Home Sweet Home

We are back at home and it's great to be here. The house is still standing. It feels very empty without the Sophie dog though. We've been in town for five days and tomorrow we will leave for the next leg of our journey - two weeks in the Bahamas sailing on a 40 foot catamaran with my family. Let's hope my siblings behave themselves so we don't have to feed them to the sharks.

It's been a good but very busy five days home. Lots of catching up with friends, laundry, transferring all the pictures to our computer, etc. I can't believe we're packing up our backpacks already! Luckily we should have the opportunity to do some serious relaxing over the next couple weeks as our biggest chore will be swabbing the decks.

So long and check back in a couple weeks!

Volcano Pictures are Posted!

Matt added his commentary to the volcano pictures and they are now posted!

Everything Just Works Out in the End

Feb. 18

Matt had a great time rafting and had some good stories for me when he got back. Nothing quite like his rafting trip in Peru but he still had fun. I made us dinner at the hostal and got my arse chewed for cooking in the kitchen??? Apparently it's only for making snacks. Well, in the end I still made my dinner and we were off to the hot springs.

The hot springs, or "termas" as they are called in Spanish, were about a 40 minute ride away. Our driver drove like a bat out of hell, which has come to be expected. The springs are very nat-u-ral. Big hot tubs with only large stones as chairs dispersed along the side of a very chilly river. Very nice. We arrived at about 8pm and around 9pm it started to get dark. I noticed all the families were leaving so I was sure that all of the perverts would start showing up. Not quite, but the snoggers did. Lots of young couples showing their affection for each other. Luckily there were a couple of well-lit hot tubs where we weren't in the way of these snoggers. We left at 11pm and the place was open all night so who knows what goes on after that!

Feb. 19

Our last day in Pucón. We headed to the grocery store to pick up some snacks and breakfast and then hit the beach. Our plan was to spend most of the day there, shower up, get some dinner and then head to the bus station and our train back to Santiago. We had a good day hanging out on the beach, walking around town and chilling out at a couple of outdoor cafés. At 7pm we headed to the bus station and got the rock out of there. Our train was, of course, late. I'm pretty sure we didn't take any mode of transportation in Chile that did leave on time. The trip up was less confusing (now we knew to expect the break in the track) and we both ended up getting more sleep.

Feb. 20

Rental car! The open road! Freedom! We picked up our rantel car and hit the road. We had no real plans except to explore some towns south of Santiago. The following day was reserved for winery tours and we figured we would wing it for a place to stay that night. We had a great time tooling around checking out a few little towns. We stopped for lunch in a place about 2 hours south of Santiago. Then we navigated back north on the dusty barely two lane mountain roads. It's pretty dry in this area and looks almost desert-y.

Around 5:30 we decided we better find a place to stay. We looked in a small city near Pirque (where the wineries are) first. We looked, and we looked and we drove around and around and we could not find a single hotel, guesthouse, homeless shelter, nothing! So we headed back to tiny Pirque hoping that there would be something there. No luck. At this point it was 7:30 or so and after asking several people about places to stay and getting the "there really aren't any" we made the 40 minute drive back to Santiago. We drove about 15 minutes into the city and randomly came across the Bonaparte Hotel. We were both exhausted at this point (remember we slept in seats on the train the night before) and Matt was done driving (a good lesson on how to make your husband crack) and decided as long as it was less than $100 a night we were in. I went inside to scope the place out and found it to be a very nice hotel with free parking, breakfast included, free internet, a pool, late check-out and all of this for only $70 a night! We were so in. The icing on the cake was that they had a queen-sized bed. By no choice of our own, we had been sleeping in separate, twin beds for the last two weeks due to reservation errors, communication errors and just plain bad luck!

We took a recommendation from the guy at the front desk and had our first good meal in Chile. What a surprise! What had been a rough afternoon became a very nice evening.

Feb. 21

We slept in and awoke to find that there were clouds hiding the sun. So no trip to the pool for me. We're checking out at 2pm and then will head down to Concha y Toro and Santa Rita wineries. Not sure if we'll actually be able to get on a tour but we're hoping to do some tastings and purchasing. We'll drop our car of at 8pm tonight and then hop on our direct flight back to Atlanta at 10:40! What an adventure it has been....

