The Carnivores Guide to Buenos Aires

Ok, we are home and have been so for a couple of days but still... We should really finish the blog in a good way, so there will be a couple of more posts.
Have I mentioned that my husband and I like meat? If not, the below diary might give a hint.

Day 1:
Restaurant: El Desnivel
Meat: 2 * Lomo (one of us ordered Bife de Chorizo but it was Lomo, we are sure)

Advised by our almost local guide, The Windler, we ordered the meat "A Punto" (medium-rare), that was a mistake, it was more to the medium side but hopefully we learnt from it... The bitter taste of disappointment was washed away by generous amounts of wine.



Day 2:
Restaurant: Cabaña Las Lilas
Meat: 1 * Baby beef, 500 g, 1 * Bife de Chorizo

Advised by our almost local guide, The Windler, we ended up in what is considered by many the best restaurant in Buenos Aires. The previous mistake was corrected and the meat was ordered "jugoso" (spelling may be erronous). The Windler rose to a top placement in our hearts, the meat as well. The fact that the bill were almost the double of the price of our hotel bill for 5 nights probably says a lot of our ways of prioritzing.

Day 3:
Restaurant: Pub Gibraltar
Meat: 1 * Hamburger, 1 * Cheese sandwich

My stomach was probably still working with the baby beef, it did not want food at all this evening. From what I understood the hamburger was absolutely ok but there was disappointment regarding missing steak for one day.

Day 4:
Restaurant: La Brigada
Meat: We don't know. It was a secret that wasn't on the menu. It looked like some kind of filé. Or it could have been leftovers. It was the best freaking leftovers anyone of us has ever had. It is hard to think how the regular meat might taste. Something that good can't be legal.

By now we were so knowledgeable in the art of Argentinian meat that we didn't even bother with any french fries on the side - a Caprese sallad was enough, save the potatoes for the bad times.

Day 5:
Restaurant: La Rosalia
Meat: 1 * Chorizo (starter), 1 * 550 g baby beef, 1 * bife de chorizo

Since there was a 40 mins waiting time for the baby beef we realized that a starter wouldn't be in the way. So simple, so tasty! My bife de chorizo was still mooing on the way over to our table, I felt butterflies in my stomach from pure excitement when I cut the first piece. Yarden's baby beef was a bit less rare but the size of this piece of meat was so impressive I could almost see tears in his eyes. Tears of joy of course! We couldn't have finished our stay in a better way.

After this week of eating we have decided to spend all our honeymoons in Buenos Aires. With a bit more tango dancing we can probably manage to have steak for lunch as well (Yarden already tried the concept once, it might work). All restaurants, except for Cabana Las Lilas, is located in San Telmo, the neighbourhood where we were staying. In Puerto Madera, where Cabana Las Lilas can be found, there are plenty of other good restaurants as well. We didn't have enough time. Next time, Siga La Vaca will be visited. And La Cabrera. And possibly some of the restaurants we already been visiting will be revisited.

Bolivian south western circuit

Bolivia is a country of opposites and extremes. It has big cities and tiny villages, poverty neighbourhoods, with adobe houses, and rich business quarters. You can get a simple lunch menu for less than a dollar or a cup of coffee for the same price at a fancy cafe in Santa Cruz. The places on the altiplano are freezing, airless and dry and the amazon basin is extremely hot and humid.

If the jungle, with its' animals, insects and various plants, is the wildest thing in the Amazon basin then on the altiplano it is the south western circuit, where the air is thin and freezing, the sun is strong and bright and nature just go crazy with different extreme and magnificent views.

We went to Uyuni and booked a 3 days jeep tour of the south west. We were 8 people (6 tourists a guide/driver and a cook) and one jeep, packed with all our food, personal belongings and cooking gear.

