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Entonces. (so in spanish) I left Mendoza around 900 on wed night and hopped on a two level bus on my way to Neoquen. These buses down here are no greyhound. They are luxury for a bus. We had a nice dinner and then I managed to instantly fall asleep. When I awoke we were already in Neoquen after a 12 hr journey. I got a cab at the bus station and took off to the airport in search of my rental car. Lined up a top of the line Ford Tatoo, which is probably the smallest car I have ever drove. Got some vague directions from the guy at the counter along with a map and hit the road to Alumine.
This ended up being about a 4 hr journey, but it went by really fast. The changing scenery in the are kept my attention for the whole trip. This country is vast and open. Its similar to a Montana landscape, just bigger. I traveled on pavement for half of the way and then took a rough gravel the rest. Every time we got into a rough part of the road I found my self praying that a tire wouldn't pop. (when I refer to we I am talking about me and tatoo..we have gotten close after my 1200 or so kilometers with her and shes more than a car to me now)
I got to Alumine around 100 and somehow found the cable tower in town where I was suppose to 
meet up with a guy amed Joey who is a fishing guide in the area from the us. Had lunch at the local diner as he told me about where to go and kind of how to fish the areas. From the start he told me I would be better off to hire a guide for part of the trip. At this point in time I was full of enthusiasm and thought there was no way I would need a guide to catch trout. Reed doesn't use a guide for fishing. Never.... 3 days later and Ill be the first to admit I was wrong. Very Very Wrong. I got my fishing license and a couple flies from a make shift fly shop in the hotel and headed to the Quillen River. I fished for a couple hours and hooked zippo. It looked like a great river but it was tough to access the right holes and spots to fish with all the willows along the bank. That along with I'm not as good of a fly fisherman as I thought equals no fish for my first day. (The picture, From Neoquen on my way to Alumine, I had to take a very rough gravel road for 2 hrs of the trip. This is part of it where it drops straight down into the valley. The drive was amazing. The vastness was amazing)
I can't tell you how many ice cream cones I ate during my world trip. What I can tell you is that I know where the best ice cream shop is in Barcelona, Spain. It is called Gelaaati Di Marco. It is located on Calle Llibreteria 7 and accesible by the main tourist street in Barcelona called La Rambla. It is located in between Placa Sant Jaume and the Jaume 1 Metro. You can't miss it. It is about 20 feet from the Placa.
During my world trip I lived in Barcelona for over one month. I had a ball. For some reason I felt that I needed to have an ice cream cone a day...it just made sense. Everyday, my routine was to wake up, walk to the beach, catch some sun, play basketball, and then on the way home stop at Gelaaati Di Marco. The workers at gelaaati knew me by name when I left Barcelona.
This place has about 20 different types of ice cream. They have watermelon, avacado, dulce de leche, pineapple, menta (mint), fresa (strawberry), coffee, and so many more. The cool thing about this place is that they let you try as many kinds of ice cream before you have to decide! I used to try 2 or 3 different kinds each time I went in there. In Galaaati (and in Barcelona in general), you are always given two scoops of different flavored ice cream. So you can mix and match different flavors.
The ice cream isn't that expensive either. You can get a little bowl of ice cream for about 2.50 euros, and then the prices go up from there. I usually got a cone for about 3.50 euros, and it was pretty big!
Check this place out when you are traveling through Barcelona!
One of the highlights of my whole world trip was while I was traveling around the world was Songkran (Thai New Year). Songkran is when the Thai people celebrate their New Year. The New Year festival is from April 12-15, and is not the typical new year's party that you are used too. I personally don't think that anybody in Thailand works for 3 or 4 days. The Thai people and tourist celebrate Songkran by having a huge water fight for 4 days in every city throughout the whole country. The most famous spot in Thailand for Songkran is Chiang Mai (located in Northern Thailand).
It is hard to describe in words what it is like in Chiang Mai during Songkran. It made m
e feel like I was a little kid playing with squirt guns. This small city is basically transformed into one big party! There is a huge wall and moat that surrounds the old part of the city on all four sides. On the inside of the walls, the locals have squirt guns and buckets of water outside of the their houses They wait outside their house to drench innocent victims. They drench tourists, tuk tuks, and mopeds that are driving/walking by. They will not discriminate against getting you wet if you have nothing in your hands or if you are carrying your travel backpack!
