Best of the Best

Toward the end of our travels in South America Matt and I made a "Best of the Best" list that includes all our favorite stuff. This is only for the four countries we visited and of course is limited based on where we traveled. This info is probably only useful if you are planning your own trip or are just a die-hard blogger junky. Here it is, in no particular order:

Best Meat

Porcao - Rio

Tio de Querido - Puerto Iguazu

Best Dessert

Soft chocolate cake at Olviedo - Buenos Aires

Best Italian

Broccolino - Buenos Aires

Best Outdoor Adventure

Hang-gliding - Rio

White water rafting - Cusco

Sliding down the waterfall - Paraty

Horseback riding - Buenos Aires

Best Hotel

Art Hotel - Buenos Aires

Best Hike

Inca Trail

Best Beach

Trinidade - near Paraty

Best Site-Seeing Adventure

Riding bikes - San Antonio de Areco

Hiking the falls - Iguazu Falls

Best Pizza

Margerida's - Paraty

Best Ice Cream (how could we choose just one?)

Freddo's - Buenos Aires

Bravissimo - Chile

Abuela Goye - San Martin de los Andes

Best National Beer

Cusquena - Peru

Best Subway System

Subte - Buenos Aires

Metro - Santiago

Best Souvenirs

Peru

Best City Vibe

Buenos Aires

Best Wine

Malbec - Argentina

Tan and Happy

Question: How many rolls of toilet paper are needed for 8 crew on a two week cruise? Answer: about 30.

Question: How many gallons of water does the above mentioned crew drink in two weeks? Answer: 51 gallons.

Question: How much rum does said crew consume? Answer: Not as much as they wanted to. We had to put the kabash on Matt and Matt's rum drinking after 4 bottles, most of which was consumed over the course of two nights (just wait until you see the pole dancing pictures!).

We arrived back this morning at 2am from our Bahamas trip. In the past 24 hours we survived the cancellation of our flight at DFW, hitching a ride home from Dallas to Austin with a stranger (a nice one, luckily) and still no sign of our luggage. Despite all this, we're feeling very relaxed and happy. As for the title of this blog, I am tan and Matt is more freckled. The good news is he didn't have any sunburn.

Our trip was great, although very gluttonous and lazy. We mostly slept, ate, read, ate some more, sailed for a little while, ate again, laid around in the sun, had a snack, then dinner and then slept again. My kind of trip. The post-cruise, can't fit in my pants weight loss program officially went into affect today. The weather was mostly sunny (so us girls were happy) with some good wind for sailing (so the guys were happy). The water in the Bahamas is the most amazing blue color - it's wonderful to look at. We visited several outstanding beaches with powdery white sand.

It's all sort of a blur, but I seem to remember some snorkeling, kayaking, limited swimming (the water was pretty cold), sand castle building, sunning, reading and other such activities. There were a lot of Oreos and Tostitos consumed on this trip. And not to be outdone by my brother and husband, I polished off a bottle of Cuervo 1800 myself (my attempt at Mexitinis a la Bahamas). The night the majority of it was drunk the pole dancing occurred (not by me, mind you) but I do vaguely recall doing a dance show to "Ice Ice Baby" and lip synching to "Sweet Child O'Mine." Hey, if you can't be a fool in front of your family who can you be a fool in front of?

I think the pictures pretty much speak for themselves so that's about all I'll write for now. We are home for 2 1/2 weeks and are feverishly trying to book hotels for the next three months, get our visas and figure out where we're going and what we're doing. Oh yeah, and I desperately need to get my bags into production so I have a job when we get back!

Wireless in the Bahamas

After our nice break at home we spent two days in Ft. Lauderdale visiting my grandparents and spending time with my uncle, cousin and her daughter. We had a busy couple days and it was great to catch up with family. My cousin's daughter, Anna, is just a bundle of energy! She's a really fun and cute kid. So we had a good time playing with her, hanging out next to the pool, checking out my grandparents' new pad, etc. Last night we had a wonderful dinner at an Italian cafe downtown. The desserts were insane and it was nearly impossible to choose just one. After dinner Matt and I borrowed bikes and rode back to Las Olas Blvd to window shop and have a couple drinks. It is a great spot for people watching.

This morning we had an early start and had a smooth ride to the airport. We checked in 2 hours before our flight, got ourselves some Starbucks and pulled out the reading material. When it came time to board, we were informed that two of us might not get on the flight because of weight restrictions (good grief, I didn't think we had put on that much weight during our travels!! haha). Huh? What do you mean we can't all go? So anyway, Matt and I were sent on to the plane and we weren't sure if my parents would make it. They had to stay on the bus and we could see them standing there as everyone sat down, the overheads were closed and the pilot started the propellers up. I thought for sure they would be stuck in Miami but at the last moment they were allowed on board. Yea!

Our flight was uneventful and we quickly made it through immigration upon arrival. We grabbed the bags and headed out to our cab ride. It was our first taste of the expensive Bahamas...$20 for a 7 minute cab ride. Whoa! At least the driver was very friendly. She dropped us off and we were promptly informed that there was a problem with our reservation. They were overbooked and that meant we "would have to stay at the owner's house....and it is 20 minutes outside of Marsh Harbour...so we would have a car to use." Hmmm, that car part didn't sound so bad. We need to provision the boat so a car is a good thing to have to go to the grocery store. And what's this? The house has three bedrooms and 2 and a half baths? Well, that's even better since Scott is flying in tomorrow and was going to have to sleep on the couch! We wondered if there was a catch...like the house was a dump. We hoped for the best and followed the lady out to the house.

Turns out the house is a pretty good deal. Lots of space, beautiful setting right on the water, a grill, picnic table, washer and dryer, satellite TV and even wireless internet! It's starting to look like this is even better than the place we were supposed to stay. Like my wise friend always tells me, things just work out in the end...

To be continued....