Take an overnight bus to Iguazu. Bike from Patagonia to Alaska. Drive from North America to South America. Or hang out in Buenos Aires for three full months.

We’ve had some incredibly adventurous guests and many of them blog about their experiences. So, to say thanks to these guys for staying with us and to point other travelers to some of the best travel tips out there, let me introduce you to some of San Telmo Loft’s blogging guests.

Bike Across the Americas

Matt and Sylwia are cyclists riding from Patagonia to Alaska over the next two years. Never Tyred of Cycling is the name of their blog. Their posts all show up on one page, but go to the list of their entries on The Americas and check out their post on packing for such a trip. When they got here, I would have never guessed they had so much gear. Then follow their journey from Buenos Aires, to Iguazu, to Mendoza, and beyond. Last I read, they were entering Ecuador and headed to Quito.

Bicycles below El Chalten (Credit: Never Tyred of Cycling)

One of my favorite posts covers their thoughts on biking the barren and vast Pampas. These were the top ten highlights of the 500 km. they rode:

1. A fire’s smoke creating a cloud in an otherwise perfectly blue sky
2. A bird of prey standing on an alive sheep’s head
3. Gauchos with their cattle, spotted at some distance
4. Many shrines to St. Gauchito Gil
5. 2 dead armadillos
6. 7 dead owls
7. Golf course on the outskirts of Talalque
8. Lots and lots of cows
9. Lots of dead dogs
10. A river

Drive from one America to the Other

Rochelle, Nick and their gorgeous pit bull, Domino, spent a year driving from North Carolina to Buenos Aires and documented the entire adventure on their site The Ramble Writer. Some of my favorite posts are about the border crossings, their fun pictures in the salt flats in Bolivia, the post about making pizza while camping, and, of course, their post about The Pad and The Loft.

Rochelle in the Uyuni Salt Flat (Credit: Ramble Writer)

Be sure to look at her Guide to Buenos Aires. In the guide, check out the cute place they rented in Palermo before coming to San Telmo (a great idea, by the way, one week in Palermo and one in San Telmo).

Nick and Domino in Buenos Aires (Credit: Ramble Writer)

And if you’re planning to drive the Americas, get a copy of their book The Essential Guide to Driving North, Central and South America so you’ll know what to expect and how to deal with the unexpected.

Become a Local in 91 Days

Juergen and Mike (pictured with John and Angela at the top of this post) spend every 91 days in a different place and blog about the food, culture, people, music, language, architecture, street life, you name it, with humor and gorgeous photography. The For 91 Days’ coverage of Buenos Aires is so thorough, I’ve taken notes about things I had no idea existed. Their coverage of Bolivia is breathtaking.  And now they’re in Palermo, Italy, with posts beyond delicious and always informative.

Suggested Posts  

The portraits of two great local artists: Chancha via Circuito whose music is fantastic, and Alfredo Genovese whose fileteado work is stunning and fun, and so very San Telmo.

Alfredo Genovese (Credit: For 91 Days)

Their reviews of two of my favorite San Telmo restaurants: La Poesia which is down the road from The Depto. It’s a traditional cafe (bar notable, they’re called here) that serves food all day. A gorgeous setting and good standard food. Caseros which is down the road from The Guesthouse. I love this place, especially for lunch. Fantastic bread, beautiful setting, fresh lemonade, a simple menu of beautifully prepared, tasty food.

Steak at Caseros in San Telmo (Credit: For 91 Days)

The graffiti tour post is gorgeous. I took this tour a year ago and learned so much about the artists and the movement. And I love their impressions after having been here for a month. A fun read. Their photo reportages are wonderful. They always seem to capture the quirky, the beautiful, and the bizarre.  Here are their posts about The Loft and The Depto. They stayed in both.

From Asia to Sweden to South America

The Runaway Brit, Elaine, and her Swedish boyfriend, Nicklas, met in Cambodia and have been traveling together ever since. Elaine’s been keeping up a great blog for the backpacker, hostel-staying crowd filled with tips and beautiful scenery.

Elaine and Giang at The Guesthouse (Credit: Runaway Brit)

She stayed at and wrote about The Guesthouse. The picture above is of Elaine and Giang who was also staying in The Guesthouse. While chatting the first night of their stay, they realized they’d all met before while staying at a hostel on a lake in Cambodia. Small world. It’s not that surprising that they keep choosing the same places to stay.

Perito Moreno Glacier (Credit: Runaway Brit)

Be sure to look at her panamoric images from Iguazu and the lovely image of the Perito Moreno glacier on her Facebook page, and this great video of their whale-watching adventures in Patagonia. If you’re a budget traveler looking for fun and adventure, be sure to “like” her Facebook page. There are some great conversations about ways to cut costs and still have a wonderful adventure.

Buy a Car and Make it your Home for 9 Months

And our latest blogging guests, Kirsten and James left their jobs, Life Outside the Cubicle is their blog, to spend a year climbing mountains and traveling through South America while living mostly out of their car. They actually found us through Rochelle’s blog. Kirsten and James are pros at living out of their car and mountain climbing. I think they’re tied with Matt and Sylwia as the healthiest guests we’ve ever had.

