Homeward Bound

It's all over. We're currently packing up and getting ready to check out of our hotel room. We've already checked in online for our flight and it says that we're getting a plane with the individual sleeper pods for the trip home. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Last night we went out for dinner with Claire, Paul, Marc, and Mike (two friends of ours that rented an apartment here for a month, and two others that have relocated to Buenos Aires until the fabulousness of the city wears off) to celebrate Ry's 40th birthday. Ryan and I had booked a Christmas dinner meal with a restaurant that we went to last night. It was a really expensive booking but we thought, 'tis the season. We had to prepay the meal but ended up canceling to spend Christmas with our friends, and the restaurant would only give us credit. We found out later that the price we payed for Christmas dinner was about six times as a regular meal there. Every place in BA does this because they know tourists will pay for it. For example, Marc and Mike are going to a tango show and dinner on January 2nd and they're paying AR240 which works out to about $80 per person. The same show on New Years Eve is $300 US. Anyway, all this to say that our 2 person Christmas dinner credit last night bought us appetizers, dinners, and desserts for six, along with a bottle of champagne and two of their best bottles of wine (Note to self: no more prebooking holiday dinners while on holidays).
We had a great time. Claire makes sure events are celebrated properly (if you were at their place for Christmas, you would understand) and had the waiter bring a little cake to the table. As she was requesting the cake, I saw the dread in Ry's eyes. He does not like being the center of attention (Don't worry Claire... it's good for him)... SO we made sure to sing Happy Birthday in English and then again in French (Marc's 1st language). Ryan squirmed a little but he was fine. What I was really hoping was the waiters to make him a giant tinfoil hat and walk him through the restaurant waving sparklers. Maybe I'll arrange that for 41.
Anyway, we need to get going. Hope you all have a great New Years. We'll be somewhere between Santiago, Chile and Toronto when the clock strikes midnight. Before we go, please bow your heads with Ryan and listen to the following clip:


Bye for now!

Back in BA for one last night

Well, that 6:30 am wake up call came very early this morning with the time change meaning we lost an hour of sleep on top of that but it was nice to get to Buenos Aires before noon to enjoy the day here. I can't say we will miss the chaos of Aerolineas Argentina which we have flown 6 times in the last two weeks, the thought of a business class flight home tomorrow on Air Canada does sounds heavenly (I hope they have the individual sleeper pods this time!)

We are staying at the Caesar Park hotel this time. It is a lovely hotel in the Recoleta district which we have stayed in before. While the room is probably the largest we have had this trip it is not quite as glamorous as the Four Seasons or Alvear Palace we stayed at for our last two legs here.

Here are a few photos of our room:




Today we returned to the Palermo district, a kinda funky artsy area, so that we could look at the art again and ended up buying another painting. The art here is very cool and very inexpensive, I am sure the framing will put us back a bit though. We have alot of bare white walls at home so this should fill up a few of them.
We bought the angel with the heart and this is the artist.



Here the artist and his artist buddies are removing the painting from its frame for us to carry home. (Jess is keeping a watchful eye on our new possession)

Tonight we are going out for dinner with Marc, Mike, Clare and Paul but before that we are meeting in our suite to do a wine tasting of a couple of the wines we brought back from Mendoza.

This is just not fair

Apparently, Argentinian daylight savings time starts tonight!!! Great we are already sad enough that our holiday is coming to an end and then they spring this on us. They are taking an hour away!!! On top of that, I turn 40 tomorrow, no need to expedite that day.

Wine, wine and then a little more wine....

