Baby Got Malbec

As the glacier-chilled wind whips down from the spiky towers of Torres del Paine National Park and blasts against the “windows” of our geodesic dome here at EcoCamp, I must confess that our sun and wine-filled week in Mendoza a couple of weeks ago feels like a world away. But I’ll do my best to provide some highlights from our week in Argentina’s most famous wine country. Let me just open up this bottle of Malbec here and see if that helps to get the creative juices flowing. Mmmm. Yep, it’s all coming back to me…

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Big Night

So, we’ve been eating a lot in Italy – and not just the 32 pizzas Dustin wrote about in our last entry. Whether it’s homemade tagliatelle with a wild boar ragu… or a huge terra cotta crock containing every species of edible fish and crustacean just pulled from the sea that day… or fresh, homemade ravioli coated in butter and sage that literally melt in your mouth… or Dustin’s daily (and sometimes twice-daily) order of un gelato con cioccolato e bacio… or any of the other gustatory delights we’ve been lucky enough to sample in this country of food lovers, we have definitely made eating (and drinking) a primary focus of our time here on the boot. (If you don’t believe us, we have several pairs of pants that no longer fit that we’d be happy to show you. :)

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Hippies & Hahei & Hot Water, Oh My!

Well, we said farewell to gumboots and free wi-fi a few hours after our last post – Mr. Scoobs made a miraculous recovery thanks to some good luck and a very talented local mechanic, and we made it to Wellington only four hours later than expected. We’re in a lovely idyllic hostel in Picton now, waiting to catch a boat up to the northern end of the Queen Charlotte Track. We’ll spend the next two and a half days hiking back down the track along the Marlborough Sound, and then we’ll reconnect with the Stray bus on Sunday. Especially after not being able to do the Tongariro Crossing earlier this week, we’re both really looking forward to getting out on a trail for a few days (assuming Dusty’s ankle holds up!).

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