Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We will certainly miss seeing everyone, the yeast rolls, the sweet potato pies and all the other Thanksgiving things.
We are on our way to the next farm and will post all our latest news soon.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Random new stuff
No real new stories or anything today, so we will just throw some random thoughts or observations as they come to us.
-We have been making bricks out of a sand/soil/clay/water mixture. Lots of back-breaking labor involved and really only mildly interesting. The farmer is trying to nuild a small house in order to house tourists in a growing "agrotourism" industry in Argentina (also growing in Uruguay from our observations). I think this is an interesting concept and all in all a good one. It seems in the US we are a long ways away from our food both distance and in having any idea whereit comes from or how it grows. Maybe Agroturismo could help us to care a little more about this important issue.
-We continue to eat massive amounts of fresh honey. We figure the ratio of honey per pound to bee stings to be currently sitting around 15 to 0, which is a nice ratio.
-If we hear the song ´Girls Just Wanna Have Fun´again, be it a remix or not, we may pack up our stuff and go home. Argentina and Uruguay, you are on notice. Chile, Bolivia: advise your supermarkets and other public areas accordingly.
-As graduates of NCSU, I think we can pick on our engineer friends and family a bit. The farmer we currently work for is certainly an engineer more than a farmer. Whereas on our past farm, things could be done in many ways and the ultimate goal was important, the current farmer watches every detail and points every minute mistake. If the seed is not pushed into the ground with 3kg of pressure per square centimeter, then it is a state of emergency. Tracy and I have begun to joke with each other about to keep from going crazy.
-Snow caped mountains are really beautiful and we cant get enough of them. When working until 830 at night sometimes, it is really hard not be in a good mood when considering you are in a valley surrounding by enormous snow capped peaks.
-Wildflowers here are really nice and abundant. Lupines are the wildflower mostabundant here in various shades of pink and purple. All of the roadsides and in random places around the farm.
-We learned that our suspicion about widespread digestive issues from eating so much meat is a reality. It is apparently not unusual for some Argentines to eat only meat, and apparently the GI tract issues are serious. The government has a division called pro-garden in which it encourages citizens to grow their own fruits and vegetables. The hope is that this will aid in this issue as well as with hunger issues around the country.
-We really enjoy all the comments in our comments section, we tried to reply to some, but the internet connection broke, and we dont get to make it to the internet very often.
-How far will NCSU fans go to see NCSU beat the pants off of UNC??? Well today we wanted to go to Lago Epuyen. It was a 7 mile walk out of our way to come to the internet today. It is 34-10 right now, so I am calling my blistered feet well worth it. (I will say it is not as fun just watching the score change on the internet, but it still bring about true joy)
-At our last farm we baked lots of bread in a clay oven. Here we have made empanadas, tartas (a veggie pie of sorts), baked potatoes (sweet and and regular), baked carrots, bread, apples, and a tiny bit of meat. Very useful and fun, I think the clay oven needs more use in the US.
-Grapefruit soda is all the rage here. We think it is delicious!
-We have been making bricks out of a sand/soil/clay/water mixture. Lots of back-breaking labor involved and really only mildly interesting. The farmer is trying to nuild a small house in order to house tourists in a growing "agrotourism" industry in Argentina (also growing in Uruguay from our observations). I think this is an interesting concept and all in all a good one. It seems in the US we are a long ways away from our food both distance and in having any idea whereit comes from or how it grows. Maybe Agroturismo could help us to care a little more about this important issue.
-We continue to eat massive amounts of fresh honey. We figure the ratio of honey per pound to bee stings to be currently sitting around 15 to 0, which is a nice ratio.
-If we hear the song ´Girls Just Wanna Have Fun´again, be it a remix or not, we may pack up our stuff and go home. Argentina and Uruguay, you are on notice. Chile, Bolivia: advise your supermarkets and other public areas accordingly.
-As graduates of NCSU, I think we can pick on our engineer friends and family a bit. The farmer we currently work for is certainly an engineer more than a farmer. Whereas on our past farm, things could be done in many ways and the ultimate goal was important, the current farmer watches every detail and points every minute mistake. If the seed is not pushed into the ground with 3kg of pressure per square centimeter, then it is a state of emergency. Tracy and I have begun to joke with each other about to keep from going crazy.
