Argentina | Chasing the Cheese

By the beginning of October we were reaching the pointy end of our trip and our funds were running precariously low. So we decided to check out Workaway for volunteer opportunities in Argentina. We came across Susan and Dave’s post on the website and it sounded perfect. A few quick emails and then it was confirmed that we would spend a bit under 2 weeks with them on their property.

We caught an overnight bus from Buenos Aires to San Rafael, which is a few hours south of Mendoza. We were picked up by Susan and Dave at the bus station and were taken straight to a party – my kind of people! Dave and Susan meet up with their expat friends each Sunday for an afternoon of food, wine and bocce, and luckily we were invited too.

Dave and Susan’s property is located 30 minutes or so out of San Rafael. We were given our own two bedroom house and food for breakfast each day in exchange for four hours of work each morning Monday to Friday. A very fair deal we thought! While on the finca we built a bridge, fixed chairs and helped clean up the property. Dave and Susan’s daughter, Tiv, was on holiday in Miami (lucky thing!) for most of the time we were there, but we did get to spend a bit of time with her during our final days too.

We had such a good time in San Rafael! Lots of amazing meals (steak cooked to medium rare on the asado instead of well done in the restaurants), some intense games of Spades, fun afternoons of poker games with the expat crew and lots of laughter over 4.6 flagons of malbec. Ryan managed to catch catfish out of the river at the back of the property and taught Tiv the techniques for a set-line. One of the other great things about living on the finca was having pets again! Catorce and Rex are amazing dogs, and the cats are pretty cool too.

We highly recommend doing Workaway with Susan, Dave and Tiv if you ever make it down to San Rafael! We couldn’t have asked for more generous and welcoming hosts. Thanks guys!

After a nightmare bus ride from Uyuni to the Bolivia-Argentina border (think 10 hours in an old, overheated bus on unpaved roads hurtling through the Bolivian desert with a box of baby chickens sitting above our heads) we arrived in Salta. We spent a few days recovering from the journey, as well as watching the All Blacks versus Pumas rugby match and partying at Loki’s first birthday party for its Salta hostel (there are some crazy photos from this night but I have, perhaps luckily, misplaced them).

Then it was on to Buenos Aires! Only a short 24-hour bus ride later, of course. Buenos Aires is like no other South American city I have visited – it feels more European than anything, like a cross between Barcelona and Paris. We stayed at the Milhouse Avenue, which has some of the most impressive hostel facilities I have seen in all of South America. We spent our first few days getting our bearings in the centro area with a little sightseeing of some of Buenos Aires’ political and historical monuments. Buenos Aires also meant two of my favourite South American gastronomic delights – red wine and empanadas!

My birthday coincided with our Buenos Aires visit. We spent the day exploring the San Telmo area, which has beautiful cobbled stoned streets, boutique shops and lots of alfresco cafes where people dance tango on the street. I also found the most legit flat white I’ve had since Melbourne at the excellent Coffee Town in the San Telmo Market.

That evening we headed to the Palermo district to meet up with our friends, Mike and Sarah, who we had met in La Paz. Mike and Sarah had rented a great 11th floor studio apartment through AirBnb so it was pre-drinks there with their friends, Karina and Neil. Our plan had been to dine at the famous La Cabrera, one of Buenos Aires’ top steak houses that offer a happy hour between 7pm and 8pm where you get 50% off the entire bill. Unfortunately the restaurant was full by the time we arrived so we wandered along Calle Thames until we came across Romano’s. From there it was huge steaks on the asado and bottle after bottle of Argentinian malbec. The girls were lovely and organised an impromptu birthday cake and bottle of bubbles to celebrate my birthday. The evening was topped off by more wine and some large chunks of stilton back at the apartment.

We didn’t achieve much else in Buenos Aires, partly due to our red wine hangovers but also due to a lack of funds. I would love the opportunity to go back to check out La Boca and Le Tigre, as well as further explore Palermo.