Here’s their post about Getting Connected in Argentina and The Guesthouse. Stay tuned for their upcoming posts as they CouchSurf and drive through South America, leaving the cubicle behind for good.

Honeymoon in Buenos Aires

And the first blogging guest we had in The Loft, Katie of A Backyard Wedding. Katie’s blog about planning her backyard wedding on a budget of $10,000 US has remained popular years after Katie and Paul can no longer claim to be newlyweds. She’s a great writer with an amazing eye for detail and beautiful taste. Read her posts about Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, San Telmo and about returning from their honeymoon and her final impressions. They also took my absolute favorite photo of The Loft.

Katie and Paul on their Honeymoon in San Telmo Loft (Credit: A Backyard Wedding)

After Katie and Paul spent their honeymoon in San Telmo Loft, we had a year of honeymooners. Looks like next year may be filled with adventure travelers.

Got any other great blogs for travel tips in Argentina you’d like to recommend? Just put them in the comments below.

We’re still unpacking.

Welcome to San Telmo Loft at our own domain. We’re currently in the process of updating the design of our site to offer you a better experience navigating all that’s here. It’s taking us a bit longer than we’d hoped because we’ve got so much information to include. It’s really been a fantastic year for us here in both the Loft and the Pad. We’ve got lots of updates to share.

Thanks for stopping by. If you’re a frequent visitor, you’ll notice gradual changes here and there over the next couple of weeks. Our goal is to have it ready for widespread  release by January 1 (fingers crossed).

It’s a holiday weekend and what weather we are having! I’ve just come back from a trip home to Louisiana where it was cooler than here in Buenos Aires today. I love it!

So, what have we been up to? Well, besides visiting the family back home, I’ve spent the past few months looking for an apartment, getting it set up and learning more than I ever wanted to know about the art of getting stuff done in Buenos Aires. By stuff done, I mean things like getting the Internet hooked up, heaters working (which we don’t even need yet), hooking up the hot water, sealing leaks in the roof, finding a technician to work on our fridge which was freezing everything… really fun stuff like that.

Long-term apartment rentals here don’t work the same way they do in the States. They aren’t painted and readied up for the new tenants. Your phone may or may not work. Your toilet may spray water at the wall when you flush it. It’s quite an adventure. I went through it two years ago in the last place I rented. And here I am again, spending my days on the phone with the operators of the various companies to see just when they think they may come by…

“You’re on the list.”
“Great, so they’re coming today?”
“They’ll call you.”
“But my phone doesn’t work.”
“They’ll ring the doorbell.”
“That doesn’t work either. This is why I’m calling you to see when they’ll come.”

We haven’t had Internet for about two months even though we placed the order the first week of April. Seriously! We’ve been waiting for seven weeks for the guy to bring us the modem. One day, they called us just to let us know that they would be calling. They didn’t call. Then we learned that you can actually pick the modem up yourself. Ah, but there’s a catch. If you’ve already ordered Internet and you’re on the list, you cannot come by to pick it up. You have to cancel your order and then order it again 72 hours later and tell them that you want to come to pick up the modem yourself.

Ok, I don’t have that much to complain about because I love the new place. It’s in the same building as the Loft and the Pad, the two apartments Natalia, Gonzalo and I rent out. In fact, since we had no hot water and our fridge was freezing everything, we stayed in the Loft for the first week.

Here’s what sold me on the new digs…..we’re on the top floor and we have a dome! A dome! (On our Flickr site you can see our process–still ongoing–of making the Cupula a home.)

John hated the place when he first saw it, but I begged him to give it a chance. I mean, when will we ever live in an apartment with a dome again in our lives? It’s taken a lot of work to make it livable, but John and I have hosted our first guest. His sister made her first trip overseas and we may have even convinced her to see if her company would transfer her to Buenos Aires. Now, that’s a successful visit!

My cousin sent me this quote and it seems like a great one to share as we bring in a new year. Since the struggling global economy may make 2009 a difficult one, I felt like this quote puts things into perspective.

Happy New Year to everyone!

“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them–work, family, health, friends, and spirit–and you’re keeping all of those in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls–family, health, friends, and spirit–are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.”

~Brian G. Dyson, speaking at Georgia Tech’s 172nd commencement address in September 1996.

We’ve been busy lately getting our new two-bedroom apartment ready to rent out. It’s ready! It’s in the same building as The Loft, but one floor up, which means it has a terrace. Breakfast on the terrace, afternoon drinks, or a nice glass of Malbec.

The Pad sleeps four comfortably. The kitchen is stocked with cooking utensils. There’s cable TV and speakers that plug in to an MP3 player or iPod. And, of course, there’s WiFi. You’ll find everything you need. Fill in the Contact Us form or send us an email at santelmoloft(at)gmail(dot)com to see if it’s available when you’re in town.

We’ll soon be adding more pictures here and on our Flickr set, but if you’re on your way to Buenos Aires and looking for a stylish, roomy, apartment to rent. We’ve got it.