A night at the opera

We are back in Buenos Aires now and staying in La Recoleta neighbourhood. It is beautiful! 

Just a short cab ride away from our apartment is the Teatro Colon - one of the foremost opera houses in the world! National Geographic ranked it third best in the world and it is acoustically considered to be one of the five best concert venues in the world!

We were lucky enough to be in town during an opera performance - The Fiery Angel - so took this opportunity to actual see an opera live here! You can take a tour of the venue as well, but why do that when you can experience the real thing! 

We had tickets on the second highest balcony. 

This was our view when standing from our seats. :-s I was promised partial view seats... But these turned out to be partial view if leaning really forward, but still not really. But because we were so high up we got some really great photos!

The venue is amazing! Around the ceiling are names of opera composers, and then around the upper level balcony are engraved names of operas. 

So the opera began... In the original Russian... With surtitles en Español... With Brad and I barely able to see the stage. Now normally with any opera, regardless of the language, you kinda get the gist of what is going on. The Fiery Angel is a whole different story. It is weird and dark and there was nudity... And a priest eating a child... And a different priest doing medical experiments on people... And a love triangle where one of the men in the love triangle is never featured on stage (we figured that out by reading the synopsis post-show in English). Anyways - if you are able to see this opera ever - do! It was really good!! Just really strange. 

Like any good event-goer, Brad had scoped out some better seats for us to steal for the second half. Our backs were getting sore from all the leaning! So we went one level down to the "standing room only" area. Keep in mind this building was opened in 1908!

But! We had a way better view from here!

We were sitting in some empty seats waiting for intermission to end, when a man came up to us and started speaking Spanish. Turned out that he also spoke fluent English and French - so we were fine. He had to leave part way through the second half to catch a flight and wanted to know if we would switch seats with him! We explained that these weren't actually our seats, but that they were empty so he could sit in them. He still insisted on giving us his seats... So this was our view for the second half!

Quite the upgrade from our initial seats!

After the curtain fell, we snuck down to the bottom level! If you have crappy seats they don't let you enter through the front door so we missed all the grandiosity of it. But they couldn't stop us from leaving out the front! 

Look at this magnificent entryway!

And the ceiling!

There was also a MASSIVE bust of Mozart's head that I didn't get a picture of. We were being shooed out. 

Overall - a wonderful evening in a beautiful venue!! I highly recommend both the Teatro Colon and The Fiery Angel!

Creatures of the Jungle

I didn't want to sully the waterfall post with anything but waterfall goodness! So here is another post dedicated to the creatures of the jungle - large and small!

The most prevalent creature by far was the Coati. 

They are like the raccoons of the jungle. There are signs everywhere warning you of the dangers of these creatures. 

But just like the raccoons in Stanley park - there were tourists and children getting super close to the Coatis!! Brad and I were using a water bottle to make terrible noises to keep them away from us. To be honest - I didn't see any get aggressive... But some were definitely more haggard looking than others - and nobody wants to go get a rabies shot and a dozen stitches. 

 Moving on to cuter creatures! This butterfly was following Brad around for a while. It's the same colour as his shoe!

There were butterflies everywhere at Iguazu. More than I have seen in all my life combined. We were walking up some steps by ourselves and we were just surrounded by hundreds of butterflies everywhere. It was magical! 

There were also Monkeys! This one was trying to wield a big stick at the tourists. We didn't stay to see how it panned out. 

There were also lizards everywhere. This wasn't the biggest one we saw. Someone was taking a picture of it with a big camera and it started to charge at the lens! Danger town. 

This is a small one that clearly had no fear. Brad was super close to it - it's maybe the size of your hand. 

We also saw 4 toucans! Although I didn't get any pictures of them. There were so many birds making such beautiful sounds! Unfortunately no pictures of them either. I did, however, take a picture of this tiny bug. 

Welcome to the Jungle

I have been trying to figure out what to say about our time in Iguazu Falls - and there are really no words to describe this place beyond amazing! No description I give it will do it any justice. So instead... This post will just be a whole bunch of pictures with some captions here and there. Enjoy! 

There are a ton of waterfalls that make up Iguazu. Same portion of falls above as below. 

Brad with a Rosewood tree! The tallest in the jungle. 

The Devil's Throat

Looking through the mist created by the Devils throat. 

Devil's throat in the distance - me not paying attention. 

Brad up close and personal with another area of the falls. 

If you ever have a chance to see this amazing place - absolutely do it!! 

Brad's Favourite Day Yet!

Our third day in Mendoza we went to the Uco Valley (or Valle de Uco en Español). This is one of the newer regions of wine making in Mendoza and is nestled right up against the Andes Mountains. Most of the vineyards are at about 1200m above sea level. The stage that this wine growing region is being compared to right now is the Napa Valley region in the 1970s (Andrea, Danielle, and Alex - that should give you some perspective.... Or maybe not??). In this region we visited 3 wineries that were much larger and more commercial than the Luon de Cuyo wineries from yesterday. 

