Tasting Dolores.. (in Mendoza)

Editors note: It's our last weekend in Buenos Aires which means I'm killing the pain and depression by overdosing on my favourites: Alfajores, Empanadas, Helado, Lomo, even agua con gas... But still want to
catch you up on things...

Mendoza Trip: Dec 9 -12

Mendoza is a wine-lovers paradise which produces some of the country's (and continent's) best wine. We loved Napa Valley so of course, we had to hop on the 12 hour bus ride to taste Mendoza. As part of the trip, I organized a luxurious VIP wine tasting package with a woman by the name of Dolores (more on her later). We also were joined on the trip by Mick (see right), the Auzzie that Ariel met in his Spanish class (editor's note: I am still not fluent in Spanish, sorry I am trying though).

We arrived early in the morning on our first day after a 12 hour bus ride (easy for us now - we are experts in long haul buses!!).

Frommer's Latin American guidebook says:
Mendoza is an artificial oasis, receiving no more than 5 days of rain per year.

The hard truth:
NO FAIR - we got 2 rainy / cloudy days!!!



We spent our first day wandering the city, walking through the main square which was like a park, and stopping for delicious lomito sandwiches. As you can see the sandwiches are very yummy -- and large-- and shortly after this, we fell into a lomito coma state.

There were some very unusual things in Mendoza, including this one-of-a-kind alien cotton candy dispenser-->









That night, we had a nice Middle Eastern dinner, then got a good sleep for our VIP tour the next day. We awoke the next morning, had breakfast, and were greated by our private driver (he was shy for photos, and actually barely spoke). Our winery tour was in the Uco Valley, which apparently is the up-and-coming area of Mendoza wineries. He drove us to our first winery where we posed near the vineyards.

Here is another photo of the vineyards with the beautiful mountains in the background. (Please ignore the clouds, that wasn't happening...)

We then got a tour of this winery, called Salentein. The winery was huge, immaculate, and had very high tech processes. During the tour, we contemplated staying behind and opening all these barrels of wine...

Then it was time for the wine tasting at Salentein. But.... gasp!! We were only being allowed to taste 2 wines. We wanted to try some more but apparently Dolores had placed a limit on us (even coca leaf chewing Christian had gotten us 4 or so per bodega). We were not happy with this development but focused our attention on drinking the 2 wines very thoroughly and told the driver to alert Dolores that we were feeling our VIP status fade quickly (actually the tour cost more than our Madonna tickets and the hotel combined so we wanted to ensure it was going to be worth it).

However, this winery had a free art gallery/ museum so we wandered around and really enjoyed ourself. This is a picture of me posing with some outdoor art.


Then it was time for the lunch at the second winery, Altus. The lunch was absolutely delicious. First we had appetizers and some wine out in the countryside.... We are drinking some Chardonnay here and later had some Rose. Thank goodness they kept the wine flowing at this winery...

Here are some pictures of some of the appetizers we had as they were so delcious...


<-- Fancy sausage (not kosher) on nice bread and fancy cabbage on spoon (not cole slaw I swear)

Scrambled egg inside of egg shell (actually quite creative and very tasty) -->





Then we moved into the cute house for our main meal, which was some steak, papas fritas and dessert was rice pudding (which I don't usually like but really was so delicious). We are a bit drunk at this point in time.

Again, however, we found out that Dolores was getting in the way of our VIP tasting... we were told that we would need to pay extra to have the 'good' wine. I actually liked the wine we had but it was driving me crazy that we were not getting the good stuff. We decided that we needed to speak to Dolores later at the hotel...

It was then off to winery #3, Azul, which is a small boutique winery and the host of the wine tour was a 18 (or so) year old son of the owner and his friend. The wine here was very good but all of a sudden, we couldn't find Mick anywhere. Then we walked to the chemistry set behind the wine vats and found Mick flirting with the hosts, who, as you can see, were also slightly drunk from tasting their wine at each tasting. Amateurs!!

We knew we had to keep an eye on Mick for the rest of the tour...

We then were driven back to our hotel in Mendoza city and prepared to meet Dolores to pay her and provide feedback. We wanted to tell Dolores that we liked the tour but really hoped to have access to more wine. We sat her down at the table to talk to her and before we knew it, she had an anger meltdown on us and things got very ugly (see right for simulation of event with actor playing Dolores). In the end, Dolores left in a huff and we realized we really didn't like the "taste" of Dolores...

