Back in the USA

Last December, after a year and half of traveling and working outside of the US, we returned to Napa, California and started getting settled here again. So much had happened to us during our time away but apart from the difficult economy at home things didn’t seem very different.

We both got jobs relatively quickly after returning (thankfully!) in the wine industry and are now working hard to get back on our feet here.

We don’t know what the future holds for us but as we return to the daily grind of work and planning for the future we are sure thankful that we took the time to do this trip and see the people and places we did. It was definitely worth it.

We hope you enjoyed the blog and stay tuned for future adventures.

Steve and Gaby

And Now……

...We are both still in Coronel Suárez, Argentina.

We have been transitioning from traveling to getting back to the work world here and are now both working full time. Suárez is a nice place and we are enjoying ourselves in this new environment.

We don’t know how long we will stay here nor when we will be going back to the United States. We also don’t know if this is the end of our trip or if at some time in the future we will travel some more. These are uncertain times and we are trying to stay flexible with whatever comes down the road both in terms of our situation and the global economy.

We have had a fantastic time traveling and are very thankful that we got the chance to take some time off from our busy lives and do the trip we did. The chance to visit the Middle East during the end of George Bush’s time in office when the Islamic world was so down on the US was a very interesting experience. We hope you enjoyed following our blog as much as we enjoyed writing it.

We are now going to take a break from this blog. If we do an interesting road trip here in Argentina we might post it or if we travel any more we might start the blog up again but for now we are going to step away from it.

We want to thank everyone who made this trip possible for us and everyone who hosted us and supported us during this experience. Our trip wouldn’t have been the same without you. We also want to thank everyone who followed our blog.

Hope you enjoyed it! We can be reached at gaby_terrill@yahoo.com

Steve & Gabriela

Neuquén Wine Tasting

The wineries in southern Argentina’s Neuquén region have been getting more and more press over the last couple of years in the United States as their wines have become more available there and get better and better ratings in American publications. After having visited the Mendoza wine region about three years ago we were interested in seeing what Neuquén had to offer and wanted to try some of the regions well regarded Pinot Noirs.

Thus when one of Gaby’s brothers had to go to Neuquén for a family matter we joined up with him. The drive to the city of Neuquén took a total of seven hours from Coronel Suárez. We started by driving through the city of Bahía Blanca, then headed east on highway 22. The climate changed from the flat humid pampas and got steadily drier and drier until we were driving through a sort of rolling mountain dry desert. In two places the highway was blocked by locals protesting against the government (unfortunately a very common thing in Argentina). In one place by luck we arrived at a time when traffic was allowed to pass and we passed through the pile of burning tires and stacked ruined cars without incident. The protesters were living in tents on the side of the road. At the second road block, erected by striking school teachers on a the bridge which enters Neuquén city we were not allowed to pass so we had to turn around and drive significantly out of the way to take a back road into Neuquén city.

We spent the first day in Neuquén exploring the city and helping Gaby’s brother with family things.

The second day we were up early and headed to the wine region.

The area has 4 wineries all of which are located about an hour north of the city of Neuquén in the town of San Patricio del Chañar. The whole area is part of the river valley of the Rio Negro which is created by snow melt from the Andes. This water in this river valley has created a large agricultural region in middle of the southern desert. The area is full of fruit plantations of all types in addition to wine grapes. It is called the route of Wine, Apples and Dinosaurs and is very picturesque.




The first winery we visited was Bodega Familia Schroeder. It was the only winery that had a tasting fee but the amount was subtracted from our wine purchase. The winery was new, modern, and very tastefully done. We took a scheduled tour with mostly Argentineans and a very nice Canadian couple. The cellar had dinosaur bones which had been uncovered during the construction of the subterranean caves. It was a top notch facility, the people nice and the wine yummy. The winery also has a restaurant on site.



The next winery we visited was Bodega NQN, up the road from Schroeder. Also modern and with a large financial investment, NQN looked somewhat like Opus One in Napa as it is submerged in the ground. Our tour was with a Dutch couple and was also very impressive. The two wines we tried were good and it also has a restaurant/bar.



