When we returned from our last trip, we found the marina full of new cruisers. Some cruisers sail alone. Some cruisers join large groups. Most cruisers form a group of like-minded sailors and you join, leave, rejoin the group, leave, etc until the group is so far spread across the world that Facebook updates are about all you get. We met our main group in Luperon, Dominican Republic, when we were there for the first 5 months. Some were added along the way but the core group stayed about the same. We never planned travel as a group but we always seemed to end up in the same places. Our group has gone with the wind over the last year and we have been on our own again. One couple made it to New Zealand but are selling their boat to go be better grandparents. One couple flew back to Australia for a year and are now in Mexico. One couple had a situation where the wife did not want to be on the boat anymore so she is in Mexico and her husband sails during the season and lives with her during hurricane season. Another couple sold their boat and are building a house in Idaho (also near the grandkids). As a result, our Colombia stay has been pretty uneventful until recently. When we returned from Argentina, we found Tuesday Burger special night at the restaurant invaded by a group made up of six or seven boats. They ranged from people from the US, Canada, South Africa, Egypt and the Philippines. They had all traveled as a group from Mexico to Colombia. Bill and I had ordered our burgers before the crowd arrived. They all joined us at our table and it was quite a scuffle as tables were added and chairs were shifted. When the waiter came out, he looked as if he was going to cry. In his broken English, he explained, “We have nine burgers. We had eleven but now nine.” Bill and I kept quiet with our knowledge that we were the ones who had stolen two of the eleven burgers as the others figured out how they were going to split 9 burgers among 14 people. After some shuffling, they figured it out and all was well.
Besides just the enjoyment of meeting new people with different stories, new boaters mean unexpected perks. Our neighbors had just purchased a new boat in Panama and he was ordering an updated Starlink system for his boat. He had a used Starlink which he did not want anymore so we quickly told him we would love to buy his old Starlink. After a few negotiations, we loaded the Starlink onto Galt, plugged it in and it is amazing! Hats off to Elon Musk! We have not had internet this solid since we left the States. The good news is that whenever we get to the next country, I just go online and change our country and our service continues. It will work on the water as well so that is an extra safety feature for us. So nice not to worry about communications as much anymore! Graceful Sally fell off the boat again a couple of weeks ago and yes….I had my just-purchased-in-Chile phone with me. A dockhand walked by and waved at me and said, “Hello!” as if I was just in for a swim fully clothed. I told him I needed help which took a bit of Spanglish to relay. The marina has no ladders so it makes it difficult to get out of the water unless you are a 20 year old male who can just hop up on the back of a boat without a thought. He pointed to the neighbor’s boat because their sugar scoop (the back step on a catamaran) was lower than Galt’s swim platform and he said something in Spanish that I interpreted to be “pull your old ass out of the water onto the neighbor’s boat”. When I gestured that I was a wuss and had no upper body strength, he then jumped onto the neighbor’s boat and hauled me onto the deck. Just then, the neighbors emerged to see what was going on and my humiliation was complete. They noticed I was bleeding on my leg so they brought me an icepack (rich boat with an ice maker….good choice for me!). Meanwhile, the wife grabbed my week old phone and shoved it into a bag of rice hoping to save it. When Bill wandered back from the store, he helped me get back over to Galt and we spent the next few days counting bruises and wondering, “now how did a bruise get in my armpit?” We wish we had the fall on film because there are so many unanswered questions! The rice did not work so I had to go buy another new phone. No more phone off the boat without a water proof bag! As May rolled around, many of the boat gang sailed off to the Eastern Caribbean but they left behind a few stragglers to keep us company for a while. The restaurant has figured out their supply chain so everyone gets a burger on burger night. No need for a mutiny. We are spending our days on boat projects and I’ll keep you updated over the next few weeks with some pictures. No pictures this week because the chaos on the boat is hard enough for us to stand without holding the image forever in a picture! May the 4th be with you and Happy Cinco de Mayo!
