Category: Argentina

Taking the bus to Buenos Aires

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Well, this post is only a few days late.  I am pretty sure this is something a lot of people who don’t live in Argentina don’t know about Argentina – you can take overnight buses that have accommodations extremely similar to a first-class section of an airplane.  There are several tour companies that provide this class of service, but I took the AndesMar bus from Mendoza to Buenos Aires and it was fantastic.

I booked my ticket earlier last week for leaving on Friday night and returning on Tuesday morning to Mendoza for $780 pesos. That’s roughly US $160, roundtrip.  The cheapest airfare I could find was US $360 roundtrip. My friends/coworkers convinced me to go a day earlier and helped me change my ticket. My friend called the bus company and asked if I could change my ticket, and he said yes but was all iffy about it, so we went immediately to the Terminal in Mendoza and went to the ticket office. The first chick we talked to said I had to change it online and couldn’t do it.

But my friend doesn’t take no for an answer, and I’m really glad she doesn’t. We went to another AndesMar office (yes there are several in the station) and she got the manager to change my ticket, no questions asked. I then had about 2 hours to pack for a weekend in BA (it was 430pm) and get back to the bus station with my stuff to leave at 7pm.

The bus ride to BA takes about 12-13 hours. You can choose to do this in a regular seat, or you can pay extra and spring for an Executive Suite. On some buses, the entire bus consists of Executive Suites (first class), and are double-decker buses. This was my bus. They have bathrooms and bars on board, with a bus attendant, televisions, radios, curtains and fully-reclining flat beds with pillows and blankets for your comfort. Sure, it may be way slower than flying, but if you’re not in a rush, why not be comfortable and even save a night or two in a hotel?

Comfy flat beds, plush leather and blankets? What’s not to love?!

You only need to arrive 10-15 mins before departure and give the guy standing next to the bus your bag to store underneath. He gives me a claim ticket and I get on the bus, finding my reserved seat. There’s a bag for your shoes that bungees to your armrest. Then we leave the station.

The bus attendant introduces themselves and we watch a safety video.

Then he hands out motherf*cking BINGO cards and I get to play Bingo! The prize being a bottle of wine.

The first movie starts. It’s in English (subtitled in Spanish) and it’s Grown Ups.

You get your meal served an hour later. But before the meal, you are offered wine and soda. Afterwards, you can have champagne, coffee or tea.  Anyone who knows me knows that I went for the wine and champagne. Non-alcoholic drinks are for plebes.

Another movie starts. This time in Spanish. I’ve lost interest, but amused that it features Kirk Cameron as the lead.

Bed goes back flat, curtains drawn. It’s sleeping time, biatches.

Wake up to honking like someone is having a baby and we’re in their way as they’re trying to get to the hospital. Turns out it’s just a traffic jam somewhere on the outskirts of BA. The sun is rising and we’re on a highway, but there are tons of buildings everywhere. This city is enormous.

We pull into Retiro station and park. It was cold and drizzling, but it was still so exciting to be in Buenos Aires that I didn’t care. I got my luggage (and the man really does check your claim ticket, which is a nice security measure) and wheeled it downstairs to the sign where it said to get a taxi. No line for a taxi. Yay!

Got in the cab, gave the driver the address and I was on my way to the apartment in Palermo. Cab driver was talking about Chuck Norris and the TV show Dallas, and I was just happy he understood my Spanish.

And so the Buenos Aires adventure began…

Mendoza Bus Tour

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My friends and I took a bus tour last Saturday from in front of the Park Hyatt hotel that, unfortunately, only went through the park (Parque San Martin) up to the top of this overlook where the Gloria statue is and came back down to the city.

It was a really good tour, however. My only complaint is that it was all in Spanish with no English option. I’m kinda glad I waited to go on it until after I’ve been here a while so that I actually understood what they were saying.

We spiced things up by bringing Fernet & Coke, champagne and beer on board with us in thermoses and our bags. While this was very enjoyable to us, we definitely got some dirty looks from this chick sitting across from me whose daughter insisted on standing up in EVERY PICTURE I TRIED TO TAKE FROM HER SIDE OF THE BUS.

I’m not bitter. Just saying.

Some people need to lighten up. We’re all in our 20’s and 30’s and were having a very contained, non-disruptive time. Sorry for partying.

