The Reluctant Godmother

Liz and I used our feminine wiles to coerce the young 25 year old Gaston Salvi whom we are torturing in the hotel to take us around to vineyards today. So…early morning wake up and totally stealth so that he did not get into trouble with his bosses, we met him next door. Such a cutie. Actually, just said goodbye to the guy. He is studying hotel management and if ever he opens or manages a place I guarantee everyone should go and know that you´ll have a first rate time. We took him to lunch at one of the swanky bodega restaurants (Carlos Pulenta´s La Bourgoinne) where he ordered duck for the first time and we chowed again on delicious food including pumpkin and grapefruit ravioli. As if that´s an anomaly. Thankfully for a change this was french instead of barbecued beef! Surrounded by vines in the shadow of snow capped Andes peaks. It does not get much better than this. We were just pathetic in our attempts to honor T’Day by eating anything that had pumpkin or apple on the menu.

I hit a wall today and starting to get the cold that only insomnia and extensive amounts of alcohol and beef have staved off until now. I think my liver is going to explode any second. Bought some sketch decongestant type pills from the farmacia recognizing 3 of the 5 ingredients and not quite sure what the other 2 were, even remotely. Except that I slept most of the afternoon and then felt dizzy and am now smashed on champers after Sophie the Scot accosted us on route out to find some local joing and opened 2 bottles and gave us the shortlist of places to shop in BsAs as well as a million hilarious stories. Liz and Sophie are out there now writing emails on my match.com account and I am sure the freak circus is arousing. Tomorrow at the crack of dawn we are off to Bariloche (lakes district, northern Patagonia). Bye bye Mendoza! I hope that I make it back here because it is just a dream. I miss the States and you all a´mighty bunch but the lifestyle here is easy going and very seductive. Kind of like LA!

I am punishing my body and it is fighting back with a vengeance. Tried to do a quick run yesterday and it was not enough of a concession! Last night I had roasted goat for dinner (my new favorite animal!), and am beginning to appreciate blue cheese. If nothing else my culinary horizons have expanded on this trip. Goat tasted like…I don´t know really but I´m glad I tried it. It was baby goat from Malargue, some region in the far south of the province and supposedly the very best place to source goat. Roasted in a clay oven and served with big chunks of roasted potatoes and carrots. I need to start cooking more when I get back. That and a million other goals – I´m working on a 6 month plan. 3 years just too much to handle right now! I finally hit a wall today, getting a touch of a cold, and bought some weird cold medication from the farmacia. Only recognized 3 of the 5 ingredients and now a little woozy though I did manage to sleep the entire afternoon. Fitfully, according to Liz. Gotta take care of the ol´bod if you´re going to constantly abuse it with no sleep! Do as I say not as I am currently doing. My liver is going to explode. Signing out…

I am in Mendoza and wishing any or all of you were here to see how beautiful it is! After the insane insomniac days of BsAs where Liz and I were a constant source of amusement to the hotel boys dragging our sorry selves in in the bright early morning, we were beyond happy to find this shangri la of Chacras de Coria Lodge. Only 7 rooms, very peaceful, the nicest and most helpful staff. Quiet and so conducive to siesta. Here´s a day in the life of a Mendozan local: get up, go to work Argentine time so maybe 10 AM. Work till 2, then go home for lunch con vino and a nice long siesta. All the shops and businesses close till 5 PM. Go back in and work another leisurely 4 hours if you own a shop. If you work for the government you´re done at 2. Yeah…perhaps there´s a good reason Argentina is not a world power? Can´t figure out if this will bode well for a stable government or they´re all too sleepy to prevent the next coup but don´t think it would be prudent to ask.

Anyway, Mendoza is the capital and a quick 20 minute taxi from the suburb that we are in. The main plaza is wide, line with graceful trees and filled with people from all walks, families, precious children, beautiful men, and the inevitable young couples tonguing on the park benches. PDA is an art form, apparently! The restaurant where we were hoping to have dinner was too booked to take us till 11:30 so we went next door for a plate of delicious cheese, salame, olives and pickled veg. A little 4 year old boy stole our hearts with his black curls and asking us questions we could not answer in Spanish. He did not at all understand soy estados unidades. By 1 we were ready to pack it in and and take in the first considerable chunk of sleep in days.

Woke at 10 and we were in a bodega tasting wine at 11 AM. First to Carmelo Patti where the cutest little old white haired man, yes, Senor Carmelo Patti himself, walked us around his concrete vats and gave us barrel tastings. He is apparently famous for his experimentation with making brut from different kinds of grapes but we did not taste any of it there…though there is a bottle right now sitting on ice that will be popped as soon as our little friend Gustavo here at the hotel deems it ready. So, then to Familia Zuccardi and learned about tempranillo, essentially their rioja, our new favorite. It is Zuccardi´s signature wine, they pioneered it for Mendoza when everyone else was only growing malbec. They are into experimentation and we got to taste from their inovacion tanks and had some weird stuff. Can´t bother to dig out the notes but one, from an Italian grape I don´t remember the name of, was a red that smelled and tasted of banana. Decadent lunch at the same vineyard and then to Alta Vista for more tastings and we bought a Petit Verdo, something we haven´t tasted yet but is only sold at the winery. They described it as something you either love or hate and is very dark and strong. Hmmm…and yum….If we were not already many kilos in exceso for domestic flights and having to schlep our giant bags around for 2 more weeks I would have been tempted to buy everything.

