A wrap up of Argentina (and our side trips in to Chile and Uruguay)

So like I did for Brazil I want to give a bit of a wrap up about our time in Argentina (and like I said in the title of this post, ¨...our side trips in to Chile¨).  For starters we were only planning on staying in Argentina for maybe a month total.  Well a month turned in to 6 weeks and we enjoyed every moment of it.  As Emily said, ¨We loved Argentina, and think everyone should go there now!¨  The country had such amazing diversity of the land.  We were able to do everything from the Iguazu Falls (and my two side trips into Ciudad del Este, Paraguay), hands down the most amazing natural wonder I have ever seen, in fact it is one of the finalists for the ´7 Natural Wonders of the World´ competition.  Next on to Buenos Aires (and our day trip to Colonia del Sacremento, Uruguay, which was hands down a taste of Europe for under half the price.  Then for the long jounrey through the beauties of Patagoina, so many cities and things to mention: Ushuaia (penguinos and getting engaged!), El Calafate (glaciers!), El Chatén (trekking), and Bariloche (the Lakes District and riding a moped!). Next up to Mendoza and the biking winery tours.  Finally, on to Salta which was a whole different world in itself.

As for Chile, we do heavily regret not being able to do more of Chile.  Part of it was time, but also a large part of it had to do with very little news on the conditions of parts of Chile after the earthquake at the end of Febraury.  I did really want to check out both Santiago and Concepción but as both were heavily damaged in the earthquake we decided to pass over both cities and mainly only go in to Chile on side trips from Argentina.  Additionally, I wanted to part of the Carretera Austral, which is a 1,200+ km highway through Chile.  We did see advertised trips for 5 days to the ¨most popular¨ places along the highway (even though we also heard from people that it is an amazing month trip of hitchhiking).  Mainly because of time we skipped over this, but it did sound really exciting and everyone we met that did all or part of it said it was a great experience.  Minus what we skipped we did highly enjoy our side trips in to Chile (Puerto Natales/Torres del Paine, Aguas Calientes, and San Pedro de Atacama).  Most importantly for me, I enjoyed going to Chile so we could reload on Salsa Picante (Hot Sauce), which Argentinians really do not believe in (but that is a issue I will get in to a bit more).

As for the past 6 weeks, like I said it was amazing.  Here are some random tidbits about Argentina that we found really interesting.

1)  Maté-Really these people are pretty rediculous.  I first tried maté from my friend Liat in Israel whose family is Argentinian.  However, I really didn´t understand the national obsession until I got to Argentina.  The day we crossed from Brazil to Argentina (at Iguazu) we were at the National Park and every Argentinian tourist was carrying around his special maté cup/straw and a thermace with hot water.  We only realized that this obsession truly grew when at bus and reststops throughout the country we saw hot water machines (both free and pay) that you could refill your thermace.

2)  Porteños really think they are European-A Porteño is someone from Buenos Aires.  Like we have mentioned a million times, Buenos Aires is a European city in almost every respect.  Cafés, protests, architecture, and so much more.

3) Argentnian Assado-Simply Argentinian Steak is the most amazing in the world...and sooooo CHEAP!  And even Emily got to try some kosher Argentinian Steak.  My personal favorite cuts were Assado de tira (short ribs), Bife de Chorizo (the most commonly found cut throughout the country), and Entraña (which even though it is named the entrails it is actually a cut of meat that just happens to be near the entrails).

4) Argentinian Food is Really Bland-Outside of the Assado of the country, they really aren´t to original.  Yes their baked empanadas usually filled with veggies were better then the fried ones we had through out Brazil.  But they don´t really beleive in creative salads or anything else.  However on a sidenote Chimichurri Sauce is delicious!  Emily is more then excited at the ability to eat loads of quinoa through Bolivia and Peru.

We are now off to the final portion of the trip (another six weeks to do Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Columbia)