General

This is from Simon’s office, we are back north of 49. A fairly uneventful trip other than the fact that it went so smoothly. We’re tired but have to go pick up the pictures before supper and bed.
Mendoza, read, Isabell and Walter and family were again a real nice treat to cap off the trip. Our supper at El Buque reminded us that Argentinian steak is just as good and that restaurant definetely can do what I call blue rare.
WE ARE BACK, moi

Well folks, this is our last full day south of that imaginary line of equinox. I must say that this trip just increased my pleasure at visiting down here and I strongly recommend this as a destination.
We often finish a post and then remember much more that we could have said but like Morris says. that’s why people actually hang around with us, we don’t give it all away too early. So, you’ll have to visit with us, in person, to hear the rest of the story.
Other than that, Isabell and Walter warmly greated us to Mendoza as did their hijos. This was special for us and capped off this trip. Last night, at El Buque, we had another fantastic steak meal, perfectly cooked, it is probably our favorite restaurant down here. Tommorrow we do the pass, one of the nicest pieces of highway to drive over. Then plane, then join you all for your gloriously warm spring.
Luv, moi

After a nice ride on a coche cama, we are in the University town of Córdoba. Pretty much halfway between Buenos Aires and Mendoza. It’s a cool misty morning, but if the fog lifts we might take an afternoon tour around the countryside and see what’s shakin’.

Colonia de Sacramento in Uruguay did turn out to be a beautiful city. The old part is quite touristy but very quaint, with roughly cobblestoned streets (especially the ones they say are original portugese construction). Lousy gradation and compaction of the base,… Dad says he never would have let it pass inspection. We highly recommend Uruguay. The small part of it we saw was great, and from conversations with locals we hear that the rest of it is quite spectacular as well. I really thought we were paring down the list of things to see here, but noooo.

Tonight we take another night bus to get to our final destination before the departure point. We made a phone call to Mendoza yesterday and were instantly remembered and are warmly expected tomorrow morning. Yay, what a way to cap off a trip.

p.s. I finally put some new pictures up. They may not be in order, but oh well

Well, two years in a row of *just* Chile and Argentina was too much to take, so we had to leave these known countries and set out anew (now I know we were on another *continent* already this trip, but it’s not actually another *country*). So here we are in Montevideo, Uruguay. After having achieved the unbeatable feat of swiming in three oceans in a single trip, we are feeling pleasantly worn out from a day in the sun. I was glad that the weather today wasn’t the same as yesterday, though I would have gone into the water anyways, lightning and all (yesterday we sat out a wicked storm at lunch, the lovely old market building that we were sitting in was being buffeted by gales and rain was finding it’s way in every corner and falling on some unfortunates). Uruguay turned out to be even cheaper than other areas in South America, both in accomodation and food. Oh, and they know how to cook steak rare… how rare (okay, enough play on the rare-rare thingy)! With all that we’ve seen here, it’s amazing that it’s almost tourist-free. The city of Montevideo is full of amazing architecture, friendly people, sandy beaches, and punchbuggies (come on! Dad and I should be black and blue by now, but we’ve decided to opt out of the punch part of it, to prevent an escalation into something more…)

Tomorrow we take a bus to the (supposed to be) lovely city of Colonia de Sacramento, spend one night there and then take the boat back to Buenos Aires (or Rio, if you think “outside-the-box” like Dad… wacko). Then we’re on a night bus to Cordoba, begining our trek across the continent back to Santiago.

Watch out, the Wild Roses are turning towards home!