Life is Good (Forget that Cruel World Stuff)

Feb. 15

We were off to San Martín de los Andes. Our bus left at 11:00 and it was a long, hot and frustrating experience. There seemed to be a heat-wave occurring and there is no a/c down here, including on the bus. So things were pretty sweltering. Pucón and San Martín aren't that far apart but you have to wind your way through mountainous gravel roads to travel from one to the other. And there's that immigration thing. It took two hours to cross the border - ouch! First we had to go through Chile immigration and then get back on the bus, drive 100 yards, and stand in line at Argentina immigration. It was a painful process - but we should have expected this after Iguazú Falls, right? At least they didn't throw us off the bus and make us wait for the next one!

About six hours after we left we arrived in quaint San Martín. Similar to Pucón, it is set on a lake and surrounded by mountains. All of the architecture is chalet style and very "mountain resort" looking. Matt and I can't seem to agree on this one, but I think it is much classier than Pucón. There are lots of boutiques, restaurants and, best of all, chocolate shops. There are some adventure activity companies but they are not nearly as abundant as they are in Pucón.

Our hostal was a cute place with a friendly staff, frigobar (fridge in room), free internet and book exchange. You really come to appreciate these things as you travel. I was on my last book and was excited to find a book in English to make a trade. The fridge in the room is key too...I was still dealing with stomach problems and needed something plain...hello, Tony the Tiger. I ate an entire box of Frosted Flakes over the next three days and my stomach was very happy about it. Not to mention a cold beverage can be a real treat when you have been drinking lukewarm water for most of the last week (remember our stifling room in Pucón?). I was happy to be in San Martín.

That evening we walked around the town and decided we would rent bikes the next day and take a ride around part of the lake. We went to "the best pizza place in town" and struck out. It was nasty...I have vowed not to eat any more pizza on this continent. Unless it's Pizza Hut or Papa John's. Remember how I was cursing them in Lima? Well, I take it all back. There is something beautiful about the "copy exact" philosophy of Corporate America. At least I can go out for a pizza and know that it will be decent. Granted, I wouldn't insult the Italians in this way but the Argentinians just make a bad pizza. After dinner San Martín restauranteurs redeemed themselves by way of Granny Goye's ice cream. Holy cow these people are good at making ice cream! Matt had some chocolate mousse ice cream that was incredible. I had sorbet and it was so delicious. Wow!

Feb. 16

After breakfast we were off to the bike shop to rent mountain bikes for the day. We got some vague instructions on where the best places to ride were and then headed to the grocery store to buy a picnic lunch. We decided to ride along the "Seven Lakes Road" to a beach a few miles away. The scenery was spectacular on the ride and there were rolling hills the entire way there (mostly up though so at least the way home would be easier!). We rode to the beach and hiked down. The beach was small and not very crowded - just how we like them. We worked on our tans (ok, so Matt worked on his freckles - fully sunscreened, of course) and went swimming in the frigid water. It's pretty amazing to sit on a beach in the sun looking at snow-capped mountains in the distance. It was a nice, lazy afternoon and we enjoyed hanging out, reading and eating our salami and cheese sandwiches.

That evening we hung out for a while at an Irish Pub on the main drag. We had an outdoor table so we could do some excellent people watching. We talked about the trip and what we are getting out of it, what we'll do differently on the three-month portion in April-June, and how we are feeling now that we are at the end of the first two months. We absolutely love Argentina and will definitely return - there is so much more to see. There is still more of Southern Chile we would like to visit as well. We've really enjoyed being in South America and feel like we have had a good mix of learning about the culture, fun activities, outdoor stuff, beach, hanging out, food, etc. It's amazing how quickly this can become "what you do." Dell? What's Dell? It seems like an eternity ago. (Ok, don't worry too much here...we do realize there's a life and responsibilities waiting for us back in Austin. The cool thing is, we can enjoy this AND still look forward to getting back to life in Austin...just maybe on somewhat different terms than before.)

