Experiencing Nature, Food, Drinks and DanceFrom Buenos Aires To Brazil

Hiking down the Gold Trail in the Brazilian rain Forest
with Michael and Harry from Paraty Explorer Tours.

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We Live Not on Food Alone

My blog is mostly about nutrition and the healthy recipes I create to help us all live a long and healthy life. I kicked off the year with my post on the Top 20 Foods For Health and Longevity. But there are other things beside food that will also help enrich and extend your life. These are the things that not only feed your body but additionally feed your soul - like adventures, dancing, music, getting close to nature, friendships, good wine, and wonderful life experiences, to name a few. 

On a quest to feed our soul, last year we took an adventure to Australia and New Zealand. And we just kicked off 2015 with a wonderful trip to Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil. 

It Takes More than Two to Tango
Doug and I flew to Buenos Aires to learn the Argentine tango. After taking several private lessons from Cristian Correa and Miriam Copello we quickly realized that we should have started these lessons about 30 years ago. It takes a lifetime of dancing to master this dance. But we totally enjoyed the experience and really loved Cristian and Miriam but don't look for us any time soon on Dancing with the Stars.

My tango lesson with Cristian Correa

To really appreciate how the tango is done, we went to a typical Argentine Milonga club called Salón Canning, in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires. Notice, no one is smiling - this is a very serious dance.

Salón Canning Milonga, in the Palermo district

Argentina's Food and Wine - Meat and Malbec
Argentinians LOVE their beef although I've read that their consumption of beef is declining. At it's peak Argentinians consumed over 200 pounds for every man, woman and child. Although it's fallen to almost half that amount (still twice the US consumption), by the looks of most restaurant menus, you would think that it is all anyone there eats. I asked my tour guide if there was nice seafood available (given that they are on the ocean) and he just said, "Sure, but no one eats it. We eat steak!) The consumption of beef is very cultural and although there is some growing interest in vegetarian diets, beef will not significantly disappear from their diet. It would be like Italians giving up pasta. 

Perhaps they eat beef because it goes so well with their wonderful Malbec wine. And yes, we sampled a bit of that. One day for lunch, the waiter wanted us to try this particular glass of Malbec. After mentally converting pesos to dollars (but paying in dollars - they LOVE them and restaurants will give you a big discount for them), we figured it was $11 a glass - kind of pricey. Well, what the heck, you only live once so we ordered some. We were shocked to discover that for $11 you got the entire bottle. And it was fabulous! I can't imagine anywhere in the US where you would get a wonderful bottle of wine of this quality in a restaurant for only $11. Besides wine, nothing else was much of a bargain.

Nicasia Vineyards Red Blend
90% Malbec, 6% Cab, 4% Petit Verdot
12 months in French Oak

So a warning to traveling vegans, the wine in Argentina is wonderful but you may have a difficult time finding meatless and dairy-free options. Argentina was ranked one of the worst countries for meat-free travelers by Lonely Planet several years back but new restaurants are opening all the time. Check HappyCow eating guide for the latest vegetarian and vegan restaurants in Buenos Aires.  

Uruguay - What a Surprise!
After enjoying ourselves in Buenos Aires, we boarded our Azamara Cruise ship and headed for Uruguay. I have to be totally honest - I knew nothing about Uruguay before last month. I don't think I could have even pointed it out on a map. So you could just imagine how surprised I was to arrive in Punta del Este with it's fancy yachts, gorgeous beaches and quirky art. 

Mano de Punta del Este - a sculpture on the beach
by Chilean artist Mario Irarrazabal.

We were just as pleased when we visited Montevideo, Uruguay's capital.

You won't find a Starbucks around here. The national drink is yerba maté, a very stimulating and rejuvenating tea made and served in a hollow gourd. You drink it through a metal straw to strain out the leaves. We bought this cute gourd and straw to take home. Doug and I are no strangers to this drink since we live within walking distance to Guayaki, a US company that makes yerba maté.

Being wine grape growers and wine makers, we headed out to Varela Zarranz, one of the oldest wineries in Uruguay. We were very interested in tasting their wine that is made from Tannat grapes, which you don't usually  find in the U.S. 

Tannat vineyard with split trellis

They certainly get a lot of use from their equipment. This enormous oak barrel is over 100 years old. At 10,500 liters (around 2,800 gallons), it is 50 times bigger than barrels typically used in winemaking. They use regular-size, new oak barrels for their premium tannat wine and utilize these big ones for their production, low-cost wines.

