Malbec 🍷 Mate🧉 & Meat 🥩 with my Mate 

Coming off of 2.5 weeks hiking and trekking through the most beautiful nature, let me tell you... I was itchin' to get back to warm weather and slower living. My short-lived hiker-girl era is temporarily put on pause (at least for the next few weeks!). 

Mendoza 🍷 

We spent 1 week in Mendoza and enjoyed the wine country lifestyle that brought me right back to Sonoma days with my family. It was the perfect balance of familiarity and newness, where we would bike to wineries through back streets in the hecka hot weather, and enjoy our wine overlooking vineyards that then had the most stunning view- but the biggest difference is that wineries in Mendoza are all surrounded by the most stunning backdrop of snowcapped Andes mountains!! 

The Malbec was free-flowing (for $4 per bottle how could it not!) so we decided to venture 1.5 hours south to the Valle de Uco, to explore more authentic (and luxurious) wineries outside of Mendoza city. We booked a nice hotel on points but, once again, made the mistake of not renting a car, and were forced to take an Uber for 1.5 hours through dusty, windy roads. The Uber driver was getting increasingly angry as his old tattered car took a beating from the roads on the way to the hotel. We asked him to make two stops, one to drop our bags off at the hotel and the other to a legendary lunch booking at one of the famous wineries. He ended up driving off in a huff after our first stop and stranded us at our hotel. I was frustrated to miss the lunch, but we were truly in the most remote hotel surrounded by vineyards, Sam and I used the time to relax and chill by the pool. 

The hotel helped us coordinate a driver the following day to do a wine tasting and tour at Bousquet, the largest producer of natural wines in the US! We did a tour with the sweetest older Swiss/ Argentinian couple and enjoyed our morning. We then headed back to Mendoza town for a few more days. 

Horseback riding 🐎 

Now, the ONLY thing I dreamed of doing while in Argentina was horseback riding through the hills and having an asado dinner. For those who don’t know, asados are Argentinian BBQs where different cuts of beef are grilled on an outdoor pit and brought out at different times. Our friend recommended a backpacker experience (finally with backpackers!!) that was a sunset horseback ride into an asado at a rancho in the mountains of Mendoza. It was so fun!!! We arrived at the ranch and were greeted with Malbecs. We then walked the property to see a baby horse that was born earlier that morning (!!). The horse could already stand up and lowkey had huge legs?!?! 

We met the other travelers, got saddled up on our horses, and rode through the countryside at sunset. The gaucho, aka head cowboy leader, looked like he was out of a western movie and he kept cracking me up as we yelled, “Viva Argentina!” “Esoooo!!” “Vamos! Vamos!” together (mainly because my horse was always in the back and doing his own thang.) 

Sam’s horse and mine were brother and sister but, didn’t have an interest in riding together. Unfortunately, Sam had to deal with the pain of being a male (rip to having kids) trotting on a horse all without my encouragement 😆 

When we finished the ride, another cowboy pulled out his guitar and sang to us while the others prepared the asado. As the sun faded, we indulged in WAY too much meat, Malbec, travel stories, and some loopy wine dancing. The night was deff a highlight for me 🙂 

Buenos Aires 🧉 

We then flew to Buenos Aires (BA for short) and checked into a studio apartment in Palermo, which we called home for nearly 2.5 weeks. Our plan for Buenos Aires was to have no plan except to relax, recharge, and feel a sense of normalcy. We explored the neighborhood and went to various workout classes together. I can’t say the workouts were particularly intense though... they were so chill that during one class, our instructor decided to stop us exercising to enjoy a mate ( sidenote: for those who don’t know- mate is ESSENTIAL for Argentinians. It’s like a loose leaf green tea that’s very bitter and is drunken out of a special cup and enjoyed with friends). He was so shocked to learn that Sam and I had yet to try mate that he paused the class to teach us how to properly prepare and drink it. I'm talkin' a 10-minute break standing in a circle sipping on piping hot tea with ZERO urgency. It was hilarious and so bizarre. 

Sam even enrolled in a week-long Spanish course, which made me so PROUD! (Not that my Spanish is amazing, but I’m so happy that at least he is eager to learn more than “Dos cervezas, por favor” 🍻 😉 

I will say, spending 3 weeks in Buenos Aires has allowed us to see local life in the city. Although the city is “quiet” (It’s HOT and most people flee January for the beach since its peak summer here!), the Argentinians still know how to LIVE. They are out and ABOUT eating at restaurants, canoodling in cafes, drinking at bars late into the night, going to independent comedy shows/concerts and so much more. They truly embrace their culture of late living (coffee & cake at 7, dinner at 10, and drinks starting at midnight is the norm) and most importantly, living for today. A Tuesday night and Friday night often look the same as you roam around the popular, buzzy neighborhoods (there are tons!). We never felt unsafe (a common misconception about BA) and although we stuck to the popular neighborhoods, it was relieving to see and feel.  

Financial Instability (By Sam) 💰️ 

For clarity here (Sam input... shock!!), Argentina is in the middle of a huge economic 'crisis’. They have battled economic instability for decades, and right now are in the midst of one of their worst 'crises’ in a long time. They’re going through a period of insane inflation and currency devaluation. For context in 2017 1USD=17Pesos. Today 1USD=1200 ish Pesos*** (it changes every day).

