Jetzt geht's los, Spätzle mit Sooooß'!

So before I go on with another weekend trip of mine, let’s have another episode of “Caro eats her weight in delicious Uruguayan food”.  Oh wait! Not only Uruguayan, but also GERMAN! Yes, that’s right. Since my mom sent me the wonderful kitchen tool called “Spätzlehobel” I was itching to make some “Kässpätzle”. Kind of hard to explain what that is to non-Germans but for starters let me tell you that there’s looooots of cheese and onions involved. Except when your name is Lucía. But more about that later on.

First up I was very excited when I got mail from Germany. From my family to be exact, who among other things sent me loots of German goodies. Well, most of it was chocolate. But there was also one of my favorite kitchen appliances in the mail: a “Spätzlehobel”. Of course I had to try it out ASAP.

Danke, Mama!

And since it’s way more fun to cook with and for other people and because I like introducing non-Germans to the very delicious meal called “Kässpätzle”, I of course couldn’t just make some for myself. So I asked myself: “Who should be my guinea pigs?” [insert evil laugh here]

And I selecteeeed… [drumroll here]… the Maceiras family. Well.. and whatever else their last names are. I’m still confused about the whole “not-all-family-members-having-the-same-last-name”-thing. Anyway. That means Pablo’s family. Though really they had nothing to fear since by now I am an expert on Spätzle-making. And I have plenty of references.

So last Saturday was the day of choice for good food. And I mean the whole day because in the evening we ate an incredibly great chicken dish that Pablo’s dad made and together with the “Kässpätzle” we also had the world’s best rice pudding a.k.a. “Milchreis” a.k.a. ”arroz con leche” for dessert. And since my dear friend Desi and I have a special history with that dessert, I of course had to learn how to make it, so I can let her try it as well once we are united again in Germany.

No need to deny it. I eat way too much and way too good here in Uruguay. Maybe my parents should get one of those softwares where you can morph a picture of a person into a fattie so they know who to look for when they are picking me up at the airport. Kidding. I skype with them all the time. They will recognize me. Hopefully…

Anyway, for lunch we had “Kässpätzle”. First things first, there really isn’t a recipe for it. I know how to make it so I make the dough by rule of thumb. And I was quite challenged when Pablo’s family told me they don’t eat that many eggs there. Well.. I reduced the amount of eggs. And I negotiated a bit. And ultimately I got them to agree to five eggs. And it turned out great so everybody’s happy. 

 So anyhow I prepared the dough and had Pablo, Lucía and their mom Brenda do the minion jobs. Cutting and frying onions and grating cheese that is.  And eventually everything was ready for me to show them  some Spätzle-making magic. I’m not gonna explain how it works here. Either you are familiar with it, or you can hit me up and I will prepare it for you. Of course you will have to cover for any travel expenses that might incur.

Me and my kitchen-minion

Pablo being all skeptical

So eventually the Spätzle were done and ready to be covered with onions. 

Wait.. STOP!! No onions!!

Why?

Because Lucía hates onions. Not sure how the poor little onions deserve that hatred but since I have a little brother who is also a little particular about food, I of course knew what had to be done. Take some Spätzle out for Lucía and then go on with the process. And that includes lots of fried onions on top of the Kässpätzle. Et voilà! Lunch is ready. And I think now it is officially Uruguay-approved.

Lucía doesn't know what she is missing out on... 

...more onions for the rest of us!

The sweet smell of onions and cheese

Handsome cooks, delicious food

And since you can’t ever eat too much Spätzle, my friend Johanna and I decided to cook some together this Wednesday as we had a free day due to Artigas’ birthday. No if you are wondering who Artigas is… He’s Uruguay’s national hero and there are about a gazillion statues of him on his horse around Montevideo/Uruguay.

Anyway we had a free day and “ganas de cocinar” (= we really wanted to cook something spectacularly and fantastically delicious). So we invited some friends and decided to cook Spätzle with “Blaukraut” (=red cabbage) and “Schweinebraten” (=pork roast). That was quite the ambitious goal as the Schweinebraten itself takes about 2 hours to prepare. Actually, the hardest part was finding the right piece of meat in Spanish. But with the help of my friend Anna and some gesturing I eventually ended up with a piece from a pig’s shoulder (or at least that’s what I think). And with the great instructions my mom had given me before and Johanna’s knowledge about pork roast, we ended up with hands down the most delicious meal I have ever made.