We did an official wine tour with Trout & Wine tours. Our guides were great! Brad and I were last to board so we were sitting right near the front of the bus with Ivan (our driver) and the guide for the day (whose name I've forgotten...). We learned a lot of random Argentinian info. Like there is a Spanish word made up of soccer phenom Lionel Messi's name that means "Awesome". So if something is awesome - you can say it is "inmessionante". 

Our first winery was Pulenta and wasn't officially in the Uco Valley, but it was on the way, and apparently a favourite of previous guests. They don't often get to come to this winery, so it was a treat for us. Especially for Brad!

Pulenta is the official winery of Porche! Who knew?! They had two working Porche engines and the one in the middle is a Ferrari F1 v12 engine!! They used to also be the Ferrari Winery until Ferrari brought everything back to Italy. The owner of the winery asked in jest to have an F1 engine as a parting gift, and Ferrari sent one! (or something like that... I honestly wasn't listening and was scolded by a member of our group hours later for asking how they got a Ferrari engine when they were the Porche winery)  

The tasting was terrific as well!! Before we tasted the wines, we played a "game" where all 12 people in the tasting had to do blind smell tests. This was to show how hard it is to locate certain smells when you can't see them. It was tough! Some were really easy (like coffee and chocolate) but some were so hard to place! Like bell peppers, oregano, and even vanilla! It was a great tasting experience for sure. 

Afterwards we took a look at the vines from afar - it was raining. 

They have Kevlar netting to protect the vines from hail! Apparently the hail can be like softballs. 

They even had a science lab there! Who knew?!

Our next stop was actually in Uco Valley - Sophenia. 

To be honest... I wasn't super impressed with the wines here. What I was impressed with was this crazy cellar full of wine!!

Look at the awe in my face! The ceilings were 12 feet high and it was stacked solid with bottles they were aging! Another highlight of this winery was when Brad asked "donde est la bano" and the WHOLE group was taken on a behind the scenes look at the wine warehouse and bottling plant!! It was awesome! I kinda wanted to put my forklift skills to use. ;) 

Pretty cool!

Our last winery was by far my favourite. Andeluna. We had a 6 course meal with wine pairing and everything was unbelievably good. To the point that I actually bought a bottle of wine that I have been toting around Argentina with me! 

Not all of those wine glasses were for us though ;)

After lunch (and a day of tasting) we were toured around the winery where photos like this happened...

All in all an AMAZING day. Thanks to the group for making it so fun :)

Mendoza Day 2

On our second day in Mendoza we went to 3 wineries in the Luon de Cuyo valley. The Luon de Cuyo region is the oldest wine growing region in Mendoza, and we were able to tour some vines that had been planted since the 1920s!

We got a driver for the day - Claudio - who was a great guy and told us a lot about the region! The first vineyard we went to was Achàval Ferrer. I unfortunately didn't take any photos at this winery, but it was beautiful (it was still early in the morning!). It was on the banks of the Mendoza River - which has actually been dry for the past 5 years due to irrigation. Claudio and I were making some awesome jokes about all of the water sports we should do on the "river". "Let's have a swimming race across!"; "Let's go canoeing!" - I'm hilarious. Haha. 

I digress! This winery is the place that put Argentinian wines on the map internationally. It's 2010 Bella Vista Malbec was ranked as one of the top 10 red wines in the world. We were able to taste three 100% malbecs right from the barrel. Each Malbec was grown in a different wine region at different altitudes, but was produced using the same technique. They all tasted so different it, was really interesting!! I had never tasted from the barrel before - and I have to admit, I could taste the youngness of the wines. I would LOVE to try their aged Malbecs. Overall - great winery definitely worth visiting! I only wish I could have bought some of their wine!

Our next vineyard I took tons of pictures. Our host for the (private!) tour was AMAZING! Her passion for wines and Mendel winery was incredible. The vines here were planted in the 1920s. 

Side note - roses are planted EVERYWHERE in Mendoza! They are meant to distract the bees from the vines. 

Our host told us all about how they grow the grapes! In order to create new vines, they don't clone the vines, they plant one of the branches of the existing vine and eventually another vine will grow out of it. Once the vine is established, they will cut the connection between the two. Super cool! 

They also showed us their wine tanks and barrels. The building where they make the wine is original to the property - so is almost 100 years old! 

I also learned something new about the winemaking process here. They do not crush the grapes! If you crush the grapes, you can damage the seed inside and it will release a bitter taste into the wine. What they do is drop the grapes from about 2 stories up into a barrel and they break open on their own. Everything they do at this vineyard is very natural. I loved it here! 

Our last winery of the day was Melipel. We had a 5 course tasting lunch! Each course was paired with one of their wines! Before lunch, we got a tour of the winery. 

A lot of French oak is used in this area. They only use it 2-3 times before they dispose of it. Their best wines get the new oak, and then their lower end wines get the second and third uses. 

Lunch was delish!

After a full day of tasting - we were a bit tipsy. I saw this HUGE aloe plant and insisted on brad taking a photo of me with it. In the rain. Isn't it huge!!!

The verdict on day one of wine touring - Brad and I both say the best wine was at Mendel. I think the best overall experience was at Mendel, and Brad thought it was Melipel. 

Tomorrow we are off to the Uco Valley!