TODOS somos Americanos!

By the way, something you learn quickly when travelling in South America is that you come from "Los Estatos Unidos"- The United States. NOT "America". South Americans refer to the whole of our two continents as "The Americas" and understandibly get pissed when one country uses this name to identify themselves alone. To them, we are all "Americans" and describing something as "American" is a much more vague concept.

This is at least semantically correct- we have no more rights to claim "America" as our name as France does to call it self "Europe" (Or does a band to call itself "Europe" despite how hard and mightily they may rock, especially when they are actually from Sweden, which is technically Scandinavia, but i digress).

One wonders, though, what is the great worth of being named after an Italian cartographer who put his name all over his maps of the New World, leading people to believe that the New World was called America?

Could it be that the perceived prestige of the title is actually that which The United States of America earned in our early, sexy rock star period? Nevermind the dirt that we're dragging it through in our current Fat Elvis/Rome-before-the-Fall phase, at one point "America" (as in "The United States of..") was a pretty powerful word the world over. Maybe that textual clout is what South Americans are really interested in. Or maybe this is just a nationalist fantasy along the lines of the joke "The English language: Britain invented it, America made it popular".

Whatever the reason, in South America it is always best to be polite and say you're "De Los Estatos Unidos" instead of "American", which would be much easier. Despite the fact that behind your back, you're always just "Gringo".

food obsessions

emerson pointed out that about 90% of my blog entries are on the subject of food... i guess that´s pretty accurate, and the other 10% are usually about cats or dogs. i feel that this issue warrants further examination. for those of you who loyally followed g and e´s excellent adventure last year you will notice i was far less food obsessed, preferring to write instead about topics such as culture, landscape, or activities engaged in. why is it so different this time around?

first of all southeast asia, (with the exception of cambodia), has the best food in the world. i don´t care what the french have to say about this, their tastebuds are already nuked from smoking two packs a day. this fact alone should end the debate. second of all, india is the easiest place in the world to travel if you are a vegetarian. everything in india is vegetarian, in fact, much of the indian population probably has a hard time getting enough protein because in many instances even eggs are considered taboo. in the holy cities of varanasi and rishikesh if you want to eat meat you have to take a taxi to the red light district where you will see gaudy signs advertising chicken, and "wine shops" that sell malt liquor, and something called "scotch".
india and s.e. asia are two parts of the world where people rely on a mind-boggling, gorgeous, vast array of fruits and vegetables for the better parts of their diet. now cut to argentina, where one must never forget to order food items "sin jamon", (without ham). ham is a major food group here--on par with the "cereals and grains" part of our food guide pyramid. one time i was in a restaurant in buenos aires and there were tiny bits of pureed ham in the bread. another time i ordered a veggie burger, specifying "no pancetta", because it was topped with bacon on the menu, when it arrived they had put ham instead of bacon on it. we tried to figure out what might have been going through the chef´s mind on that one, "no bacon eh? well that´s just not healthy... i know, i´ll give her ham instead of bacon." what the fuck? this morning we went out for breakfast and attempted to order toast with our coffee. the waitress informed us that we could not have plain toast, the toast all had ham and cheese on it... what is this, an episode of saturday night live?
when you (rarely) do encounter "vegetarian" food it seems like the chef is trying to create a whole new food genre. never is asian or middle-eastern or mediterranean food referenced, it´s like: mashed potatoes mixed with corn, carrots, and diced hard-boiled egg--sure, why not? or how about eggplant in pancake batter with a side of roasted apples, sundried tomatoes, onion, and potato slathered in a mushroom cream sauce. i tried it and let me tell you--the mushroom cream sauce really did nothing for the roasted apples. some people are thinking waaaay too hard. i guess i just find it remarkably hilarious and odd.
i took it for granted last year that all of the food was amazing. it´s hard to subsist mostly on pizza and ice-cream even though my little sister mani would probably disagree. it makes me crabby. it makes me fantasize about beans and brown rice and tofu--stuff that my little sister would hate.
now that i have explained this to you all, i promise to devote more of the writing to culture, landscape and activities, although at least 10% of my entries will still focus largely on cats and dogs.
peace