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If you ever want to see the most beautiful airport view in the world, I invite you to visit Ushuaia, Argentina. As soon as you disembark, you are greeted by bright blue skies over blue ocean surrounded by white capped mountains. We were expecting freezing temperatures in Ushuaia but our first day was a glorious 55 degrees. We easily found our Airbnb which was on one of the two main streets and had an amazing mountain view. Ushuaia had a feel similar to one of the old west towns in the States. It had what you needed with no frills. The next day, we awakened to bright sunshine and clear skies. We joined a tour and made our way to the train station for yet another did-not-know-it-was-a-thing-but-now-it-was-added-to-the-bucket-list item….The Train at the End of the World. The train was built in the late 1800s to transport prisoners out to the forest so they could cut firewood. Ushuaia was essentially formed as a penal colony and it was a harsh life for those who made poor choices. The average temperature in the winter hovered around freezing and we were enjoying the highest temperatures of the year in Ushuaia which were in the fifties. As we boarded the train, we were greeted by “prisoners” taking funny pictures with the tourists and they were definitely embracing the darker side of their history. Across from the train station was a small golf course. We have now seen the world’s highest golf course in La Paz and the southern most golf course in Ushuaia. I can’t say much for the golf course which was basically in a pasture but they did have their claim to fame. Our train was much more comfortable than the original prisoner train and we enjoyed our beautiful ride along the 7 km long route into Tierra del Fuego National Park. The train made one stop along the way to see the “waterfall” which looked like a water hose dripping off a small hill. After Iguazu, it gave me a chuckle. Then, the train passed through the tree cemetery which was all the remaining tree stumps from where the prisoners had chopped wood. It was interesting because the stumps were all different heights which indicated how deep the snow was at the time of cutting. The deeper the snow was, the taller the tree stump. As we passed into Tierra del Fuego, we were greeted by stunning vistas that soared over large inlets. We were really looking forward to mailing postcards from the southern most post office in the world but the one in the park was closed for repairs. Our tour guide told us we could mail them in town which still counted as the southern most post office since the one in the park was closed. We also stood at the dead end of the Pan-American Highway which starts in North Slope, Alaska and runs contiguously for 19000 miles (except for a 60 mile gap between Panama and Colombia which is all swamp). That would be quite the drive! When we arrived back in town, we got our passport stamped with an “End of the World” stamp and then headed to the post office to mail our postcards. We mailed our postcards on March 26 and as of this writing, no one has received them yet!
On our second day in Ushuaia, we followed in Darwin’s and Magellan’s footsteps by taking a boat ride on the Beagle Channel. As airplanes were taking off over us, I had to wonder what Magellan would have thought of the wonder of an airplane. On the ride, we saw hundreds of sea lions surrounded by thousands of cormorants. If we had not been told otherwise, we would have mistaken the cormorants for penguins. Unfortunately, the penguins had already migrated for the year so we missed seeing them. The wind roaring down the Beagle Channel took our breath away as it cut through us but luckily, the boat had an enclosure which kept us warm most of the time. After the tour, we had been given a coupon for a free hot chocolate at a local bakery so we stopped in for some yummy hot chocolate and bought a few delicious treats as well. Finding dinner was a bit more challenging as so many of the restaurants in town did not open until after 7pm but we managed to find a pizza joint that was open so the day was a success. Our final day in Ushuaia was spent at the Maritime Museum which was housed in the old prison. As we wandered about the cell block, the weather outside began to turn and we were greeted with freezing rain for our walk back to the apartment. As the temperature dropped, we were blessed with lovely snow that sheeted sideways, blocking all the views and Ushuaia finally lived up to its’ reputation. Luckily, we woke the next morning to snow capped mountains and clear skies for our flight to Calafate. Calafate was the thorn in my side from the beginning of planning the Chile/Argentina trip. No easy/reasonable way in and no easy/reasonable way out. To get to Calafate, we bit the bullet and paid far too much for a one hour flight from Ushuaia. When we landed in Calafate, we were surprised at the terrain which was so different from Ushuaia. Calafate sat on a beautiful lake with water the color of cyan. Calafate’s claim to fame was Glacier National Park so the waters around Calafate were glacial water and it was extraordinary. The town of Calafate reminded us of Pigeon Forge, TN because it had so many little boutiques and shops. Our hotel was nice but it was the smallest room we have had in a long time but we had twin beds so at least we could walk between them. We ventured out for dinner at a restaurant Bill had found that was a small brewery. We ordered and an delicious pile of meat arrived at the table. We had pork, chicken, lamb, beef and many parts of those animals that I was not going to eat. Even Bill passed on a few of them. With only one day in Calafate, we were picked up early in the morning to make our way to Glacier National Park. When we arrived, most of our group hopped onto a boat to go out and watch the glacier from the water. We voted not to take the boat because we had