Argentina Archives - Page 4 of 4

Foodie Friday- Empanadas

October 23, 2009 By Jillian

Many people back in the States often ask us questions about the food we eat. Over the last few months we’ve begun to add pictures of our food as part of our travel experience, often squeezing foods into posts that are really about other things.

So now we happened on a better idea. Once a week this blog will be devoted to the food and drinks that we eat. We’ve done this only once so far, with hot chocolate in Colombia (word has it that we inspired a hot chocolate drinking party with that one) but now we’ll do our best to make it a regular occurrence.

Now we’re left with the question of where to begin. What to make our first food. The answer we settled on is clear as we’ve titled the post empanadas. The reason; we’ve eaten these (or something similar) in just about every single country we’ve been in since we first stepped into Mexico seven months ago.

So last night (really, last night) we made empanadas here in Argentina. While in Salta we were introduced to some of the best we’ve ever had but now that we’ve made our own, I’m slightly partial to those. As you’ll see in the video, we made baked empanadas filled with sautéed onions and ground meat. You can fill them with whatever you want, but this being Argentina home of red meat, we filled ours the traditional way. Buen Provecho!

Finding Inspiration

October 22, 2009 By Jillian

We wanted to go to Salta for three reasons: 1) mountain biking, 2) whitewater kayaking and 3) to meet an American blogger friend and her family. We quickly found out reasons #1 and #2 weren’t going to happen. The guy who ran the mountain bike company was on “vacation” until the following week, and the whitewater company didn’t have the minimum number of people to run a trip that weekend. C’est la vie, so much for pre-planning.

Reason #3 actually did work out, and to be honest spending time with them was the best part of Salta. I feel like a broken record saying that the people are the best part of this trip, but its the truth. After spending two nights with them, it was like living at home. We laughed, we stayed up late, we drank a lot of wine, and we shared yerba mate, so when they suggested hiking in Purmamarca we agreed.

The desert landscape of Purmamarca, red and orange like the American Southwest was an incredible place. Wind swept canyons and peaks, the landscape was rough and yet graceful at the same time. The clay like soil morphed into interesting formations after the rains, hardened and left us with little caves and crevices to explore. In scale it was nothing like the American southwest, and while the colors reminded me of the Grand Canyon and the landscape was beautiful it wasn’t as breathtaking as the Grand Canyon.

Watching the daughter of our couchsurfing host climb up and down the clay formations, I was struck with how inspirational travel itself can be. A travel blogging family, Leigh, Noah and Lila have been traveling for about three years. They’re not backpacking, they’re living in places like Panama and France for a few months at a time, going to school and working. Along the way they’ve made opportunities for themselves and made projects and dreams come to life in a very concrete, very successful way, which is inspirational to me on many levels. Their success in taking control and making their life what they want it to be is what I find to be the most incredible.

They may not have all the answers (who does), but the fact that they’ve achieved the success they have makes me feel energized. I’m not sure exactly what our ultimate goal is with this trip. Lots of people ask if we’re going to write a book, but I don’t think any book can ever adequately describe our travel experience. Maybe our ultimate goal is just to be like Leigh, Noah and Lila, to provide inspiration to others that they can do something off the “normal” path and find their own success.

Iguazu, take that Niagara!

October 19, 2009 By Danny

Four times wider than Niagara Falls, Iguazu Falls are billed as one of the highlights of any South American journey. You get to take a boat under the falls, which we didn’t get to do. You can rappel down the falls, which we didn’t get to do. You can walk out to the Devil’s Throat, which we didn’t get to do. And I’m sure there’s something else…but really, not so important because we didn’t get to do it…

So what did we do? We were victims (although only in the tourist sense) of the awesome power of nature. We’d been told of all the neat and cool adventure activities that could be done inside the park but all were closed because the water level was too high. Usually our water sport attempts are thwarted by low water, oh the irony.

Inside what feels like a lush rain forest, the falls themselves are magnificent and impressive. Nearly 20 waterfalls splashed tons of water on the rocks below, creating a 30 meter high cloud of mist. Or at least it was 30 meters on the first day.

