I have always loved to travel.... there is something about venturing off into an unknown land not knowing what to expect, a step outside your comfort zone, exploring a culture, people, and tradition far different from what you are accustomed to. My love for travel began at an early age when I ventured through the UK and other parts of Europe. As I've grown older I've made it a priority to continue my worldly education with trips to new places as often as possible.
For the next ten days I roam South America (Argentina and Chile) with a school class from UC Davis. While this trip certainly is NOT a vacation and lots of work and preparation went into organizing the trip, we expect to have a good time... thus far we have not been disappointed.
The trip here was long, we left Sacramento at 3pm sharp on Saturday and did not arrive to our hotel until 11:30 PM on Sunday. Having had no real meals in a day we settled for some bar snacks and a generous pour of Malbec to tide our bellies until we arose Monday. We slept in, very tired and weary from our travels, and finally awoke around noon upon which we met up with some other classmates and walked around Recoleta, a small part of the inner city of Buenos Aires. We walked around a tall flowered sculpture that was a massive piece of steel. At sunset it closes and lights up pink, kind of neat!
Around 2 we hailed a cab and went to the "hip" area of Palermo where we sat down to a fabulous lunch outside under the shade trees. Apparently it is customary for meals to be served with wine here and our lunches were accompanied by tall glasses of the vino tinto or blanco of our choice, how could we complain or turn this down? My lunch was spectacular, a chicken dish which is pictured below:
After lunch we roamed some shopped and walked all over various parts of the city. My pedometer says we walked over 14,000 steps... cleary after such exercise we would need a good meal so we headed to Cabana Las Lilas for THE VERY BEST steak dinner I've ever had. The plates of meat just kept coming and in large quantities. The prices were a small fraction of anything in the US and the flavor was far superior. I ordered a the equivalent of a petite filet and was greeted to about 15 oz of juicy melt in your mouth goodness. Between the meat, the never ending supply of Malbec, and the numerous side dishes we left fat, full, and very very happy people. To anyone visiting BA in the futre Caban Las Lilas is a MUST TRY, its a gorgeous restaurant on the water front near the port, and you can get a table overlooking the river. The setting is great, atmosphere terrific, and the food outstanding.
Day 1 was a big success. I am including some of my favorite pictures from Day 1 and I will try and update with Day 2 tomorrow... it was a VERY exciting trip to la Estancia!
I should note to all my FB friends... all photos will be uploaded there, so check daily!
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