read that the walkways were just as close and we did not want to be stuck staring at the same wall of ice for two hours. In true Argentine fashion, the walkways surrounding the glacier were top notch and we enjoyed our hours of wandering the paths. The glacier was beautiful and I do not think I missed a single angle in pictures. The last path we took led us down the river to another visitor center. Exhausted and not wanting to climb the number of stairs needed to get back to the other center (I swear it was enough to get to Heaven), we cheated and took the park shuttle bus back to our meeting point. One thing that did shock us was the number of people who thought Glacier National Park would be a fabulous place to bring children. Let’s face it….how exciting is a huge piece of ice to a four year old? By the end of the day, the toddlers were crying, the tweens were rolling their eyes and the teenagers had all but abandoned the family fun day. In the end, we were glad we made the effort to get to Calafate. It was a great day! Now came the challenge in the trip planning. How do we get out of Calafate and return to Cartagena? If we flew from Calafate, it was super expensive and the shortest flight was at least an 18 hour event with two stops. After much mapping, Bill figured out we could fly out of Puerto Natales, Chile to Santiago. Spend the night in Santiago. Then, fly from Santiago to Lima and then to Cartagena. Financially it made more sense and at least we could spread out the flight torture over two days. But first, how to get from Calafate to Puerto Natales? We could take an eight hour flight from the end of the world back up to Buenos Aires and then back to the end of the world in Chile….or we could take a 5 hour bus ride across the southern border. We voted for the bus. The bus ride was quite pleasant and the scenery was very unique in the Patagonia region so we enjoyed the ride. The two border crossings (one out of Argentina and the next into Chile) were a bit laborious and the trip ended up taking about 6 hours but it was better than the airport option and the tickets were only $25.00. Puerto Natales was a small town that had seen better days. It had a revitalized downtown square area with restaurants but Puerto Natales was the kind of town that rolled up the sidewalks at 7pm and went to bed. Most people came to Puerto Natales to begin their trek through the Patagonia region so backpackers were everywhere. I can not imagine what it looks like in high season! The next morning, we were picked up by our tour to explore Torres del Paine National Park. Torres del Paine was one of those places that you have seen in pictures everywhere but you just don’t know what it is or where it is. It is filled with glacial lagoons and rocketing cliffs and landscapes that seem to go on forever. As we turned into the park, we saw an unbelievable sight. Dozens of condors were soaring above us and even the guide got excited and grabbed his camera. He said, “We are usually lucky to see one or two condors! I’ve never seen this many together!” It was incredible! As the day went on, we stopped at beautiful overlooks and learned about the park’s plants and animals. Everyone was on the lookout for a puma but our luck seemed to have been all used on the condors. At the end of the day, the guide said everyone could go on a “glacier hike” which sounded cool. The more we investigated information at the head of the trail, the more Bill figured out that there was no possible way to get to the actual glacier from where we stood. We did not want to do a walk in the woods to see a small glacier from a distance given the current weather. Our warm weather luck had run out and the winds howling through Torres del Paine were bitter and tore right through my new coat. We decided to grab a drink in the visitor center and as we sat talking with other travelers a torrential rainstorm began. Some people who went on the hike came back drenched and not too happy about their walk through the woods so we were very glad we had stayed warm and dry. The next afternoon, we caught our flight to Santiago where we spent an uneventful night. Up early the next morning, we flew to Lima and then onto Cartagena. The trip was one of the most amazing trips we have done but it was also the hardest trip we have done. We were exhausted and it took us several days of being bums to recover. One bit of humor….as I threw my backpack on the bed, I noticed something tucked under the sheet on the bed….my coat! Bill had a good “I told you so” moment since he figured I had left it on the boat in the first place. So, now a woman who lives on a boat in constant 90 degree weather has two winter coats. I am not sure what coat the hotel in Antofagasta found but if you are in the area….you can drop by and pick it up! Coat mystery solved! ****More pics on Pictures tab The first thing we noticed in Buenos Aires was that we were once again blending in with the crowd. We have gotten used to being easily identified as the “tourist” in South America. Buenos Aires was just like stepping off the plane into Spain. Even the Spanish language in Buenos Aires was different…which did not help our cause at all! Any Spanish words that had a double “L” were pronounced as a “zh” instead of the usual “y”. So chicken was no longer pronounced ‘poyo’, it was ‘pozho’. And rain was ‘zhuvia’ instead of ‘yuvia’. Plus, the