i love puerto pyramides. i really really love it here. it is a tiny town filled with good-looking young people on the shore of the atlantic ocean out in the middle of the desert! how much better than that does it get? last night we went out to dinner at a little rustic pub and listened to nina simone and drank wine and i was able to consume a meal that had no wheat or dairy! never mind that it consisted of side dishes, it was bread and cheese-free dammit! and that´s a beautiful thing! and we didn´t hear one song from the eighties, not a one. our waitress was really cute and competent in every way!
so today we started the day a little late and had lunch at an awesome place called "el stacion" and the food was great, (milanesa de soja for me and lomo con fritas y huevo for emerson), the espresso was great, the service was great, (she remembered the lemon for the soda water and let me tell you, that absolutely never happens), and they were playing nick cave and the bad seeds greatest hits and our awesome waitress was singing along to "weeping song". it is a beautiful and sunny day and we´re going for a long hike in the desert by the sea. we may see some sea lobos or penguins, we will take photos if we do.

G and I arrived in Puerto Pyramides on Peninsula Valdes this morning. It was an overnight bus ride from El Bolson, on which we were treated to "America's Sweetheart", Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality II: Armed and Fabulous, which i liked almost as much as Miss Congeniality part I, which I didn't see.

Since our last posting, we hosted our friend Georgia at the Chacra del Cielo organic farm and introduced her into their world of dirt, animals and the charismatic 3 year old Dante.
We all went to the Festival Del Lupulo, at which I think the contigent from Chacra was the most lively (and drunk) thing. The "Festival" (more like a extra-boring county fair) was largely disappointing except for the hot fire karaoke including "Like a Prayer" and a rendition of "Unbreak my Heart" by Toni Braxton in Spanish, sung by a man!).
We also took a boat ride across mountain-ringed Lago Puelo to the border with Chile where we got to go hike across and go swimming in the perfectly perserved lake. G and Georgia were off-put by the rapidly increasing price tag of this excursion (I'm sure G will tell you about that), but I thought it was all worth it.
After Georgia left, we intended to head for the Atlantic coast right away, but sickness (which has been a nearly constant state on this trip) and bad weather kept us in town two more days. We did get to finally succeed in eating in virtually every restaurant in town, by which we could conclude finally that they ALL had the exact same selection of SUBPAR food.
There seems to be no concept of competition and variety (not to mention good taste) in many parts of Argentina, so restauranteurs seem to think that photocopying the menu of any popular restaurant in town is a wise business move. Therefore, every restaurant serves: Pizza, Sandwiches, Pasta, Milanesas, Lomos, and Empanadas. Oh, and a salad consisting of Lettuce, Carrot, and Tomato (and Huevos Duro and Palm Hearts if you are lucky). And the place next door defintely serves Ice Cream. This may not sound too bad (especially if you are 8 years old and want to eat nothing but pizza and Ice Cream every day, as Eric from Scam Zine pointed out to us, then this would this your paradise), but consider that all the food items are bleached flour based and contain at least one form of cheese.
El Bolson does have amazing local microbrew beer, though, which is a saving grace. On our last night in town we went to the El Bolson Cerveceria, the largest microbrew in the area, which was amazing. Every beer I sampled, from the Winter Stout to the Honey and the Raspberry flavoured brews were effing ambrosia. And to complement them I ordered the Pizza "Allemandia" (German)- No, cheeze, just light tomato sauce, homemade Saurkraut, hot dog slices, mustard, fennel and whole peppercorns. It was basically a work of genius, possibly commanded by God himself (man I'm getting waay too into this Mormon book).
Anyway, two nice girls, respectively from Germany and Basque country in Spain told us about Puerto Pyramides, which is the only settlement on Peninsula Valdes. Here's what Google Earth says:

"Península Valdés in Patagonia is a site of global significance for the conservation of marine mammals. It is home to an important breeding population of the endangered southern right whale as well as important breeding populations of southern elephant seals and southern sea lions. The orcas in this area have developed a unique hunting strategy to adapt to local coastal conditions.


Location:
42°30'0" S, 64°0'0" W
Criteria:
N (iv)"

You can use those Coordinates to track us down on Google Earth. So far the place is beautiful despite the chill and overcast skies. It has a wide sandy beach and rocky coves all around. It reminds me alternately of the Cape and of Baja California, Mexico. South of here is Punto Tombo, our next stop to go see thousands of migrating penguins.
We will have photos posted from our hike up Mount Tronador and from El Bolson once we get back to the city and find some resonable development fees.
We'll say "Hi" to the penguins for everyone (as I know they are "Hot" this season and y'all want to be down with them)

MATE WITH ORANGE JUICE!