We have just finished two days for touring the Mendoza wineries. Mendoza is like Napa Valley in California. There is tonnes of money here, and we say tonnes we mean tonnes. One of the wineries was opened by the second wealthiest man in Switzerland (his brother is the wealthiest) and every room in the huge winery is more glamorous than most of us would ever dream of living in for a home. The wineries host super glamorous (did I use the word glamorous twice in the same paragraph, oops!) lunches to encourage a stream of people to come through the winery that are 6 courses with wines paired with each one, yum!! The wines here are super cheap compared to the prices we pay in Canada. The $20 Malbec we buy at home is $5 here. We tasted wines that sell for $100 at the winery and let me tell you, there IS a difference. Amazing! For these super premium wines, the wine makers only use 300 grams per vine of the finest grapes where a winery like Ernest & Julio Gallo that you buy for $7 a bottle uses 5000 grams (5kg) per vine. Anyhow, we are currently strategizing how we are going to get the 9 bottles of premium wine we have acquired across the border. We leave to Buenos Airs tomorrow for a day before our long trip home to Canada. I can hardly bare the thought...drama.

Jess chillaxing at the Aneluna winery.
Jess being contemplative over a glamour lunch at O-Fournier winery.

Touring the vineyard. Ya, ya, sweetheart, we have heard it all before, where is the tasting room?

Jess and I in the cellar of Pulento winery, now how do we slip one of these barrels into our suitcase???

Just To Give You An Example

We posted recently about the conversations we've been having or trying to have with our driver. All three of us have been doing our best to speak Spanglish but it hasn't been working very well. Here's a snippet of todays conversation:

Ryan: I can see why you don't like driving to this winery. It's very far from the city.

Driver: Yes, in the car is my lunch.

(Pause)

Jess: Do you drive to this winery often?

Driver: Me no like the sandwich, so it's zucchini. It's good.

Cruising Around Wine Country

So far, so... SO good! Ryan and I spent the day touring around Mendoza and the surrounding area wine tasting at various wineries. I know the last posting made it sound like we were going to be hammered by noon but that was not the case (believe it or not). If you have been to the Napa Valley in California, you know that the wineries are plentiful and that they are situated very close together. You could easily spend a weekend there and hit 40 wineries with many to spare. Here in Mendoza, not so much. Tomorrow for example, the first winery we are slated to go to is 100 km. away. So today, we went to four wineries and tomorrow, we are going to be seeing three. Being at the wineries today was really interesting. Below are two pictures from a tour we took. The first picture is our guide showing us a porthole into a 22,000 gallon concrete tank that they hold the wine in before they transfer it to oak barrels. The second picture is the side view of the tanks we were sitting on. Though they were massive holdings, they are considered average size. I can't really give you more information on the specifics because I started tuning the guide out and envisioning myself doing a cannonball into that tank before the guide closed the lid.
One of the wine tours today also included lunch and it was just what we needed. Another "quick lunch" which included (as all meals here seem to include) a 1 lb. steak. Lunch consisted of 5 different courses but it wasn't because the food was spectacular and created by a gourmet chef. The courses were an excuse to offer wine pairings in order to sell you bottles once lunch was over. As the waitress poured our sample of Malbec for the final course, my glass seemed to get a splash more than Ryan's. This seemed to be happening every time the wine was poured. This did not go over well with Dr. "Name removed, patient's could google and find me here". Here was his reaction every time this happened (oh, and maybe if the picture blows up big enough when you open the picture, you'll be able to see his wine moustache):
Our driver is pretty hilarious. He thinks he speaks English really well. We pretend to understand him. Occasionally the planets align and everyone is understanding what the other is saying but so far this hasn't worked out very well. We were surprised to see a Wal-Mart here and I tried explaining that Vancouver wouldn't allow the company to build in our city. Ryan made fun of me for it later... and rightly slow. It was clear that the conversation was going nowhere fast. However, I wasn't the only one that was making an ass of myself. Ryan started out our morning by looking at the driver with widening eyes, listened for about three minutes, waited for the long uncomfortable pause and said "This is a busy little place you have here." Translates really easily for someone struggling with the language. We have the same guy tomorrow so we'll see how we do.

In Transit

In 10 minutes, we're leaving for Iguazu International Airport where we'll be boarding at one of the two gates. We are on our way back to Buenos Aires and then going straight to Mendoza, the wine country of Argentina. I think we're expected to arrive there at 9:00 p.m.

