We’ve made it back to Chile! We spent a couple of weeks in Argentina, but now we’ve returned to Chile to begin our next workaway - this time at a BREWERY! We’re pretty excited about it, and we’ll also plan to use the time to catch up on posts. Sorry, we’ve been too busy hiking through the amazing scenery in Patagonia.
In the last month we have traveled to seven cities in two countries: Valparaiso and Santiago in Chile, and Mendoza, Buenos Aires, Ushuaia, El Calafate, and El Chalten in Argentina.
Month 4 Observations
- Mullets are in fashion in Argentina. You are even cooler if your party-in-the-back has a few dreadlocks or braided rat tails flowing over your shoulders. We’re actually not kidding.
- Argentina and Chile are super expensive compared to the rest of our trip so far. It feels a lot like being back home when you need to shell out more than $10 for a decent meal.
- It’s cold! We went so far south we’ve found winter.
- The beer continues to be much better down here than the rest of South America. Maybe you need a big enough population with expendable income to sustain such a superfluous (but delicious) activity? Infrastructure also plays a big role; it’s really hard to get brewing supplies down here, so it makes sense that a lot of breweries are located in larger cities.
- Everyone in Argentina is obsessed with mate. So much so that they are willing to walk everywhere with their straw and cup full of tea leaves and a large thermos of hot water. You can read more about it on wikipedia if you are interested.
- We’d read that buses are often over-air conditioned so we always make sure to bring a coat or fleece. But what happens when the heater is on full blast for all eight hours? If you answered “sweat,” come to the front to collect a prize.
- Spanish is a lot more difficult to understand down here. In Chile they speak very quickly, while in Argentina they have replaced certain sounds with others as a result of their strong Italian influence. For example, pollo (chicken) is normally pronounced “po-yo” but in Argentina it is pronounced “po-scho” (ll switches from a “y” sound to a “sch” sound).
Fast Facts
- Most time wasted trying to cross a border: 7 hours at the border going from Santiago to Mendoza
- Best beer: Jester’s Luptopia
- Best pizza: Pizzería Güerrin in Buenos Aires (Thanks, Hyelee!!)
- Favorite city: El Chalten, Argentina
- Best birthday celebration: hiking to Laguna Esmerelda for Vesper’s 29th!