Don't cry for us Argentina!

After almost a month we leave a country of asados, parillas, empanadas, good wine, pampa and gauchos. And tango...;-)
We are heading to the north, taking the 10 hrs bus ride in ruta national 51.
Below, some impressions from Argentina.

 

 

Biking our way through the Road of 365 curves

Incredible scenery

We started quite early in Mendoza. We drove towards Uspallata, tte village in a scenic location on the road which crosses the Andes between Mendoza and Santiago in Chile. The road to the Chilean border incorporates some of the most amazing scenery in the region, the Andean mountains in this part being part of the backdrop of the highest peak out of the ANDES, Aconcagua at almost 7,000 metres above sea level.

Few years ago, "7 years in Tibet" was shoot here, as there were too many limitations to make it in Tibet.

Just take a look:

Our guide - Louis picked us up with his cool Lada car. (Yes, indeed it was LADA!!!!).  We started naturally with yerba mate.

 

...for the good start of the day...

 

 

We were about to do a Road of 365 curves, former, the only road between Argentina and Chile.  Of course by bike.... hell yeah!

  We started at a view point towards Aconcagua.

The road RP 52, also called ruta de un año, is unpaved once you get past Villavicenzio, but it is wide enough to feel safe and does not need a 4 wheel drive car to do it. There were a few rocks across the at various places which made it look dramatic, but it's no real problem, even for a city people like us:) !

Ready to go.

 

However, we didn't expect clouds on the other side.

 

 

Later on it got little foggy...

But finally we made it to the picknick place!!!

 Although the weather at the other side was not perfect, we enjoyed the day a lot with the good company. 

Argentina: Cambio/Exchange/Dollares/Euros...no Pesos! please

This post is all about money. Its one of the most difficult questions, how to access money during traveling. Are credit cards working? Traveler Cheques? Cash? At university my prof always told "Cash is King", meaning that it does not harm to have some cash with you.

Knowing that, we wrote down all countries we want to visit during our journey plus the respective currency as well as the current exchange rate.

For Argentina, this of course was Pesos.

But there is something, we were not quite aware of, its not Pesos which is important to have, but every other currency.

To give a little bit of background:

Argentina had a big crisis economy crisis during the years 1998-2002. Breakdown of the financial system, political instability, resignation of the president Mr de la Rua and so on.

Ever since, the government tries to recover...economy went up again. Status quo today however is the fact, that there are many signes, which especially the "older generation" of Argentina had "all seen before". And experienced their outcome during the crisis.

Right now, the economy is not that good anymore...the increase of the GDP changed to a decrease and there is a big inflation during the last years. Officially speaking, the inflation is at a rate between 10-16% during the last years. But knowing that the Argentinian government got post by the International Monetary Fund in February this year because of the "official data" being made look nicer and also referring to some independent institutions as well as talking to many Argentineans during our trip, the inflation is more likley to be around 25-30%...per year.

Knowing this, two things are not surprising:

Almost everywhere it is possible to pay in Dollars or Euros; some activities we did we had to pay in Dollars; people asking you for Cambio (Exchange) all the time.

Second, Argentina is way cheaper once you pay in EUR or Dollars, as you get a massive discount. This of course makes sense, as it is still a good bargain to give a discount of 15% if you could avoid loosing parts of your wealth facing inflation at around 30%.

As a logical response to that development, people are saving in other currencies than in Pesos. Every car or house sale, every bigger transaction is basically quoted and done in USD. People would even more try to get dollars...BUT...yes there is a but.

6 months ago, the government made it illegal to sell respectively buy Dollars in Argentina. Basically this was implemented in order to strengthen the Peso and to lower the inflation (this is what we understood). If it makes sence? I leave this completely up to you to think about this. For me, most likely not knowing all the facts and basing this blog also on talks with people with no economic background, it does not add up for the moment.
I almost forgot, yes, there is a way to get Dollars...as always, there is a street market for the so called "blue dollars". Official FX rate: 1:5; street rate: 1:8,5.

A further factor is, that this limits people in their traveling...without having cash (and now we are back at the beginning; remembering "Cash is King") their way of having money during their trip is through credit card (with a special tax on top of everything they buy). And this makes it very expensive.


For us, all the above were surprising facts which we didn`t know to that extend. We will follow the development and keeping our fingers crossed, that Argentina will not experience another crisis...!