So... no post today. I have a feeling the post tomorrow might make up for it though. We are wine tasting from 8:30 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.

Wandering Around Iguazu National Park

Wow. This place is absolutely spectacular! We are in the heart of the rain forest and there are creepy crawly things popping out of the woodwork that we have never seen before. There is a warning sticker on the sliding glass door in between our hotel room and balcony to ensure that we keep it locked or our room will be invaded by monkeys. Aside from the fist sized bugs, lizards, and brightly coloured birds, we've spotted capybaras and been warned about not feeding the coatis (pictured below rooting for his dinner) because they can turn vicious.
I took this picture today while we were hiking to the various platforms that they have created for people to get close to the falls. There was only a narrow pathway beside these garbage cans for us to get through and while people were walking by, the creature was actually showing it's 2-inch fangs as some sort of defense. This did not bode well for Ryan. Ever since seeing that gigantic cicada on our first day here, his arms start flailing every time he sees a butterfly or a leaf drops from a tree.

Today was a pretty amazing day. It probably even trumped the ice trekking experience. We took the 'Grand Tour' that worked out to be $30 per person and it was worth every cent. We got into these massive open air trucks:
and went through the rain forest as a tour guide pointed out various trees and went through some of the history of the park. Interesting for my inner nerd. The drive ended close to the bottom of the falls and we had to hike down to the boat that was waiting for us:
Once we were on the boat, we went over about 8 miles of river (some of them being rapids until we were right under the falls. Once we had our photo ops, we literally went under the falls. It was amazing. Here is a rare glimpse of Ryan without a slathering of his hair product:
It was an absolutely amazing day. The only thing that is hard to get used to is the temperature combined with the 75-100% humidity. It hasn't been since Taiwan that I've actually felt and seen sweat pouring off of my forehead just from walking down a path. Having said that, I'll take it over snow any day. Here are some other pictures from the day:

Merry Christmas!

Hi everyone, hope you are all having a Merry Christmas. We are in Iguazu National Park at it is hot humid and 30C and to be honest we pretty much forgot it was Christmas day. Last night we had a lovely dinner with friends who are living and on holiday in Buenos Aires which was very nice, lots of lovely wines and at midnight the city erupted with fireworks to celebrate Christmas day, the way we might do New Years at home. Jess and I both woke up with a very foggy head early this morning to pack our bags and head to the airport. The flight to Iguazu is 1.5 hours and was made more enjoyable/tolerable by the fact they were pouring real Champagne. Hair of the dog for breakfast, "Don't mind if I do!". Needless to say we were in MUCH better spirits on our arrive here.

Iguazu is spectacular. It located on the border of Argentina and Brazil and it exactly what you would expect a tropical rainforest to look like.

This is a photo taken from the balcony of our hotel looking at the falls. We are staying at the Sheraton which is nothing fancy but it is the only hotel located within the park so you can walk to the falls and hiking trails easily. As you can see the vegetation is rich and lush just as you would expect from a tropical rainforest. The left side of the photo is Brazil and the right is Argentina.

There are tonnes of big bugs flying around, like this guy....


It's hard to tell from the photo but this critter is the size of a walnut with a 6 inch wingspan. Ya, if that thing lands on me there is gonna be a nelly scream heard clear to the Brazil.

We also had this guy cross our path on our way to the hiking trails today...


There is a good reason the photo is blurry, I was shaking like a leaf, this lizard was over two feet long.

Today we went to the "Devils throat" which is the most spectacular park of the falls that reach 269 ft. You get there by small train and a series of walkways. Here are a few photos :






Tomorrow we have a tour booked that takes us into the jungle and then on a boat right up to the falls, they tell us we will be soaked! Extra hair product is in order..or maybe that shower cap in hotel bathrooms that nobody uses will do the trick.

Conversation

Ryan: What do you want to do today?

Jess: Ummm... Not sure. What about you?

Ryan: Well, we definitely need to go visit Evita's grave one more time before we leave.

Jess: Are you serious?