In the first day we visited the salt plain. It's a gigantic flat area that's covered with salt (15m deep in the deepest point). In the wet season it's flooded and the reflections are magnificent but when we came it was dry. Most of the plain is protected but some is available for local to extract salt from. A few 'islands' can be found on the plain and there we found big cactuses that grow one cm a year (so some are more then 1000 years old)

View of the salt plain from the car

Karin jumps over the plain

The cactuses

Getting of the salar (the salt plain) we crossed a railway. That railway leads people and mined minerals to Bolivia and to the Chilean border. Here is the view towards the border:

Chile is over the mountains

Next, we arrived to a beautiful lake that was full of Flamingos.

Us, the lake and the flamingos

Flamingos

Flamingo landing

Then, driving on, we arrived to the ¨stone tree¨, a volcanic rock that was eroded by the wind and the sand to the shape of a tree.

El arbol de piedra

On the way we saw a fox. The guide treated him with a sweet wafer and the fox seemed to enjoy it.

Fox chewing a wafer

That evening we stayed at a local village's hostel. The temperatures dropped quickly when it got dark but it was perfectly fine with our sleeping bags and blankets. The cook, who treated us so far very well with meaty lunches and beautiful vegetables, made us a wonderful pizza. The sunset over the local b-ball court was amazing:

Sunset

The second day had a few highlights. The laguna colorada, a beautiful red/brown lake full of Flamingos and surrounded with white mineral supplied beautiful views. We also found a local animal called ¨Viscacha¨, which is some rabbit looking creature.

The laguna colorada

The laguna colorada from another angle

The Viscacha

That evening we stayed in a small hostel at an altitude of 4,300 m.a.s.l. Unlike the previous hostel we had no hot shower. The temperatures dropped so sharply, when it darkened, that we had to flee inside and hide under our blankets and sleeping bags.

Before we went to sleep the guide brought a bottle of cheap wine and later on we both decided to take a Paracetamol against any headache that might develop through the night (due to the altitude). Unknowingly, we both manage to intake the substances that were a recipe for one of the worst nights ever.

It wasn't cold at all but it was something like that: I would fall asleep for about 5 minutes and then wake up breathless. Taking a few deep breaths I notice that my mouth is so dry that I have to spend a minute or so wetting it and then taking a sip of water. Then, the mixture of bad wine and cheap, originating from a Bolivian pharmacy, Paracetamol, made a mysterious solution in my stomach that released Sulfuric gasses (mainly, but not only, from the front end). So, every time I woke up I had the taste of Sulfur in my mouth and my stomach made weird sounds.

Apart from the sleepless horrible night there were two nice Alpacas there:

Alpacas

The third day was the day of great extremes. To begin with, both our stomachs were extremely not functioning and we felt like shit. (mostly poor Karin). We had to wake up on 5 am and go to see some geysers:

Geyser

Me and my (best) wife in the land of Geysers (can you see how bad her stomach is?)

After that, we went to deep in the local hot springs (at almost 5000 m.a.s.l). It was great, but getting out was cold cold cold!

Mmmm.... Nice

And then we drove on to the highest and most magnificent point, The laguna verde (the green lake). Due to minerals like copper and sulfur it has a greenish color. When it's windy it has the color of turquoise (Luckily it wasn't). It's surrounded by three inactive volcanoes, whose peaks are crowned with snow. The guide told us that NASA is conducting experiments on the top of one of the volcanoes because it has the conditions that resembles Mars's better than everywhere else in the world. At an altitude of more then 5 km a.s.l we took a big breath and nodded (Just kidding, it's easy to breath the freezing air but it's important not to make sudden movements. The oxygen demand causes weakness)

The green lake and the Mars like volcano (and me)

From there we went on a long and almost event less ride back to Uyuni.

The relative train

On a different and geekier note, the tour actually started at a train cemetery next to Uyuni. I found an interesting train there. Not because it was old, Not because of anything trainish or engineering related but because someone grafittied it with an equation from the field of general relativity physics (And not a simple one. It took me a whole course of pure mathematics on general relativity to reach the smallest ability of understanding this equation).

Was the train moving around black holes ? Did the space time metrics and momentum, energy Tensor really mattered for the people who built that train? I doubt it.

It is hard for me to explain how ¨out of place¨ and unrelated this equation is to an antique train in the desert of south western Bolivia but I assure you that it kept me puzzled for more than a couple of minutes.