Argentinians were as rapid-fire as the Chileans with speaking. Given that we no longer stood out as tourists, the Argentinians would just start talking to us in Spanish so we were lost in a sea of rapid-fire zhuzhing. After checking into our hotel, we walked along the waterfront boardwalk that lined our part of the city. We felt at home with the many marinas filled with sailboats and enjoyed two quick tours of old schooners that were docked at the waterfront. The waterfront was a hive of activity with restaurants, bars and even tango dancers performing for the crowds. It was a wonderful introduction to Buenos Aires! Our first full day in Buenos Aires started with a trip to a very unique bookstore. The Ateneo Grand bookstore was housed in an old theatre complete with box seats for reading nooks. It was amazing! I could have roamed for hours but we had to move on to the next unique event for the day…the Water Museum. As we approached the Water Museum, we felt we had made an error because it looked like a palace. In the late 1800s, Buenos Aires had a deadly outbreak of cholera. The leaders decided they needed to make clean water the focus of the time and they certainly did it in a big way. The incredible building was definitely a tribute to how important their cause was and the museum was very interesting. The overall architecture in Buenos Aires was based on the Beaux Arts movement (which Bill actually guessed correctly and won our debate! Who knew he was such the architecture connoisseur?). Breathtaking buildings stood on every corner. Amidst the buildings in Buenos Aires was nestled one of the most famous cemeteries in the world…La Recoleta. La Recoleta was home to over 4600 mausoleums which lined concrete walkways like a small city. Mosquitos were everywhere and we had to make a quick stop to douse ourselves in repellant before continuing on our way. While the mausoleums were impressive and housed famous figures such as Evita Peron, La Recoleta did not have the same vibe as the cemetery in Santiago. However, La Recoleta was a bucket list item I had so I can mark that one off the list. The funniest part of our day was witnessing the Buenos Aires dogwalkers. Dog walking is a fulltime job in Buenos Aires and they do it up with style. One dog walker would have anywhere from four to a dozen dogs on a leash at the same time. When one dog walker would meet another dog walker, the dogs would all bark and jump and get entangled. It was a chaotic mess but the walkers seemed to handle it perfectly, do a little Jenga type disentanglement and go on their way. Fascinating! Our last stop of our very busy day was the Galerias Pacifico Mall. Yes, it is unusual for us to visit a mall but this mall was special. It had ceiling murals that were reminiscent of the Sistine Chapel so we had to stop in and take a couple of pictures. Buenos Aires certainly loves art!
Our second day in the city, we started at the train museum which was reviewed as “okay” on the internet. Not sure who was doing the reviewing but we found the train museum to be much better than ‘okay’! The museum was housed in an old train station and had two trains with old cars you could tour. There were hundreds of items on display from old cash registers, adding machines, clocks, whistles, bells, etc. Maybe we are just dorky but we loved it! We then wandered down the street to the clock tower and local park. This area was the only area in Buenos Aires we visited where we had to side step a few homeless people. For the afternoon, we had a scheduled tour at the Teatro Colon. Our English tour was actually in English this time and our guide clearly loved the theatre. The theatre was opened in 1908 and looked as if it stepped straight out of the Gilded Age in New York. It was voted one of the top ten best opera houses in the world and we could definitely see why it was so popular. Our last stop for the day was to another Buenos Aires institution….Geurrin’s Pizza. As we approached, the crowds reminded us of The Varsity in Atlanta (if you have never been to the Varsity, then your life is not complete). We were seated and I ordered a Fuggazeta pizza (must translate to huge pile of yummy onions) and Bill ordered something that must have translated as “huge monstrous meat pizza”. When the server delivered our pizza, we all had a good laugh at the amount of food on our table. The pizza was amazing and Bill had leftovers for days! The next morning, we visited the Holocaust Museum. Buenos Aires had one of the largest immigrations of Jewish people in the 1930’s and 40’s in the world. It also housed some of the most notorious Nazi’s including Adolf Eichmann who had supervised over the death camps. It was another interesting part of Buenos Aires’ history. For lunch, we ventured over to the San Telmo market and found an Argentinian man making Swiss Raclette. It was a cheezy bowl of goodness! We spent the afternoon trying to locate the Metropolitan Cathedral. You would not think they could hide an entire cathedral but we walked past it several times before finally discovering the entrance. It was worth the search and we called the day a success. The final day in Buenos Aires was an odd hodgepodge of activities. We attempted to visit the Planetarium but it was closed so we wandered down to the Japanese Gardens that were across the street. We then wandered to the Eco Parque zoo which was no longer a zoo