The Plotniks Begin Training

Plot and Duck have gotten their official OK that they can use up most of the last of their United frequent flier miles to go to South America in February. So they started their training this morning. Good hot chocolate in the morning, along with chips and salsa, has absolutely nothing to do with Chile or Argentina, so they have to train themselves to do without.

After calling every day for a week, sure enough a flight opened up at the last moment, which now allows Plot and Duck to fly all the way through to Santiago, Chile and leave a few days later than they had expected. So instead of some fun in Peru that Plot had looked forward to, including a train ride up to the mountain town of Huancayo, but that was going to cost them close to a thousand dollars extra when you added in additional air fare to get to Chile from Lima, the Plotniks will not see Peru this trip, but spend all their time in Chile and Argentina, with perhaps a day or two in Uruguay, across the Rio de la Plata from Argentina.

So get ready for meat. In Argentina, especially, it's all about beef. Here's a segment Plotnik read from the blog of a woman who had gone to a cattle ranch to spend a few days. When she got there they had lunch ready:

"We arrived to find a spread of flaky empanadas, cheese, jamón, wine, and beer waiting for us. We snacked, talked, and then moved over to the dining table that had been laid out for us in the field. More wine and beer were served alongside fresh salad and crusty bread with a sizzling platter of grilled sausage and short ribs. We all tucked in and enjoyed the succulent meat, laughing and talking about everything we’d seen on our ride. When the meat was gone, we were surprised to find that another platter was brought out, this time of beef tenderloin. The meat was everything we’d imagined the Argentine beef to be: tender, juicy, and perfectly flavorful. Just as we were about to burst, a final platter of strip steak was brought out."

It's a known fact you can't gain weight on a vacation, because of the extra effort your body must make to digest food in a new language and that's a good thing.

This morning Plot and Duck took the train down to Union Square, stopped in the travel section of Mush's Old Big Box Store, bought two travel books, then ended up eating a ridiculously delicious lunch at Plot's favorite Salvadoran food counter in the Mission, where you see that cup of hot chocolate. What you don't see are the huevos rancheros, thick Salvadoran tortillas, fried bananas, black beans, sour cream and a cup of thick atole de maiz -- a kind of pudding-like sweet drink. Training this hard is a trial, but Plot and Duck appear to be up to the challenge.