Author Archive
Posted on January 6, 2012 by angela
Late December brings us the annual celebrations of Jason’s birthday and a new year. And like nearly every other year, poor Jason nearly gets forgotten in between the better known holidays. I was able to manage finding some cupcakes, which wasn’t as easy as it sounds. We also claimed that the Termas Geometricas was his gift, though he’s also counting the 50% off coupon I found.
After the termas, we had the choice of camping up in the mountains next to stream in complete peace. Or, heading back to Coñaripe where things would be a little more… interesting. We figured we may as well soak up a little local charm and headed back to Coñaripe . We picked one of the many camping places along the beach. Nothing special, more like a parking lot. It quickly filled up for the New Year’s celebration, and we were warned by the owner that it would be loud and there would be drinking. One group had brought in a large truck and unloaded a refrigerator. Things were getting interesting.
It doesn’t get dark here until almost 10 pm, which is still a bit confusing to us. About this time, the grills were firing up and the voices and music were almost deafening. We were completely blocked into our campsite by parked cars. Bode was playing freeze-tag with the other kids and was showing no signs of fatigue.
The traditional meal for New Year’s is lamb. On a walk into town earlier in the day I spotted the white furry legs of one hanging upside down in a carport, ready to be butchered. There are live sheep for sale in some front yards. We opted for steak.
By midnight, Bode had totally abandoned us for a group at the end of the camp. They had silly string and lots of kids…oh and the refrigerator. They were dancing salsa and we could hear them yelling the countdown. We stayed with our camp neighbors, a British-born 91-year old who’d lived and worked his whole life in Chile. He owned a farm nearby, and had spent 50 years as a millwright in Concepcion. He was treating a local family he knew to a camping weekend.
Bode ran back a few minutes after midnight to see if he could go to the beach with his friends. I followed and by the time I got there, he was taking off his shirt. The teenagers had decided to ring in the new year with a cold dip in the lake. It was easy to convince the kid not to do it once he saw that others were climbing the lifeguard stand. It was about 2am before I convinced him we had to go to bed.
The next morning the campsite was up earlier than expected and the grills were already going. A tour bus pulled up and all the passengers piled out with food and tables to join the campers across from us. A family reunion. The women sat around catching up and eating while the men did all the cooking. Potatoes for 40.
Posted on December 28, 2011 by angela
We decided to stay in San Martin del los Andes for Christmas. The weather had been bad earlier in the week, keeping us inside a lot, but the storm was finally passing through. Perfect for hanging out at the lake in town.
We found out that our friend Baptiste – aka French Guy on a Bike – was also in town. We had met him on our boat crossing from Panama to Colombia. We stopped by his hostel on Christmas Eve to say hi. So, it’s official, we travel as fast a bike. Actually, slower. Baptiste has already been to Brazil.
We had invited him to Christmas Dinner. In true Argentinean style, Christmas dinner was at 9:30 pm.
The dinner itself was a testament to patience. We had no oven, only a 2 burner stove (1 burner only went on low) and a microwave (we haven’t seen one of these in a long time). I started the day before on a stove top stuffing recipe I found online. I had to substitute a few things we couldn’t find here, including replacing celery with a celery looking vegetable we haven’t identified.
We also baked a mystery squash that ended up being quite delicious. It’s green on the outside, orange in the middle, but about the size of a pumpkin.
All the stores were closed on Christmas Day, so when I found out the others were coming, I looked around and made due with what we had. Tomato and onion salad with a bit of white vinegar. The mashed potatoes were easy enough, just a matter of battling for the good burner. Our pavito was about the size of a large chicken. Jason cut it and put it in a brine on Christmas eve. The next day he basically covered it in honey and steamed the thing all day. Since it didn’t really fit in our biggest pot, he crammed it in with a rock on top. He was quite pleased with himself.
In the end, dinner was incredible. The moistest turkey I’ve ever eaten. Overall, I think we knocked it out of the park on the meal and enjoyed Christmas with friends.
Posted on December 25, 2011 by angela
Merry Christmas!
Although it has been a great holiday season–void of malls and panicked shopping, we are still missing our families today. We asked my Mom to write a guest blog for us today, and she wrote about our early Christmas back in October.
Shameless plug: Just in case you need any last minutes gifts, you can download her award-winning novel, The Secrets On Forest Bend, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Soul Mate Publishing. And, her Christmas novella Redeeming Santa, is available at Amazon, B&N and Smashwords.
—————————————————————————————————————————————-
—————————————————————————————————————————————-
Christmas is where you find it. This year I found it in October when Team Rehm came home for the holidays. We put up the tree, hung the stockings, and cooked the turkey. Bode e-mailed me his Christmas list. I printed it off and mailed it to Santa with instructions as to when and where.
Bode must have been very good this year. Christmas morning we were awash in Star Wars Legos. He had a big space ship, a smaller space ship, and a helicopter. There were pilots, droids, and the dreaded Clone Commander Rex.
He spent Christmas afternoon assembling his new Legos, then he wanted to play with them. The next three days found me sitting on the hardwood floor playing with him. I, of course, was the bad guy. He got the new Legos while I had the old, left-over odds and ends that stay at my house.