and was in need of some love. Our final adventure was attempting to pick up our money from Western Union. We went to several locations only to be told that we needed to go to another location. We finally found the correct location and the line was very long. As we approached the front of the line, there was a man getting pesos. He had a huge duffel bag and loaded it with pesos. He took that duffel out to his car and returned with another duffel and then another. I don’t know how much money he got but it definitely looked like he robbed a bank! After much ado, we picked up our heist, retrieved our luggage from the hotel and headed to the airport for our flight to Iguazu Falls. Iguazu Falls sits on the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Argentina and Brazil share the falls so we knew we would need to cross into Brazil to see the “Brazil side” of the falls. After reading online about the slow, hours-long process of taking a bus across the border, we decided to hire a taxi for the day to hopefully streamline the process. As our driver approached the border, he stopped at the Argentine side, showed our passports and drove right across the border. At the Brazil checkpoint, he just blazed on past without even a wave. We voted right then the taxi had been money well spent! Our first stop was the Itaipu Hydroelectric facility. Itaipu was the third largest hydroelectric facility in the world secondary only to two plants in China. Itaipu was shared by Brazil and Paraguay because the border of the countries split straight down the middle of the dam. As a result, equal numbers of Paraguayans and Brazilians worked in the facility. The facility was huge and we enjoyed learning about the process and seeing the huge generators at work. The facility supplied 100% of Paraguay’s electricity and 10% of Brazil’s which was an impressive task given Brazil is the 5th most populous country in the world. Take that solar panels and windmills! Following our tour of the plant, we met our taxi driver who shuttled us over to the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls. We hopped on a shuttle bus at the national park and after a long ride through dense forest, we disembarked at the falls drop off point. We followed the crowd down the stairs and as we approached the first viewing area, we heard a roar of water and felt mist on the air. Bill turned the corner just ahead of me and when I heard “holy shit!” I knew it was going to be spectacular. Iguazu was like a scene from a Walt Disney movie. Words and pictures could never do it justice. We walked along the falls with Bill towing me along at times with my camera still on my eye. Our amazing day ended with another blow past the Brazil border guards, a brief check at the Argentine border and a not so good dinner at our hotel restaurant. I had a hard time believing the Argentine side could beat the Brazil side but I could not wait for the next morning to arrive! The Argentine park was about a half hour drive from the hotel so our trusty taxi driver picked us up and started our day. When we arrived at the park, we boarded a train (much like Disney World) and chugged through the forest to the falls. The difference between the Brazil and Argentine sides was the Brazil side offered the expansive view of the falls while the Argentine side allowed you to literally be on top of the falls. The park had metal walkways that meandered about the falls and we decided that no matter how poor Argentina had been in its’ history…those people could build some first class walkways! The view points were placed on the edge of the falls and the power of the water was terrifying at times. We could not visit the most famous area of the park, Devil’s Throat, because the river had washed away the walkway earlier in the week. One attraction that we chose not to do was the speedboat ride. The boat would take visitors under the falls and we watched from a distance as they were pummeled with water and disappeared into the mist. As the day drew to a close, we were sad to leave the falls. We also realized that we no longer need to go on death hikes in search of “falls” again because nothing could ever top the Iguazu experience. The last morning in Iguazu, we walked through a small biopark that was adjacent to our hotel and finally saw some orchids. Our flight back to Buenos Aires was uneventful and we spent the evening resting and preparing to leave our warm weather to travel south to Patagonia. Luckily, I had purchased a new coat in Buenos Aires so I was somewhat prepared for what was to come….Ushuaia, Argentina….the city at the End of the World! ****Mores pics on Pictures tab (especially for my foodies!) Santiago, Chile. The city of reflections. The main thing that struck us immediately upon landing in Santiago was the European feel of the city. It was so different from other South American cities and the European influence was everywhere. The buildings were made of mirrored glass and the way reflections of the old buildings mirrored into the new was incredible. Our hotel was located in the heart of Santiago so we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went to the sculpture park for a stroll. As we entered the park just before sunset, we noticed a trend. Couples of all sorts were very affectionate in this park (for lack of a more socially acceptable description). We named it “Love Park” and as we made our way deeper into the park, the ‘love’ became more and more apparent. Let’s put it this way, if my father had ever seen me behaving that way in public, I would have been locked in the basement. We definitely made sure our walk was completed prior to the fall of darkness! As we wandered the streets heading to dinner, we passed by a line of people at least 20 deep waiting at the Dunkin Donuts. I am not sure what the Chilean Dunkin Donuts added to their recipe but evidently it was worth waiting.