Ryan: (Silence)

Jess: You do realize that it's not actually Madonna in there, right?

Ryan: Don't even SAY that!!

Nothin' Says Christmas Like a Drag Show

It’s hard to believe that Christmas is the day after tomorrow. Aside from several decorations scattered here and there for the sake of tourists, Christmas does not happen in Argentina. To be honest, I can’t say we’re missing the hoopla of concerts and parties. It’s kind of nice to just let it go by, unnoticed (I have a feeling we’ll be hearing from mother on this one).

Last night we met our friends Marc and Mike for dinner in the Polermo Soho district of the city and ended up going across the street to a bar called Chueca . As we were finishing up, a drag show began so we stayed to check it out. It was absolutely hilarious. I'm not sure what this queens name is but she does a great parody of Celine Dion from the Titanic.

Things have been fairly relaxed since we came back to the city which has been fabulous. We've even taken naps. Ryan has even enjoyed the naps. Today being Sunday, we went to the San Telmo market. It is basically a massive flea market where artists, antique collectors, and anyone that has anything to sell sets up a little kiosk for the day. Also, there were women squeezing fresh orange juice on the street for 5 pesos a glass and amazingly talented puppeteers putting on shows. I think it was the first time I actually felt like were were definitely in non-European foreign country. If it wasn't the sights, it was the smells... kind of a combination of smoked hazelnuts, tobacco, spices, incense, and popcorn. I'm sure I could include dog shit to the mix but it kind of takes away from your mental image.

As we were walking around, I could help but think of one of our friends back in Vancouver named Zoltan. This is the guy that can take something that I would label as "Who the hell would want THIS?!?," recognize its value, and find that person who would want it and make a mint by selling it on Ebay. I knew as Ryan and I were walking around looking at all of the really cool things like vintage telephones and 1950s toys that were still in their boxes, and realizing that they were basically giving things away with the prices they were charging, Zoltan would be furious with us for not taking some of the things home. The thing is, we don't have the eye for it. With our luck, we would have brought home a suitcase full of the things that weren't of any value. I'm sure our friend could have made thousands there today.

Going out for dinner is a sure thing but apart from that, the last two days have been very leisurely. We've just been exploring for the most part.

As the end of the year approaches, Ryan and I have been discussing whether or not we should just be comfortable in the bodies we have, or if we should lose weight. Our latest taxi ride answered the question for us*.

*Actually, this is a car we came across the other day as we walked down the street. Having been there before the police arrived to see inside of the hole and how deep it was, we were wondering if we should be walking a little more gingerly. Seriously, how does that happen? "Just pave it man, just pave it! No one will know there is nothing holding it up!"

Reality Check

We just had a really good friend post a comment regarding our ridiculous attitude to things like the Hermes products and the ridiculous plane rides. O.k... we understand that we have some explaining to do, especially to those of you that don't know us.

When we say things like "these non-Hermes products are burning our skin," we're not actually serious (OK, well maybe a bit... maximum 10%... but seriously, the products in that bathroom felt like the homemade soap that my grandma used to make. I don't think grams had a name for it but 'Lemon Lye' would have been good) and truth be told, the plane rides were kind of fun save the passengers that were not inclined to wear deodorant. After pouring over the last few posts, I realized I need to clear a few things up. Things are sounding rather snooty. Yes, we have a nice place and we love where we live. We acknowledge that we are (as 'moms the word' would say) lucky, lucky boys... however... you need to know that Hermes products do not exist in our home. In fact, there is currently a bottle of Herbal Essences in our shower. Our walls are bare, save artwork given to us (or sold to us at cost) by our amazingly talented friends. When my friends and I get together to throw down a few drinks, we usually opt for Sola. A refreshing, crispy (read: varnish) white wine that does not signify the actual grape they are using. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a powder mixed with water. So, for those of you that have been rolling your eyes, take it with a grain of salt.

