Lonely Planet guidebook and our instincts.  It was one of the best days of the trip.  We wandered all through the city having an incredible one great adventure after another.  We saw all the old squares and cathedrals.  We rode the subway with the locals.  For lunch we went to the Mercado Central, a 300 year old fish market in Downtown Santiago.  The Market smells super fishy, but this just added to the ambiance.  We ate at Donde Augusto, the most touristy of all tourist traps.  We had to, everyone does.  And actually, it was awesome.  We spent $100 dollars on a Giant Chilean King Crab.  It was super delicious.  The building is cast iron and has a really great vibe, Originally built in England as a train station it was shipped over piece by piece in the late 1800’s.  The total ticket on the meal was a bit of a sticker shock.  It was definitely the most expensive meal we ate on the whole trip.  Still, well worth the price of admission.

After lunch we continued our walking tour through the city.  In Bella Vista, we found a little roadside house serving Ice Cream.  Though we were all still a little full we all had one.  In the heart of the Bella Vista barrio is a beautiful park.  The park is built on a very tall hill with a funicular running up to the top of it and a zoo at the base.  The funicular is a funky kind of antique elevator popular at public attractions back in the 1800’s.  San Cristobal Hill (Cerro San Cristobal) is the name of the park.  Unfortunately the funicular was out of service so we either had to walk or take a bus to the top.  We chose the bus.  The hill or perhaps small mountain if you will has a giant statue of the Virgin Mary and a convent on the top of it.  There is also have an amphitheater for concerts.  The views of Santiago are incredible.  Beautiful snow capped mountains ring the city.  We could see forever.

On the way down we decided to walk.  The trail was not as well maintained as you might expect but it was pretty good.  This would have been a really relaxing experience, except for the fact that Chad and Sarah had to catch a flight back to the states in a little over 3 hours.  We hiked down and the trail kept extending below us.  The longer we hiked the more nervous I got for them about missing their flight.  Fortunately it didn’t seem to faze them.  We finished what I thought was going to be a 30 minute hike in just over 45 minutes.  We made it back to the base of the hill without incident.  After a quick cab ride back to the hotel and we bid adieu to our friends after traveling together for 11 days.  They were awesome travel companions we had a great time with them.  It was very sad to see them go.

For dinner on Monday May 5^th as our friends boarded a plane, Jenn and I went off to dinner at a local pizzeria called Tirimisu.  It was only a few blocks walk from the Ritz.  The restaurant was packed with locals.   The food was really good and the ambiance of the place was really cool.  We had a great meal, ordering the Hawaiian pizza was a hit.  It was really romantic.  A great start to our last night in Santiago.

Tuesday May 6^th was our last day in Santiago.  After a delicious breakfast at the Ritz Jenn and I walked about 6 miles to visit an artesan Market in an old convent on the outskirts of Santiago.  It was nestle in German town.  It is a lot like China town but more orderly and full of Germans.  The Market is called “Los Dominicos” (Handicraft Village).  This peculiar commune was started as a village of craftsmen supported by the Dominican convent within which the artisan’s market resides. You can find works of art and handicrafts from around Chile. The market also offers gorgeous custom jewelry.  Inside you will find some really beautiful, but also really EXPENSIVE art.  Don’t come here for the deals.

For lunch Jenn and I went to a local market, bought some bread meat and cheese, and had a picnic on a park bench in front of the German Fire station.  Afterwards we walked the 6 miles back to our hotel.  The Ritz allowed us to use the spa and showers to clean up so we could be fresh for our 20 hour journey home.  Our flight home was uneventful and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  All in all it was a great trip.