Argentina Bound
You’d think after taking these long, off the beaten path trips for so many years now, we’d have the process down to a fine science. The reality though is that it seems like we get a little more disorganized each year. Even though we’ve had airline tickets booked for months, clearly establishing that come November 4th we’d be heading for the airport come hell or high water, I spend the morning trying to put the last minute touches on a range of work projects, and running around wondering what all we’ve forgotten to pack. Despite the best of intentions, I know the next few days are going to be filled with “I can’t believe we didn’t remember to bring X” moments.
All that matters not now, as we are 35,000 feet up on the first leg of our journey. After a brief stop in DC, we’ll be on our way to Buenos Aires (with a tasty 10 hour layover in Sao Paulo to spice things up).The current plan is to spend a few days touring the city and gorging ourselves on meat, before heading to the foothills of the Andes in a town called Bariloche. From there, we’ll fly to Mendoza (wine country in Argentina), and finally to Iguassu (which has a high bar to impress now that my faithful travel companion has suffered through 8 days of rash from the required Yellow Fever vaccination). From there, we head back to Brazil and 5 days in Rio, where I plan to show off my new Canadian flag Speedo (awesome pics to follow).
Unlike a most of our past trips, it’s hard to pinpoint just what we hope to see in Argentina, or to some degree, even why we picked it. Peru had Machu Picchu, Egypt the Pyramids, China the Great Wall, but Argentina has….ummmm….well I’m not actually sure. Even so, in some ways I’m looking forward to getting there more than past travels, I just can’t pinpoint why. Maybe life has just been too hectic lately and I’m due for a little change of pace. Or maybe I’m getting old and midnight hikes up Mt. Sinai hold less appeal than quiet days by a lake, reveling in the accomplishment of just leaving the hotel grounds for dinner (the fact that I wanted to punch a silver-haired old lady for taking up half an overhead bin with just her laptop could go both ways). Regardless, for a place with no clearly identifiable adventure, this trip may be the most adventurous of all since we’ll be making it all up as we go along.
Three weeks from now, it seems like we’ll either be looking back wondering “what the heck were we thinking?”, or “how much were they asking for that place in Bariloche?”, with little room in between. Not sure which side I’d bet on, but I’m excited to find out.
P.S. Joey, we already found your present.