So altogether it was Johanna and I, our two German friends Julia and Sebastian H. and Pablo who came over for his (extended) lunch break. And while us girlies were cooking, we handed over the  simple task of opening a bottle of red wine to the guys. They eventually got help from my roommate Fanny and her boyfriend Sebastian and with joint efforts and by completely destroying the cork they somehow opened the bottle. Don’t ask how long it took them… but to be honest it was one of those very sh*tty plastic corks.

Sebastian and the cork

The guys and their only responsibility: a very stubborn bottle of wine

Pretty cooks

But it didn’t matter anyway because we had food. Incredibly delicious food. German food. That tasted like a Sunday meal. And home. It definitely tasted like home.

¡Buen Provecho!

Somwhere in Uruguay: Piriápolis II

Same people, different day. Let’s go on with the second day in Piriápolis before I tell you what I did this past weekend.

Our second day in Piria was also Easter Sunday, which is a day I usually always spend with the majority of my family. Apart from one Easter that I spent in the S with the majority of my host family. But needless to say it’s odd not to have your family there if you’re so used to it like I am. You  can’t imagine my joy when I found out I can still skype with my family back home on Easter. I mean, even though Pablo’s family kind of turned into my Uruguayan family by now, I was really happy back then that I got to see my “real” family. So after getting up I connected to skype and got to talk to my parents, sister, brother, grandma and uncle. Which to be honest, that is a pretty small round for an Easter Sunday but I take what I can get. So after some catching up and my family showing me what I was missing (Easter cake lambs!!), I of course had to introduce my Uruguayan friends to my German family. For me it was like a connection between two worlds that are only connected by a small link: me. But it was incredible for me to have my both lives connected like that. A big thank you to skype at this point!

The Skype Company (minus my favorite brother)

But as with all good things, our skype talk had to come to an end at some point. So after that there were a couple more places to see before leaving Piria in the evening. First stop, a hill (or maybe a moull?) with the sounding name of "Cerro del Toro" which is the location of two animal statues: a bull (Toro... Duh!!) and a puma. Upon arriving there, we first went up some stairs to a statue of a bull that spit water down a cascade. First thing I was told there was that it’s good luck to touch the bull’s balls. So yes, I did touch a (statue) bull’s balls. Then we of course had to snap some pictures. I think Pablo and Rusty had the most fun here.

Bullriders

Uh.. Pablo... you got something coming out of your ear there...

Brokeback Mountain 2.0

Rusty trying to find the perfect angle 

[Picture courtesy of Pablo Maceiras]

After that we went further up the hill, first by means of another flight of stairs and then by climbing a little path between rocks and trees. And we came to the next statue, the puma. That one was already pretty old which meant the color had faded and one ear was missing. Poor kitty!

Born to be Wild

Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty, Little Ball of Fur...

We totally killed the beast...

...while a creeper took pictures of our butts?!

Still exploring angles 

[Picture courtesy of Pablo Maceiras]

After that we went back down the hill which was the tragic end of one of my flip flops. I guess I stressed my old and battered flip flop a little too much. And since the situation seemed hopeless for my flip flop and there was no chance to revive them I had to throw my beloved flip flops away once we were back down from Cerro del Toro. But luckily Rusty lent me his pair so I could go on exploring Piriápolis.

Up the rocky road.. with my flip flops still intact

Our next stop was “Cerro San Antonio” where we got by means of a chairlift. Well Pablo and I did while the others took the car. That was because it’s kind of expensive and they already knew it while I was all new to the experience. And it was definitely worth the pesos. The way up was already quite nice to see but when going down you get a full view of the ocean and Piria’s yacht harbor. And the view from the top isn’t shabby either because you can see all of Piriápolis from a much closer point of view than from Cerro Pan de Azúcar where we went the day before.

Me and Alfalfa on the chairlift

View of Piriápolis from Cerro San Antonio

Me blocking the view of Piriápolis from Cerro San Antonio ;)

Awkward group picture!

The Harbor and the Silky Sea

(Wouldn't that make a great song title? I call copyrights!)