For now we are travelers. After two months though the impact of new places is not as profound as it was back in the beginning of January. It's not that we appreciate things less, it's just that we have been absorbing so much over the last two months that we're "full to capicity," for lack of a better term. For example, if we had flown into San Martín directly from Austin I'm sure we would have been more in awe of its beauty than we were after arriving the other day. It's just that we have seen SO much incredible scenery already. We still love it here and think its beautiful, we just aren't affected in the same way anymore. The short breaks we have in March will be good.

We're really glad we did the tour in Peru. The tour made things so much more efficient and also we feel that we learned a lot about the culture because of it, particularly with the homestay on Lake Titicaca and the community run reseach centre in the Amazon. At the same time, we probably wouldn't have wanted to do more long tours. The pace really picks up with a tour and sometimes it's nicer to move at your own speed. And even though we really liked our tour group after two weeks I was ready to move on from a few of the people in the group. In April we'll be on a tour for a month in China and definitely think it will be helpful - it's a difficult country to navigate on your own. We're glad to be on our own for the rest of the time.

We still feel really lucky to be able to take this time off, to have the means to travel and to have found the cajónes to go for it. Honestly, for two Finance nerds it wasn't an easy decision to make. In hindsight it seems like it should have been but things just aren't that straightforward.

Feb. 17

Another gorgeous day in Argentina. We took advantage and went for a great four-hour hike on the other side of the lake. We walked through the native Mapuche Community and down to another little beach. The hike took us to some breathtaking views of the lake and mountains. We met an older English couple during the hike and were impressed with their energy. They had 3 days in San Martín and every day was jam packed with hikes and other activities. I'm impressed...that four-hour hike tuckered me out. Ok, it may have had to do with the fact that I was up until 1am watching American Idol. I couldn't sleep, I swear!

Our last evening in San Martín was spent taking a leisurely walk around town, stopping at a bar overlooking the lake, and having a romantic, candle-lit dinner (literally - the power went out several times during dinner). It was nice to be back in Argentina where things were cheaper than in Chile. We were really able to enjoy some of the local foods (not just Granny Goye's ice cream!). Matt had a great steak one night and we also loved the wild boar and deer. Of course we bought a few chocolates at one of the many shops in town (need to support the local economy). Matt has a thing for empanadas now too. Although it's not true of pizza, the Argentinians do have a way with food.

So long, Argentina, we'll be back!

Feb. 18

Up at 5am, out the door at 5:40 for our 6am bus. Miserable just like the first time, only it took seven hours instead of six. But alas, we had things to look forward to. Matt is rafting this afternoon on some class 4 and 5 rapids. When he gets back we are going to cook dinner at the hostal and then we will head to the hot springs for a few hours. I'm blogging, uploading pics and am going to start that new book I got at the hostal in San Martín. It's another beautiful sunny day. Ahhh, life is good.

Oh, Cruel World

Feb. 11

We spent the day tooling around Santiago and botching up a walking tour that we had planned. It really didn't work out because we didn't see much of interest and it was extremely hot. Oh well, we're not sure if there is much of interest in Santiago at this point anyway. The one highlight of the day was visiting the Central Market where we bought some tasty fruit and nuts on the cheap. We had our farewell Santiago dinner in a little local restaurant where we had a nice $7 bottle of Pinot Noir. Good stuff. I was hoping the wine would help me sleep on our 12 hour journey to Pucon. We would be on the train for about 10 hours and then a two hour bus ride from Temuco to Pucon at the end. Matt, the train lover, was definitely looking forward to the trip.

We headed to the train station around 10pm and there were already lots of people lined up for the 10:30 train. We waited and waited and finally the train arrived around 11pm. After we got settled into our seats Matt immediately fell asleep. Somehow my wine trick wasn't working and I was awake until about 2am. About one hour later the train attendant woke us up and in my delirium I thought she said we were stopping and could buy some food and other things at this stop if we wanted. Uh, ok. It's 3am - I just want to sleep! Then we started to see that everyone was grabbing their bags and heading off the train. Huh? A guy walked by us and told us in English that there was a break in the track and we had to take a bus. Hmmm...they didn't mention this when we bought the ticket.

