Quasiment Comme Batman!

Monsieur anti-mégots: mon héro!

This is the kind of vigilante environmentalism that we need in our neighbourhood:



Maybe I can make Mr. T and I some superhero costumes when we go out to do our work.

L'André-Boisclairisateur

En mangeant mon sandwich de jambon durant mon heure de dîner, j’ai fait une recherche pour « André Boisclair » sur youtube : Question de voir un extrait du débat de chefs que j’ai manqué hier soir.

En regardant les résultats de mon enquête, j’ai trouvé ce drôle de vidéo qui m’a fait rigoler :



En plein milieu de la campagne électorale, c’est important de rire un peut, non?

Les Joyeux Lurons en font un nouveau a chaque semaine.

Post-Vacation Blahs

• One week ago to the day: starting back at work.
• Two weeks ago to the day: our delicious wine tour and lunch in Mendoza.
• Three weeks ago to the day: our shopping extravaganza in Palermo.

Sigh, I wish it were three weeks ago. To lift my spirits, I have been watching a photo/video montage that Mr. T made this weekend:



Doesn't it make you want to go to Argentina? It sure makes me wish I were back in America del Sur. I guess I'll just have to content myself with making snow angels for the next month or so. Not that I really ever do that...

Mountains, and Gliders and Wine, Oh My!

With one hand on my stomach and the other hand on my eyes, after 24 hours of stomach flu / food poisoning, I waited at Jorge Newbury Airport for our plane to Mendoza with a combination of excitement, and "I sure hope that I don't shit my pants." After many delays, and an aircraft that looked like it was a relic from the 50's (seriously, the overhead bins were taped to the ceiling in some parts and the aircraft was yellow on the inside from the days of smoking on planes), we finally landed in the welcoming little town at the foothills of the Andes.


While I slept the rest of the bug off, Trevor set out to take some pictures of the city, that I posted here for you very much viewing pleasure.


The building aboverwas kitty-corner to our hotel.

Mendoza has really amazing parks. There is one giant, perfectly squre park smack dab in the middle of the city. Four satellite parks, are all semetrically placed three diagonal blogs from the larger central park, and all have neat themes. This one is taken in Plaza Independencia while the sun is setting, and I'm starting to feel a bit better.

The above photo, again taken by Mr. T, had neat metal panels that had rusted over the years to create a quilt of different coloured panels.

A few short hours after waking up the following day (and might I remind you, the first day that I don't feel like I have to monitor the location of bathrooms and not stray farther than 20 meters) we went on our full day wine tour and tasting!

Both the above and previous photos were taken at Alta Vista winery: one of the oldest in the region.

Surprise, it ain't wine, it's sparkling wine! Did you know that the bottles are stored like this for 6-8 months and re rotated (manually) daily to move the sediment int he bottle around? You're paying for the daily turn, baby.

Mr. T tasting some grapes, fresh off the vine before lunch.

Click to see the panaramic picture in a new window. It's worth it! Like I said, the vineyards are really at the foot of the Andes. This was our view at lunch (On. A. Monday!).

Speaking of the Andes... In a moment of exhausion combined with his late afternoon hangover from wine tasting, Trevor instructed me to organize an activity for the following day. I did as I was told, and headed out to the tour office to sign us up for paragliding! I think that at first Mr. T regretted his decision to give me carte blanche.

The highest peak you see, in the picture above, was where we jumped off. It's taken from our base camp.

Here's a quick 30 second video to show you the what it's like to be on a paraglider. I took it just after we ran off the cliff and sat down. The audio is loud wind, so you might want to turn the volume down a bit.

Mind my knees:

Did spot the cow? For real real, not for play play.

I just loved this flower, because is was the *only* colourful thing breaking up the brown/black/grey landscape that day. That and the fact that it grew right out of a pile of rocks.

I love this one! That's Alejandro, our instructor right behind Mr. T.

Well, that's it folks. We leave BsAs tomorrow night.

Bienvenidos a la Republica Oriental del Uruguay

After nearly a week in the busy city, we decided to take the Buquebus (recycled BC Ferry) across to Uruguay. Colonia, just a little over an hour's ride away, tickled our fancies just fine for our six hour visit. It is a small, sunny walled city founded by the Portuguese, but then reclaimed by the Spanish. Aside from the fact that it is a tiny town (contrary to the 15 million person city we had just left), the differences between Argentina and Uruguay were more apparent economically. Despite the fact that their economy didn't collapse a few years ago, it's clear that Argentina the rich, trumps Uruguay the poor. Nevertheless, our hosts at the lovely El Drugstore treated us to some delicious salmon accompanied by cumin potatoes and the mandatory half litre of white wine.



This neat old car was just next to the patio where we ate our lunch at El Drugstore.



Sufficiently toasty, from both the wine and the sun, Mr. T and I make tracks for the lovely beach that you can see in the distance in the photo above. We had enough time to take two swims (in the unsalted water!!!), and soak up enough sun to give Andrew a bit of a burn, before heading back to our Buquebus that would take us back to BsAs.


Corner of quaint street and lovely lane.

A note to those doing this trip in the future. Uraguay is one hour ahead of Argentina. Thank goodness the kind lady at the tourist booth told us this before we headed out into the town. We would have undoubtedly missed our ferry, and as much as liked this quaint little town, that would have been pretty horrible.



Another hotel champagne cocktail before heading out for our midnight dinner reservations. I figure, when on vacation, and when a mini bottle sets you back about 1.25 CDN (cheaper than a bottle of pop) one should take advantage of the opportunity, no?

LADE will take you anywhere! Oh, and South is the new North.

When travelling, it's important to have a local porn stand near one's temporary dwelling. This magazine stand had an excellent selection, and was a mere 15 meters from our doorstep in BsAs.

Welcome to La Boca. A neighbouhood in BsAs known for as the birthplace of tango. Above, a traditional, no frills Argentine restaurant cooks up some meat on the indoor/outdoor grill. Ummm, smokey meat!

Recovering from sunburns, Mr. T and I decided to take our mandatory arm-extended-self-taken-holiday-photo in front of the colourful buildings of La Boca.

Don't be fooled by the radiant colours of the buildings, and assume that we are in a 'safe' neighbouhood. We were stopped repeatedly by police officers asking us why we were here and where we were going. After realizing that we didn't speak much Spanish, they would switch into English and say ''Not safe here, not safe here.'' We took their warning seriously after the third time, and headed out by taxi.