Feeling Festive and Stuffed Like Turkeys

The past few days have been full of fun and FOOD. Wednesday was Don's birthday and we hit up two of our favorite places, La Cabrera and Osaka. He's been going to the dentist a lot lately and we were afraid that he wouldn't be able to eat. Luckily, he felt okay so we headed out to make the best of it and had a great time on a blazing hot day. It turned out to be a wonderful birthday for him despite experiencing our first black out here. Not a thing worked in the apartment, including the air conditioning, so we didn't stay in long. Here's a snapshot of some of our feasting:

Oh, and then there was Thanksgiving on Thursday... Another blackout all day. So, of course we were missing our family and we decided to have a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant called Kansas. We had turkey with gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, glazed carrots, broccoli, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, the works! It was wonderful. We even went to two more American-style places (Casa Bar and The Alamo) to watch football and have seconds with yet another Thanksgiving day dish, which we shared. We ended up seeing the Dallas Cowboys win, wrapping up a great day for Don, no doubt.

And, if we hadn't had enough...we baked homemade macaroni and cheese and brought it to our friend's house for another Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. Yes, you read that correctly. We baked. Macaroni and cheese. Just a big pan of scrumptious, creamy cheese! We love the holidays.

Patagonia III: Villa La Angostura

Hotel Correntoso in Villa La Angostura was the perfect way to end our tour of Patagonia. We were intending on staying at Llao Llao but our apartment owner suggested this alternative and he was right on target. After tons of excursions we needed a relaxing way to decompress with less people around. We ended up getting 4 days of much-needed spa time, fine dining, and beautiful lake views. They knew us really well in the spa as we had different treatments 3 days in a row and they couldn't keep us out of the pool! Las Balsas restaurant deserves a special mention here because our lunch there was exquisite and we had our first encounter with a really helpful sommelier. We both think the food was probably the best we've had since being in Argentina overall.

We did drag ourselves away from the hotel to take a private boat tour along the Nahuel Huapi Lake and a walk through the Arrayanes Forest. The picture above is one we really like of an old bridge that is near the entrance to the national parklands where the boat docks. It was much different having a small boat and a gourmet lunch to ourselves versus being on a catamaran with hundreds of people and a tour guide trying to speak English over the loud speaker! But we feel like we got a full spectrum of the Patagonia experience.

Click on the title of this post to see our picture slideshow.

Patagonia II: El Calafate

After enjoying bright sunny beach days with penguins, whales, elephant seals, sheep, and guanacos, we moved on with a little under 2-hour plane ride to El Calafate. This area of Patagonia is known for its world famous glaciers and we planned two full days of excursions to see the best ones. The first day we went on a big catamaran from Punta Bandera Port and sailed along the Argentino Lake to reach the Upsala and Speggazini Glaciers and Onelli Bay. The boat was surprisingly comfortable with nice leather seats and a bar and we didn't get any seasicknesses even though it was a full day tour. Here you'll see some of our favorite views from the boat:

This short video shows the view as we pass by the Spegazzini Glacier. It's the highest glacier in the National Park and it's a rather amazing view.

The second day's excursion was the real highlight of our El Calafate trip: trekking over the Perito Moreno glacier, which is the most famous of the National Park and the only one that is not receding. We took a boat to a small landing area in the woods near the glacier, put on our snow trekking shoes, and started on an hour and a half walk across the glacier. This experience is somewhat hard to put into words and the pictures don't even do it justice. The air was so fresh and crisp and you could hear running water whenever you stepped over a crack in the ice. After the trek, we stopped at a part of the glacier where the guide had set up Patagonian whiskey and he served it over freshly cut glacier ice!

Next and final stop on our trip will be just 80 kilometers from Bariloche. Stay tuned!

Patagonia I: Puerto Madryn

Our second trip outside of Buenos Aires was to the Patagonia region, first stop: Puerto Madryn. When we heard that you could take a boat out and go whale-watching and walk through groups of penguins, we knew we couldn't miss this area. What a nice surprise it was to arrive and realize that we were right across from the beach! Somehow we had missed that piece of information and it made our walk along the sand just that much better. Not to mention Hotel Territorio was a major treat with its spa jacuzzi overlooking Gulfo Nuevo.

Our first excursion was to Puerto Piramides where we saw two Right Whales, a mama and her baby. There are only 7,000 of these whales left across the world. The whales were amazing because they are very curious creatures and not afraid at all of boats and people. In fact, the mama led her baby over to us and they swam right under our boat so they could figure out what we were! We were able to film a mini video where you can hear the whale breathing and the guide talking.

We also saw a bunch of big elephant seals on the beach, which were really funny to watch. This map shows the area that we traveled during that first day:

Our second excursion was just penguin heaven in Punta Tombo. They were everywhere and walking all around us! We were lucky enough to see a mama penguin feeding her baby, which is quite rare. The first chicks had just hatched the day before we arrived. This picture shows how close we were able to get to the penguins, who don't mess with you unless they feel threatened we suppose - since we did see one of them snap at a guy's leg when he passed by!

Here's a video of some penguins, too:

Abroad and Proud of America - Obama/Biden '08!!!

OBAMA!

President-elect Barack Obama! Wow. Don and I were literally speechless huddled around the laptop last night crying and watching the final results come in. We stuck it out for quite a while at a huge Democrats Abroad party but then decided to go home where we could really take it all in. I feel like we've been holding our breath for 21 months awaiting this outcome. We still cannot believe it's real...thank God for live, streaming video over the internet. How we wish we could have been dancing in the streets of our wonderful Washington, DC. But we were certainly there in spirit.

The Argentines have been so warm and friendly about Barack Obama since our first days arriving here with me walking around wearing an Obama t-shirt and pin. People would just stop me on the street or in stores and say a few words of approval or speak at more length about their support for Obama's candidacy. This world is clearly anxiously awaiting the new dawn of American leadership.

Here's a look at the front page of a major newspaper here in Buenos Aires that I picked up today. Of course all of the major dailies are commenting on Barack making history by becoming the first black man elected president of the United States.

We can't forget to congratulate our friend Gina for her winning t-shirt design selected by Democrats Abroad Argentina! Si, se puede! Yes, we can!

Ready for Summer...with a Pool!

Don has finally gotten another one of his many wishes with our apartment here. Today we went to Easy and bought a mini pool for our rooftop terrace. We wanted a really big one but the owner was afraid that the ceiling would come crashing down (although he did joke that we could get the biggest one possible if we were willing to swim in the ground floor garage!). So, we settled on a nice size that will comfortably fit Don and I, but that could fit more people if we don't mind getting extra cozy! Now, at home we might think of this as a kiddie pool, but we've had to modify our expectations somewhat for our terrace in Buenos Aires. It gets just as hot here, if not hotter, as in DC so we are set with a cool relief for those humid days of 100 degrees that are sure to come around December. Now all we need is a blender and we are poised to have some fun days, and funny stories, with this pool. Anyone up for a dip during the New Year's Eve party?

We also just met our neighbors across the way - Jonathan and Beverly - and they invited us over for an asado. We had a lovely time drinking wine, eating pollo a la parrilla, homemade bread by Bev, and homemade guacamole also by Bev. They are both obviously great in the kitchen and fantastic on the grill. Not to mention we have someone else who feels our pain about the incessant dog barking in this neighborhood. It's pretty much the only noise that could be prevented that people just will not step in to stop. Oh well, you can't have everything.