After that Pablo took me on a ride along the Rambla so I could get an impression of his favorite beach and then we returned to the house to grab or stuff and go back home.

Altogether it was a great weekend with great people and the perfect end to an amazing week of travelling. Muchas gracias, mis amigos!

Somewhere in Uruguay: Piriápolis I

Well it’s kinda late now but let me tell you about my Easter weekend! I know, I know… Easter was months ago. But hey… I’m in Uruguay. Aaand that is probably becoming my standard excuse now.

The destination of my Easter weekend and the reason why I left one day earlier from Mendoza was a trip to Piriápolis which is a city on the Altantic coast of Uruguay. Though I think technically it is still on the shore of the Rio de la Plata. But you can’t really tell the difference at that point and it’s very close to Punta del Este, where the Atlantic coast officially starts. But we didn’t spend any time at the beach anyway so I guess it doesn’t matter.

But first things first. I went there with Pablo, his sister Lucía, a friend named Rusty and his cousin Lore. And once we got to Piriápolis we also met up with one of their friends, Maxi, who lives there.

Before we got to Piriápolis though we visited a place named Atlantida, where there is a house in the shape of an eagle. That’s right. El Aguila. It looked pretty cool and the view from above the beacon was pretty sweet.

El Aguila - The Eagle

The view of Atlantida

Once we got to Piriápolis we left our things at the house that we rented and went to get some food.  We decided on hamburgers. Which were really slices of toast with burger meat and condiments. But before having a little lunch break we went to see the castle of Francisco Píria, the founder of Piriápolis. Which to me I guess wasn’t all that impressive, since I’m more used to castles like Neuschwanstein. Though I really liked the trees around the castle. They were perfect for climbing in them like a monkey. Unfortunately that was not allowed so I was really only up in one for a minute or so. Stupid rules.

Spot the monkey! Isn't that the coolest tree for climbing?!

Busted...

Píria's Castle

After that we went on to a park at the foot of Cerro Pan de Azúcar, where we finally had our lunch break. The plan was to go climb the hill/mountain Pan de Azúcar which is one of Uruguays highest points. Though coming from the alpine upland I gotta say it isn’t really all that high.

However, before our hiking adventure we all decided to take a nap. So we got out a blanket and a matress that Rusty had had in his car and slept for a bit. Why rush, when you can have a little siesta instead?

Nap time!

After that we went on our way. Where we passed a zoo kinda area where you could go through little mazes with wild animals in them. Caged of course. There was also a bat cave but unfortunately there were no bats. My favorites were the Pumas though because one of them was all cute and then the other went all “ignore him and focus your attention on meeee!!”

After that we started our way up to the top. And let me tell ya, it wasn’t all pony-rides in May-sunshine.  Firstly, because it wasn’t May and secondly because we lost two of our fellows on the way. Lore wasn’t feeling too well so Rusty took her back and the remaining four of us went on to climb the hill/mountain thingy. I’m still not sure what it is. My intuition tells me hill, but there was no real way leading up to it. The main part was climbing what seemed like the course of a mountain stream. But it wasn’t. It was the official way up to the top. Plus there was a giant stone cross on top which kind of reminded me of the crosses they put up on the tops of mountains. So really it was kind of a geographical hybrid. Neither hill, nor mountain. Maybe a “moull”? …. Or a “hintain”?

Up!

And back down with a great evening view

Either way it was a lot of fun, because monkey-me likes climbing things. Trees, rocks, moulls. Always have, always will.

Once we reached the top we had a little break and took some pictures. And enjoyed some trumpet tunes. Wait, what? Trumpet tunes? That’s right. Apparently a guy had brought his trumpet and stood on the edge of the moull, trumpeting into the wide open space in front of him. I really liked the scenery of that.

I can't get that trumpet out of my head...

So then of course we had to climb up the giant stone cross and from there the view was even incredibler. More incredible. Whatever. I was speechless and not able to compare adjectives. We could see the Atlantic, Piriápolis and all the way to Punta del Este on one side and a lot of countryside on the other. So pretty!