What brought all of this up? We overheard two English families talking last night while we were waiting to be seated for dinner. The mothers were talking about their ski instructor in the Alps. The conversation went something like this:
Mumsie #1: Did you have the same instructor as I?
Mumsie #2: I did. He's very well bred you know.
Musmie #1: Indeed. He went to Eton you know.

Well bred? People actually say things like that? Was their instructor a really well trained horse? For crying out loud! We continued to watch them and one of the fathers nearly blew a gasket when he realized that one of his children would have to sit with their legs on either side of a table leg. Oh the humanity! It was seriously gross. Anyway, all of this to say that if you had previously lumped us into the same category as the 'Mumsies,' please reconsider.

Also... I'm going to stick up for my boy right now. Drilling inside someone's mouth all day is not an easy task. Imagine having to stick your nose into a post-caesar salad cavity only to find a gingivitis surprise! Granted, he plays hard but he works even harder (I would say that I do the same except that I'm not going to see a decent paycheck until this MA is complete in June). In fact, this is probably a good time to tell you that there is another man in our relationship. His name is Frank Spears. He runs dental conferences and makes DVD tutorials for dentists. Ryan has been to a million of these conferences and purchases the DVDs every time he goes. Guess when he plays them? Ya... nothing like waking up on Saturday morning looking for a little nookie only to realize that Ryan is already mesmerized by Frank preparing teeth for exquisite porcelain veneers. Hot, don't you think? Seriously, at this rate the only way I can compare with Frank is if I can somehow come up with an eau de toilette that smells like cheeseburgers and french fries with a side of mayo that I can spritz on myself.

Now that that's all over... check out where we're staying NOW!! Well, maybe not. We'll just tell you that it's the hotel that Madonna stayed at the entire time she was filming Evita (Those of you that don't know Ryan... I had to add that. You know the Salsa Golf inventor? He's the pope of Ryan's religion. Madonna is God. Celine... I don't know, baby Jesus?).

Been there done that, enough of this nature thing!

Hi people, Ryan here, still in Patagonia staring at one of the biggest blocks of ice in the world. While this place certainly took your breath away on arrival, after two days staring at this big ice cube I am ready to go back to Buenos Aires. I have always been a city person, the bigger the better, while Jess aways craved the relaxing away from it all type places. Let the record show Jess too is ready for the big city again. I must say we were SO spoiled at our hotel in Buenos Aires that this really does feel like roughing it. The fact that I have been sick here didn't help matters but it feels like that is behind us. Jess took me on a 15 km hike (to and from the glacier) today and that has shaken my bug. They do have a bus to take up there as well, but we decided to walk!



Tomorrow we check into the Four Seasons in Buenos Aires for three nights a hotel that I am super excited to experience, it gets rave reviews.

Hi... It's Jess... Ryan just said something he doesn't want me to post. Too bad. What he really wanted to say regarding the Four Seasons Hotel is that the first thing he is going to do is "wash off this bargain basement shampoo." I laughed but I can't be 100% that he was kidding. The first night that we got here, I was standing at the sink while he was in the shower. Over the shower curtain I heard "These non-Hermes bath products are burning my skin!"

To be honest, I think Ry's sudden return to normalcy came as a direct result of ingesting ketchup less than 20 minutes ago. He still was fairly white and ho-hum until he got the kitchen to make him a grilled cheese. Things went from 'good' to 'great' as soon as he realized Heinz was alive and well in Argentina, though rare. Most places don't have it, it seems. He probably would have started doing high kicks and whistling 'Dixie' if they had included a side of Salsa Golf.

That's all for now. More tomorrow when this camping trip is over.

The Middle Of Nowhere

Thursday, December 20
The weather in Patagonia is temperate, yet extremely unpredictable. We just canceled an excursion we had booked (hiking to various platforms that overlook the glacier) because it was pouring and dreary. The excursion leaves in five minutes and as I sit here and watch the group amass to leave, it has suddenly become a crystal clear and sunny day. Oh well. It's 5:30 p.m. and Ryan isn't feeling too hot (maybe because the ice trekking was the first exercise we've had in about 2 months) so maybe it's just as well. Oh wait, he just showed up... coincidence that I just ordered myself a beer? He's got the nose of a bloodhound.