So we all boarded the bus at about 3:15am. At this point my wine trick was really backfiring on me because I had a full-fledged headache and I was exhausted. The blaring music on the bus didn't help (who plays loud music at 3 in the morning on a bus??). An hour later we arrived at some other train station and had to get on the new train. That's a big break in the track! Around 4:30 or so we were moving again and finally able to go to sleep. They even gave us a blanket - I knew there was a reason we booked first class!

Feb. 12

We arrived into Temuco at about 9am. I wasn't feeling very good but just thought it was the lack of sleep. After arriving into Pucon we wandered around looking for our hostal and finally found someone who knew where it was and pointed us in the right direction. We checked in and then decided to go check things out and look for a place to eat lunch despite a nasty stomach ache on my part.

Pucon is a great little getaway. It's a cute little town bustling with tourists. It is situated on Lake Villarica next to Villarica Volcano and beautiful mountains. Very picturesque. There are tons of outdoor activities here: climbing the active volcano, white water rafting, zip lines, hot springs, kayaking, swimming, water skiing, etc. That afternoon I went back to the room to take a nap (I was still feeling nasty) and Matt went in search of a good tour company to book some activities, the most important being climbing the volcano, of course. The volcano could be seen from anywhere in town and there was steam coming out the top - cool! We had to get fitted for our gear that evening so I dragged myself out of bed. We found out from the girl who worked at the tour company that we should see lava at the top and we would get to slide down the volcano on our butts in the snow. It sounded so fun! We had to bring our own food so we headed off to the grocery store to stock up. I still felt sick but figured I would be fine in the morning. Oh how wrong I was! Ten minutes later I was hurling in the grocery store parking lot. Less than 12 hours until our volcano trek departs and I'm puking my guts out! Damn, damn, damn.

Well, what can I say. That sort of put a damper on the evening. I was still determined to hike the next day though....

Feb. 13

We were up at 6am and off to the tour company to gear up. I had been able to eat a thing of yogurt for breakfast and keep it down so I hoped I would be ok. My plan was to ask the guide when my last opportunity to ditch on the hiking was. Turns out the guide really didn't speak any English so that was a no go. So I got in the van and hoped for the best. And that is when we turned off the main road to a dirt road...a really bumpy, dusty dirt road. We were flying over the pot holes and dust was coming in through the window (which I had to keep open at that point because I thought I might need to use it!). It was stuffy. I felt hot and sick and sweaty. I was miserable. Abort! Abort! It was at that point I decided the volcano hike was not going to happen for me. Boo hoo. The last thing I needed was to be puking my guts out on the side of the volcano. So, needless to say, I headed back to the hostal and Matt had to do the super cool volcano hike without me. He'll have to write the blog to tell you all about that.

I slept the day away and pondered what had made me sick (the tomato salad in Santiago? fruit from the market?) until Matt got back from the volcano around 3pm. There doesn't seem to be any A/C in Pucon so our room was stifling. We decided to hit the beach for a while to cool down. We got there and hid under an umbrella. The black sand was smokin' hot and neither of us were in the mood for sun anyway. I still felt gross and Matt had reached his maximum sun intake for the day.

That evening was also a bust. I still couldn't eat and the restaurant we ate at was terrible anyway. We went to sleep hoping I would feel better. We had an important river rafting trip the next day!

Feb. 14

My Valentine and I slept in and then I ate my first meal in over 2 days. Yea! Big success. Looked like we were still on for rafting. We headed out to buy our bus tickets to San Martin de los Andes (back in Argentina). We were somewhat successful - we were able to buy tickets to go there but not the return (it was a pen and paper sort of establishment so no computer bookings to allow for the return ticket). Let's hope we can buy the return when we arrive there...it would be good not to be stuck:-)

Then we headed back to the tour company for our rafting trip, which was great. It was a baby trip with only class 3 rapids but was lots of fun. We stopped in the beginning and jumped into the frigid water off a big rock. It was a good shock to the system - luckily we had wetsuits and boots to keep us warm. Our group was good and the guide was great. We had four instructions: adelante (forward paddle), atras (backward paddle), alto (stop paddling) and el agua (jump in the water). We had fun going through a big rapid then jumping in and floating to our rescue boat in front of us. I'm so glad I didn't miss this one too.