Having a little break after we made it to the top

View towards Punta del Este

Pablo and I

All four of us Climbers

The Cross

The Flatlands of Uruguay 

And then we also had some picture taking fun up there… the location was just so much fun! But at some point it was getting close to sundown so we decided to go back down. Where we came upon a lady of 71 years who had climbed the Pan de Azúcar and on her way down injured her leg. So someone had to call the hintain-police so they could rescue her. No fun business. I hope it’s nothing permanent and she’s okay by now.

But on we went because when there’s barely any road to travel by, you really don’t need a lot of bystanders to stand in the way of an accident. It had held us up for a while though so our way down was a lot of guessing and walking/climbing in the dark. Probably not the safest way to go down a moull but it was the only option. And don’t worry, we got down safe and sound.

And because such an adventure makes you very hungry we went back home took showers and got some food.  Real burgers this time. And pretty darn good ones, too. After that we went out for some ice cream as a reward for being awesome. Well actually it wasn’t a reward but a treat. Because it’s the best ice cream in Piriápolis and, as a foreigner and ice-cream aficionada, I of course had to try.

Though apparently it is no secret that it is the best ice-cream in town. Because believe it or not, there were a whopping 70 people in front of us and when we went to draw a number the lady at the counter warned us that we would probably have to wait about an hour for our ice-cream. We bought some anyway and went off to pass an hour at the house. At this point I should probably tell you the name of this incredibly popular place, but guess what. I’m not. Because the place is already very crowded and I guess it’s not fair to the employees. Especially when they meet annoying customers like me who don’t know half of the flavors and therefore have to try some of them in advance. Though I bet anyone who would want to have the best ice-cream in Piriápolis only needs to walk along the Rambla to spot that place. Such an amount of people in an ice-cream place really isn’t that hard to miss.

So anyhow, after an hour we went back and as mentioned above I had to try a few flavors before making an informed decision about which ice-cream to eat. You could probably already guess that this decision involved Dulce de Leche flavor. And Flan. Because what is better than dessert in ice-cream form?

So I actually thought I would split that ice-cream with Pablo but he only had a spoon or two and then left all of the drippy goodness to me. I did have some troubles with keeping it from dripping all over the place but of course I didn’t mind eating a lot of ice-cream. Not that I wouldn’t share. But apparently Pablo didn’t appreciate it as much as I did, so fatty-me ate it all. And I enjoyed it. Every single bit of it.

That was pretty much our first day in Piriápolis and with that I am taking a break. Following up, our second day in Piriápolis. 

Semana Santa Travelogues: Crayola doesn't have enough Colors for this Beauty!

So this was probably my favorite adventure in Mendoza: going on a walk in the Andes. (I wish I could say hiking but unfortunately that's not really what we did)

It started out when we decided to go see Aconcagua, which is the highest mountain outside of Asia with almost 7000m. So we bought our tickets and thought it was gonna be a 1-2 hour bus ride to get from Mendoza City to Aconcagua and that we might even be able to make it back to the Empanada cooking class at the hostel that evening. But little did we know! We ended up being on the bus for about 4 hours and of course that meant no Empanada making for us that day. But it was definitely worth it!

The bus ride started out in the flatlands of Mendoza but soon we came to the edge of the Andes. We then got a pretty good idea of the Andes in that region because our bus continued towards the heart of the Andes until we were almost in Chile. And even though I was kinda tired from stying up late the night before, I tried to stay awake as much as possible because the landscape was simply incredible!

We eventually got off at a very touristy place called Puente del Inca which was a teeny tiny town that was mainly made up of Artesanía shops. Amongst others they sold lovely Alpaca-wool sweaters, one of which would later go into my possession.

Pretty Artesanía mugs

All sorts of things that had been left in the Andes and some sort of yellow mineral coated it

From there we went on hiking upwards along the only existing road for a while. Unfortunately, Izzie didn’t feel too good that day but I didn’t mind going slow because the landscape was just so breathtakingly beautiful. All the mountains seemed to be different colors. Like god had gone a little crazy with the crayon-box up there. It's not really all that visible but there were patches of almost every color of the rainbow. And all those mountains looked so majestic and strong and slightly intimidating. I felt small up there in the mountains. Very small. But also very happy that I got to see all this beauty. I also felt the urge to climb one of those bad boys but obviously that wasn't gonna happen. I wish I could have seen the view from up on top of one of those mountains though.

The Colorful Andes

...and trust me, this isn't even close to reality's beauty!