-Snow caped mountains are really beautiful and we cant get enough of them. When working until 830 at night sometimes, it is really hard not be in a good mood when considering you are in a valley surrounding by enormous snow capped peaks.
-Wildflowers here are really nice and abundant. Lupines are the wildflower mostabundant here in various shades of pink and purple. All of the roadsides and in random places around the farm.
-We learned that our suspicion about widespread digestive issues from eating so much meat is a reality. It is apparently not unusual for some Argentines to eat only meat, and apparently the GI tract issues are serious. The government has a division called pro-garden in which it encourages citizens to grow their own fruits and vegetables. The hope is that this will aid in this issue as well as with hunger issues around the country.
-We really enjoy all the comments in our comments section, we tried to reply to some, but the internet connection broke, and we dont get to make it to the internet very often.
-How far will NCSU fans go to see NCSU beat the pants off of UNC??? Well today we wanted to go to Lago Epuyen. It was a 7 mile walk out of our way to come to the internet today. It is 34-10 right now, so I am calling my blistered feet well worth it. (I will say it is not as fun just watching the score change on the internet, but it still bring about true joy)
-At our last farm we baked lots of bread in a clay oven. Here we have made empanadas, tartas (a veggie pie of sorts), baked potatoes (sweet and and regular), baked carrots, bread, apples, and a tiny bit of meat. Very useful and fun, I think the clay oven needs more use in the US.
-Grapefruit soda is all the rage here. We think it is delicious!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Blog Note
Just posted new update, but wanted to let folks know about this change. I figured out how to allow Anonymous comments. This means, no sign in is needed and you do not have to register if you wish to leave a comment. Sorry I did not realize this was possible earlier. Just throw your name at the bottom of the comment so we know who you are.
Saludos de Epuyen
Greeting after a week away. We have been at a new farm that is a bit remote. This weekend we have come into town to use the internet and to go to craft fairs and the likes in El Bolson (a very cool little town here in Patagonia).
The new farm is full of new things. The most notable is beekeeping. We got to put on the beekeeping garb and help a bit with the beekeeping, which seems fair since we have eaten our weight in the delicious honey. My curiosity is peaked about the amazing little creatures, so I hope to keep learning more about them.
With many large gardens, this farm seems rather ideal. Trees cover the land with small pockets of land for gardening. The farmer grows and wonderful variety of fruits (lots of raspberries) and vegetables and has no interest in making money from his product, but only in providing for the consumption of his family from their small piece of land. They also have 5 sheep which graze and from which they get meat (no sheep milking here unfortunately(of and we have been snacking on sheep heart and sheep liver pudding...delicious!)). They also have chickens and we get to eat fresh eggs every morning. There is nothing quite like eating breakfast of fresh eggs from the chickens outside your window along with a piece of bread covered in raspberries from the garden and smothered in honey from the bees , also kept outside your window. All this in a valley surrounded by snow capped mountains, very nice.
We will be in this region for the next month. We were not sure what to expect, but we couldn´t be happier with the natural beauty that surrounds us!
We came across this gem today and could not resist.
Setting up camp so we can relax away from the farm for the night. Notice Adam´s awesome hat, made by Tracy. So warm, such nice earflaps.
Acted like I was taking a picture of Tracy so I could capture the Gaucho waiting for the bus. I want to learn more of the history of the Gaucho.
YUMMMMMYYYYYY! (Honey!)
Grillmaster Tracy:
The highlight of our fantastic hike in Parque Nacional Llao Llao (near Bariloche):
The new farm is full of new things. The most notable is beekeeping. We got to put on the beekeeping garb and help a bit with the beekeeping, which seems fair since we have eaten our weight in the delicious honey. My curiosity is peaked about the amazing little creatures, so I hope to keep learning more about them.
With many large gardens, this farm seems rather ideal. Trees cover the land with small pockets of land for gardening. The farmer grows and wonderful variety of fruits (lots of raspberries) and vegetables and has no interest in making money from his product, but only in providing for the consumption of his family from their small piece of land. They also have 5 sheep which graze and from which they get meat (no sheep milking here unfortunately(of and we have been snacking on sheep heart and sheep liver pudding...delicious!)). They also have chickens and we get to eat fresh eggs every morning. There is nothing quite like eating breakfast of fresh eggs from the chickens outside your window along with a piece of bread covered in raspberries from the garden and smothered in honey from the bees , also kept outside your window. All this in a valley surrounded by snow capped mountains, very nice.