Ciao for now.

Vamos a la Playa

Feb 8-10

We spent two and a half days at the beach in Viña del Mar. It was bigger than we expected and not quite as quaint as we imagined, but we had a good time nonetheless. Our hotel was in a great location close to the beach, the casino and the main drag.

Our first day there we walked around and got oriented. We had Mexican food at a restuarant on the main drag - our first taste of Mexican since we left home. Ahhh, how we miss Trudy's. Only two weeks until I'll be sipping a mexitini with the girls....can't wait. This is our first touch of homesickness. Maybe it's not really home sickness, but I think we will be happy for a little break from all the go-go-go, constant packing and unpacking and the gamble that eating out has become (you truly just don't know what you're going to get).

Anyway, back to Viña. We walked around the beach, which was packed with people and all types of entertainment - giant trampolines, donkey rides, go karts for the kids, etc., and took in the scenery. We spent a couple hours sitting in a park reading and napping. We went out for drinks. We watched Ferris Buehler's Day Off at the hotel. We had the best chocolate chocolate chip ice cream at Bravissimo Geletaria. What a fab day!

The next morning we took a cab to Reñaca, the next town over from Viña, where we hoped the beach would be a little quieter. It was worth the cab ride and we had a great day there. We rented chairs and lounged around watching the huge waves come crashing into shore. No swimming allowed at this beach - the waves were incredibly massive. By late afternoon we had enough sun and headed into town for some lunch. Then the best thing of all - we finally got Matt's hair cut. He had been sporting the lumberjack look for way too long and had already shaved the beard off in San Antonio de Areco. The hair had to go too. So he is once again wearing his hair military-short.

That evening we did the usual walking around and dinner. We also had that ice cream again...I am addicted. (Ok, ok, I admit, I also had it before leaving today. I wonder how much weight I have gained on this trip?)

Today we checked out of the hotel and took the train down to Valparaiso to check things out. We were decidedly underwhelmed. While it was once a booming shipping port it now seems like a tired old city. Unfortunately most of the orginal buildings were either destroyed by earthquake or pirates so even the architecture isn't great. We walked around for a while but decided to head back to Santiago a little early.

Tomorrow night we take the train to Pucón and are really excited to see the Lake District. There are lots of parks, lakes and even a volcano that we are planning to climb so should be lots of fun.

We have been total slackers on the picture taking front in the past week or so. Part of it is because Buenos Aires, Santiago and Viña are not particularly photogenic and part of it laziness. I am in the process of loading the Amazon pictures now though so you'll get to see some new ones soon!

--Jen

Santiago

Feb. 4 -Evening

We went to the poncho festival and there were tons of ponchos being paraded around. They came from all different parts of the country and it was somewhat like a fashion show. They had an announcer giving the stats on each poncho (some were 100 years old) but since it was all in Spanish we only caught bits and pieces. I think it was one of those things where it was great if your kid was in it, otherwise maybe a little dry. The highlight of the evening was definitely the food. We had a carne sandwich that was so delicious and an empanada that was pretty darn good too.

When we were walking to the poncho thing I got bit by something. I hate bugs. I'm allergic to a bunch of them and they make me miserable. This was no exception. And of course the one time we don't have the epi-pen along is the time I get attacked by the sly little thing. Luckily we didn't need it but my foot did swell up like a football and kept me (and therefore Matt) up most of the next two nights. Oh, and I was limping around like a baby. And we had to have the sketchy Dr. come to the hotel and inject me with some drugs. Such drama.

Feb. 5-6

We spent two days back in Buenos Aires hanging out and taking in the sights. We walked by all the shops on Florida Street (no room left in our bags to buy anything), went to Plaza San Martìn, the botanical gardens, and bummed around San Telmo. Buenos Aires is a really cool city to hang out in - lots of great restaurants, clubs and entertainment. We wish we had more time in Argentina and have decided we will need to come back.