The train and the equation

Santa Cruz

Sometimes you get a bit travel weary on the road and need to take a break. A vacation from the vacation. We choose Santa Cruz as our holiday destination. There is no real sightseeing to be done, no interesting museums but it is Bolivia's largest and richest city with plenty of restaurants, cafés and shops. We found a lovely hostel with hammocks to relax in, green patios and two funny tucans to rest our eyes on.

What else could a girl need?

Beautiful tucan

Even tucans get a bit shy sometimes...

Yarden is raving about how good it is to be back in civilisation and is calculating how much money we'll need to be able to retire here. I'm focusing on what kind of food we'll have for the next meal. The first night we had an amazing steak dinner, second night pizza.I believe we are ready for another meaty dinner tonight. And in between meals, it is actually possible to get a decent cup of coffee here. Santa Cruz are scoring high points from the Cohens!

Modern city, modern art

Sloth

Well, I know I said not much happened in Trinidad but just a couple of minutes after these photos were taken a police officer came and grabbed this little fella for being in the wrong place. Brutally he was carried by the skin of his neck to another location, the northeast corner of the plaza. He did not attempt any resistance yet the police officers were still poking him with their sticks when he tried to climb over the fence...

24th of September

We've missed a lot of holidays and celebrations on this trip - Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, surstrommingspremiar, kraftskivor and a few birthdays. But we have celebrated 24th of September!

We are not really sure why, but everyone else in Santa Cruz celebrated it so we joined in. The celebrations mostly took place around the main square, cleverly named Plaza 24 de Septiembe and contained army and police marching quite haphazardly, schoolbands playing and a lot of waving of green-white flags.

Bolivian VIPs

I had no idea my husband was so interested in schoolbands, he didn't want to leave...

Some israeli participation, in form of the Rangers' guns, was seen. Nothing swedish anywhere in sight though.

Off the beaten track

Most tourists fly to Rurre and then back south to La Paz. We decided to go east instead, to Trinidad. So, the day after coming back from the Pampas-tour we got on a minibus that would take us to San Borja, half-way to Trinidad. The roads in this area is a nightmare, covered with a thick layer of fine dust, sometimes more bumps and holes than road with cows and horses walking around. You drive on the side where the road is best at the moment, which to me always seems to be the wrong side. After 5 hours of driving we had finally driven all the 150 kilometers needed and stopped in San Borja. Not much to see, a nice plaza and an ice-cream parlor was the best bet. Insteadwe decided to take a taxi to El Porvenir, another 1,5 hours to the west.

El Porvenir is a biological research station that was built by an american university during the 1980-ies but that has been more or less abandoned for the last 10 years. About twice a month they get some visitors we were told by Walter, the man who is taking care of the place. After a very simple dinner we laid in our hammocks for a while before going to sleep.

At 6 am we were woken up by a cacaphony of parrots outside our window, fell asleep again and were woken up by Walter at 7 am who told us breakfast was ready and our guide and horses were waiting for us. A 4 hour ride around the reserve was scheduled so we got up on the horses and rode off to the Pampas. We saw capybaras, birds and tons of cows. I even saw a cockroach crawl under my T-shirt and didn't scream! I also saw two austrich-like birds, but from quite a distance so I guess it could in fact have been cows as well... However, we looked like cowboys, or at least felt like it!

Two horses and some capybaras in the background

Birds waiting for death

If that isn't two cowboys I don't know what it is...

This is how happy my horse was after the ride - look carefully...

After lunch we walked down to the main road to see if we could catch a ride further west. And, after only 20 minutes a jeep with 3 men in their forties from Santa Cruz stopped. They gave us a ride all the way to Trinidad and refsed to accept our attempts to pay for us. On the other hand we had to live with the seventies disco music that they seemed to enjoy a lot.

Our main reason to go to Trinidad was to catch a boat up Rio Marmoré for about 5 days but no boats were leaving until 3 days later so we decided that would be too much for our quite tight schedule and dropped the boat idea. Other than that not much happened in Trinidad. It is not really a tourist destination so people actually came up to us on the street and in restaurants to ask where we were from and kids were fascinated by my "white" hair.