first off, mate is the national beverage of argentina, and it is taken very seriously. it is traditionally served in a hollowed-out dried gourd. the tea is poured in loose--a lot of tea, the gourd should be half full with the green leaves. then the mate server should wet his/her hand and place it over the mouth of the gourd and shake it so that the excess dust from the leaves is removed via the palm of the hand. this is repeated a few times until a satisfactory percentage of the dust is removed. we're pretty sure this action is symbolic because you couldn't really remove all the dust if you did it all day. then you make a indentation down to the bottom on one side of the mate, and pour a little bit of lukewarm water in the bottom so that the hot water doesn't singe the bottom of the gourd. next the water shouldn't be too hot, take take the kettle off just before it starts to boil. pour the water in the indentation you made, so that the mate soaks from the bottom up. insert the metal straw with your thumb over the top--kind of like a syringe. the mate is then passed to one person who drinks all the tea, and upon completion the said person makes a little sucking sound so everybody knows thatt he/she is done. the gourd is returned to the mate server, refilled, and passed to the right. argentines usually keep the water hot in a thermos, and the leaves for one cup of mate should be good for two thermoses (thermi?) of water.
here's the best part, which we just found out about a couple of days ago- mate can be steeped at any temperature, so on hot days you can drink it with cold liquids. our perferred libation is mate with cold orange juice! sounds gross? try it, it´s amazing. it's like the first time you tried putting OJ in your 40oz-, (speaking for emerson, i have personally never tried OJ with my 40--emerson recommends it), you were scared at first, right? we also tried grapefruit juice, it was not as good as OJ, too sugary. this opens up a world of options for our jittery caffienated brains to ponder, why not be creative? how about mate with mint herbal iced tea? what if you took a 40oz, mixed it with oj and then added it to mate... no that would be gross.
oh this is important, buy your OJ sin pulpa--otherwise the leaves and juice will get all cementy, and the straw will clog.
you´re welcome.

el bolson

we are in the little hippie town of el bolson--just south of bariloche. the first few days we were here we stayedat a hotel run by this absolutely insane woman who we were sure hated us, she especially liked to make fun of us in indecipherable spanish. she would make fun of anything, emerson´s stature, my cooking habits, (peanut butter was a particularly hilarious item), our asking directions to a laundrymat, basically anything we did was held up in front of the other argentine guests as a source of irritation or hilarious amusement. then on valentines day we offered her some chocolates and that somehow smoothed things over. the argentine people like their sweets... there is no doubt about that! i think they put dulce de leche in the baby bottles here so the kids get weaned on caramel and become sugar junkies, like crack babies constantly jonesing for their ice-cream cone and sandwich-cookie fix.
now we´re staying up the mountain at an organic farm/hostel called chacra cielo. my favorite thing about the arrangement is the kittens. there are at last count, (and as long as the owners´three-year-old kid dante doesn´t succeed at killing any), 8 kittens from two litters. there are also 4 beautiful dogs, bunny rabbits, chickens, and geese. our friend benton is here too.
emerson will tell you all about moonbow and the "vaginal dimention"
peace

