Ay Dios Mio

Holy crap this place is cool. We got out of the historic San Telmo barrio tonight and headed uptown to Palermo ... the hip leafy urban park zone and DAAAAMN. There's some super fun stuff going on up there.

There's a thousand restaurants on every block ... often with all four corners on a block being restaurants with a resulting street party ... block after block. And every one was super cool looking and unique/independent and full of damn good looking people.

Argentines are SO easy on the eyes. And all that we've come across have been pretty damn cool as well. Crazy hot Spanish and Italian blood but rugged wild South America thrown in.
Dark complexion and dark brooding eyes. Intense!

We had dinner at this very old family run parilla restaurant (Spanish/Italian/Argentinian steakhouse) called La Dorita. Sat down at 11:30 and the place was jumping. People eat LATE. Restaurants stay open super late here and the bars and clubs go well towards dawn. Needless to say this is copasetic with my preferred schedule.

Dinner takes forEVER and the pace is just so elegant and lovely. Dinner was ... sparkling water ... an amazing local white wine from Mendoza ... mega food (homemade ravioli ... tenderloin carpaccio with arugula/capers/parmesan (in honor of GG) ... potato croquetas, good bread, and the absolute most delicious thing I've ever had ... BBQ'ed provolone topped with marinated tomatoes ... plus a couple cups of cafe cortado) ... put you back less than $30 for two people. I walked out of there so freaking HIGH I couldn't believe it. Like someone had made WUV to my stomach. I was reeling! I couldn't believe how good it was ... how elegant and classical (the waiters are all like ... REAL waiters with tuxedo action going on and shit), and how not expensive ... MAN! And the wine was amazing and a bottle put us back $8 (and it was almost the most expensive bottle on the menu). I'm buzzed and SO happy! And we didn't even touch the steak options yet!

And the coffee ... hot damn the coffee is good here. And a long draw espresso with a dollop of real whipped cream (everything is real here it seems) costs $1.25. And don't get me started about the dulce de leche (milk caramel goo). Plus fresh gelato on every corner (also open all night) ... dude! These people know how to DO it!

Tomorrow we move to a sick loft in Palermo ... between the botanical gardens and another big park ... bit of a splurge ... rooftop pool, etc. Got the place for a week and it's gonnna be SICK! Really loving the vibe in Palermo ... hipness and a laid back vibe with lots of parks and cool neighborhoods ... a bit NW of the city center. Will post mas as soon as I get a camera replacement. Oh, and the internet here is pretty solid so expect some phone calls on our special batfone. If you see some caller ID action like "000 234" or something, pick that shit up!

And needless to say ... if anyone comes to visit, we'll be showing you some good times! Put that on the front burner! Missing you guys and you GOTTA check this place!

Mas no puedo decir.

over and out!
C.

Buenos Aires Landfall

Estamos aqui! Hanging out in bohemo San Telmo and thanks to April and Ian and April's bro Jacob and his awesome girly girl Philippa we're off to a groovy start. Looking for a place to chill right now and planning more of our trip. Can't wait to see some friends SOON! No fotos yet ... my camera suddenly decided to chit the bed. Looking for a new one. We're hanging at this great B&B (posadaluna.com) and getting a taste of the sights and sounds and tastes. This place is crazy!


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Goodbye Caribbean

Stealing one more glance over my shoulder as we boarded the plane I was already missing the island vibes of St. Maarten but it's time for some South America and some city action. We had some fun hanging at Palacio Philippe and big ups to all the housemates for their hospitality and good times.

LOVE
sun, sand, warm blue water, leafy plants everywhere
crickets and frog songs at night
70 degree nights
creole culture and food (caribbean BBQ!)
outdoor eating and chilling
sailboats
blend of cultures and languages and nationalities
beachfront pools
french cuisine
mornings
getting on and off the plane with a metal stairway
air conditioning
fruit
good friends

NOT SO MUCH
fat white american tourists
tourist trap businesses
megayachts and megamoney
heat+humidity
unchecked development
expensive
mosquitos

Ze Plane! Ze Plane!

Thanksgiving!

New adventures are great and all, but on a day like today I really miss our peoples. Hope everyone had a lovely day. It's painful to miss Thanksgiving in Bend, so we drowned our sorrows in a metric ton of cheese. Enter "Le Chalet" ... a real honest to goodness French/Suisse cheese house. Ahhhh OUI!

If you can't have turkey (well, we could have actually at any of the American owned restaurants here ... but that would have been silly) ... a dinner like this makes up for it. Cheese fondue, raclette grilled/melted cheese and hot oil cooked veggies and meats ... mmmm! All paired with a salvo of delicious wines and boozey treats.

Philippe on the cut. We ate a raclette wedge the size of your head.

Obligatory group shot.

Eric doing his best pensive melancholy French guy. Smoking at the table ... not something I've seen in a while.

Dinner was followed by a nice digestif ... "Sapin" ... a Swiss pine liquor. They just bring the bottle for ya.