Feb. 7

Onward to Santiago. We had uneventful flights today and checked into our hotel in the center of the city. Our first order of business was to go to the train station to buy tickets to Pucòn for later this week. It's a busy time of year so we didn't want to miss out on the Lake District. After we accomplished that we walked around the city for a while. So far seems like a regular big city...the usual tall buildings, buses, traffic, etc. Things seem to be quite a bit more expensive than everywhere else we have been. After dinner tonight we walked to the Plaza de Armas and hung out for a while. It was pretty at night with all of the lights and was still pretty crowded at 10:15.

Tomorrow we head to Viña del Mar for a couple days at the beach and then a day checking out Valparaiso. Should be fun. Hopefully we'll get a chance to upload our jungle pictures soon - we got a few good monkey shots.

Ooops...

It's been brought to my attention that it's not January again. I guess I was trying to get a little extra time down here. So yes, I do mean February in the post below, not January :-)

La Chocolatería

Jan. 1 Our unexpected stay in Lima was not particularly fun. Sure, it was nice that the airline put us up in a swanky hotel. What wasn't nice was how they told us they would pay for food and then when we got to the hotel we were only allowed one coke and our only choice of food was a very poorly prepared spaghetti bolognese. Gross. Anyway, we did survive and were on our way to Buenos Aires again the next afternoon. We had booked the "small and cozy" room at the Art Hotel in Buenos Aires because the boutique style hotel looked super cute and because it was the most reasonably priced hotel we could find in Recoleta. When we arrived they didn't have that room left so they upgraded us to the King Suite. Score! The room was amazing with cool zen-like deco and a big canopied bed. What a relief after two stressful travel days! We had only booked one night and we thought we might stay two so they told us we would have to move in the morning. No biggie, we were just happy to have the room for the night. The hotel recommended a restaurant nearby so we ventured out around 11:30 or so for dinner. It was great to have a big salad and no potatoes. And then came dessert. We ordered one chocolate cake to share and it was absolutely to die for. It was so good we had to order another one...how embarrassing. Probably the best chocolate cake I've ever had. That was a good way to finish the day. Jan. 2 In the morning the folks at the front desk told us we didn't have to move after all so we ended up with a really great deal on a beautiful room. Lucky us! After dropping off our nasty jungle clothes to get washed we headed out to the Recoleta Cemetery. On the way we had a nice walk through the residential streets of Recoleta, an upscale part of Buenos Aires. The cemetery is really beautiful with a lot of intricate monuments and mausoleums. We visited Evita's grave and strolled around. We don't know enough about Argentinian history to truly appreciate all the names of Generals and famous people but we enjoyed just looking around. Unfortunately we missed the English tour as it would have been nice to have someone answer our questions about the cemetery...like what happens if a family stops paying for the upkeep? Is that the way it works? Clearly there were some graves that were in bad shape so what happened there? Anyway, it was really beautiful and interesting. That afternoon we had some work to do at the internet cafe. We needed to start planning our two weeks in Chile and also get ourselves booked into an estancia outside of Buenos Aires for a couple nights. For our 3 month leg in April-July we may do more of the planning ahead so we don't have to spend so much time in internet cafes looking for places to stay and things to do. It's nice to be flexible but you really need more time in each place to do it this way. We're getting a better guidebook too - I hate this Footprints book! That night we had a fabulous dinner at Las Lilas in Puerto Madero. It's down at the old docks in a cool part of town. Even the taxi ride there was great - Buenos Aires is awesome when it's lit up at night. Jan. 3 We caught an early bus out to San Antonio de Areco. We thought it would be fun to get out of the city and see the countryside so we were booked into an estancia, or a ranch, about 2 hours outside of Buenos Aires. The Retiro bus station in Buenos Aires is humungous. The ticket counters stretch for a mile. Wow. I had to leave Matt with the bags and run around looking for the company that would take us to San Antonio de Areco. And you might wonder how we chose San Antonio? Well, because there is a chocolateria there, of course. While reading the guidebook about the several small towns with estancias nearby I noticed that one town had a chocolate shop