We will be in this region for the next month. We were not sure what to expect, but we couldn´t be happier with the natural beauty that surrounds us!
We came across this gem today and could not resist.
Setting up camp so we can relax away from the farm for the night. Notice Adam´s awesome hat, made by Tracy. So warm, such nice earflaps.
Acted like I was taking a picture of Tracy so I could capture the Gaucho waiting for the bus. I want to learn more of the history of the Gaucho.
YUMMMMMYYYYYY! (Honey!)
Grillmaster Tracy:
The highlight of our fantastic hike in Parque Nacional Llao Llao (near Bariloche):
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Snow-capped Mountains and Chocolate!
We endured the 20-some hour bus ride from Mendoza to Bariloche, although the Patagonia border guards did take our apples and cherries (our only food for the 20 hours). Once we stepped off the bus, we felt an immediate change in climate from the other areas we had recently been to. It was quite chilly, and kind of rainy with what appeared to be snow mixed in with it. We went on search of the campground listed in the Lonely Planet, and found out that they no longer do camping, so we had to ride the public bus out of town about 13 kilometers to another campground. It is really nice, right on the lake, and you can see the snow-capped mountains in the distance. At the campground we met four people from the US who are just travelling around and taking spanish classes. We went on a hike with them yesterday, and it had really great views of the mountains and the lakes around.
We are glad we sprung for the lower degree sleeping bags, as the second day we were here it rained/snowed (blown off of the mountains) all day while we decided to walk around and explore Bariloche (and to try out the famous Bariloche chocolate- there are dozens of fancy chocolate shops, which seems strange for a place that we assume is unable to produce even a single coco plant due to the cold climate). It rained all day, and all night. The high that day was in the lower 40´s, and we´re not sure about the low, but my 20 degree sleeping bag served me well (and our tent didn´t leak, which was a plus).
I have been crocheting hats and layers for our stay in the South and Adam has been building fires with wet wood (Thanks Nathan for the fire building skills) and grilling vegetables, with minimal meat for our much needed balance.
We head off to the next farm tomorrow, which is three hours south of where we are now. We will be there for about 2 weeks, and hopefully we won´t freeze while we are there! (Judy- when does it finally get warm here???)
Ciao!
We are glad we sprung for the lower degree sleeping bags, as the second day we were here it rained/snowed (blown off of the mountains) all day while we decided to walk around and explore Bariloche (and to try out the famous Bariloche chocolate- there are dozens of fancy chocolate shops, which seems strange for a place that we assume is unable to produce even a single coco plant due to the cold climate). It rained all day, and all night. The high that day was in the lower 40´s, and we´re not sure about the low, but my 20 degree sleeping bag served me well (and our tent didn´t leak, which was a plus).
I have been crocheting hats and layers for our stay in the South and Adam has been building fires with wet wood (Thanks Nathan for the fire building skills) and grilling vegetables, with minimal meat for our much needed balance.
We head off to the next farm tomorrow, which is three hours south of where we are now. We will be there for about 2 weeks, and hopefully we won´t freeze while we are there! (Judy- when does it finally get warm here???)
Ciao!
Monday, November 3, 2008
Córdoba, Ché, Mendoza and who´s black bookbag is this?
It´s been a busy few days of mostly fun. I will try to recount the highlights in a stream of consciousness to share the details.
We travelled from Iguazu to Córdoba, which was 20 hours on a bus. We did not have a lot of time there. It is a very large city and tough to really get a feel for. There are 8 Universities in the city, resulting in a hip young crowd roaming the streets. Lots of nightlife, businesses, rather expensive hostels, etc. (Hostel story: we walked into the shared room and there was a guy with no shirt on who had wrapped his left arm, part of his body, and part of his neck in an electrical cord. I have no earthly idea what he was doing, but it did not help me to sleep well)
Córdoba is very close to a smaller town that we spent a day in called Alta Gracia. Very quaint little town in the Andes. This is also the main home where Ernesto Ché Guevara grew up. In his former home there is now a museum marking various stages of his life. It was a really well done museum and very interesting to see how someone goes from being an asthmatic young child to a world famous revolutionary/philosopher.