However, we looked back on the day and realized we really did have a wonderful lunch and we were quite drunk throughout the day (definite objective of the tour). So, all and all, we really did enjoy ourselves and our first two days in Mendoza were quite special... we looked towards the future and hoped the next day would only be even better -- our day of biking through the vineyards on our own bike tour...

Love Miguel...

Give it to me... Madonna!!!

It was probably the most crowded, stickiest, sweatiest 5 hours I can remember in recent history... I dont' know what you were thinking about but I'm talking about MADONNA. Yes, the Material Girl brought her show to Buenos Aires and of course, we were there! Madonna always puts on an incredible show, and she did not disappoint her fans. Here is the best picture I was able to take of Madonna at the concert (I know, don't quit my day job)... However, concerts in Buenos Aires appear to be organized slightly differently than those in Canada.

First of all, the best seats actually are not seats at all on the floor-- it is standing room only. There are two floor sections --
1) Campo: lower class, which unfortunately we fell into this time as did thousands of Madonna's other Buenos Aires fans
2) VIP: must have slept with Madonna or her tour managers to get access to these seats. (I would have resorted to this in retrospect)

Basically, they sell a zillion tickets and it's first come, best seat, standing room only in both sections, with the VIP section being closer to Madge herself. For this reason, Ariel and I (along with our trusty latino sidekick team) arrived early (around 5pm) to mark our place on the floor... Loyal bloggers will recall that Madonna switched her concert dates at the last minute so the show we ended up seeing was the last Buenos Aires show due to the date change...

Then we waited, drinking our 8 peso water bottles and eating popsicles... until about 8pm when DJ Paul Oakenfold came on to spin. Unfortunately, he wasn't very impressive to say the least and really it could have been any one of us playing a mixed CD. However, the crowd began to bounce up and down and suddenly we were in a GIGANTIC MOSH PIT. We started to get very very sweaty and were bouncing around with the latinos... Some people had to be picked out of the crowd by the security and hauled off to be treated for dehydration as it was really sweaty and the popsicles weren't doing it for them obviously... Luckily Ariel and I are very butch and can handle any environment we are thrown in. There were some communal water cups that began to be passed around which we were very happy for.

DJ Paul Oakenfold ended at 9pm and we waited until 10pm for Madonna. In that time, it started to rain and the crowd was getting slightly rowdy. The cheers began for Madonna and the rain was cooling us off a little. Some just looked up into the sky hoping that they could drink the rain.

Finally Madonna came on stage and she did not disappoint. She sang some of her best songs, and of course the dancing was unbelievable as well. Madonna did a lot of guitar playing and we were distracted looking at her massive biceps. She really is pumped!!! Here is a photo of Madonna in the midst of a jump rope number where she demonstrated her double dutch skipping abilities. A special treat for the Argentinians was how she sang her famous "Don't Cry for me Argentina" with the Argentinian flag in the background. The crowd went nuts. In fact, the crowd was going nuts the entire time and the Mexican girls we were with decided to move to a separate area to avoid being trampled on.

Madonna sang for about 2 hours, and did some of her best songs including: Music, 4 Minutes, Like a Virgin, Give It To Me, Like a Prayer (my favourite number of the night) and an amazing Spanish interlude of La Isla Bonita. The special effects were unbelievable, including videos of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. All in all,
I really enjoyed the show, despite being pushed, shoved, and sweating like a beast. By the end, we left the stadium and grabbed some pizza and much-needed agua.

Ariel and I agreed on the following factors:

1) Argentinians LOVE Madonna
2) Madonna doesn't disappoint
3) We may not wear those clothes we wore that night ever again
4) We will get VIP next time

Also, knowing I am going back to Canada in about 4 weeks time, I contemplated an alternative career choice (see above)...

We then went home to pack for our 3 day trip to Mendoza, wine country where we were going to be treated like royalty in the Argentinian countryside.

More on that soon,
miguelito

5 weeks left...

Gasp!!! It's official... 5 weeks left and then Miguel and Ariel-Jose return to reality (and SNOW). How depressing!!!