We bumped twice into the same travelers from San Francisco, he is a finance guy who´s bought a vineyard and growing pinot noir. Living the dream. The girlfriend is a flight attendant for Southwest and met him drunk in a bar. And everyone says you can´t meet anyone in bars…

Tomorrow on a trip up into the Andes on the road to Aconcagua, the highest peak in So America and then Thursday more wine tastings. Zuccardi ensures that all of the parts of the grapes including stems and seeds and everything are utilized either as fertilizer for their own vines or sent off to Tapaus, from what I gather more of a distillery than a winery, and where they also use the skins for extracts in soaps and other skin products. Cool! I just had a tasting of carmelo which is DELICIOUS, tastes like burnt sugar (duh…caramel…carmelo…) It would be very easy to get used to this life. With the spotty wireless service I´ve been leaving it in the safe and may possibly have kicked the addiction. The fact that noone writes and there is no pressing dubbing emergency to attend to makes it easier, for sure! Hope you´re all well and wish you were here! Signing out…

We are truly getting into some ridiculous situations and laughing a LOT. On Tuesday we hooked up in BsAs for lunch with Sebastian (of UIP) and he ordered for us. Starting with the most delicious chorizo, followed by pancreas. Which didn´t taste bad. Truly, almost anything fried in butter is going to be okay. But the texture is gross. Spongy, greasy. I´m just not a fan of entrails. Then 2 huge cuts of beef, the lomo which is close to a tenderloin or filet and something else close to a flank steak but so flavorful and tender that we ended up eating almost all of it. Followed by a house specialty of molten chocolate cake in pistachio sauce with vanilla helado which is even better than gelato. Plus copious amounts of wine on top of the cervezas we had in the bar waiting for our table. In 100 degree heat.

Needless to say Liz and I both had some tummy issues later on. Read in one of the guide books as we were lying moaning on my bed the very useful advice to take it slow and break in to the local diet and not overdo it with the deadly combo of wine, red meat, and overly sweet desserts, with the typical not-a-green-thing in sight. Doh!

To continue the culinary reports, am a bit queasy today after a dinner where I ate very little and drank very much with our new hilarious friends from NY and then tried to break out of the hotel building to go swimming but it was a complete lock down. Liz smooched the cute guy named Peter and I hung in there as wingman with his friend Miles for as long as I could after the others went to bed. The bar closed at 2 (poor bartender Ramon surely hates us for keeping him up that late) and we retired to the room for minibar wine that was so nasty we mixed it with apple juice which made it barely drinkable. My narcolepsy kicked in around 4 and I have no recollection past that. Despite all my efforts to the contrary here in Iguazu we just keep stumbling on Americans. Probably because all the estadosunidades are loud and wanting to party and everyone else here seems to be a family or a lovey dovey smoochy couple or old. Back to BsAs in a few hours! We have 3 days to see a polo match, tango, swing through Recoleta Cemetary, do our architecture walking tour, and shop. How we are going to do this and stay out partying till 4 am I´m not really sure. There´s not much else to see but plenty to eat and drink and the cafe culture as always is muy bueno. Read of a police museum that has a skeleton of a police dog that was killed in the line of duty and has grisly photos of crime scenes. The hours seemed odd but if we can, I´m heading there.

Continuing…the breakfast buffet defies description today and has set all new standards for grossness. Runny and off tasting huevos ruevaltos (scrambled), stale tasteless bread (I tried all of them), hard flavorless pineapple and melon and mamon. Nasty. Thank God for Coca Cola Light. Sweet ambrosia.

Hola! We’re in Iguazu and the falls are stunning but impossible to describe and do them justice. It’s like trying to put into words the enormity of the Grand Canyon: impossible task. Took the touristy speed boat trip that goes under the falls and tearing down the rapids with an eco-jeep tour back through the jungle. Learned that an entire palmito tree dies to extract one can’s worth of hearts of palm, not that that stopped me from eating it last night! From one of the adorable baby-faced hotel guys (Fabio) learned that much of the surrounding rainforest had been practically clearcut for lumber back in the 30s but now all of course is parque nacionale and protected. Today is another hike and a hope to see some local fauna. Coatis (friendly here-related to raccoons with long stripey tails) are a common sight and we saw a pair of large guinea pig looking things but have forgotten the name. Believe it or not I haven’t ventured across to the interpretation center-staying in the disgustingly eyesore of a Sheraton has its benefits in that you don’t have to pass through there to get to the trails. No Toucan sightings yet. And sadder still, no jaguars. Last night we cabbed into the sleepy little streets of Puerto Iguazu for dinner. Eager to detox off all the ‘meat’ from the amazing lunches and dinners in BsAs we ordered surubi (a local river fish that somewhat resembles catfish with denser texture) 2 ways. And an antipasti of tipico iguazu foods that the adorable 15 year old waiter explained about 4 times but the names I have forgotten already. Tons of cute guys, many very very young) across the street at a parilla chowing on god knows what but our taxi arrived before we could grab a chopp and chat anyone up with our very bad, okay pathetic!, castellano.
It’s hot as Hades midday and after a sweaty walk to the falls and a little hike taking a break for a succession of dips in the tepid pool and sitting in the umbrella shade to dry. With spf 50 waterproof sunscreen, of course! Tomorrow back to BsAs. In short: I’m alive and having a fabulous time.