el bolson!

dearest dears. it´s been a minute. here´s a summary:
foo and i spent those two weeks in mendoza, then her parents came at the end of november. we met them in santiago and stayed at the holiday inn, which is way swank compared to our normal lodging. we went to valparaiso and vinas del mar and then santa cruz. where we toured and tasted wines at two bodegas: casa lapostolle and montes. casa lapostolle was pretty amazing, they are organic and biodynamic and make some delicious wine. and the process is super important and exact. and they take lots of care of the grapes. the wine from there won best wine in the world this year. the 2005 close apalta. montes was ok, but less impressive especially since we had just come from casa lapostolle. they practically abuse their grapes in comparison.
then we went back to argentina. spent a couple days in the urbana suites hotel in mendoza, drank more wine, and ate at this really good restaurant called la marchigiana or something like that. then headed to visit the agostinis again and the farm. that was fun. they´re super nice folks, and were excited to see us again.
we headed to san rafael for the night. stayed at the tower inn. very exciting. i like decent hotels. and drank more wine at dinner.
then we drove like a million miles to buenos aires. for real, in the middle of argentina there is nothing but desert with a few dry bushes and grasses, for hours. like 10 hours. we stopped in some small city outside buenos aires for the night. billychen and i stalked the only other asians for miles around (who worked in a little grocery store) and she talked to the man about hotels in the area. next day to buenos aires.
in b.a. there are soooo many cars and motorcyles and pedestrians. it is a really hectic place. one day there nancy and i went to lunch at this really good place called bio, which is organic and vegetarian. yesssss. after two months of meat and bread and pasta, i was feeling ready for organic green veggie goodness. and it was amazing. i would go back to b.a. just for that place. we also saw a tango show, which was clearly geared for tourists because it was ridiculously expensive. also, i don´t know much about tango, but it didn´t seem all that amazing. but what do i know about tango? oooh and one night we went to china town, which was pretty far away, but soooo worth it. the restaurant we went to had chinese people from china (as opposed to white people from santiago, like in our last chinese food adventure in south america). and the elderfoos did an excellent job ordering. that was a good meal. also, the elderfoos have introduced me to an amazing drink called shandy. it is beer and 7-up mixed together. sooo delicious. you should try it. i know it sounds like it might be sick, but it´s really good.
headed out of buenos aires, stopped in san luis and san juan. nothing too special there i don´t think. then back to mendoza for another amazing meal! on the elderfoo´s anniversary, we went to 1884 francis mallmann for dinner. it´s a bodega and restaurant so we had two bottles of good wine and really good food. i had pea soup. sooo good. and also pumpkin ravioli. amazing. i think we might go back there on our way to chile.
then nancyfoo and i went back to the farm in tunuyan. mistake. we were going to stay through christmas, but once we got there we realized that we didn´t want to work 60 or 70 hour weeks for no money. or even for money. so we decided to head south. we stopped in san rafael again for two days because there wasn´t a bus all the way south til then. in san rafael we went to the jean rivier bodega, which had pretty terrible wine. and we bought a bottle of borgoña wine from the suter bodega, which is quite possibly the worst wine i´ve ever had. seriously.

we arrived in el bolson yesterday. it´s a cute little hippie town. we´re camping here. so i sang foo every christmas song i know (she particularly loved ´rudolph the red-nosed reindeer´). and we had really delicious christmas eve dinner last night. it was like a set menu for 95 pesos, which is about $30. we got there at a bit after 9. so i stared with an artesanal beer that was really good. then a glass of malbec, which was also pretty good. foo had cabernet. and some little foods that were breads cut into shapes with some goo in the middle. i can´t remember what they were called. they were ok. then a salad. and guess what! it was in a bowl of crunchy asiago cheese. oh my goodness i about died. it was soooo good. and also there was a delicious piece of garlic bread. and avocado wrapped in ham. that was less good. but ok. then a lemon sorbet. amazing. then the main dish was tenderloin i think, wrapped in bacon stuff. and rice and asparugus and carrots. and more wine. and foo had trout ravioli, which was terrible, but my dish was enough for both of us so it was ok. then another glass of wine. and then dessert was a brownie with icecream and some berries and this sort of net of melty sugar turned hard. i´m sure it has a name. foo probably knows it too. check her blog. then champagne. it was midnight about then, and the whole restaurant staff came out and we toasted the fabulous xmas. then they brought yet more dessert. chocolate covered raisins, some sugary peanuts, some nugat stuff. but we were both too full to eat any of it. they gave us a little pan dulce as a gift. it´s a sweet bread with little bits of fruit in it. i don´t really like it, but i think it´s a traditional christmas thing here. we had it at the farm too. so then we walked home, and it was chilly and i´d had quite enough to drink. and that was christmas eve.
today is christmas. we washed our clothes, which were so dirty my mom would be ashamed. and ate bread and dulce de leche for brunch. wandered around the town a bit.
i think we´ll head further south sunday or monday to see a glacier.
that´s it for now.
lovelovelove
katie