***This is true by using their unofficial ‘blue rate’

TLDR: The government started artificially strengthening their exchange rate so this unofficial blue rate started (Black market rate), which is a more true rate of the strength of their currency. 

What this all means is your USD is worth different amounts in pesos based on whether you: withdraw from an ATM, pay on VISA/Mastercard/AMEX, exchange USD for pesos at shops, currency exchange houses, Western Unions, or any other place that is trying to get their hands on USD. It even changes based on whether you bring $100 or $20 bills to exchange.

So you can all imagine tight-stringed Laura trying to figure all this out to maximize where we get pesos lol. It’s confusing and could shift the amount you spend on something by up to 75% when we first arrived here.

I’m sure you’ve all seen the new President (Mille) on IG or the news. He has some pretty radical ideas, but he recently moved their official rate much closer to the blue rate so things have become a little easier to understand over the past couple of weeks. I think most Western media arcs are hyping this guy up as a madman (shock), but based on my survey of asking every taxi/uber driver we had ‘Te gusta el presidente?’ he seems to be well-liked, although that’s a small segment of course. 

Either way, it’s mental that Argentinians live in such an environment where the value of their wealth and paycheques changes drastically every day, along with the prices of things.

The comical part about it all is that they haven’t had time to print larger value notes to keep up with inflation. Their biggest note is $1,000 (they just started the $2,000) and for context, a cerveza is around $3,000. We go to the Western Union every few days and leave with a backpack full of cash and take out wads of money just to pay for dinner. 

Almost inevitably, the inequality in BA particularly was pretty stark and obvious. It’s unfortunately become the norm to see people dumpster diving for food, begging for leftovers while diners enjoy a meal outside, and a plethora of very, very, very poor neighborhoods right next to wealthy ones.

The name of the game for educated Argentinians is to find a remote job that pays in USD or MXN (or any stable, strong currency) and get paid into a bank there. We heard many times that the country is already living in a dual economy for the few lucky ones that have been able to do this. For the rest, they spend everything they have as inflation means their paychecks will be worth so much less in a month that they enjoy while they can. Truly living for today!

Pretty complex situation, but one that selfishly made our time incredibly enjoyable and social (ppl are out every night!) 

FRIENDS  🧑‍🤝‍🧑 

Sam and I were lucky enough to meet up and spend time with lots of friends in Buenos Aires. 

Letizia and Esteban from the W trek in Chile have been studying in BA for 8 months and we spent some good time together going to Sunday markets and Sam’s favorite- football games. 

I FINALLY met up with a mutual friend, Natalie, who is Argentinian but grew up in Miami (Ty Gab for the intro!!). Natalie was traveling Asia at the same time Sam and I were, but we were ships in the night over the past 6 months. Finally, the stars aligned and I got to meet my pen pal IRL in BA (she will be living here for 2 months!). Natalie has been so fun to grab drinks and dinner with, it feels good to have some girl time! She’s also now joining us at Carnaval!!! 

We went to a Jazz show with Sam's Spanish class friends and also met some other Dutch travelers one afternoon in San Telmo Market where we kept the night rolling bar hopping into the clubs until the wee hours of the night. 

But the best part has been our friends from NYC - Dan/DKnapp and Will/WVI (and Will’s friend Brian!) who visited this past week in BA before we all venture to Rio for Carnaval. We hit some amazing parrillas (steakhouses), hit the clurbssss, and even attended a football match watching River Plate win 5-0 surrounded by 80,000 FANATICS. Esteban joined since he is a lifelong River fan and was the best person to show us the ropes (and help negotiate a good deal for jerseys with the street vendors). Being immersed in that experience and seeing the awe + excitement of everyone's first football game first time was incredible - American sports do NOT compare. (Sam input: For anyone wanting a proper male explanation of this plz ask me, Will, or Dan - it was actually mental, never seen anything like it)

Sam and Dan even managed to squeeze in another football match for Boca Juniors' first home game of the season. (Sam again: unfortunately we couldn’t go to La Bombanero as their pitch wasn’t ready so they played at a different stadium). 

Definitely a different experience but still outrageous and much rougher compared to River. We tried getting into the stadium too late so got caught in a half-hour stampede squeeze past police trying to get into the stadium. Was pretty touch and go (Dan narrowly avoided a couple baton smacks from a policewoman 😂) but you know, all worth it in the end. Advice for anyone going to a match in Argentina, get into the stadium 1hr+ before kick-off lol. (Laura here: I was SO GLAD to have skipped out on that fiasco). 

We've officially spent the longest time in Argentina during our 7 months of travel. It's been an incredible few weeks and we kept saying how it makes the perfect place for a long vacation. We can't wait to return!! 

P.S I’ve never seen Sam whip out his phone more than when he sees Messi street art. The excitement was wild ⚽️ 

Anyways, our “boys trip” continues as we venture to Rio for the next week! Hopefully, we will all come back in one piece… pray for us!!!!!!  🇧🇷 🙏