Starting off

When it's a clear cold winter day and nothing seems to be standing between DC and the North Pole except, er, Canada and all the relatively flat states to the north, what is a sensible woman to do to stay warm? Or me, for that matter? There's dressing in layers (check), drinking hot coffee (double check), and running around packing up summer-weight clothing for a two-week trip somewhere warm (awesome, and check).
I started planning this trip several months ago, when the director of my journal announced that our work would change dramatically in March. I figured that taking a long, physically demanding vacation in February would set me up to come back rested and rebooted. Little did I know that her vision of said radically different work process would involve laying off me and two of my coworkers, a decision that came so far out of left field that most of us initially thought that we were being called in to be scolded for using personal e-mail accounts on the work computers. So things at the journal will certainly be changing in March, but after the end of the month, they won't be paying me to worry about it any more. Now the vacation seems like an excellent opportunity to work off some of the anger I feel about the layoffs, as well as a chance to get some sun and warmth into my bones. It's in the 80s in Buenos Aires and somewhat cooler in San Martin, but it's well below freezing here in DC, and the idea of ditching the winter blues for what Idle Words so brilliantly termed "a steakation" now seems little short of genius.
I hope to update with photos and stories once I'm there, but there will probably be a long break while I'm at the estancia. Rural Argentina is not the interwebular hotspot you might expect.
For anyone playing along at home, I'll be staying at Garufa B&B in Buenos Aires, then going to Estancia Huechahue in Patagonia, and finally staying for a few nights at Le Village in San Martin.