(Pre-Wedding) Honeymoon, Part VII - Torres del Paine - Explora Patagonia!

Finally, we were en route to Explora Patagonia – one of the most anticipated highlights of our trip.  A 5 star resort set in the middle of the Torres del Paine national park – one of the most untouched areas of deep Patagonia.  It seemed like the perfect blend of adventure and pure pampering.  The only question was would it live up to our expectations?

And the answer, quite simply, was yes.  In fact, I’d say it even crept a bit past our expectations.

Our driver to the Chilean border, Patric, was extremely nice.  By coincidence, he is a professional guide as well, so his English was perfect and he pointed out interesting wildlife spottings along the way, including hares, guanacas, reas and even pink flamingos!  The journey was not a short one – about a  4 hour car ride to the first border and then a short journey in no-man’s-land – a very strange 10km stretch where we were neither in Argentina nor Chile – until we reached Chile and our Explora transfer point.

Straddling the border...

We arrived a bit early, but the Explora van was already there waiting so we rendezvoused in a coffee shop while the others arrived at the border.  From that moment onwards, we were taken under the Explora wing…

(Pre-Wedding) Honeymoon, Part VI - El Calafate

We awoke early this morning to catch our flight to El Calafate.  We did not spend too much time doing any homework on this destination except that we knew it was Explora’s recommended transfer site in order to get to the hotel in Torres del Paine.  So, we booked a room at the Design Suites Calafate (continuing our Design Suites tour from Bariloche) in hopes of having a relaxing afternoon there before continuing on our journey the next day to Explora.

The flight was quite easy and we collected our belongings and took a taxi to the hotel. 

(Pre-Wedding) Honeymoon, Part V - Bariloche, continued! Conquering the Rainbows!

This morning our fly fishing guide, Nico, arrived at the hotel and whisked us off to our first ever fly-fishing expedition.  Along with his cousin, we hopped in their van, pulling along a raft and headed to the Limay River with a stop at the local convenience store to get our fishing licenses for the today.

Nico told us all about nymph versus dry flies (dry ones sit on the surface) and how 90% of the eating happens underwater which is why we’re using nymphs – to maximize our chances of landing a fish.  At minimum, he hoped we’d get at least 2 strikes by the end of our half day together.  Our expectations were appropriately set.

We put on our gear and set out near the mouth of the river, the outflow of Nahuel that headed to the Atlantic Ocean.

(Pre-Wedding) Honeymoon, Part IV - Bariloche

We checked out of the Sheraton Iguazu yesterday morning with a pleasant surprise - they found my memory card totally unscathed!  Well, almost totally unscathed as we discovered later.  Strangely enough there was one new picture on the card and we weren't too thrilled with the location of the photo but we'll pretend it was some innocent moment that just happened to happen while viewing our memory card in someone else's camera hovering near a toilet in the Iguazu Sheraton.

Very avant-garde photography skills...

We had a connection through our favorite airport - Newberry Airport - the domestic BA airport where we spent much too much time trying to get to Iguazu.  At least on this go around we got corrent information and found wi-fi, some good wine, and a pretty solid empanada.

Our flight to Bariloche proceeded smoothly and we headed out to our hotel, The Design Suites Hotel, just outside of the city center.

(Pre-Wedding) Honeymoon, Part III - Iguazu Falls

After a lovely and unexpected 6 hours of wifi-less time at the BA domestic airport, we finally arrived in Iguazu.  Our taxi was awaiting us and we were off into the jungle!

After about a 40 minute drive we arrived at our destination - the Sheraton Iguazu - the only hotel located inside the park.  From what we were told this is a huge advantage and makes the not inexpensive price tag and the somewhat outdated facility worthwhile.  Having no frame of reference, i'll agree that is was very convenient to be able to walk out of our hotel and into the jungle and all the tours.  And, as an added bonus, thanks to our friend, T-Bone who has connections to Starwoods, we got upgraded to a falls view room - we could actually see and hear the falls crashing in the distance from our cozy bed.

Our view - devil's throat off in the distance...

We also were in striking distance of the local monkeys...

(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...