He had a full air force plus a large catapult, an army, brick fortifications, and various weapons. I had a dune buggy, two men with spears, and a bowlegged guy with a sword who couldn’t stand up on his own. I mentioned that he was better equipped than I was. He gave me a short, stumpy guy to be my general.
First, he declared, we should set up. This took him quite a while. Me, not so long, although I did point to his brick wall and mention that my guys had nothing to hide behind. He gave me a palm tree. Maybe we should have the actual war tomorrow, he said. I agreed and invited his general over for dinner. We sat around a campfire and roasted wieners and marshmallows. His general brought over his son, the Prince. My general bowed and acted impressed.
My two spear guys joined us for dinner, but bowlegged sword guy remained on duty, leaning against a box. Then it was night and our armies should rest for the big battle tomorrow. My guys, except for poor bowlegged sword guy, still acting as sentry, lay down on the floor.
That was when Bode unleashed his SECRET WEAPON. A crocodile. The crocodile slipped past my palm tree and bit bowlegged sword guy. But not hard. He wasn’t hurt.
The next day we started over and did the same things. Only this time he brought over all his spaceships and my general admired them and said how nice it must be to have an air force. He brought over a motorcycle, but he had to hold his man on it. But, HA HA, bowlegged sword guy fit right on it and rode around. Bode looked surprised, but was very gracious. He said we could borrow it until time for the battle.
The next day was their last day so we decided to have the battle. There was much swooping around by spaceships and helicopters. My guy’s spears turned into lasers and shot at the aircraft, but they must have had bad aim because nothing happened and my men were knocked over (surprisingly difficult for bowlegged sword guy because he was still leaning against a box) but no one was hurt.
All new Legos were packed into plastic freezer bags and taken to Chile. The old Legos went back into the Don’t Mess with Texas lunchbox and were carried upstairs to wait for next Christmas. But I must insist on some changes next year. For one thing, we’re going to have to play in a room with carpet. After three days on the floor, I could barely stand up. But more important, next time, I want that crocodile!
Posted on December 20, 2011 by angela
I’ve figured out why this area is a fly fishing mecca. The fish have big appetites. The flies are enormous, and they bite. Luckily, they are very loud and very slow so it’s pretty easy to wave them away (and usually hit them) before they take a hunk out of your skin.
We did a cursory look into going fly-fishing, but Bode didn’t seem too interested and the cost was pretty high for a couple of cheapskates like us. Instead, we dug out our snorkels and went eye-fishing. Jason caught one that was 20 cm.
Luckily, there was a guy pesca de mosca at our campsite so we could enjoy the experience without the investment. Within 30 seconds of catching a small trout, the fish police were on him to make sure he had a permit. He did, and the small fish was thrown back in.
And, apparently, one of the keys to being a fly fisherman is having a snappy vest.
Posted on December 19, 2011 by angela
Junin de los Andes was the first small town we reached in Argentina. It’s world-renowned for fly-fishing.
We hung out at the river in town all day. It was quiet and relaxing in the morning, but as soon as school let up more and more folks starting showing up. Hundreds of kids, but only a few inner tubes. We have to hand it to Bode – he tried diligently to get a ride. It was a fun for a while, but when the drunks started bugging us, we headed a few miles out of town to camp.
Another river, another batch of kids. The weather has been so warm it is hard to believe folks back home are in the middle of Christmas shopping.
Posted on December 18, 2011 by angela
We can’t tell you what it cost to camp in the national park at Lago Tromen. That’s because after a good night’s sleep and a leisurely morning packing up the van and pumping ourselves with coffee, we noticed the ‘Camping Prohibited’ sign. Funny – those usually have the red slash through them. We had assumed the picture of the tent meant it was okay.
It was a perfectly excellent place to camp, complete with wooden pedestrian bridges (leading to soggy kid) and a few hiking trails. We later learned that there is a campground here, but it’s 3 km from the lake up next to the main road, phew-shaw!
After stumbling on such an amazing place by accident, we decided to continue on to the Lakes District of Argentina instead of returning to Chile. Parque Lanin (named for the volcano) was pretty awesome, winding through more ‘monkey puzzle’ trees and over rivers via janky wooden bridges. Hard to keep in mind this is a border crossing route.
And, being back in Argentina, we were happy to find a bit more cowboy culture.
Posted on December 13, 2011 by angela
We’d heard good things about Pucon for over a year (yes, we’ve already been in South America 15 months now!). It’s a touristy town at the base of a glacier covered volcano. The large number of gringos and the volcano continually blowing smoke may turn off some visitors, but we found it a nice place to hang for while.
Tourist come to visit for all sorts of outdoor activities that are offered throughout town. You can climb the volcano with ice picks, you can white water raft, you can zip line. But a fair amount of international tourist have decided to settle down here, too. Including a California couple who once drove this route in a pickup truck. They returned, opened a restaurant and are raising a family.
The town had what we needed. After all the bus troubles, we needed a few days to just do some easy living. The campsite was right next to the lake in town. We opted out of the expensive activities and enjoyed some free local activities like a free children’s theater performance of Little Red Riding Hood, and hanging out all day at another nearby lake. High marks for the local playground, the nearby hot springs and the sushi, too.
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »
