Notes from the Road

On Saturday, the 21st, we departed Buenos Aires for new sites and hopefully less heat. Our little rented Volkswagen Gol kindly supported our three bicyclettas, our gear, and even all of us!

Here are a couple of notes from our drive northwest to Córdoba, the second largest Argentine city and home to like a billion (okay, maybe only 11 or so) universities!




- There are lots of birds on the pampas; big doves, small hawks, long necked birds, vulture like birds, birds beside your car, birds above your car, birds IN FRONT of your car at night!!! ... Luckily they are all still out there being birdy and not dead in our grill.




- It is difficult to go over the speed limit when you're a foreigner in a rental, even when almost everyone is passing you...

- San Antonio de Arecco is a noted "authentic" gaucho town a short drive out of BA, and while it's very quaint and old fashioned, it was also very empty. A perfect snack break pit-stop, though!



- Sunsets and squalls are like those on the ocean but above a flat sea of grass



- Jay fits in a two-door economy, but not well or comfortably

- Wide open plains make for gorgeous clouds / sunsets / thunderstorms / rainbows



- Theme Song of the trip (perhaps even the whole 3 months?):
"When I came to Spain and I saw people partying I thought to myself What the f***?! All day, all night; viva la fiesta! Viva la noche! Viva los DJs! So I called my friend Johnny and I said: Johnny, La genta esta muy loca!"

- You can see Orion in the southern hemisphere, but the poor guy's upside-down!

- The Argentines in Córdoba Province are SERIOUS about their seatbelt control / DUI / headlight check points! We passed through 4 over Saturday night and one more Sunday morning!

- Sleeping in the car behind a petrol station is fine, but check to make sure you're not parked next to a chicken coop/farmyard first and thank me later.

Buenos Aires photolog y despues

Too amazing NOT to post

So remember how we told you all that we were going to bike out of Buenos Aires heading south and enjoy the beach in this glorious mid-summer weather?

Well, yeah, no.

Apparently everyone and their brother, mother and uncle's extended families heads to the beaches east and south of BA in January and February! And while we knew this to some extent, we were not expecting the extreme heat (90s here in BA!) and what sounds like the annual spring-break-ish type of activities going on down there.

So, after calculating the time and distance and all factors including what already feels like our dwindling time here in Argentina, we've changed our plans!

Today we rent a car and road trip to Córdoba, university capital of South America sooo... should be super quiet and nothing to do ;)

Here are some pics of our three full days in Buenos Aires, which we have found to be busy, hot, old, gritty, colonial, european and american, expensive and cheap and above all, beautiful in so many ways!

BA is heavily Italian, so pizza was our first lunch!

There's this big pink house...

Puerto Moreno is the cool revitalized wharf district

Hello San Telmo Kitties

Beautiful San Telmo, tango capital of the WORLD!

Av. 9 de Julio, it's big. Real big.

Playing with the nifty fifty (lens) and filters over cappuccinos y fracturas (croissants)!

Stop to juggle in the middle of the biggest avenue in the world? Porqué no?!

En Route

Today, the 17th of January, Los Tres Amigos are airborne! And yes, I pretty much mean we are physically aloft for almost the entire day (blahhh...).

Our day began upon waking at 3:30am after only 5 hours of sleep (that's cumulative between the three of us, by the way), and I'm very proud to say we were completely and efficiently packed and waiting downstairs at precisely 4:30 for the van which we had previously arranged to take us to the airport at that time. After only 3 or so calls to the car company, we were eventually picked up and crammed into our third minivan of the trip so far at 5am (I mean, who really wants to be early to the airport for a 10 hour flight?)!

Speaking of minivans, I guess I should sum up the previous week of glorious relaxation and... Well, no, actually I mean the 7 days prior in which we:

- rented a 10ft. Budget truck only to pick up what was most likely a 24ft because they always seem to mysteriously never actually have the size truck you "reserve" at these places...
- ate our last Crepes Parisiennes avec Tara (tear!)
- packed up our entire apartment in under 24 hours




- completed a successful cleaning and walk-through a month prior to our actual lease end date which hopefully results in a full security deposit refund plus a return of the last months rent pro-rated upon the arrival of a new tenant (fingers crossed!)
- "moved home" to Mercersburg at midnight where we unloaded all our junk into the garage in record time, crashed and then woke in time to return the truck at 8:30am

... And that was all on the first day!

The next three days were spent neatly moving boxes and stuff to the basement in hopes of keeping the garage clear(-ish) and sorting through a few final boxes, files and drawers that had become catch-alls in the last frantic minutes of "packing," all while simultaneously sorting and packing our gear, clothing and bikes for our trip! To say the house looked like a hurricane had hit would be an understatement (we love you, Mom!!!)!




On the 14th we woke up early and hit the road (only an hour behind schedule) in Jake's aunt's minivan, affectionately named Bertha, Birtha, or Birth-Control years ago and still chugging along with well over 200k miles after a recent check-up at the mechanics. Unfortunately the indignity must have finally been too much for the old girl, and she gave up her higher gears a mile outside of Frederick. Thank goodness for downhills because we mostly coasted our way to a stop in front of the house. A tow truck was called and we bid the fair lady Adieu, not knowing if it would be the last time we saw her. A second fancy (working) minivan was secured via Enterprise and we were off to Baltimore after spending only slightly longer (2 hours) in Frederick than originally planned.





The rest of the trip went swimmingly: simultaneously picked Jay up in Baltimore and dropped our wonderful, undemonlike cat off with Trevor, Jake's younger brother, grabbed a bite to eat at The Daily Grind in Fell's Point and headed up I-95 to visit Jake's spritely 85 year old grandmother in New Jersey for a night of food, food, and more food consisting of authentic Czech veal goulash and bread dumplings followed by open faced Czech sandwiches followed by more sandwiches, some football and bed at 10pm. :)

After a hearty breakfast we said goodbye and headed into Brooklyn to stay with Jake's cousin Matt for the day and a half left before our flight out of JFK. We explored Fort Green Park, checked out the Manhattan skyline and had a delicious lunch at a funky French bistro called Chez Oskar on Dekalb Street.





We had a full day on Monday to explore and do what we want, so we made the most of it, meeting friends we hadn't seen since studying in Prague together for some delicious arepas in Williamsburg at Caracas Arepas Bar, went climbing at Brooklyn Boulders, which is huge, intricate, laid-back and busy (on a holiday, at least)! And to cap the night off, we enjoyed a fantastic meal at another cousin's home; thank you Adam and Alyssia!

We called it an early night and headed back to Matt's to get some rest before catching our early ride to the airport, but still didn't get into bed until 12:30 (Jake) and 2:15 (Kate and Jay) so maybe an all-nighter would have been better... We were up and moving by 3:45 and arrived at JFK at about 5:30, but our 7:25am flight didn't end up boarding until 8 (with no mention made of it's lateness, unless it was only announced in Portuguese). Finally though, we were on our way!

Jake and I are disgustingly jealous of the fact that Jay managed to sleep for the entirety of his first 10-hour flight (waking solely for meals gracias del nariz). We disembarked in a rainy but warm Sao Paulo on the runway and were shuttled into a confused, hectic terminal where we tried to stay out of the way until we could be shuttled back out to our next and final flight.





Upon arrival in Buenos Aires (2am local, midnight back home) we made our way through customs only to be confronted by an unexpected $140 entry fee :( but the welcome site of our bike boxes cheered us up despite their rough appearance. We promptly hopped on for an inaugural south american "ride" as seen above, bottom right.

The only thing further to note is how awesome the hostel we'd booked has turned out to be! 24-hour reception greeted us despite thinking we would arrive the next day, showed us to our room and tried to find us something to eat from the "free" box of odds and ends in the communal kitchen. We declined the pasta and cracked open our duty free bottle of dark Bacardi for some "thank God we finally made it" rum and cokes! Then it was time for sweet, sweet sleeeeeeep.

Zzzzzzzzz........

Packing... progress?

So the Packing Train (budget truck) has pulled into Hunka Station (our apt) and we are officially on board... Well, half on board.... Ok maybe a third. The BIG stuff's loaded! And we have until 7pm Tuesday to be cleared and clean so I figure if we can load all the stuff before crashing tonight (est. 4am) and then spend tomorrow vacuuming and scrubbing (2 - 6pm) we should be GOOD TO GO!

PS. Don't judge
PPS. Yes I plan to wake up around 1pm or thereabouts.
PPPS. Mom, this is not call for you to worry from afar! Those pics are angled to look as messy as possible (or not) and we've got this under control! Promise!!

Crunch Time

And so here it is, January 6th, less than eleven days before lift off on our new adventure.  Since Jake began the blog in November, promising to blog "every day" ... well, you can see how that panned out.  While we would love to be good, diligent daily bloggers, my procrastinating nature only allows me to promise (maybe) one update a week.  And if we end up sharing a bit more often, Hurray!

our proposed route, rough outline. click to enlarge!

So, what's new?  What's been happening since November?  What have we been up to besides work and holiday get-togethers?

Lots.

While in our dreams we could potentially cheap-hippie backpack and ride the way Jay is capable of doing, we have succumbed to the online shopping temptation to outfit ourselves and purchased all sorts of "necessary touring items" online throughout the month of December, everything from cheap ebay chinese panniers to a beautiful Primus omni-fuel camp stove, dry-wicking socks to extra SD cards for the camera.  Jake got the Pinnacle dualist camp cookset for Christmas so we'll have something to cook with and eat out of, and I received Lush solid shampoo and conditioner so we'll have no excuse for dirty hair on the road.

Speaking of hair, the big change around here is that, for the first time in our almost ten-year relationship, my hair is shorter than Jake's hair!  And yes, knowing the love Jake has for his long, flowing locks, you might think this doesn't signify a big change, but since Jake had to cut his hair (thereby decreasing his power levels by half, womp-womp) for work this summer, this means my hair is the shortest it has ever been.  Having admired cute pixie-cuts for many years, it was finally the right time to try it out: easy wear, easy care for the upcoming trip!!

And in recent developments, Jake took his diabolically beautiful Scattante bike in to the shop for a tune up before we head out and, after chatting the knowledgeable employees up, was informed that the beauty was too high-end for such a rough and remote tour!  Had a spoke broken or something on the drive-train gotten knocked out of whack, it would have been exorbitantly expensive or nigh impossible for him to get parts down in South America!  After an anguished night of posting la Diabla for sale online and browsing the Buenos Aires classifieds for a substitute bike to be purchased upon our arrival there, all was remedied the next day when we arrived to pick up the tuned Scattante from the shop: the mechanic showed Jake a Fuji touring bicycle and proposed a TRADE!  His bike was in such good condition having only been ridden in the Pittsburgh Triathlon and maybe 10 other times, They switched it for an equipped steel Fuji with touring tires and a rack, thereby eliminating other items from our essential checklist!

Many, many thanks to the guys at Performance Bikes for their tips and advice and awesome service!  It is more appreciated than you can know!  Expect a postcard!

So that's about where we are at this point!  Packing and sorting and trying to get out of Pittsburgh by the 10th, MD the 11th-13th and heading up to NJ (visiting Jake's grandmother) and NYC on the 14th in preparation for our flight out (very) early on the 17th!