So far, my two favorite places in El Chalten are La Cerveceria, and La Vineria. La Cerveceria makes this amazingly creamy pilsner and bock in the back of its bar, and has great food, including an Argentinian meat stew called Locre. To. Die. For.
If I ever get around to opening a restaurant in the states, I'd potentially consider basing it off of this restaurant.
La Vineria is an adorable little enoteca, with wine and beer from all parts of Patagonia and around the country, and things you'd never be able to buy in the states, like cured boar meat.
The only bummer about these being my favorite places in town, is that Dan can’t drink. (He is still dealing with his soul-crushing gastritis.)
Fortunately, he can still appreciate good food, which there is a lot of here.
I was resigned to the fact that food and wine may be the highlight of Patagonia, so on our last night in town, there was a break in the weather, and we decided to walk across town to El Muro, which we had heard was amazing. On the way, we passed a hostel/farm, where they were feeding their baby sheep. SQUEEEEEEEEE!
ABOVE: My other dream in life, if I never own a restaurant, is to own a farm, with a cow named Milkbones, a dog named Pickles, and a pig named Hamlet.
After getting our fill of adorable sheep, we continued on our way for dinner.
(It was sad--and ironic--that we immediately passed a guy tossing dead, skinned, ready-to-eat, full lamb bodies into the back of his truck. He smiled at us and said, “Want some lamb?”)
When we got to El Muro, the place was packed, which is always a good indicator that it is good food. We were told to wait about 25 minutes for our seat, so we stood by the entrance, and looked at the menu, which had items like sweet-and-sour lamb ribs, lamb lasagna, lamb stew (do you notice there is a lamb theme?)
As we waited, an older couple (maybe our parents’ age?) came through the door. We made some small talk, but as they spoke nothing but Spanish, I did a lot of the talking. However, I was surprised/impressed to see Dan was picking up some of the language, and joining in on the conversation when he could.
And then something happened that rarely happens in America. The hostess told us that if we wanted to sit sooner, we should share a table with this couple.
Dan and I are both pretty social, so we decided to join up with them. And I am so glad we did, because this couple was hysterical.
Their names were Sylvia and Pipi, and they both spoke very little English. Pipi related to everything in terms of American classic rock. (Everything was either a line from a Beatles song, or a reference to a Stevie Ray Von, Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger.) And he had the heaviest accent when pronouncing these band names, it usually took 2-3 times for Dan and I to figure out what in the heck he was saying.
We shared a bottle of wine, and talked about everything from politics, to religion, to abortion, to Argentina (which was really impressive considering it was all in Spanish) and Dan actually got in on the conversation when he could, although he said by the end of the night, everything was a blur.
Dan hugging our new buddies at La Vineria. Who says you need a common language to be friends?
After dinner, the 4 of us walked to La Vineria, where Pipi and Sylvia downed 2 two-liter bottles of Heineken, and introduced us to all the staff they had befriended. I think we didn’t make it back to the hostel until about 1am. I will probably never forget Sylvia walking down the street, a bit buzzed at this point, yelling at the sky, "Las estrellas! Estrellas!" (stars). In El Chalten, you can see the Milky Way, which is not possible in San Francisco, so I was pretty damned stoked about the stars too.
It was so interesting to get their take on life in Argentina (which I’ll share more about later) and this was a good reminder that the nature and the “sights” are only half the reason you take trips like this.
Interacting with the people of a place, and letting the random things--like feeding baby sheep--happen, is one of the biggest benefits of traveling, and is where you make the most memories. So, I think El Chalten ended on a high note, and I felt content—or at least, 95% content—as we pulled out on the AM train.
Although, as luck would have it, the sun came out, and the sky looked beautiful as we pulled away.