The next morning, we began our exploration of Santiago. We took the Metro (one of the cleanest we have seen) to St. Lucia Hill. St. Lucia Hill boasted an old castle and beautiful views of the city. Our afternoon was a scheduled tour of Palazzo Moneda. Two months earlier, I had contacted the Palazzo via email to request a tour in English for the palace. I had to send copies of our passports for background checks and wait for security to approve our visit. Once we were approved, we were scheduled for the 4pm tour in English. We arrived and were shuttled to the main entrance of the palace. The tour guide came and took everyone’s passports and handed them to the guards on duty. We were told we would get them back at the end of the tour. We felt like we were going into the Pentagon. As the tour started, our guide began to spit out rapid-fire Chilean Spanish (which is about 10 times faster than other countries’ Spanish). When she finished her first speech, I went up and asked about the English tour. She stated that the tour was not in English but she spoke English so she could answer any questions we had along the way. More than a bit frustrated, we fell to the back of the pack near a family whose father was interpreting the tour into English for his daughters. We asked him if we could hang out with them and he was very gracious to be our personal interpreter for the afternoon. As we made our way through the palace, we were not sure why we needed so much security. Evidently, some of the government offices were housed in the building but no president had lived in the Palazzo Moneda since 1952. It had originally been the mint in the 1800s and was the site of a military coup in 1973. Overall, the “palace” looked just like you would expect government offices to look so it was a rather disappointing visit. We finished the day with a trip to the Samsung store to buy a new phone for me. When I told the salesman I had “lost” my phone in Calama, he responded, “Lost in Calama? Or stolen?” I said I was not sure and he gave a nod and a facial expression that let me know his opinion quite clearly as he said, “Calama!” in a disdainful tone. With phone in hand, we returned for a quiet night of downloading apps and getting all the trip information back into the phone which made me feel much more settled. The next day, we took a funicular to another mountaintop that had hiking trails and a state park. We did not feel like hiking so we enjoyed the views and had some delicious berries and cream. It was a good thing I had my blood sugar steady because our next stop was Cemeterio General de Santiago. Of all the cemeteries we have visited, this one slid solidly into first place. The statues and headstones were incredible, the mausoleums were a reflection of the time they were built and the grounds were immaculate. Many of the mausoleums built in the late 1800s and early 1900s were Egyptian themed pyramids or Greek Parthenons. Bill patiently wandered the cemetery with me for at least an hour while I took pictures and enjoyed the peacefulness. We finished the evening with a trip to Sky Costanera which was the tallest skyscraper in South America. To access the elevator area, we had to go into the largest maze of a mall I have ever seen. After getting directions from several different people, we made our way to the top of the building for expansive views of Santiago and the surrounding mountains. Getting out of the mall proved to be even more of a challenge and we wandered aimlessly for 30 minutes until we managed to make our way out through the underground parking garage. We just waved a friendly wave as passing cars swerved to miss us on ramps but we were not going to stop until we hit fresh air and sunlight! The next morning, we headed to the airport for our one-hour flight to Mendoza, Argentina. We had no issues with customs/immigration and found our gate easily. When it came time to board, an announcement in Spanish followed by a collective groan alerted us to trouble. The flight was delayed for 20 minutes. Then, another 20 minutes. Then 2 hours. We finally figured out the plane was having a computer issue. When the next announcement was made, the crowd began to clap loudly in unison so we were very happy the computer was fixed. But it was not fixed. Evidently, the Chileans clap loudly in unison to indicate sarcasm for “job well done” when the job is not actually well done. Another hour passed and Bill walked down to another gate to see if we could get on the Sky airlines flight that evening. Just as he left, Aerolineas announced the flight was cancelled because the flight crew had reached their maximum hours on the clock for the day and were not allowed to fly. Needless to say, the Chilean mob was not happy. The counter agent immediately told us to follow him so he could get us hotel and transportation vouchers for the night. Without Bill in sight, I