Argentina Pt 1-Buenos Aires to Azul

it has been far too long since i've had an adventure with my dear tony, so when our friend kate invited us to join her on her vacation in argentina? we jumped at the chance! i had honestly never  considered argentina as a destination. but the more i thought about it, the more excited i was. the food, the wine, the andes, being in the southern hemisphere, LLAMAS????? the question became, why didn't i think of going there sooner?

our trip there was set up to be a very unique and amazing experience. even though we flew into buenos aires, we spent very little time there. the first half of our journey was to be spent at kate's families ranch in an area; about four hours southwest of b.a. known as "azul". definitely off the beaten path, and not something most tourists get to experience. the second half was to be spent in mendoza, the magical land at the base of the andes where most of the wonderful bottles of malbec come from (yay)!

it was a long flight to get there, but well worth it! we spend an all-to-brief afternoon and first night in buenos aires wandering the streets and seeing as much as we could. kate took us to "recoleta", a famous cemetery in the city. the only thing i've seen even close to this elaborate was pere lachaise in paris. it was a stunning array of monuments and sculptures set up to honor the dead of argentina.

the sky that afternoon really was that clear and blue. coming the dreary and icy winter months of northern virginia into the last of argentina's summer days was a welcome change of climate!

one of the most famous "residents" of recoleta is eva peron (evita), buried in the duarte family crypt.

morbid, yes, but i always love to peek inside the tombs to see what relics the families have left for their departed loved ones!

after our afternoon of strolling we met up with our friends at a highly recommended restaurant, la cholita. it was the perfect introduction to argentinian food. empanadas, chorizo, melanese, carne (so much carne). and in a gorgeous setting! (i promise a separate post dedicated entirely to the food we had on this journey....it deserves it's own post!)

our travel group! it was amazing that so many of us were able to arrange this together. those of us who had flown in that day were definitely travel-weary, but still able to enjoy the feast!

the next morning we peeled ourselves out of bed and started our trek to azul. trying to arrange for rental cars in a foreign country is always an experience! after a little confusion, we all were set for the drive out to the ranch. the urban streets of buenos aires quickly gave way to flat farm land filled with cattle, sheep and horses. it was somewhat reminiscent of texas.....

just before we got to our destination we stopped for lunch at this small cafe.

the interior of the seemingly plain building held a beautiful array of wines and small knick-knacks.

this was the gorgeous spread of food we were treated to for lunch. fresh made bread, cheeses, cured meats and......other things. those bowls of "mystery meats"? well, the one just north of the cheese? that's eggplant. nothing scary there. the one off to the right? that.....is armadillo. and yes, i ate a bite (eek!!!!). i'm here to try new things right? and to the right of the armadillo is a meat that i'm still not entirely sure the name of. the woman we were with described it as "a furry type of animal that lives in the ground, like a ground hog, but not a ground hog". hrm.....curiouser and curiouser. it was heavily marinated, so really could have been anything and probably would have tasted the same. not too bad, but not sure i'd try that a second time!

and this was all just in our first 24 hours!!!