There is also a Jesuit mission turned museum here. Very interesting piece of history. The Jesuits were some innovative people with some advanced technology. I didn´t leave the museum with positive feelings toward the Jesuits missions in LAtin America, but it was very interesting to see the advanced technologies from the 17th century.
We took an overnight bus to Mendoza. The heater was broken on the bus and was constantly on, making it difficult to sleep, but these are super nice busses and quite comfortable despite occassional annoyances. When the sun came up we could see the snow capped Andes mountains on the horizon, beautiful!
Mendoza is a much smaller town. We are camping about 6km outside of town. At the campgrounds we have run into a Brit who is finishing school in Anthropology and just doing osme travelling and some Canadians who have travelled from Western Canada to Mendoza on motorcycles and plan to return via the same mode of transportation.
We are camping in a much smaller little town that has a church, an abandoned amusement park, a giant slide and a drive in theater. I went to test out the giant slide yesterday. It is about 50-60 feet tall and is metal. They give you a cut up piece of carpet for about 1 dollar and you can have unlimited rides. To give a good picture, there were about 100 people at the slide, all of which were Argentine. There were about 60 people riding the slide, 90% of which were ages 5-15. Then along comes big ol gringo. I went down a few times, but finally caught enough air over the last hump to bang my ankle up and decided I had had enough. Tracy says she will give it a try with me today.
This morning we sat down for lunch (we thought it was noon, but really it was 11. Apparently we have spent the last 2 or three days an hour ahead of everyone else and did not realize it because they are different than Buenos Aires here in Mendoza, crazy.) A lady kept asking us weird questions about how to order, which seemed odd, but we told her what we knew and explained that we were not sure about anything and she should go inside and ask. She did so and came back out and sat down beside us again. She again tried to strike up a conversation about ordering and then left. A few minutes later I looked down and realized that where my bookbag had been, there was now a black bookbag that was empty. We fell for the oldest trick in the book. I am an idiot for setting bookbag down beside me instead of in my lap, but we werent in a crowd and did not really see it coming. They got our camera (you see now why you have not gotten to see the slide or the snow capped Andes?), our extra camera pieces, our guide book, sun screen, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, flashlight, water bottle and one of my pocket knives. I was quite angry with the lady and her accomplice as well as with myself. We cant go back and fix it now, so we are trying to look at the bright side of things. We made a police report and there were two Belgian girls there who had lost passports, debit cards and most everything else in a similar incident, so I guess we should be thankful to have learned a lesson without more serious consequences. We did bring another camera with us, so hopefully we can switch over and this one will last more than 6 weeks. The police were very hospitable to us, the restaurant owner was also very kind and was visibly angry that this happened to us, which we appreciated.
We were pretty disappointed with our guidebook anyways, though it was certainly better than the nothing we were left with. While walking around looking for the various little things we needed to replace at pharmacies and whatnot, I noticed an agency that did trout fishing tours, and was curious. As I expected, the trout fishing was very expensive, but I mentioned to the guy that we had lost our guidebook and asked if he knew where we could find another one (books in English are hard to come by in smaller cities). As it turns out he is an author of the Argnentina and Bolivia Frommer´s Guidebook and had been sent a stack of Frommer´s South America and had been trying to figure out what to do with them. Nice as he was, he sent us on our way with a free guide book (cover price $30 USD).
We plan to fninsh tonight out with some vegetarian or middle eastern food (ENOUGH MEAT ALREADY) as Mendoza has a nice array of restaurants to give us a small break until we reach our next farm. We also plan to scope out a bar or other late night establishment to try to set up camp tomorrow and see if there is any buzz around the US elections. Should be fun times. Wednesday we head to Bariloche for the last leg of this travel jaunt until we head to the farm on Monday.