What this really means is that we will be trying to cram a lot into the next month or so, in particular some great travel and going out a lot to the clubs. I think it really hit home for us that our time left is very finite when Sean and Katrine (pictured right) recently left to go back to Norway. Of course we decided to have one last helado together in my favourite ice cream shop across the street.

For any of you who have doubt, yes we are definitely going home. I am really loving being a man of leasure here, where I spend my days learning Spanish, and eating empanadas and ice cream. We have bought our extremely overpriced one-way tickets back for January which actually ended up costing more than a round trip ticket. We obviously should have bought round-trip tickets but at the same time weren't sure when we would be coming back (or from where). In fact, we will be flying back from Rio de Janeiro where we will be spending 10 days and NYE there... and even better, my friend Jodi is flying from Ottawa to meet us there. Jodi loves to go out and dance, which will be great since I've had to find some bad substitutes for blond dancing girls here in BA, for example the girl in this photo above.


We really have been going out a lot lately to experience the BA club scene, where you don't go out until 2 or 3 am and a power nap before is a must. Someone once said that you really haven't experienced the nightlife of a city until you find yourself puking outside of a nightclub. Well that was me the other night here in Buenos Aires but first I took this photo (but didn't remember doing so) with another member of the Mike & Ariel fan club, Latin American division.

Speaking of Latin American, my Spanish is definitely improving. Jose-Luis and Paula have been tag teaming me for the past couple of weeks, and now I know most of the Spanish tenses (YAY!). I still have some trouble speaking fluently but I have noticed that I really can understand most things when people are talking...

One thing I don't love about the clubs here is that people smoke a lot since I am used to the smoke-free clubs in Toronto. Now, I have to deal with my cool clothes smelling like smoke at the end of the night. Here is a photo of the smokey club (editor's note - it may actually be dry ice but at least there is a cigarette in the background for artistic expression)

To keep us company here, Ariel's parents Annie & Elie have arrived from Montreal and are here for the month of December. They are living down the street from us for now but I think eventually we will be sharing our apartment with them later in December, which may be a bit too close for comfort - we will see... Here we are having dinner at a kosher restaurant... Little do they realize that earlier that very day I was eating some jamon y queso empananas with a choripan (pork sausage yum)...

Also we recently had a bit of a cold snap for a couple of days. As you can see, I was back to wearing my "latino winter uniform" (i.e. the grey hoodie I wear in every photo). Don't worry, it is back to 30 degree weather now. We know for sure that Annie is related to us as she shares our bad luck -- she was pickpocketed on the street the other day.

What better way to spend a 30 degree sunny Friday than kayaking on the Tigre river. This is what we did yesterday with Ariel's MBA friends to celebrate the end of their school term. It was such a beautiful day and we got some sun and a great workout. I didn't realize that it would be a 2 hour kayak to our lunch and siesta location so after about 30 minutes of paddling and my shoulder aching, I would start "taking in the beautiful scenery" which essentially meant taking a break and making Ariel paddle by himself. He didn't appreciate this very much...

Here is a picture of us posing in front of our cute green kayak. It was super hot and now my arms are brown. With a tan, I am one step closer to blending in better with the latinos, especially now that I have my amazing Spanish skills. I may get some other photos to upload soon which actually prove we are kayaking and not just hanging out on a beach. PS - the water is really gross and not something that I would swim in.

Here is another cute picture of Ariel pretending to drink mate while he is researching for our upcoming trip to Mendoza next wee. Mate (green tea, but stronger) is another big culture aspect in Buenos Aires... in the parks, people bring their mate container and some hot water, and they share it with each other... Ariel is also sporting his new glasses which he had to buy to replace the ones stolen in Salta.

Our trip next week to Mendoza (wine country) had to move slightly due to Madonna, who has switched her concert from tonight until Monday. We are seeing her Monday and tonight we are heading to Moonpark, an electronic music festival. We are willing to make the change for you Madonna but you better not disappoint! Tonight should also be great and this time, I am taking my camera so I can show you all the great pictures!!

One last note, Senora Sandwich's assistant was jealous that she wasn't in a photo in the last blog so we took one of her as well... The assistant actually is the one who likely has to cut the crusts off the bread... hopefully she will be happy if she is reading this blog...

