(Pre-Wedding) Honeymoon, Part XXIII - Show's Over

We awoke in BA, fairly well rested, nearly all packed, and ready to set out on our final day in South America.  The glorious ride of the pre-wedding honeymoon, slowly coming to a gradual stop.

Our plan for the day was to wander Palermo, do some shopping, have a good meal or two, relax and then head off to the airport to being our long journey home.

I'm happy to say, we accomplished all these items.  The spoils of the day included...

(Pre-Wedding) Honeymoon, Part XXII - The Longest Day Ever...

445am wake ups on your honeymoon are not so fun.  We slowly peeled ourselves out of bed, finished the packing and got dressed for an excursion that promised freezing cold morning conditions at the Geyser and bathing at the hot springs.  Tough packing.

We met up with everyone at 530 and made sure the guide knew we had to be back by 12:10 to catch the transfer to our flight.  They did not say no problem right off the bat which made us a bit nervous.  But we forged ahead regardless.

The trip to the El Tatio geysers, at 4400M elevation, was about 2 hours.  GG and I dozed en route.

We arrived into a field with tall plumes of steam escaping all over the place – the releasing of magma-heating pressure with the cold air above (at sunrise it's actually only in the upper 30 degrees Fahrenheit). 

(Pre-wedding) Honeymoon, Part II - Buenos Aires Continues!

Great success on dinner last evening…although San Telmo was a bit seedy and filled with strange antique shops, we did manage to find a chihuahua trivet made by a local Argentine designer for $6.

Before dinner, we walked across the river to visit Puerto Madero, a former warehouse/industrial district that has been aggressively developed as a new arts district care of the Phillip Starck designed Faena Hotel + Universe which just opened during my first visit to BA in 2005.  Now, the area has become highly developed with an entire waterfront eating plaza and walkway and tons of high rises that did not exist when I was last there.

We enjoyed a poolside cocktail and a snack of nachos while we stared at the infinity pool that had a big crown plopped right in the middle (I would never be able to swim laps in that piece).

Then we wandered back to San Telmo and the restaurant at a leisurely pace to arrive just in time for our 9p reservation (for which we were a few mins early still)...

(Pre-Wedding) Honeymoon, Part I - Buenos Aires!

Exciting news - Grits Girl and Have Palate, Will Travel are finally tying the knot!  Hurrah!

To celebrate, we both decided to become unemployed and spend a month traveling around South America.  We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to pick the perfect place for this once in a lifetime opportunity - go somewhere really far, really difficult to see on a shorter timeline, and really not conducive to a junior grits girl toddling around.  Therefore, we selected South America - namely because of adventures in distant areas like Patagonia and the Atacama desert in Chile (the driest desert on earth).

We flew in to Buenos Aires on Wednesday via St. Louis to qualify for my annual executive platinum status - unbelievably inefficient but worth it for some premium class amenities for another year!  Check out how happy GG is here!

Since arrival, we've been exploring one of my favorite cities...