We got to taste a number of their wines and I will say, the ones made from 100 percent tannat are "muy fuerte". They are a lot easier to drink when in a blend with merlot.

Wine tasting in Montevideo

Paraty, Brazil
One of the highlights of our trip was the hike down the Gold Trail in the Brazilian town of Paraty. We took a private tour with Paraty Explorer with our wonderful guides Michael and Harry. The rainforest was absolutely breathtaking. 

Cachaça
At the bottom of the trail, there was a waterfall and a cachaça factory. Cachaça is a rum-like liquor distilled from sugar cane. Some of it is aged in oak and enjoyed like a find whiskey and some is not aged very much and used to make a popular Brazilian drink called Caipirinha - we'll get to that later. This is clearly not a health food but it was very interesting to see them make this local and traditional liquor.

Distillation unit for cachaça

Different grades of cachaça

Finally, a Simple Meal and Cold Beer
We ate some fancy meals on the cruise ship and at some very nice restaurants in the various cities but my favorite meal was in this very casual restaurant in Paraty where I could finally have a simple meal of salad, rice, beans, kale and the best beer I've ever had. Perhaps it was because I had just hiked for hours in a hot, humid rainforest and this beer was served ice cold. But aside from that, Brazil sure knows how to make good beer!

My favorite restaurant. You could get lots of veggies, beans and rice (BBQ'd meat too, of course) and they just weighed your plate to bill you.

Rio de Janeiro
Rio was the end of the line for our cruise but just the beginning of a new adventure for us. 

Dancing at Rio Scenarium
Although we made this trip to Buenos Aires to learn to tango, we fell in love with the samba in Rio. After taking lessons on the cruise ship, we decided to head out to Rio Scenarium , a three-story nightclub with two live samba bands. I've never seen anything like it.

Cooking in Rio 
Doug and I booked a 4-hour cooking class with the Brazilian chef, Simone Almeida. Simone interjected lots of interesting stories about Brazil that were just as fun as the cooking class. Our favorite being that women in Brazil will wear the same bikini that they wore when they were 18 no matter how their bodies may have changed. We experienced this first hand the following day while on the Copacabana beach. I need not say more.

In our cooking class we learned to flambé vegetables, make Caipirinhas, cook Moqueca (a seafood stew with fresh sole, lime, onions, red peppers, and coconut milk), and Farofa de Banana (bananas coated in a cassava flour).

Me with chef Simone

Moqueca, rice and farofa de banana. on the right

Caipirinhas made with lime, fresh passion fruit,
sugar and a shot of cachaça.

Farmers' Market
On Sunday, just around the corner from our hotel on the Copacabana beach, was a beautiful farmers market. The fruit was to die for. For lunch we ate 3 enormous papayas - we were in heaven!

Farmers' market

Beautiful, ripe papayas

Watermelon

Carnival 2015
We planned our trip to enjoy pre-carnival and to be gone before the craziness began. Locals and tourists begin celebrating weeks before Carnival and it was easy to get caught up in the energy and excitement!

Can't Leave Rio Without...
On our last day, we headed to see the famous Christ the Redeemer statue. It was totally fogged in but right before the tour guide was gathering us to leave, the clouds parted and there it was - in all it's glory. It was magnificent!

Adiós Argentina and Uruguay. Adeus Brazil. Thanks for the wonderful memories that will continue to feed our soul forever. We will be back!

My Trip To Australia And New Zealand Are There Vegans Down Under?

There are 3 kangaroos for every Australian!

I'm Back from Down Under
For the past 25 days Doug and I have enjoyed a trip of a lifetime traveling from Sidney, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand. Although most of the trip was aboard a ship, we stopped in over a dozen ports where we had the chance to see native animals and sample local foods. I won't bore you with the 750 pictures I took, but here are some things I think you'll enjoy.

Australia
After a short stop in Honolulu we arrived in Sydney. It was the week before Christmas so it was bustling. We did all the touristy things, of course, like visiting the beautiful Opera House. Since it is their summer season, there were outdoor markets, street fairs, lots of al fresco dining spots, and street musicians to entertain. Our favorite little spot was Darling Harbor with its many outdoor restaurants that surround the lovely harbor. 

The magnificent Sydney opera house took 16 years to complete.

Darling Harbor, Sydney

From Sidney, we took a ferry over to Manly beach and were impressed by its shark warning system. They are always on the outlook for sharks and when one is sited, a network of sirens go off and the beach is immediately cleared. We happen to be there when this happened. 