Hugs,
Miguelito

These are the people in my neighbourhood...

Hola,

Mr. Rogers has a neighbourhood and so does Miguel - Palermo Soho, Buenos Aires.

I thought I would share with you a bit more about the neighbourhood I live in and some of the friends I have made along the way here in BA. First of all, of course I have developed a very strong relationship with my housekeeper, Louisa. However, as you can see from the photo, the tables have turned heheh... Just kidding, Louisa is great and we are definitely going to miss her when we finally leave Buenos Aires..

Louisa wanted a photo of us on the couch so she made herself all pretty and we took this cute photo together. My big thing here is to make everyone here give me "high 5s". If she were jewish, Louisa would be a good Bubbie.

This week, I finally broke the bad news to Louisa: First, we are leaving in December to travel and go to Rio so our days with her are numbered. Second, Andy sold the condo so she is not going to be able to clean the condo anymore. Btw, I am still trying to get Andy to take us out on the town.

Speaking of Jewish, we actually live next to a Jewish high school. (I only found out it was a Jewish school the other day). Yesterday, when I was having my Spanish class with Jose-Luis, I heard screaming so rushed out on to the balcony and took this picture. This is the tradition here in Buenos Aires to mark the end of the school year. All of the students go wild and paint each other. I was quite impressed with their school spirit.

I then went downstairs and got this closer look...I think the kids started to recognize me because today, when I was walking this morning to get my daily medialuna (croissant), I felt something hitting me on the head -- a bunch of chalk was flying on top of me. Apparently, that is another tradition that students throw chalk on passerbys at the end of the school year... I can't wait to see the third tradition when they rip up all the school papers and notes and throw them all up into the air... Hopefully I can take a photo of this too.

Another favourite person in my neighbourhood is the Senora Sandwich (right). She makes the best sandwiches with the crusts cut off for about 2 pesos each. I love going in there and buying her sandwiches since she is so super cute... Here she is wrapping up my daily order for me..







I love the sandwiches so much that I had to take this close up foto of me about to enjoy 3 of them... Notice the crusts cut off.. The sandwiches are:
1) Tomate y queso
2) Huevo y jamon (sorry I'm not kosher)
3) Crudo y queso
YUMMY!

We have super tight security in our building. The lady here is the Senora Security Guard who sits at the front desk from 6-8pm reading magazines. She is super sweet though and I practice my spanish with her daily. Yesterday she was asking me something about my air conditioning unit that I could not understand but luckily Ariel came down and worked it out... Apparently Louisa had been knocking water off the balcony while cleaning and the security lady was concerned we had a leak...

One of my favourite couples in the neighbourhood is Senor & Senora Laundry. They are super cute and will wash and fold a load of laundry for you for 10 pesos (~$3.50). Senor Laundry speaks really fast and I have fun trying to guess what he is saying. Here we are pretending that Senor Laundry is giving me this laundry.

When I told them I was taking photos, Senora Laundry really wanted to strike a pose for the camera. She obviously knows how many people are reading this blog and that this could be her big break.











Lastly, NOT in our neighbourhood is the Axel Hotel. It's in San Telmo, but we go there often to unwind and dance. This is photo taken of me and Eriq last night dancing on the grass in the Axel Hotel. Eriq is the Malaysian version of my bff (best friend forever) Jon. How sophisticated and classy am I that I can dance with a glass of champagne (notice the spillage on my leg)?

Anyhow, just wanted to let you know more about my neighbourhood and where I've been spending time, other than eating helado and carne.

Love Miguel.

The Great Robbery and The Salt Lakes

Hola amigos,

I have just finished my daily Spanish class and have been meaning to finish off the stories of our Salta trip so I can start writing more about what's going on here in BA. We only have ~5 weeks left of our adventure and then I go back to becoming boring Mike (instead of latino superstar Miguel).

Day 3 of our Salta tour started off with a new edition to the tour as well as a major catastrophe. Christian decided to bring his wife along on the trip which was nice as she was a good distraction for him (he didn't chew as much coca leaves, smoke, or drink as much when she was around). We decided to start our day with a tour of the Salta brewery (I love this beer actually). We parked the car in front of the brewery but Christian needed to borrow a pair of closed-toe shoes (e.g. my cool shoes). Here is a picture of Christian posing with his (pregnant) wife [I honestly forget her name - let's call her Barbie].