Right now we are staying in the little hippie mountain town of El Bolson. This is supposed to be a "energy center", maybe something like a Patagonian Taos, New Mexico. Like that and other Southwestern cities, there are a lot of hippies here, plus dogs, a big outdoor market in the town square, and beautiful natural surroundings just outside of the town center. Stark, silent mountain faces make a surreal backdrop to the north and south for the roaming dogs and the hippies in the market selling jewelry and.. I don't know, dreamcatchers? I try not to look.
Soon after we arrived we went to a "Trance Festival" in the woods near town at a campground next to the Rio Azul. It was a three day event, but we only went one night to check it out. There were lots of florecscent geometric scupltures, jugglers and fire spinners, pounding psychadelic trance music and trance hippies, mostly Argentines with a few Isrealis and Germans thrown in, dancing and flopping around, with the full moon hanging abovehead and reflecting on the broad river. At first G was at least partially game, asking "What is this all about?" and I tried to explain as best I could guess. Eventually she got bored and went to sleep in a hammock while I stayed up with the American kids we had come with. We laughed at how rediculous it all was until I recognized the trap: eventually you get too cold standing there and laughing at everyone and have to dance just to keep warm.
When I went to get G up it was near dawn. During one DJ´s set he had played a typical psych trance song with a vocal smaple from some nature show about Shamanism where the narrator intones some thing like "They took us to a different dimension, a primitive dimension." When I got G out of her Hammock she was like "Did you hear what that song said? It went 'I want to take you to a very special dimension. A vaginal dimension'." As I led her through the crowd of tweakers she kept on, "I don't want to go to a vaginal dimension! Look, these people are already there!"
We've been around in El Bolson for close to a week. We like the quiet, inobtrusive atmosphere here, especially on the back streets, which are sunbaked and lined with modest houses with impressive flower gardens. Everyone here is pretty chill and keeps to themselves, except for the owner of our first hosteria, who was a nosy, noisy little woman who treated all her tenants like her children. She would constantly be talking to everyone, despite whether they spoke Spanish or not. At first we were sure she hated us, but then we gave her some chocolate and attention and won her over.
In the morning I woke up and saw, strangely enough, Iggy Scam (now Eric Lyle) from Scam Zine outside our door. I seems he was trying to check in and finding our hotelier just as surly as we did on arrival. We assured him that she could be sweet once she got to know you. In fact, by the time we checked out she was hugging and kissing us like her own wayward children.
Now we're staying at an Organic Farm on a hillside just outside of town where you can stay for 10 pesos (3.33 dollars) a night. If you work, it's even less but we haven't gotten there yet. Too busy playing with the kittens, bunnies, dogs, and 3-year-old human that lives there. It's a funky, DIY place where you need to start a fire to take a hot shower and the dirt covers you as soon as you step out of it. But the food is good and is 10 pesos for a meal and the chef and owner is bug burly bearded argentine tatoo artist who listens to Agent Orange while he cooks and is father to the 3-year-old human.
Georgia just arrived in time for the Feria Del Lupulo (Hops Festival). You know what that means. Don't expect coherent writing until the festival is over.

ditto 

sunset at la morada 

SHITHEADS at la morada L to R: fiona, ren, benton, and emerson 

dusk on the lake 

emerson in the hammock at la morada 

emerson and i went on a three hour horseback riding trip. it was emerson�s first time, and i hadn�t been in about 20 years. the guy behind emerson was the main "instructor", and he gave us all a two minute instructional all in spanish and then we were off. 

at the top of the hill--i felt so bad because all my horse wanted to do was eat, he kept veering into the bushes and chomping mouthfulls of anything he could--the instructor guys gave me a branch to whip him with, but i couldn�t... i mean, if you�re hungry you�re hungry, right? 

emerson and his horse "bailarinito" which basically means "tiny dancer" 

my horse�s name was colorado--which i thought was really good. here i am looking fresh as a daisy after our 3 hour ride 

carcioffe! the amazing artichoke-shaped dog! actually we were, (rather curtly) informed by his owner that his actual name is mani--which incidentally means "peanut" here, and which is also my little sister�s name. 

two dogs in the hippie park--downtown bariloche. these dogs were very good friends 

emerson models sexily like a latter-day lothario 

i don�t know what happened here, but somehow these two dogs morphed into one. 

benton, ren and i at la morada, played SHITHEAD for well over 14 hours.  This was taken at like 2 in the afternoon.  You should have seen us at 3 in the morning.  It got ugly.

Bariloche

New Photos from Bariloche

Special thanks this week to the lovely Liisa from Finland who let us upload photos from her digital camera. Everyone should be having good thoughts about Liisa as she sails from Buenos Aires to Recife, Brazil next week!

el lago

el lago

Bariloche by night.

Looking down at the main square by night.

Bariloche by day. The perfect setting for a Dario Argento slasher movie.

Here we are playing a round of the game "Good Style, Bad Style" with the hapless passerbys of the Swiss beer garden we were sitting at. If you don't know the rules of the game, ya better ask somebody.

Liisa learns how to play and isn't happy with what she sees. Later she cursed us for ever teaching her the game, as she was now constanly dissecting people's style.

G probably saw a delightful old man or a hilarious dog.

This is "La Morena", a guest house halfway up Cerro Otto mountain. Never mind the strange, cult-like atmosphere ( see here) it's still probably the best place to stay in Bariloche...

"Good Style"

G is puzzled and intriguiged by some Bad Style.

And this is the view from the front porch.

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Another beautiful shot by Liisa.

Javier the mysterious hippie driver unloads for the latest castaways at La Morena.

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This is the mountain on the backside of Cerro Otto, if you climb over the top from La Morena. On the way you can stop at the ultra-cheezy revolving restaurant at the summit, where they might try to charge you for entry, but nausea is free.

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Lago Nuahel Huapi