And then the big daddy. The Grooel. A carved wooden bowl filled with a special French liquor similar to brandy, mixed with hot coffee, citrus fruit, and sugar and passed around the table (sipping out of the holes). Yummmmm.

Clove cigs (and other cigs) are $1-2 a pack here ... helping to explain why people smoke so much. Even I had one. Frenchies are still thinking this makes them sexy. Check out Philippe and friend below doing that annoying "I'm French and I'm hot" thing. Eric is just drunk.

Ah ... and then the bill came. In Euros ... meaning that the meal was 40% more expensive than you're used to (it's like a reverse sale ... it's not 40% off ... it's 40% ON) Ouch. Time to put your life savings in Euros ... cuz the dollar is on the downslide.

But that's not happy talk, is it? Much love to all and hope everyone had a great day!

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Fast Food Monkeywrenching

We were driving by a Burger King on a busy street outside of Marigot last nite and they were advertising their new Angus burger on the marquee and we just couldn't resist. Eric was just tall enough (and brave/drunk enough) to get on mission. We laughed so hard we cried all the way home! I wonder how long it'll go before they notice it. :)

LUST

An Italian Nautitech 47 catamaran ... the closest I've ever come to lust for an inanimate object. Dammmn. Anyone have $400k I can borrow? :)
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It's all about ze dope French cafe on ze beach

We hit this place up the week of Scott & Polly's wedding as well ... super cool outdoor cafe right on the beach with wicked French/Caribbean food. French people know how to eat.

Loungin'

RANDOM FOTO of the day

Sint Maarten, Netherlands Antilles

Ah the Caribbean. The Dutch were smaart to snaatch up this island. The French as well. It's the smallest island to be shared by two countries. Makes for some pretty interesting dynamics, with a multitude of nationalities, currencies and cultures swirling about. Thankfully the European types speak perfect English in addition to their home language. I would very much like to say the same about myself someday.

And the creole/Jamaican sounding African folk ... I can listen to them all day long.

Sint Maarten aka Saint Martin is a decent sized, fairly developed tourist hub just east of Puerto Rico. Pretty pimp if the MegaYacht scene is your scene. I do have a boat fetish, but this place makes me just feel inferior ... all the boats here are so huge and seven digit affairs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Martin

We're staying at my man Philippe's house on the Dutch side ... it's a sunny lovely house on the hill overlooking Cole Bay.

The beaches are superfly. Pristine white sand ... clear blue water (70 degrees) ... mega gorgeous boats ... and fly peoples including lots of topless French ladies (sorry, no photos).

And you can get a rhoom punch and a chee pizza for only $10!

There's a beach (w/ beach bars flanking) that's right at the end of the runway at SXM ... so cool to sit there and watch all kinds of planes landing and taking off. For some unknown reason ... people line up right behind the plane when it's taking off and get blasted w/ the jet wake ... from a pretty close distance. On a plane this big it's enough to blow your clothes off and half a mile into the ocean. Why people do this is unclear.

The illustrious Philippe ... at a dinner party at his house.

Really fun to be in a really multicultural multilingual scene.

And the sunsets are to die for, dahlink. :)

Purple

Purple is Philippe's dog ... and has got to be on my Top 5 Dogs list. She's so sweet and such a good greeter and guard dog. She even guards the house's cats from other dogs. She lives outside the house and never runs away or goes inside the house. Chill, responsible, mellow ... good things in a dog.

And this is Cleo. :P

ze caribbean

um, yea. what is there to say about ze caribbean? it doesn't suck ... the humidity is fairly fierce right now, and the mosquitoes are absolutely ruthless. other than that, it's pretty fantastic . . . except that you aren't here with us!

philippe's house is rad, we'll get some pictures of it up asap. it is situated up on a hill, so the views from his place are pretty sweet. he has four housemates, very multi-national over here. it's one of my favorite things about this trip so far, being surrounded by sometimes 5 and 6 different nationalities of people in the immediate area, like the house or a dinner party. philippe's house also comes stocked with one house dog named Purple and five house cats.

the best part about this place is the beach and ocean, by far. the water is SO CLEAR, and blue, and inviting. we spent most of today soaking up the sea and rays, surrounded by a bunch of bronzed, topless, skinny, cigarette-smoking euros! it was great! after the beach, we watched sunset at a little tourist bar that is located right at the beginning of the airport runway. we drank frozen, blended drinks while planes coasted in for the landing right over our heads or fired their engines up for their take-off directly in front of us . . . pretty crazy! the intensity of that kind of power, coupled with our proximity to it and the blue ocean, white beaches and green hills surrounding us was moderately surreal. very cool way to spend an evening, that's fo sho!

lots of marinas around here ... with lots of super sick boats, yachts, sailboats, etc. the amount of wealth here is ridiculous!

crappy foto of the dusk view outside the upstairs apartment of the house

chris, mesmerized, taking fotos of the big plane coming in for a landing

chris, mesmerized ... so cute, no? ( :