Erica's Birthday!

Erica's Birthday. Spent the day on horseback and the evening at an amazing Patagonian restaurant called Khandahar in Bariloche in a little converted house with the dudes (Todd, Pat, Fish) and some new friends. Food was incredible. Great trout here in the lakes, plus lamb brochettes and sizzling steaks and all kinda good stuff. Patagonian regional cuisine is pretty damn good and focuses largely on local fish and game and produce. Can definitely recommend the wild boar ham. :) Trout, rabbit, deer, boar, lamb, steaks, mmmmmm. Plus lots of fruit. Fruit in the salads, fruit sauces and chutneys with the meats. Pretty cool. And it was great to sit at a big table with some great folks we met including a couple solid ladies from Buenos Aires and another couple from LA. Food was incredible and the company was amazing. Life is amazing.

Photos are kinda dark/blurry, sorry. Had lots of wine. :)

Patagonia Day 3

Day 3, out to nearby Lago Gutierrez for a daylong kayak in a deep Andean mountain lake. Perfect warm day, ice blue water, great folks took us out and took care of everything. Mellow paddle to some hidden beaches for swimming and eating and laying around. The guides were definitely not ready for us on their hands. :)

The forests here are noble and primevil and are mostly pine, but have all sorts of exotic species as well including monkey puzzle trees and bamboo! Had no idea bamboo grew in the high Andes.

Morning mate' break

Florencia with the dulce de leche muffins

Look at that water!

Picnic lunch

Empanadas!

Our amazing hosts. So great!

Patagonia Day 2

Day 2 in Patagonia ... Erica's birthday! 1/25 saw our heroine clicking the 33 mark in high style. Out to an estancia in the foothills ... a sheep ranch that has some really nice horses. Couple of guides took us for a ride up through the hills and for some amazing views of this stunning landscape. Was incredible to experience it on the back of a horse. And the guides were hella cool and really just let us ride wherever we wanted and get up to speed if we wanted (trot! trot! trot! ouch! ouch! ouch! ouch!). Then back to the ranch for a home cooked BBQ meal and a rest, then back out for a different loop in the afternoon. The afternoon saw some clouds and rain which cooled things down and allowed us to enjoy the high country in all it's glory. Was just one of the most beautiful moments I've ever experienced. Total, about 5 or 6 hours in the saddle (which is a LOT tougher on the body than you might think) and the horses were good sports. Met some really amazing people that we hooked up with later for Erica's birthday dinner. Pretty much a perfect day.

One of the high points ... late in the afternoon I lagged back from the bunch quite a bit and stopped my horse on this high plateau plain (he was always glad to stop and eat) and just breathed in the cool drizzly air and felt the wind on my face and took in the surrounding peaks and valleys and just felt the immensity and beauty of this world and saw it pretty much in its untouched and unspoiled state. Such an incredible feeling and so incredibly fortunate to be able to experience it.

Lunch! Lamb chorizo sausage charted in at #1 chori I've had in Argentina. Cooked on a wood fire, of course.

5 year old kids could ride way better than we could.

Juan from Buenos Aires (age 15) who was a seriously rad kid. Spoke perfect English from watching too many movies apparently. Had us all rolling all day.

Beautiful horses. I did feel somewhat bad to made them carry my butt around. Such noble creatures. I felt fairly conflicted about the arrangement (seemed a tad one sided) but it was so enjoyable and such a rush to ride this huge muscular animal that I kinda turned off my guilt for a minute.

One of our guides ... the gauchos wear floppy hats or berets (not cowboy hats)

Another of our guides, Allister. Argentine with British parents. Was basically the biggest stud ever.

Mark bonded with his traveling companion. Such a great day.

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To Patagonia!

OK ... so after Punta del Este we headed to Colonia and rented some scooters and rolled around the town and countryside and it was so lovely. Stopped for a picada (antipasti meat/cheese platter) and beers at this beachside beach bar and just generally terrorized the roads. Then we jumped a morning ferry (suuuper nice ferries here) for some coffee and breakfast and a ride back to Buenos Aires, where we showered at our apartment and jumped a plane to San Carlos de Bariloche, or Bariloche for short. Bariloche is the tourist hub of the Lake District, in Rio Negro province of northern Patagonia, in the Andes along the Chilean border. It's a Bavarian inspired town of 100k people which explodes in the winter and summer with ski and summer play. Really gorgeous town stretching out along a huge lake, and amongst the dozens of lakes around here. High Andes peaks and crystal blue lakes and sunny skies makes for a damn good time swimming and generally playing in the summer sun. Tons of lovely BnB's and cabins and hotels and hostels all around and a great vibe of summer good times in the mountains. Plus the people here are considerably more relaxed and super nice compared to the city. We hooked up with a super cool local cat named Juampi who took very good care of us in terms of orientation and lots of recommendations. Dude is a superstar good guy. Day 1 we hiked (trekked, I should say) to a secluded beach that was drop dead gorgeous. Day 2 was horsebackin' in the high plateaus and Day 3 was sea kayakin' the crystal blue Andean lakes and workin' on our tans! It's rough here, send sympathy ASAP.

Olaf the town St. Bernard

The city square looking on to the lake

Swimmin' hole

Cover and I tried our hand at hitchhiking when we got tired of walking. Yeah ... can't say we had any luck. Bastards. We must've walked like 10 miles that day.

Cover trying to estimate the time of day, sundial style. He didn't quite get it.

Andean sunburst

the famous Llao Llao resort where Bill Clinton stays when he's here.

Impossibly blue lakes