At the end of the tour (which luckily included some beer sampling), we returned to the car and slowly realized that... THE CAR HAD BEEN BROKEN INTO. Yes, some theives broke into our car in the middle of the day by forcing the passenger door.

They took our day bags which, unfortunately, contained:
- Ariel's temporary laptop,
- 2 ipods,
- Ariel's glasses,
- Frommers South American guidebook in English,
- bus tickets (which we easily replaced)
- cookies and munchies we bought for the trip
- other invaluables.

What they didn't steal:
- Our gigantic suitcase (thankfully we are gay and pack heavily)
- Our wallets, passports, camera etc. (I am smart now so carry important things on me)
- Wine from the Cafayate wineries
- Our drive and determniation to finish this tour

Barbie unfortunately was worse off since her ID and clothing were taken. We felt terrible for her and Christian. We immediately went to the police station and filed a report using their modern typewriter technology (this killed approximately 1.5 hours of our day). An ironic note for me is that my bag and ipod were both purchased to replace items that were stolen from me in the Great Barcelona Trainstation Robbery of 2006 - yes I am a good target for theives apparently.

Disappointed and frustrated, we still pressed on with our tour to the north, and first stop was a sulfur hot springs where Ariel demonstrated our anger and the likely source of the smelly hot springs in one photo (above)...

We then continued north past some scenic mountain scenery and into Jujuy province. It was a little darker than expected at this time but we made the most of it and continued taking some photos..

Only one more landscape photo without us in it I promise...





The four of us continued on and had a great dinner in Humahuaca (again Christian and his wife kept eating on the house). We were serenaded by this Argentinian boy band, I called them the Empanadas. My dish was this nice corn stew. The food was super cheap in the north of Argentina which we totally appreciated!!

We ended up at a really nice lodge hotel that night and had a great room. At first we thought we were sharing the room with Christian and his wife, but luckily Christian was able to resolve that.

At the hotel, Ariel found a Ziggy-substitute named Pirato (right)and we both realized we miss the Zigmeister.

However, we pressed on...



We climbed up mountains and posed at one of the highest points. We were excited to be getting close to our main destination: The Salt Lakes. Look at the long and winding road behind us.

The salt lakes are a magnificent site because they are so flat and you really have no depth perception. It felt like we were driving forever and when we finally got there, it was really impressive. Here are some great photos of the salt lake, where you can do some cool special effects. I love these photos:

Of interesting note, we didn't find a lot of gay guys in NW Argentina (except the dude from the bus stop), but there were a few workers in this restaurant that were questionable, including the one who was wearing this cowboy hat, which I stole as I helped out with the serving in the local restaurant where we had a nice filling lunch...



On the way back to Salta, we passed the "Train to the Clouds" which essentially takes the same route as we did in the car. I was able to act out my favourite scene from Stand By Me.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Christian and Barbie. We bid a fond farewell and wished Christian luck in his new business and Barbie luck with the baby.

We spent our last night in Salta at a different hotel. Christian recommended one which we stayed at one night, but it had no COLD water which wasn't fun either. I had to find one that I could trust, and of course, who can you trust more than your mother. So we stayed at the Hotel Linda, named of course after my mom.

Ariel and I celebrated our last night in Salta with a nice drink in the main square. It was the end of one trip but we have many more to look forward to (and you do too). Unfortunately this ridiculous economic crisis is getting in the way of many things since the USD is rising and making it expensive for us. Can everyone please try to fix that so we can continue our trip...


UPCOMING TRAVEL PLANS:
- Mendoza (Wine Country)
- Bariloche (Swiss-like village in the south, and maybe further south if we can afford it)
- Iguazu Falls - better than Niagara
- Rio De Janeiro!!! -- for New Years with Jodi, my friend and crazy party girl!!!

UPCOMING EVENTS:
- Ms. Madonna comes to Buenos Aires
- The in laws are coming!!!
- Mike & Ariel so long party (will someone plan that already!!!!)

HOPEFUL EVENTS:
- Night out with Andy, the landlord
- Mike habla espanol perfecto
- Photo shoot with all my friends in Buenos Aires, including the laundromat people

Thanks for reading!
MIGUEL