O.k... after getting off that ass backwards flight on Air Guacamole (I'm surprised there weren't goats and chickens running down the aisles), we hoped in a van and drove through El Calafante to our hotel 'Los Notros' which is approximately 1.5 hours drive away. When we say we're in the middle of nowhere, we are not kidding. Having said that, it is the best option. If we hadn't stayed here, we would have had to stay in town and make the 1.5 hour drive to and from the glacier everyday. We would far rather be where we are for two days. Take a look at the landscape on the way there, and a picture of our hotel from the boat we took to the glacier: We got to our room and took a look around. Remember that 'gay gasp' Ryan said I made when we saw Robert Deniro? Well he let out several shrill screams when a) he saw a large spider run across the floor and b) he realized there was no T.V. I used to make fun of him for being a princess about these things but I've got to say... I've turned into one myself. It would be comforting to watch BBC World News for a couple minutes. Anyway, how would I describe the room. Kind of like my grandma's basement bedroom in that 'cozy, rustic, shitty bed with a bar across your back all night' kind of way.
Now for the ice trekking. Wow, wow, wow. I didn't have any expectations and had no idea what we were in for. It was absolutely spectacular. Aside from forgetting sunscreen (again) and coming close to frying my bald head for a second time on this trip, it was a picture perfect day. I didn't have 'ice trekking on a glacier' on my 'life's to-do list.' It's never even something that registered in my mind. People, I'm telling you... write it in the margins beside 'African Safari' and 'Riding a Camel in Egypt.' I would upload a lot more pictures but it is taking a lifetime for them to load. Here are two... one of the actual glacier and one of me getting my clamp-ons strapped to my shoes (we just realized that we need to switch cameras throughout the day. Ryan was holding the small camera which is why there are only small, postable pictures of me):

Friday, December 21
Sorry it's taken so long to post. The speed of the internet is up and down. I wanted to wait until I could actually put some pictures up.

After I talked about seeing Ryan yesterday (above), he went straight back to bed. He was the sickest he's been in 10 years. We're guessing it was food poisoning. It was actually scary watching and hearing him sleep. He was running a fever, twitching, weird sounds coming from his mouth and stomach. I didn't end up sleeping much because I kept wondering what the hell we were going to do if there was something really wrong with him. "DON'T WORRY SIR! THE AMBULANCE WILL BE HERE IN 2 HOURS!" I should have known something was amiss when earlier that day he peered out the window in his underwear and told the robin chirping outside of our window to "Shut Up!"

Anyway, that's all for now. We are here for the rest of the day and then being strapped back in to the tin-can-of-death and heading back to Buenos Aires. We will post once we get there.

Hi from the bottom of the world...or so it feels

Hi Ryan here, we are in Glacier National Park in Argentina, 3.5 hours flying time south of Buenos Aires and then 1.5 hours drive to our "Lodge". On the way down here I was seriously doubting my travel planning ability crammed into an Aerolineas Argentina MD83 aircraft (I didn't realize those old planes were still in service) with screaming children. The flight left an hour late and then half way here they announced we would be stopping to get some more fuel! You're joking me, a 3.5 hour flight and they couldn't have filled up with gas before we left. This airline is notorious for this sort of thing.....we fly them 4 more times in the next 2 weeks..yeah! Once we arrived though all was worth while, the landscapes are spectacular and our hotel is located right in front of the glacier and the views are unlike anything we have seen before. Unfortunately, the internet connection here is very slow so we can't post any photos. The rooms here have no phones, or TV so we are calling this the "camping" leg of our trip.

Today we are going "ice trekking" on the glacier and tomorrow we do a boat cruise to view some of the other glaciers in the area.

Another Celebrity Sighting!