PS: As stated, the above is a mixture of all we experienced during our time in Argentina in reading, talking, discussing and researching. It for sure does not reflect all factors and all opinions...(haha...some of you might "smell" the disclaimer of responsibility, yes thats what it is :-) ). And yes, we once went to the bank and asked them for Dollars...insistently, repetitively and with a very surprised face we received the "no, there are no dollars here for you"...I think we were the laugh of the day for them :-))).  

Cordilliera Frontal

Lucky us....

... that we are not in Buenos Aires st the moment !

Meat maters

The Asado.

If you wanna prepare a good asado, you need to know which meat to choose.

Therefore, together with our guide: Teresita we went to butchery in order to get a good overview on their products. (This is not a post for vegetarians ;))

Firstly, we visited a local butchery for shopping.

 

I felt overwhelmed.

 

In the meantime, Teresita explained us the differences between all the sorts of meat. The right asado consists of:

• chinchulines (intestines)
• morcillas (black and normal)
• mollejas (sweet bread)
• steak meat (matambre), meat from leg
• ribs   

Best steak meat belongs to spine (all sorts) and legs. The most popular though comes from around the belt (flanco) and stomach (entrana). 

To prepare the meat you only need to add enough salt and smoke it very slowly in a low fire on a special argenitinian smoked wood imported from north of Argentina. The bones should be faced toward the fire.

Before:

 

and after: 

The classic asado can be served with chimichurri sauce. 

Ingredients:

• fresh parsley
• onion
• oregano
• red pepper
• green part of onion
• good olive
• salt&pepper

The sauce tastes different when you leave it for few days in the fridge. Both options are possible.

 Creol sauce (Tomato Salsa):

• pepper&salt
• tomatoes
• red pepper
• onion
• vinegar
• olive oil

 

 

Empanadas

Empanadas - the must eat in Argentina. 

 To get a better feeling of Argentinian cuisine, we took a cooking classes.

Empanada is a stuffed bread or pastry baked or fried. The name comes from the Galician, Portuguese and Spanish verb empanar, meaning to wrap or coat in bread. Empanadas are made by folding dough or bread around stuffing, which usually consists of a variety of meat, cheese or vegetables. 

They are often served at parties as a starter or main course. The dough is usually of wheat flour and beef drippings with fillings, it is mainly chicken; in others, beef (cubed or ground depending on the region) is used, perhaps spiced with cumin and paprika; others include onion, boiled egg, olives, or raisins. Empanadas can be baked (Salta-style) or fried (Tucuman-style). 

That's all for the theory, now let's have some practice. Our teacher - Teresita was a great host. She invited us to her cosy apartment where with a glass of wine in one hand - we could start our tasks...

Ingredients.

Dough: White flour. Lard (10% of the flour). Salty water.

Count 5-6 empanadas per person as a main course.

Filling: onion. beef (both same amount). oil. butter. sweet paprica. pepper and cumin. raisins. 

Prepare the filling:

• Finely chop the beef into 1 cm. square pieces. 
• Cook the  white onions in the beef fat or oil until tender.
• Add the paprika, cumin, salt, and chili pepper, and stir well.
• Add the beef and cook until just browned. Add 1/2 to 1 cup water and simmer for 5-10 minutes more, allowing water to boil off. The filling should be juicy but not watery, and the meat should be tender
   

Leave it for 1 day in the fridge. The next day:

• Stir in the green onions, optional raisins, green olives and hard boiled eggs. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Prepare the dough:

• Cut the lard or shortening into the flour until well blended. Slowly stir in the water a little at a time.

• Turn the dough out onto a flat surface and knead.
• Add more water if necessary until the dough comes together into smooth clump. If you add too much water and the dough is too sticky, you can knead in some more flour.
• Knead the dough for 5 to 10 minutes, until it is smooth and stretchy.

Shape the empanadas:

• Cut the dough into small balls, roll out each ball into rounds.

•  Place 1-2 tablespoons of filling in the middle of a dough round. Brush edges of circle with water. Fold the round in half over the filling, and press down hard along the edges to seal. 

• Starting at one end of the pressed-down edge, fold the edge towards the middle and press down.  Continue around the sealed edge of the empanada, folding the edge over itself, to make a twisted rope effect.

Fry your empanadas fully covered in sunflower oil (the more, the better) until they get brown color. Dry them in paper, cover in little sugar.

Now they are ready to EAT!!!

 

Woran denkt Basti???