Trinidad

The Pampas

Bolivia is an amazing country in many aspects. One of them is the variety of altitudes. La Paz is about 3km a.s.l but when you head north east (hopefully on a plane and not along the death road) the altitudes drop to almost sea level so fast that from the plane it looks like a shear cliff. The Amazon basin here is about 200m.a.s.l (reaching sea level at the eastern coast of Brazil) and it is divided to jungle and pampas, the flat wetlands which are flooded during the rainy season and are home to many different animals.

We took a 3 days tour to the pampas in which we stayed in a cabin on the riverside and traveled mostly by a small boat along the river in search of wildlife. We also went on a 4 hours walking tour to search for Anacondas.

Apart from that we had an early morning and a late night boat rides to hear the different sounds (howling monkeys and such ..) and a couple of rides to nice bars, comfortable located on the riverbank and serve cold bear to thirsty tourists.

One day we went fishing for Piranhas, caught quite a few and had them for dinner.
We saw a lot of birds (Ibises, Storks, Herons and also some predator birds), monkeys, Capybaras, Alligators, snakes and even the local pink river Dolphins. Here are some Photos:

A turtle train

Me and an Anaconda we found


Crazy two headed birds


Pink river dolphins


Small river bird flying


Aquatic bird taking off

Alligator

Capybara

Marabu

Little yellow monkey

A Piranha that I caught (Karin caught more ..)

Welcome to the jungle

The jungle from Rio Tuichi

After lingering a couple of days extra in Rurre it was finally time to get out to the jungle. In 1981, an israeli guy named Yossi Ghinsberg lost his group in the same jungle and had to survive on his own for more than a month before he was finally found. So, let's not tell the israeli mum where we are going until we get back...

We got into a boat in Rurre - Yarden, I, a Czech couple and our non-english speaking guide. Fortunately it turned out that the czech girl spoke spanish so she translated what the guide said into czech, her boyfriend into english and we all understood most of it. Of course, being in Bolivia, the guide knew most names of animals and plants in Hebrew as well. After 3 hours on Rio Beni and Rio Tuichi we arrived at our camp - a few cabins, dining room and bath - very simple but ok.

Our cabaña

In the afternoon we went for our first walk. For 4 hours we walked through thick, green and hot jungle where you don't get one quiet moment. The sounds from cicadas, birds and any other type of animal was really loud, quite surprising. We saw birds, spiders, wild pigs, a snake and even a turtle. To quench our thirst we drank water from a liana and the guide told us about different medicinal and toxic plants.

Downing a liana

Turtle

Tarantula

Snake

Beautiful butterfly

We came back to the camp for an excellent dinner and then Yarden and I went for a night walk with tthe guide. In the pitch black night, only lit up by our torches, the stars and fire flies our guide managed to find frogs, spiders, birds, crocodiles and tracks from puma, jaguar and tapir. Walking along the river, gleaming eyes of crocodiles where everywhere, luckily they aren't very big so no worries. The bigger animals decided not to show up so footprints were all we got. 2,5 hours later we came back to the camp for some sleep.

Tiny crocodile

Dragon fly

The second day contained a 3-4 hour walk in the morning, followed by lunch, siesta and a much needed swim in the river. Then it was time for "artesania", handicraft. The guide and the czech girl where frenetically making rings and necklaces from different kinds of nuts. I made my husband a wedding ring ("it's not comfortable" - does he think that marriage is about comfort??) and the guys were sleeping and reading.

Having fun in the jungle

More fun in the jungle

The last day started early so we could walk a few hours before the temperature became unbearable. This time we walked up to a view point where we could see the jungle from above and hear the howler monkeys howl. In the afternoon we got back into the boat and went to a place to watch colorful parrots screaming loudly before heading back to Rurre.

Look carefully for parrots

Finally some really bad Rio Tuichi jokes:
- The mosquito bites I can stand but the river is Tuichi
- We swam in the river but didn't enjoy it, it was Tuichi

Trees, comes in all shapes...