We're packing up to leave for Patagonia but had to fill you in on what just happened. At breakfast we saw this woman, strikingly familiar, shoveling food into her mouth... like, massive spoonfuls of food, and asking one of the wait staff for stronger coffee (perhaps she was in a hurry). Who were we sitting beside? None other than Jane Fonda!

Here's the best part. Later that morning, Jane and I had a conversation. Can you believe that? I'll set it all up for you and explain how it went down:

Elevator door opens
Jane: Is this the 7th floor?
Me: Yes.
Elevator door closes.

Spectacular.

"She's Totally Faking It..."

These little things seem to come with everything you order at our hotel. Seriously. You order an espresso and there is a complimentary buffet of things trailing behind it. This obviously isn't the cheapest option available to us but Ryan and I were talking about how they managed to make any money here. The place is crawling with employees. For example, today the hotel had a function and moved breakfast to the terrace. They had an employee waiting at the elevator to inform people that breakfast had been moved. That was her job for the entire morning. Telling people that breakfast had been moved. Things started clearing up when we started talking to a local about minimum wage and what salary people make here. About $300/month. We went to a grocery store to check out if we could find any bizarre food items and to check prices to get an idea of how the economy was doing. Things are cheaper but not in comparison to their wages. It was shocking.

Buuuut... we forgot all about that when we saw this:
A liter of Stella Artois for $1! Wow. Good thing I lost all of that weight before this trip so that I don't have to feel guilty about putting on a few pounds before I get home (as an aside, does anyone know if they are taking applications for the TV show 'Intervention'... booze or weight, I'm not fussy).

Last night we went to a Tango show at the Faena Hotel (It's a Philippe Starck hotel for those of you that are into design). It was a fantastic experience though it almost resulted in a spat. Just to give you an idea of where we were, here is a picture of the stage and the dancers. The pictures I am posting aren't great. I have amazing pictures of the dancers but I want to watermark them before I put them online:
It was one of those dinner/show deals and the dancing was spectacular. The food... um, pretty good but that's not really the reason you go to one of these performances. Anyway, the spat has a bit of a history. Ryan and I went to see Celine Dion's show in Las Vegas. He follows her like as if she is the embodiment of Christ. I am here nor there when it comes to her. During the show I mentioned that there is no way she could sing the entire show live. As much as I hated to admit it (annoying twitches or not) her voice was spot on for two hours. What Ryan didn't tell me is that by me saying that, it ruined the show for him. He spent the rest of his time scrutinizing the movement of her lips, etc. for the two shows after that (yes people, I hang my head in shame. He saw it 5 times). He assures me there was no lip-syncing involved (call 9-1-1... he has a gun to my head right now). Well... the dancers at this show did 'their thing' to a 'live' band. Having played piano most of my life, I watched the pianist. He sure was wailing on those keys but none of them seemed to be going down. Lame. After that, I started questioning everything that could be questioned. The dancing... well, that was amazing, but there was singing. In my perfectly clear sense of mind, I kept slurring how fake everything was (I was either on my second or fourteenth glass of wine, I can't be sure). Ryzee wasn't appreciating my comments and truth be told, I was regretting the fact I had said anything. In our front row seats, as the singer walked by, Ryan was eyeing their mouths within a foot... and damned if they weren't singing live. I'm not used to being wrong. Anyway, I managed to quell the storm before it got out of hand. It was easy really... I just had to shut my mouth and admit I was wrong.

Today we met up with four friends of ours from Vancouver for lunch at our hotel. Mike and Marc decided to move here indefinitely (black shirt, white shirt) and work online because they're fabulous and that's what fabulous people do. Paul and Claire rented an apartment here for a month to celebrate her 50th birthday (she's the one in the front of the picture that looks 30).

Anyway, there is more to tell you but it's 9:00 p.m. and we're going to be late for our dinner reservation. In my next post, I'll tell you about the 40th birthday present I bought for my boy. Bye for now!

Oh... and we're off to Patagonia tomorrow... a three hour flight south of Buenos Aires... land of glaciers and ice trekking. If we don't post, it's because we're in the sticks (a South American version of Comox or Swift Current).