We then visited Bodega del Fin del Mundo. We had high expectations from this winery as we had read good things about it in the US but we found it to be a large scale wine making factory which was cold and impersonal. The tour was nice and our guide was knowledgeable but the place was huge and we never really got to feel good about the experience. The winery has wines for sale across all price ranges and we got to try lots of them. They ranged from ho-hum inexpensive wines to really fantastic reserve wines.


The last winery we visited was the highlight of our trip. We bought a bottle of Familia Grittini Malbec at a supermarket the night before and found it to be a great value for the price. At the end of the day we searched out the winey and found it at the end of a dirt road. We found the owner and the winemaker working crush with the crew and introduced ourselves. Both the owner and the winemaker took the time to give us a tour let us try tank and barrel samples of their upcoming still and sparkling wines. It was a fantastic experience and they were very courteous hosts. The winery itself is a work in progress as Mr. Grittini is building it as he goes but the experience was really special.

Being able to visit these beautiful wineries, with their fantastic views and locations was an experience that Gaby and I enjoyed tremendously. We drank some really nice wines and met some terrific people. To anyone living in Argentina or visiting from abroad we would wholeheartedly recommend visiting the still relatively unexplored wineries of San Patricio del Chañar outside of Neuquén.

Monte Hermoso

One of the trips that I did during my summer in Coronel Suárez was to go to the Argentinean beach town of Monte Hermoso for the day. Located about two hours south of Coronel Suárez along the Argentinean coast it is a big summer vacation spot for the residents of Bahía Blanca.

One of Gaby’s brothers was going down there and invited me to come along. The drive down is mile after mile of flat, treeless farmland broken occasionally by a fence, a bunch of cows or a house. As we approached Monte the landscape changed from prairie to high sand dunes. After passing through the dunes you arrive at the coastal town of Monte Hermoso and then a nice beach. I had visited Monte Hermoso with Gaby when I lived in Argentina about ten years ago and it has changed a lot since that time. The city was much more built up and there were more restaurants, dance clubs, and rental cabins everywhere. As it was high season the town was busy and there were lots of people out and about.

One thing that I remember from my first trip to Monte was that the water was full of stinging jellyfish which made it very difficult to get in the water. Unfortunately, that part of Monte hadn’t changed so we weren’t able to swim in the ocean.

We met up with some of Gaby’s family members and went to their cabin for lunch. Later we went to the beach, I went for a run and we then we played some games on the beach. The beach was busy but everyone was doing their own thing and were in a good mood.

Late that evening as the sun set and the ocean air chilled down we climbed into Gaby’s brothers’ car and headed back through the flat prairie toward Coronel Suárez.

Coronel Suárez

Long summer days by the swimming pool, BBQ’s, morning golf games, Sunday soccer matches, bike rides and visits from lots of family members. Our initial time in Suárez was a relaxing mixture of visiting with family and friends, good food and enjoying the summertime.

Coronel Suárez is a town of 40,000 located in the middle of the pampas 6 hours south of the capital, Buenos Aires. In addition to being heavily dependent on agriculture Coronel Suárez also has the benefit of industry thanks to 2 large factories (a Reebok shoe factory owned by Brazilians and a pulp and paper plant) which employ a large number of people and keep the local economy moving. As a result Suárez has a much better economic situation than many other small towns in Argentina. It is a nice place where most people know each other and the quality of life is high. Gaby left Suárez at the age of 18 and moved to Buenos Aires to start a career and life in the big city. Thus besides a few weeks of vacation here and there she never lived in Suárez as an adult.

Gaby and I had previously shipped ourselves a box of clothes and belongings from the United States so we were better able to transition to our new life in Argentina.

With a nasty recession in the U.S. getting worse by the day and the awful reports of layoffs and unemployment filling the news the idea of going back to Napa, buying new cars and starting over just didn’t sound like very much fun yet. Especially when we were having such a nice time in Suárez.

So we stayed. After the first month we started working in Gaby’s fathers’ insurance business to help him out and to start easing back into the work world. We also did some small trips in the area

But most of all we enjoyed the Argentinean summer.