While at Manly, we also got to see rare Little Penguins at the Manly Sea Life Sanctuary. 

Manly is a breeding habitat for Little Penguins and is one of the last colonies on the mainland of Australia.

After 5 days in Sydney we left on a cruise ship for the rest of our journey. 

Melbourne was our next stop. It was Boxing Day and the streets were really crowded with shoppers. We found our way to Chinatown to eat a wonderful meal. Australian and New Zealand cuisine is very meat- and dairy-centric (so was the food on the cruise ship) so finding a Chinese restaurant, where you can actually find something besides fish and chips, was quite exciting. 

Melbourne's Chinatown dates back to
the gold rush days of the 1850's.

One of our best stops was Hobart, in Tasmania. We happened to be there on the most exciting day of the year when these three things occurred:
The Taste of Tasmania - Tasmania's largest food and wine festival.
A massive street fair.
The end of the Sidney Hobart yacht race.

I would have taken this entire trip just to be at the Taste of Tasmania. For $7 you get a little glass and can go around and taste all the wines at the fair. Our favorite wines were from Moorilla winery. We bought a bottle of their 2011 Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. We also liked the Kelvedon 2011 Pinot Noir. At this point we were trying to figure out how we were going to get all of these home since our suitcases were already stuffed to the gills.

I joined 40,000 Aussies at the Taste of Tasmania.
A total of 200,00 attended during the week.

The street fair, right outside the Taste of Tasmania, was just as busy. Booths lined the streets with food, clothes, pottery, and more. The best thing I had there were the fresh Tasmanian cherries - yummmm!

Tasmania cherries - some of the best cherries I've ever had!

Because of bad weather, the start of the Sydney Hobart yacht race was delayed. Our cruise ship had to leave the port before the race ended and we thought we would miss this great event. But on our way out we passed the winning yacht! Our ship's passengers waived wildly and our captain gave out a bit TOOT as we passed the winner, Wild Oats XI. 
After having had one of the most fun days ever, we headed to New Zealand.

Wild Oats XI, the winner of the 2013 Sydney Hobart yacht race.

New Zealand
On New Year's eve we woke up in Milford sound, a fjord in New Zealand's South island. I can't begin to describe how beautiful and serene it was to float through the fiords.

New Year's eve at Milford sound

After floating through fiords all day, we headed to the quaint little town of Oban on Steward Island. Then it was off to Port Chalmers and we drove to Dunedin to see yellow-eyed penguins, the rarest penguins of them all. 

We were at the beach looking for our little yellow-eyed friends when one emerged from the sea with a tummy full of food to feed his chicks. We followed him up the hill to the dunes where the family waited for dinner. It was quite a hike for the little guy. As soon as he got there his wife then left to go for more food. It was quite a family project to keep the kids fed and guarded.

A yellow-eyed penguin emerges from the ocean.

He starts his journey back to the nest up in the dunes.

It's a long, steep walk but he is determined to feed his chicks.

He feeds his hungry chick.
Now it's mom's turn to go find the next meal.

He was the only yellow-eyed penguin we got to see (besides his wife and kids). Like so many animals in New Zealand, they are endangered and quite rare. Last year 60 were found dead in the sea after an algae bloom. Our tour guide thinks that the pollution from the growing dairy industry (driven by China's demand for New Zealand baby formula) may have caused this. I see this beautiful and relatively untouched country making many of the same environmental mistakes that the U.S. has made and they are beginning to suffer the consequences. 

The seas were too rough to land in Timaru so we sailed to Akaroa. There was lots to see there. We had the most fun at the Giant's House where an artist designed a terraced garden around giant mosaic figures. Here are some of my favorites.

Sculptures at the Giant's House in Akaroa

We then sailed to "windy Wellington", the capital of New Zealand, where we took a tour of their Parliament, a tram up to botanical gardens and then found a great Chinese restaurant. With the Belgium chef on the cruise ship, we continued to yearn for more healthy, vegetable-centric ethnic food in the bigger cities. Wellington was a great place to do that.

The Parliament building

 

Wellington cable car.