We travelled from Iguazu to Córdoba, which was 20 hours on a bus. We did not have a lot of time there. It is a very large city and tough to really get a feel for. There are 8 Universities in the city, resulting in a hip young crowd roaming the streets. Lots of nightlife, businesses, rather expensive hostels, etc. (Hostel story: we walked into the shared room and there was a guy with no shirt on who had wrapped his left arm, part of his body, and part of his neck in an electrical cord. I have no earthly idea what he was doing, but it did not help me to sleep well)
Córdoba is very close to a smaller town that we spent a day in called Alta Gracia. Very quaint little town in the Andes. This is also the main home where Ernesto Ché Guevara grew up. In his former home there is now a museum marking various stages of his life. It was a really well done museum and very interesting to see how someone goes from being an asthmatic young child to a world famous revolutionary/philosopher.
There is also a Jesuit mission turned museum here. Very interesting piece of history. The Jesuits were some innovative people with some advanced technology. I didn´t leave the museum with positive feelings toward the Jesuits missions in LAtin America, but it was very interesting to see the advanced technologies from the 17th century.
We took an overnight bus to Mendoza. The heater was broken on the bus and was constantly on, making it difficult to sleep, but these are super nice busses and quite comfortable despite occassional annoyances. When the sun came up we could see the snow capped Andes mountains on the horizon, beautiful!
Mendoza is a much smaller town. We are camping about 6km outside of town. At the campgrounds we have run into a Brit who is finishing school in Anthropology and just doing osme travelling and some Canadians who have travelled from Western Canada to Mendoza on motorcycles and plan to return via the same mode of transportation.
We are camping in a much smaller little town that has a church, an abandoned amusement park, a giant slide and a drive in theater. I went to test out the giant slide yesterday. It is about 50-60 feet tall and is metal. They give you a cut up piece of carpet for about 1 dollar and you can have unlimited rides. To give a good picture, there were about 100 people at the slide, all of which were Argentine. There were about 60 people riding the slide, 90% of which were ages 5-15. Then along comes big ol gringo. I went down a few times, but finally caught enough air over the last hump to bang my ankle up and decided I had had enough. Tracy says she will give it a try with me today.
This morning we sat down for lunch (we thought it was noon, but really it was 11. Apparently we have spent the last 2 or three days an hour ahead of everyone else and did not realize it because they are different than Buenos Aires here in Mendoza, crazy.) A lady kept asking us weird questions about how to order, which seemed odd, but we told her what we knew and explained that we were not sure about anything and she should go inside and ask. She did so and came back out and sat down beside us again. She again tried to strike up a conversation about ordering and then left. A few minutes later I looked down and realized that where my bookbag had been, there was now a black bookbag that was empty. We fell for the oldest trick in the book. I am an idiot for setting bookbag down beside me instead of in my lap, but we werent in a crowd and did not really see it coming. They got our camera (you see now why you have not gotten to see the slide or the snow capped Andes?), our extra camera pieces, our guide book, sun screen, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, flashlight, water bottle and one of my pocket knives. I was quite angry with the lady and her accomplice as well as with myself. We cant go back and fix it now, so we are trying to look at the bright side of things. We made a police report and there were two Belgian girls there who had lost passports, debit cards and most everything else in a similar incident, so I guess we should be thankful to have learned a lesson without more serious consequences. We did bring another camera with us, so hopefully we can switch over and this one will last more than 6 weeks. The police were very hospitable to us, the restaurant owner was also very kind and was visibly angry that this happened to us, which we appreciated.
We were pretty disappointed with our guidebook anyways, though it was certainly better than the nothing we were left with. While walking around looking for the various little things we needed to replace at pharmacies and whatnot, I noticed an agency that did trout fishing tours, and was curious. As I expected, the trout fishing was very expensive, but I mentioned to the guy that we had lost our guidebook and asked if he knew where we could find another one (books in English are hard to come by in smaller cities). As it turns out he is an author of the Argnentina and Bolivia Frommer´s Guidebook and had been sent a stack of Frommer´s South America and had been trying to figure out what to do with them. Nice as he was, he sent us on our way with a free guide book (cover price $30 USD).
We plan to fninsh tonight out with some vegetarian or middle eastern food (ENOUGH MEAT ALREADY) as Mendoza has a nice array of restaurants to give us a small break until we reach our next farm. We also plan to scope out a bar or other late night establishment to try to set up camp tomorrow and see if there is any buzz around the US elections. Should be fun times. Wednesday we head to Bariloche for the last leg of this travel jaunt until we head to the farm on Monday.
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