Asado with special guests.

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So it’s been a while since my last update.

I went to a family Sunday asado a few weekends ago (April 3 to be exact) near Rivadavia I think it was. Anyway, it was south somewhere, past Lujan on the way to Tunuyán. This random guy just opens his little farm to anyone who wants to barbecue there for the weekend and take their ATVs out for a spin on these crazy dirt hills next door (assuming it’s on his property too).

We show up to the asado and my friend’s dog is barking and going nuts. I think it’s because of the other dogs around. Then… she goes “oh yeah he’s going nuts because of the llama.”

Excuse me?

That’s right. The llama. There were 2 of them  – a white one and a black one. Just hanging out, roaming around the property. Hanging out in the lemon grove. Being llamas.

Also guests of our little asado were horses, roosters, hens, geese, ducks, pigs, cows (yeah I felt bad about that one), donkeys, mules, and goats… just hanging out, roaming around, crapping everywhere. Making me feel bad for eating their tasty friends.

It was a really fun day – didn’t get to ride the ATVs although I was offered – it looked a little too hardcore for me. But the asado was great and I got to meet my friends’ family, which is always a cool experience.

Bodegas Twitter Event

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A week ago today (Saturday March 26), I was lucky enough to have a ticket to attend a huge winetasting event here in Mendoza called Bodegas Twitter.  The event was a fundraiser for Fundación CONIN, which is a charity that works with underprivileged children.

So why was it called Bodegas Twitter? The entire event was supposedly organized using solely Twitter.  And, if you tweeted from the event using the hashtag #bodegastw , your tweet would be broadcast to the entire party via a giant screen behind the stage.

Bodegas Twitter

Held at the Auditorio Angel Bustelo in downtown Mendoza, the event brought together bodegas all around the Mendoza region (and Patagonia), including some Continue reading →

Winetasting on a Saturday

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Last Saturday, a few friends invited me to come along on a bodega-hopping adventure. Bodega, just in case you weren’t sure, is the fancy word for winery/vineyard here.  We had a rental car (a zippy little Ford Fiesta) and a full day to go taste wines in the Mendoza region.

My friend is a sommelier in training, so she knows her stuff. We started on our trip heading to San Carlos (a fairly far-away land from the ciudad) to O’Fournier. The trip was WELL worth it. The bodega itself is breathtaking; it’s super modern but also really uniquely designed to take advantage of the use of gravity during the winemaking process. Plus, it looks like something you’d see an evil villain living in a James Bond movie, or perhaps Dr. Evil’s summer home.

Mr. Bigglesworth loves the view.

It is also home to the largest wine cellar in all of North and South America combined. Pretty freaking cool. The bodega uses its cellar also as an art gallery, so it makes it a bit more interesting than staring at barrels of wine.

Best place to take shelter in an earthquake?

 Lunch at O’Fournier was good, but we had heard it was great, so it was a bit disappointing. This was mostly due to the portion sizes (a shot-glass of two different appetizers were called “two courses”, for example). Still, it was tasty and well done. And the view was spectacular.

After O’Fournier, we made our way to La Azul, but we were 20 minutes late. Turns out, they’re not so much on Argentine time when they’re waiting for you. They were gone, and not a soul was in sight. We knocked on a door of a neighboring house to see if they knew if anyone was there, and they couldn’t help us. Ah well.

Hello? Is it me you’re looking for?

Backup plan: We went to Jean Bousquet, who were very kind and received us as well as they could receive a surprise visitor. We wine-tasted with the staff and had a great day.

Our drive back to the city was interesting, as we missed a main road entrance and ended up on a dirt desert road going up and down hills and having to get out and push the car across a few points. It was really, really fun though. It may or may not have had anything to do with the alcohol. But it was a great day, with a beautiful sunset, and a great time with new friends.

The Best. Steak. EVAR.

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Ok, so coming from Texas and New York, I’ve had some great steaks in my lifetime. I’ve been to some of the best steakhouses in the US, and I have my favorites, but I think I have found my favorite steak in the world.

Here it is, in all its splendor. The Bife de chorizo at Don Mario’s :

Big deal, a hunk of meat. Right? Wrong. Upon further examination, it is awesome.

I still haven’t been to Francis Mallman’s place here, but I’m thinking this will be hard to top.