that was supposed to be excellent. I can't pass up good chocolate! So we booked in at Estancia La Bamba. My plans for the estancia were to veg out and when we arrived it was clear that we would be able to do that. The estancia sits on about 150 hectares of land. The house was built in about 1830 and they have kept much of it in its original form. We were lucky to have the "master bedroom." For entertainment there are horses, a pool, ping pong, movie room, pool table, crouquet, and the list goes on and on. After a quick game of ping pong we headed for the pool to cool off. It was nice to lay around and read a book after so many days on the go. There were drinks (even booze - and it was only noon!) and even a pre-lunch snack of delicious empanadas while we hung out at the pool. Lunch was served at 1:30 and we ate with the owner and two of her kids. Her grandfather had bought the estancia in 1945 and her dad had opened it up to tourism in the '80s. Now she took care of the hotel part and her brother raised cattle and rented out much of the land to farmers. In the afternoon we went horse-back riding. It was Matt's first time on a horse and only the second time for me. Phillipe was our instructor and it was sort of like get on, here's how the reins work and let's go! It was a great time. We walked through the fields and saw the cattle and lots of birds. Phillipe tested out our trotting ability and then let us gallop! It was so fun and my horse, Rubia, was a champ. Matt had the lazy horse that wanted to stop and eat all the time. There were lots of dogs at the ranch so we did a little cheatin' on Sophie. The cute little puppy won us over and we played with her for a while. We also got in some more reading and ping pong before dinner. We had cocktails at the estancia's "pulperia" - an old barn that they had fixed up like a guacho bar. Very cool. Phillipe played piano so we even had live entertainment. While we were hanging out (and being eaten alive by the vicious mosquitos) another family arrived. They didn't speak any English so we had an interesting time communicating over dinner. They were from outside of Buenos Aires and were spending the weekend in the country. Dinner was great, just as lunch had been, and we had lots of vino (it was included in the price of the stay so of course we had to get our money's worth). Jan. 4 We learned that on Saturday night there would be a festival of some sort for the guachos and ponchos in town. After hearing that we knew we needed to stay another night in San Antonio de Areco. We had only booked one night at La Bamba so we moved into an estancia on the edge of town where we would be closer to the action. We switched hotels in the morning and found ourselves in a very nice new place. There's even a jacuzzi tub that has been tempting me all day. But, of course, we're staying in town so we can see the town. So we hopped on our bicycles (cool Pee Wee Herman type transport provided by the estancia) and headed into town. First stop, the chocolateria. The aromas were so yummy. As soon as we walked in they offered up a sample...and they were very friendly. The chocolatier seems like a very happy man. I would be too! I had read something about drinking chocolate in the book so I ordered me up some cold "drinking chocolate." It was soooo good. Something like chocolate milk but so much better! It was creamy and rich and really tasted like chocolate. It was so darn good I had to buy a whole box of chocolates after that....chocolate with cereal, with nuts, peanut butter, white chocolate, milk and white mixed, the whole lot. A whole box for only $6. Gotta love the peso. After that we took a tour of the town on our bikes. It's the perfect way to see such a little town and we had a lot of fun. We stopped for lunch and had tenderloin, salad, a starter, beer and water...all for about $17 including tip. Love it! When we were done with lunch the whole town was taking siesta so after getting some money at the ATM and biking to the bus station to buy tickets for tomorrow we decided we should do like the locals do. I had a nice nap and now we're out again on our bikes. Matt says he is working on his resume right now but I caught him surfing the web:-) We're going to head to the supermarket next to buy the necessities, like bug spray (I had 14 bites on one kneecap alone). Should be a great night with the guachos! Jenny

Stuck in Lima

Boo Hoo :-( We were practically drooling we could almost taste the steaks at Las Lilas in Buenos Aires...and then our flight was delayed....15 hours. So we are stuck in Lima until this afternoon when we will try to fly out again. Hopefully we make it. We're sad that we're missing out on a day in Buenos Aires. We were really ready to leave Peru. Oh well, gotta roll with the punches. Cross your fingers that we're tucked in bed in our cute little Art Hotel in BA tonight.

Jenny