followed the mob. I texted Bill (thank goodness for the new phone!) and told him where we were headed. He met me in immigration and we were passed back into Chile and picked up our voucher from the agent. Instead of securing a hotel near the airport, they shuttled us 30 minutes back into the city. When we checked in, the desk clerk said, “This is a transportation only voucher. Where is the hotel voucher?” I am guessing my face must have spoken without words because she immediately said, “That’s okay! I’ll figure it out later. You go to your room and get some dinner.” The airline paid for dinner and we noted the airline crew eating and drinking wine at the table next to us so I figured we were not flying out any time soon. At 10pm, we received a text telling us to be in the lobby at 7am to transport back to the airport. While the delay was a huge inconvenience, we were grateful we did not have to spend the night in the airport. Mendoza, Argentina is the wine capital of Argentina. There are over 2000 wineries in the region as well as olive oil manufacturers. In order to visit the wineries and olive oil companies, I had to make reservations months in advance. The winery we had originally reserved for that morning was gracious enough to allow me to reschedule our tour to the next day. We rented a car in Mendoza because the wine valley was very large. Our first stop was at Western Union. Follow me closely because this next explanation is going in the weeds. In Argentina, there is the “state” exchange rate which is what international traders use (ie banks) and there is the “blue” rate which is essentially a black market rate. The government currently turns a blind eye to the “blue” rate. For example, if you get your money out of an ATM or use your credit card, the exchange rate would be 865 pesos for each $1.00 USD. The “blue” rate on the street for cash was 1200 pesos for each $1.00. Therefore, we had a choice to exchange money with strangers yelling “cambio” (change) on the street or we could wire money from our credit card to Western Union and get the blue rate. We chose Western Union. Bill dropped me off at a small shop that had a Western Union window in the back corner. I watched as a man counted out thousands of pesos, wrapped them in packs of 100 with a rubber band and handed them to me. I looked like I robbed a bank! The largest bill that Argentina prints is a 1000 peso so an exchange of $300USD equaled 360 individual bills (see picture below). It was one of the craziest things I have seen in my life. With money in hand, we headed to Laur Olive Oil company for our scheduled tour and tasting. The production of olive oil was a labor intensive event so I have a new appreciation for the cost of olive oil. Our tasting was delicious and we even got wine with it so the Mendoza leg started off well. After the tour, we checked into our lodging. The only hotels in Mendoza were luxury spa-type places so I had booked a “posada” which was the Argentinian version of an Airbnb. We were greeted by our quirky host who immediately had a crush on Bill. Bill affectionately nicknamed her “Mrs. Doubtfire”. She showed us to our room and as we stepped into the main area, we were transported back to my great aunt’s house in the 1960s. Absolutely nothing had been touched in the last 50 years. Luckily, the owner had updated the bathrooms so our room was small but functional and we enjoyed reminiscing about our childhood as we walked through the house. We spent the evening sitting by the pool, drinking wine and watching the birds….and watching Mrs. Doubtfire flirt with Bill. Day two in Mendoza started with our tour of Otero Ramos winery. The winery was beautiful and we were greeted by Otero’s son who said he did not speak much English but he would do his best. With our Spanglish, we did quite well on the tour. The winery did not produce much of their own wine but Mr. Ramos was a visionary and had installed state of the art equipment for wine production. He contracted out to other growers to help them produce and bottle their wines. By the time we got to the tasting portion of our tour, Mr. Ramos’ daughter had taken over the tour and she spoke amazing English. She explained everything about wine and spent so much time with us. By the time we left, we felt like we were part of the family and it was the highlight of Mendoza. We missed our next wine tour because the address on Google was not correct so we headed out to have lunch at the Posada de Cerdo (House of Ham). No way was Bill passing up a place called the House of Ham. After an amazing lunch, we headed out to SuperUco winery for our last tour in the Valley. The SuperUco tour was run by a couple of young people who were nice but had no real connection to the company so it paled in comparison to the Otero Ramos tour and in my opinion, the wine was not as tasty either. After spending another night in the 1960s, we headed back to the airport to continue on our way to Buenos Aires which we will visit in the next blog! For those who are curious, the hotel in Antofagasta asked me several questions about my coat and then claimed they had found the coat. However, they would not ship it to me so my coat was destined to live in Antofagasta forever…..or so I thought….. ***More pics on the Pictures tab |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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