New Zealand Wine Country
As wine growers and wine makers, we were really looking forward to our trip to Picton where we took a tour of seven wineries in the famous region of Marlborough. We were surprised to find that most of their growing and wine making techniques were pretty much the same as what we do here in Sonoma county as we were hoping to pick up a few new tricks. But their wines were lovely and their vineyards were beautiful. I could have definitely spent more time in this amazing region. 
We visited:
Lawson's Dry Hills, 
Wither Hill (loved their Pinot noir)
Hunter's (run by Jane Hunter, a famous female wine maker) 
Giesen Wines (had a lovely Riesling and a restaurant where we ate lunch)
Seresin Estate (a biodynamic vineyard that also sells the health promoting Manuka honey)
Spy Valley (had amazing views)
Drylands (who also sells Kim Crawford brand)

A lovely day in Marlborough wine country in New Zealand

We hired the Bubbly Grape Tour bus to take us around.
Jonathan did a GREAT job!!

Beautiful views at Spy Glass winery

Our tour was greeted by a lovely lady at Drylands

We left wine country and sailed to Kaikoura where we found amazing Thai food! Then we headed to Rotorua to see the famous geothermal area of Wai-o-tapu considered one of the most active volcanic areas in the world. 

Geiser at Wai-o-tapu

We also went to Whakarewarewa, a living Maori village. The Maori's actually live over the geothermal area and use the heat for cooking and the hot mineral waters for bathing and healing.

Living Maori village of Whakarewarewa.

Kiwi 360
While in Rotorua, we visited a kiwi farm and tourist area called Kiwi 360. New Zealand has long been famous for its prolific kiwi crop. But like so many crops in the world being threatened by a mysterious disease,  kiwi are now at risk because of a bacterial kiwifruit vine disease. This kiwifruit canker, called Psa, originated in China and has spread to over 1,000 orchards in New Zealand. 
I got to walk under a canopy of kiwi, taste fresh fruit and drink kiwi wine (of course that made it in the suitcase along with all the Tasmanian wine).

I walked under a canopy of beautiful kiwi

Kiwi must be protected from the wind and
are grown next to tall hedges

Kiwi tasting at Kiwi 360

Auckland, our Final Destination
We left the ship in Auckland and sadly said goodbye to the many new friends we made on our voyage. But we had two exciting days ahead in Auckland!

The Seabourn Odyssey in the Port of Auckland.

We quickly jumped on a ferry to Devonport for a quick tour of this beautiful historic island. 
That night we found a massive street fair and music event and a row of restaurants along the wharf that was a mile long. I've got to say, both the Aussies and the Kiwis know how to party on a Friday night. 

The next day we jumped on another ferry, this time to Waiheke Island. Unfortunately, all the tours were filled and, for the first time in almost a month, we had to rent a car and take our chances of driving on the other side of the road - yikes! 

Waiheke Island is famous for its wineries but since we had to drive, we only stopped in a few places. Our first was a beautiful winery/restaurant called Casita Miro where I had the loveliest meal on the trip.

Waiheke island vineyards

Casita Miro
The bread was amazing - with a delicious romesco sauce.
A salad of greens and fruit and a
rice dish with fresh veggies.

We drove to the other side of the island and visited Man O' War, a vineyard on the water. It was the only tasting room where I've seen people pull up in their boats! It was laid back and people with their children came there to picnic, hang out and even teach their children how to play cricket. 

Man O' War got its name because it is on the part of the island where Captain Cook and his men came to get supplies and wood for the mast of war ships.

Man O' War vineyard

A young New Zealand boy learns cricket with grandma
while mum and dad taste wine

Are There Vegans Down Under?
I live in Northern California in the little hippie town of Sebastopol where I have no problem eating a plant-based diet. I'm not a strict vegan but I'm very allergic to dairy. I must admit, it was tough finding dairy-free meals on this trip. Although there were many vegetarian options in the larger cities in Australia and New Zealand as well as on the ship, most of them contained dairy. When you saw (v) on a menu, it meant "vegetarian" not "vegan" like it does in California. In fact, I didn't even see the word "vegan" on a menu in the month I was there. So If you are a strict vegan traveling to this part of the world, your best bet is to find ethnic restaurants such as Thai, Chinese, and Indian. But don't let eating difficulties keep you from visiting these incredible countries! 

Amazing Experience
We were so lucky to be able to take a trip like this and meet the wonderful and friendly people in Australia and New Zealand. To experience the untouched and breathtaking coastal towns and see rare animals in their natural habitats was an indescribable experience. We loved the big cities like Sydney and Auckland and the tiny towns like Oban. One thing is for sure - we would LOVE to go back some day.