Tiny Rachel in the Giant Mountains

Bridget on the rocks

After some time we came to an information center where we paid 10 pesos to get into the National Park around Aconcagua. They also gave us a little booklet with information about the National Park and other useful tips. Amongst others there was a page dedicated to AMS, which is the abbreviation for “acute mountain sickness”. We went through the checklist and diagnosed Izzie with major altitude sickness. Which wasn’t all that surprising because normally we live very close to sea-level in Montevideo and that day we went up to about 3000m above sea-level. But the rookies that we were, we didn’t care about stuff like that. And it was nothing Ibuprofen couldn’t cure. Personally, I didn’t even feel sick at all. It wasn’t until we reached the highest point of our journey, which was a scenic hiking trail at about 3000m, when I slowly began to feel how the air was getting less and hiking was getting slightly more exhausting than before. But I really couldn't care less as I was surrounded by one of the most beautfiul landscapes I have ever seen. 

Beginning of Aconcagua National Park

I think we diagnosed Izzie with "Moderate AMS"... needless to say we did not abort our ascent 

Up up up through the clouds

That's the spirit, Erin!

Hues of blue

So from the information center we continued on to the base camp, where you are supposed to spend some time before hiking Aconcagua. Since however we are rookies and climbing Aconcagua wasn’t on our to-do list, we went on to walk the scenic trail around the Laguna de Horcones. Said lagoon was more a big waterhole. Nothing fancy or impressive, like it sounded to be in the info-booklet.

Izzie and Rachel in front of the very spectacular Laguna de Horcones

..note that I am being sarcastic because really, it's only a water hole

We did however get a great view of Aconcagua, which sticks out between the surrounding mountains because due to its year-round glaciers it was the only one with snow on top. And that sight was truly spectacular! Not as beautiful and colorful as the other mountains but it just sticks out.Well, I guess a 7000m summit is kinda supposed to stick out even though from our perspective we didn't get to enjoy all of its majestic greatness. 

Don't let the clouds fool you, the mountain is huge!

Group picture in the very picturesque scenery

After we enjoyed it for a while we started our way back to Puente del Inca. On the way though we stopped for some picture-taking fun. After all it wasn’t enough to simply document the mountains. And for my part, I was exhilarated and just wanted to spin around in the middle of all the beauty. And so I did. And I was very happy in my very own “Sound of Music”-moment.

The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music!

Yes, I was utterly happy amidst all those beautiful and colorful mountains!

We are the Champions!

Back at Puente del Inca we made some (sweater-)purchases and had a bite to eat before getting on the bus that would take us back to Mendoza. And that was pretty much the end of a very long and very amazing day. I’m so glad we went there. I know the pictures don’t even come close to capturing the beauty of the Andes but I hope I could provide you with at least a little impression.

And also this is pretty much where the Mendoza adventure ends. Because the next day was spent enjoying some conversations and just hanging out with the girls before I eventually had to head to the bus terminal where I got on the night bus to Buenos Aires. Since it didn't make much difference in prices I splurged on an Executive Seat. Now the regular seats weren't bad to begin with but those Executive ones... well it's almost like a bed on a bus. No awkward awakeness because you're trying to find a position to sleep that doesn't molest your neighbor. I did wake up a couple times during the night and looked outside the window. But since we were passing the Pampa and other flat areas of Argentina, there was really not a lot to see. So eventually I got to Buenos Aires where I spontaneously met up with my friend Stephan who gave me a quick-tour of the city before I went on to catch my ferry. I'm not gonna write much about Buenos Aires at this point though because Sebastian H. and I are planning to visit our friends Stephan and Laura in Buenos Aires soon, in order to extend our tourist visa.

So as I said this was my favorite adventure in/around Mendoza though the whole trip was amazing. If you haven’t read it yet, feel free to check out what I wrote about the trip that we took to get there, my personal impressions of Mendoza, our wine&bike tour and a horseback-ride into the sunset.

Altogether I had a great time in Mendoza with my dear friends Bridget, Erin, Izzie and Rachel. I enjoyed eating lots of grapes and drinking what felt like whole barrels of wine. And of course I had a great time making all those new experiences and seeing all those incredibly beautiful places.

Muchas gracias por un viaje inolvidable!