The next morning was another story. Jumping on the tram to get to the upper part of the falls, called Devil’s Gorge, the conductor told us that the upper section of the park was closed. Unable to get a straight answer as to when it would reopen, and having not seen the falls yet that morning, we assumed it was only temporarily closed. And technically yes, it was temporarily closed, for probably the next week. The river level went up about 10% overnight, which granted may not sound like a lot, but 10% of hundreds of thousands of gallons of water is significant, trust me. That meant that a number of the observation decks were closed (hence we didn’t get to go to the Devil’s Throat) as well as the fun “get soaked under the falls” boat and rappelling.. Boo…

With our options limited, we revisited the previously dry observation decks from the day before, which now seemed to be in the middle of a category 4 hurricane. Soaked by the “spray” (can you call it spray when its coming at you at 40 mph?), we took the requisite photos and headed back to dry land. Fortunately nature provides enough entertainment at Iguazu and between almost walking into a snake, watching the monkeys cross a high bridge over the road (monkey bars!), stepping over iguanas sunning themselves, watching Tucan’s fly around the mist and laughing as Coati’s (cousin of the raccoon) stole other people’s food, we more than made up for the lack of water adventure.

With a few hours left before catching our first overnight bus since Brazil (more than a week… that might be a record!), we cheered with some locals as Argentina [finally] qualified for the World Cup.

It takes two to tango

October 16, 2009 By Jillian

Our whirlwind adventure in Uruguay ended at 21:31 as the boat pulled away from the dock, but honestly I don’t know when to “start” our Argentine adventure, it certainly didn’t begin on the bumpy boat ride at 21:31. If there is one country we’ve been looking forward to to the most in South America, it has been Argentina. Tango, yerba mate, chocolate and Patagonia, every time we opened the guidebook to Argentina we found another “must do”. Really our adventure started the first time we opened the guidebook and fell in love with our idea of the country.

We had very high expectations of Buenos Aires, but then again, who wouldn’t? Joined by Danny’s parents for a week of beef, tango and shopping, we were excited to finally be there. Called the “Paris of South America”, it truthfully neither feels like Paris or South America. Buenos Aires has it’s own distinct character. You can’t put a finger on it, but it doesn’t feel like Paris, Rome, Madrid or London and yet it feels very European. And then again, you can close your eyes and feel the rhythm and feel only the Latin America. If you go expecting Paris or South America you’ll be disappointed. Buenos Aires is Buenos Aires.

Modern and yet traditional, the city seems to function in a grey area. Grand European architecture sweeps through the older neighborhoods and yet a few blocks away a modern minimalist high rise towers over the old port. Delicious and enormous cuts of steak and yet no sidewalk cafes to be seen. One of the oldest subway systems in the world, still running wooden cars, and modern “art”-chitecture like the women’s bridge. Colorful indigenous patterns and well heeled socialites. At times it felt like being on the streets of Montmartre in Paris; artists, musicians, puppeteers and incredible markets enticing you to spend the day with them while the next moment you’re on a train car with a very vibrant salesman selling gym socks, gum, hooks for the bathroom and toilet paper. It was an incredible confusion of old and new, of European and American cultures clashing together to form this place called “Good Airs.”

So it wasn’t Europe and it wasn’t South America, which in the end was very good. Danny’s mom and I spent countless hours perusing the markets, buying way more than we had space for, but feeling like every purchase was a bargain and very “worth it”. We taste tested the ice cream shops and decided that Volta had better texture but Freddo’s had better flavors. We walked from end to end probably half a dozen times, even getting caught in a never ending thunderstorm before giving up on staying dry and hoofing it back to the apartment. It was a week of delicious food, incredible wine, great shopping, and oh yea some very interesting attempts at Spanish.

Watching the requisite Tango show, which truthfully I was very excited about, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by the dance. Sexy and passionate like meringue or samba and yet so crisp and precise, Argentine Tango is all about the tension. In the span of one song, the dancers fight, they play and they make love. Maybe the dance is more than just a symbol of the city. Maybe the city itself is a tango, a dance of passionate tension.

Foodie Friday- Empanadas

Finding Inspiration

Iguazu, take that Niagara!

It takes two to tango

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