March 11th
March 11th, A few words from John:
Driving in Argentina has been fun. The primary goal on the road is to move traffic and if you cooperate with them their system really rocks. Fist of all, lanes are merely guidelines. Since the cars are small, three cars can, as needed fit into two lanes. We are driving a VW Gol which is a Golf without the “f”. So a stopped car, blocking a lane, hardly slows traffic since the other cars merely weave themselves into an extra lane. It is sort of like the way they dance the tango. Two people become one on the dance floor. Two cars become one on the road, mystically each taking three quarters of a lane. Secondly, most intersections do not have stop signs or traffic lights. You drive very quickly into the intersection avoiding cross traffic, pedestrians on crosswalks, and motor cyclists. One driver slows his car minimally which cues the other driver to speed his car up and pass first. In this way, the car on the left yields to the car on the right at the last possible instant. Traffic really moves. Thirdly, outside of the cities, on the major roads there isn’t much traffic at all. So a 2 lane highway through the flat straight roads of the Pampas is more like an effective 4 lane since there is so little oncoming traffic. In addition, because trucks have a 50 mph speed limit and cars 80 mph limit; it is possibly to blow by multiple trucks in one fell swoop. But there is a Catch 22 to traffic suddenly occupying both directions of a two lane highway. We almost learned this the hard way in the Andes on route 7, the road to Santiago, Chile. When you make a right hand turn onto a two way highway you look to the left to make sure there is no traffic in your lane. This is common sense. But why look to the right? I only look to the right immediately as I enter the highway. But suppose you turn right and there is an oncoming passing car in your lane? You are dead meat. And finally on the plus side, drivers have no ego problems yielding the right of way as long a traffic moves. Considering the intensity of the driving we have not seen much rude behavior. We did observe a few fingers waved here and there, three 18 wheelers in the ditch, and one of our cab drivers almost squeeze a motorcyclist passing to his right into a just opened parked car door. At the next light the motorcyclist pretty calmly explained to the cab driver that he almost killed him. I personally didn’t think the cyclist would make it.
On our way to Mendoza from Cordoba we crossed some mountains on the Ruta de las Altas Cumbres and had a chance to see and photograph some Condors at the Parque nacianal de la Quebrada del Condorito. I hope we see more.
I also am learning more about the meat. Entrecot was a New York Strip Steak which came once thick and another time butterflied. Bife Chorizo was a Rib Eye or Del Monico.Though by another translation it could mean “Prize Cut Steak” which could be almost any good cut. Lomo is Tenderloin. Metambre is Flank. And Assada Costilla which is best described here:
The heart of the asado is the beef ribs which are cut differently in Argentina than in the United States. In the U.S., beef ribs are often cut into one or two bone sections like pork ribs, but in Argentina our butchers cut across the ribs so that meat forms long ribbons with a little round piece of bone every few inches. Whole Article
Tags: Argentina
This entry was posted on Saturday, March 11th, 2006 at 6:45 pm and is filed under Travels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