On the outside of the old city walls there is a moat that goes all the way around the walls. People line up and down the streets around the moat. The moat is the main source of the water for this festival. The city supposidely cleans the water before the festival, but I have heard stories that people get really sick, because they end up drinking some of the water when they get water thrown on them. Be careful not to drink the water when it is thrown on you!
La Boca is one of Buenos Aires oldest Barrio's. It is one of the hottest tourist spots in the whole city! 
Tourist head to a street that is called Caminito. It is a row of houses that were put together using different colored steel pieces to construct housing due to the fact that this was all that they could afford back in the early part of the 1900's. After a period of time, the colored houses became the most recognized part of La Boca.
La Boca is also known as one of the roughest barrios in Bs As (Buenos Aires). I would suggest only going to La Boca when the sun is up. I have had a couple of locals tell me that they would never go there at night, and if they wouldn't go there then I surely wouldn't go there.
When you arrive in Caminito you will immediately see that the locals are ready to earn your business. There are always one or two tango dancing couples that will allow you to pose with them in a picture if you give them a tip. Then there is also another couple dancing tango right by the main (picture from allaboutar) restaurants so that people can eat and watch them dance. There are also artist who have 
drawn different views of the barrio on different canvases. These different works of art are beautiful, but they are also selling them for about 125-300 pesos ($50-100 US Dollars). It is not very practical for a backpacker to carry a $100 painting while traveling. La Boca also has different tourist shops, museum's and places to get drinks too.
Continue reading "Barrios (Neighborhood) in Buenos Aires - La Boca" »
By Reed Whiting
I got into Mendoza around 730 on sat. and got a cab to go and meet with Duffy Crane, who I was staying with. After dropping all of my stuff off at her apartment, we headed directly for the wine tasting room to show me around. A little background on Duffy. She works for and is a partner in a start up company called the vines of Mendoza. They have a very nice wine tasting room in Mendoza where tourist come and do flights of the best wine Argentina has to offer and they are in the process of building a customer base from the US that they ship bottle back to on a quarterly basis. They have only been at it for 7 months and they already have over 270 people in the wine club. They also have a real estate development going in where they actually sell the vineyards for around 40-60K per acre with all of the infrastructure in place including the panted grapes. Comparably speaking in California a similar piece of land that has this climate for growing grapes would be over 500K per acre. They ave already sold out of there first round of sales and
So we went to the wine tasting room and I did a fight of wine. I really felt like a high class individual with my sandals, long hair and backwards cap for about 10 minutes. Basically I tried 5 different types of wine and got detailed explanations of each one. It was a cool experience even though I'm not really into stuff like that. I did learn that the people who are into this wine stuff are REALLY into this wine stuff. I guess there main wine person can identify a glass of wine in 74 different ways. Unreal.
San Telmo is known as the birthplace of Tango. This is probably the most laid back neighborhood in
Buenos Aires, and is one of my favorite barrios in town. San Telmo always has a good mix of locals and tourists in the restaurants and bars. I always feel that this is a good indicator that you are hanging out in the right place.
San Telmo also features the popular antique market every Sunday. During the market the city shuts down Defensa (street) from 25 de Mayo to Avenida Independencia. Up and down Defensa there are different things to see and do: Tango dancers that perform for you, other tango dancers who just pose for pictures, local artists who make and sell jewelry, artists who sing and play music, etc. Just make sure that you watch your belongings when your walking through the market, because there are plenty of thieves who are waiting for the perfect time to rob you. Don't get me wrong...San Telmo is safe but watch your things.
I can't tell you how many nights I spent hanging out in San Telmo. I probably went to eat or hang out in San Telmo twice a week during my two month stay. You can get to San Telmo by taking a taxi, bus, or by using the Subte (get off at the Estacion Bolivar and walk along Calle Bolivar away from la Casa Roja).(picture on left from allabout argentina)
Plaza Dorrego is where a lot of the action takes place during the
weeknights and weekends. It is a lot of fun to go and hang out there on a Saturday afternoon and people watch. In this Plaza you can relax and just take in what San Telmo is all about. There are a lot of tables and chairs set up in the Plaza for people to sit and watch couples perform tango or musicians playing different instruments. When these performers are done performing they come by each table and try to get a tip from you. Don't be surprised when they come by your table multiple times!
Continue reading "Barrios (Neighborhood) in Buenos Aires - San Telmo" »
