winding down

of course it would happen.  we have been seriously over eating and over drinking for ten days LOL. so we are winding down and preparing for re-entry into our daily lives.  yesterday we took the subte C to Avenida de Mayo to visit the Cafe Tortoni a local landmark.

it has been here for more than a hundred years and has ATMOSPHERE- LOL.

here are some photos from the cafe

 Georgia dancing tango!

a street scene backdrop where they posed for a BA style cafe photo.

afterward we walked down to the area of Casa Rosada and took the original Subte line- A.  they still run very old cars on that line and here are some photos.

we had dinner again at Sorrento and while the food was still very good the service was not up to par.  however we did end the evening in a very special way singing songs with our cab driver on the way home - including Hotel California and I Just Called (to say I love you).  It got us all laughing and recognizing the serendipitous moments we had on the trip.

today will be extremely relaxed - breakfast and then later high tea and then to the airport for the journeys home.  wonderful trip had a really good time with a lot of memory making!

bits and pieces

from the last several days.  we had that parrilla dinner at El Patio de Jesus Maria in Mendoza, which consisted of fifteen courses of meat for Phil and Chuck LOL

our last night in Mendoza we went to Azafran - a really lovely place with excellent food.  below is the empanda starter Phil ordered and the grilled veggie salad that I had.  along with a photo of the charming restaurant.

and Chuck's dessert- yum!

both places let us bring our own wine and charged no corkage.  we had purchased enough at the wineries to cover our needs for both nights and then some... of course- LOL

arrival again

we worried about the airport strike from yesterday but today went mostly smoothly considering- we got bumped from our seats and ended up 20 rows behind our original but it was a short flight so NBD-

we took a cab driven by the lovely and entertaining Roberto to the Park Tower in Retiro and checked in. 

for lunch we walked to Al Carbon- for - you guessed it big meat again...LOL

afterward we went to the galleria to have ice cream.  it was better in Mendoza and the fabulous Blanco Y Nero.

Dinner tonight was in Recoleta at Fervor.  we had an exciting cab ride over to the place with a hair raising close call with a BMW who thought he had the built in right of way but a cabbie who refused to acknowledge it.

it is CBGB's 16th wedding anniversary today as well as Thanksgiving.  I did not get a chance to load photos today so let's see what is left from before.

this is an interesting one from yesterday's wineries.  in O'Fournier they had a number of paintings in the tasting room.  this one was an interesting impressionistic "painting" made of "Play-Doh"

and this is a view in the Achaval Ferrer vineyards from the day before.

tomorrow we plan another subte trip to Avenida de Mayo and Cafe Tortoni - so the saga continues

purple teeth

is what we have these days.  two days of fabulous wine tasting, of mostly red wines.  we have had a lot of malbec and the deep red color is turning our teeth purple.  today we headed towards the Uco Valley for tasting.  our first stop is at O'Fournier - a spaceship-like facility that is the height of technology. 

a few photos show the facility and the laboratory for the wine making process.

then after a high end tasting, we headed out to the next stop Andeluna where we had an amazing lunch.  a few courses  are shown below.

here is a photo of happy diners Phil and Georgia

after a three hour lunch stop we headed to Salentein winery for a wonderful high end tasting with a lovely young lady, Victoria (who had spent four years in Miami with the Marriott organization.)

more later about our parrilla experience from last night and our meal at Azafran tonight.  but for now this will have to do, as they were having a strike at the airport today and now we will have to see if our flight to BA will take place tomorrow morning as planned. 

lost and found

that's what we decided to call our experience yesterday.  we arrived at the airport and finally got on our flight after a lengthy stand in line at security.  the flight uneventful and the cab into Mendoza was quick and pain free. 

after checking into the hotel we immediately looked for a place to have something to eat for lunch.  sadly it was a LOST meal (according to Phil) because it was the worst pizza he had ever had and he will never get that lunching opportunity back again- it is just LOST lunch.

luckily we found a fabulous ice cream store just three doors away and had ice cream we will remember our entire lives- GA and I had dulce de leche con brownies!  AMAZING and marvelous!  from there we walked to a park

for dinner we had a lovely outdoor meal at Francesco.  I think we have had better meals on the trip but the ambiance here was wonderful.  we walked back home through the same park enjoying the beautiful warm evening.

today we met our guide Marcelo and started out for wine country.  there is a strike and the main highway is closed so we ended up more than an hour late for our first appointment at Catena Zapata.  while we waited for other latecomers to show up (we were their first arrivals of the day due to the strike) we did a few photos of the facility and some potential CBGB holiday card shots.

after a great morning at the winery with some good flights of tastings we headed to Achaval Ferrer for a superb tasting of wines including a barrel sample of the 2010 Finca Altamira.

then we were off to an incredible lunch at Melipal.  we were served by the chef, Lucas personally.  the meal was exquisite. six courses of locally sourced food and matched wines.   we FOUND the lunch we lost yesterday which gave us all a bit of delight. 

tonight a parrilla place for dinner with wine we purchased today at the wineries.  tomorrow we are off to the Uco Valley further south and at higher elevation.

san telmo market

today we ventured to the San Telmo market by Subte (subway)

we arrived shortly after 10:30 but it was already crowded.  I am not sure why.  it does have some fairly good street performers. 

and there is a small amount of original tourist art

but the place is filled with junk, and not much looks like it is being sold.

we were to meet CBGB at noon to decide how much longer to stay (or not) and we actually ran into them a bit earlier.  it was so hot in the sun we all decided to head to the Telmo Bar for drinks and some lunch.  and I was reminded of the last time we came here with Dick & Ali and the day was also very hot and we all had limited tolerance for the crowds.

no one seemed interested in spending more time there, so after lunch we came back to the hotel and took care of some laundry and arranged for transport to the airport tomorrow for our Mendoza flight.  it turns out the domestic terminal is no longer located conveniently to the city but is run out of EZE 45 minutes away.  this is truly a tragedy as the old domestic terminal was so close by. 

I went to the pool to go swimming but it is closed until the summer- LOL- it is 86* here (30* centigrade) and personally I call that summer. 

I ran into CBGB in the lobby and they were heading out to find some higher end shopping.  We have earlier dinner plans tonight because CBGB are headed to a tango show.  since we did this the last time we were here, we decided not to repeat the experience.  not that there's anything wrong with that....LOL