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