OHIO

We are back, safe and sound, in Bellbrook.  Fun stories to come, but right now we’re up to our eyeballs in boxes of long forgotten possessions.  It’s like a giant Christmas present bonanza!

Greetings from Buenos Aires

Thought I´d let the world know we arrived safe and sound yesterday in Buenos Aires.  It was a small adventure getting here…full post to come.  We have a plane to catch in a few hours, so I must run to pack, but hopefully our next post will be from North America!

Just the beginning

A journey of more than 7,000 miles starts today with a walk to the bus station.  Although Salta is about 4,600 miles from Bellbrook as the condor flies, our journey is taking a bit of a zigzag across the continents.

From Salta, we’re busing to Buenos Aires.  We’ll then fly from Buenos Aires to Toronto via Santiago, Chile (which surprisingly enough was cheaper than flying from Santiago to Toronto).  From Toronto, it’s the Greyhound down to Dayton.  All in all, some 7,368 miles…give or take a few.  We’re going to be riding our bicycles for a long time to make up for this one!

Mendoza

We were in Mendoza for two things: bikes and wine. However, as we rolled into town in the middle of the afternoon we weren’t sure about either of them. The area surrounding Mendoza is a desert, though technically it is classified as semi-arid. We’d had plenty enough experience with desert in Peru to know that we aren’t big fans. We don’t know much about wines but I would guess you need water to grow plants. Mendoza does happen to be the popular staging point for climbing the highest mountain in the western hemisphere, Aconcagua, and we do like mountains, though we never saw it. So…like I said we were a little skeptical of Mendoza before we stepped off the bus.

Outside Cordoba

A funny thing happened on the overnight trip to Cordoba. When I looked out the window after waking up in the morning I saw a John Deer dealership, plowed fields, and flatness that I swear made me believe I was in Ohio for a full thirty seconds. Now when Argentines ask me what Ohio is like I ask them if they have been to Cordoba.

Cordoba and La Cumbre

I’m not sure at what point Argentina was put on the SAA itinerary. When we arrived on the continent, the plan included only Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. I know that within the first month of our arrival in Ecuador we were hearing from travelers how great, and how cheap, Argentina was.

Argentina used to be one of the most expensive countries in the western hemisphere when they had their currency pegged 1 to 1 with the US$. However due to a pile of circumstances they unpegged and crashed down to 3 to 1 in 2001. Since then, it’s been cheap for those of us with the almighty dollar, euro, etc., though I won’t mention the pound because its exchange rate makes me sick with jealousy! While Argentina is still definitely cheap compared with the US, we learned the hard way in Cordoba and La Cumbre that the cost of living is definitely on the rise.

Cordoba was our third stop in Argentina, after Salta and Cafayate. In both cities we had been able to camp, which kept our costs beautifully low. Our Lonely Planet (LP, or simply The Book) states that while there is no campground in Cordoba proper, there was one hostel that would let you set up in their backyard. The hostel prices listed were also sufficiently low that we didn’t think there would be a problem.

Cafayate

While it may have started out as a normal town, Cafayate is now a genuine Tourist Destination. Their claim to fame is wine, and lots of it. The town itself is very small and completely surrounded by vineyards. You can visit most of them and the producers who are more than a 1o minute walk from town have bodegas in the town center.

Our favorite wine was Nanni, one of Argentina’s few organics. We visited the bodega one day and bought a bottle, then returned the next day to buy more!

Cafayate specializes in a grape called torrontes, a white brought over from France. The French no longer grow it and it is currently only grown in Argentina, mostly in Cafayate. It’s a very fruity white, not super dry. It’s great for a hot summer day. My wine knowledge is limited, so I’ll leave it at that. However, I can recommend picking up a bottle if you ever see it in the store.

Other than drinking wine and eating good food, our only other “event” in Cafayate was a bee sting on one of my fingers. Not a big deal at first, but it was swollen to the point that I lost all movement for three days! The campsite hippies were very concerned and helpful with home (or should I say tent?) remedies. Though I’m not sure they helped, it was nice that they wanted to help out. Thankfully the wine more than made up for my little “injury”.

Time for a plan

Before Argentina, if someone asked us what our plans were we would get a misty, slightly confused look in the eye and respond, ¨South¨. More than a simple direction, we’ve never had much of a plan for this trip. A general outline and some goals yes, but never a plan. We learned the hard way when we first got to Ecuador that well laid plans usually just implode.

Argentina though was a different story. With my mom on her way to visit us, we needed to make an itinerary and stick to it or we risked not making it as far as we wanted to.

So in Bolivia we made a plan. We laid out the places we wanted to go and how much time we thought we would need for each. Our goal was to make it to Bariloche by December. At this point we though Mom would be visiting around Christmas time and we wanted her to fly into Bariloche.

Salta was a pleasant surprise, as we were efficient and felt ready to go in only 4 days when we had budgeted a week. It was also a surprise that as we went along, things got taken off the list but rarely added on, mostly a time and cost thing.

Argentina. A totally different country, a totally different plan.

Salta Pt. 1

We went to Salta somewhat begrudgingly, but we accepted it out of convenience and feeling responsible to be thorough. Salta is the largest city in little visited northwestern Argentina and serves as a transport hub for travelers entering from Bolivia. Upon arrival we felt the stark contrast of culture, dress and genetic heritage between Argentina and the other South American countries we had visited. Everything seemed so much more like what we remember the states to be and the indigenous influence that we had become accustomed to was completely absent. By the second day I commented on “missing” South America because the difference was so pronounced. It made us realize more the unique culture that the Central Andean countries have with ancient traditions surviving and coexisting in the modern world. I felt a little guilty for not appreciating the value of our experiences at the time. While we reflected on that we also looked forward to the comforts that Argentina would provide.

While we were still in Huaraz, Peru we made two fateful decisions. One, we would add Argentina to our country list. Two, we would explore the potential for our own cycling “training camp”. After some poking around we’d anticipated on locating our “training camp” in Mendoza but had decided to look at Salta also though we had low expectations. Thus we found ourselves climbing off the bus at 2am and taxiing to the municipal campground.

!!!

Holy incredible wow batman, we’re getting on a plane to come home in ONE MONTH!  Yes, that’s right.  April 29 is the “big day”.  I can hardly believe it!