Category Archives: Argentina

We arrived on in Puerto Iguazu after our 17 hour, overnight trip on the fully reclining “luxury” bus. Neither the movies nor the food was better than the regular bus. True to its jungle nature, it was hot and sticky, and we all were in a solid sweat by the time we made it the five or so blocks (yes, we made Terry and Mary Jane walk it … and many many more miles, just ask them) to our hotel. …

4 responses to “Water, water everywhere!”

Just outside of the Buenos Aires megapolis, an area of 13 million inhabitants, the endless apartment buildings disappear. So does the Parisian architecture, the ice cream shops, the fancy stores. It’s all replaced with endless open space, the land of the gauchos. Or at least it used to be. Now it’s not, because as we learned on our “Dia del Campo,” or day trip to an estancia in the pampas, there are no more gauchos in the country. Apparently Argentinian …

3 responses to “Playing Gaucho and Tourist in the Pampas”

Since the Argentinian economic collapse of 2001, Buenos Aires has had a reputation as a great bargain for travelers. Despite the fact that eight years have passed since the collapse, the reputation has remained, though the reality of the situation is that Buenos Aires is no longer the bargain basement of cities. The collapse, while sending large numbers of the country’s citizens plummetting into poverty, acted as a calling card for millions of tourists…and the money they brought with them. …

4 responses to “Budget Buenos Aires”

Who could go to Buenos Aires and not take in a tango show? Well, we couldn’t. But we were hoping to avoid a big Vegas style show, after all, we don’t need to see horses on stage, as one of the shows advertised. We were hoping to find an intimate, authentic “feeling,” high caliber show to enjoy. Turns out that Cafe Tortoni, a Buenos Aires institution and on the must-do tourist circuit itself (though the locals would say its a …

9 responses to “Two to Tango”

But there are free tours of Buenos Aires, and quality-wise they are about on par with the steak. In other words, they are pretty damn awesome. I wasn’t expecting that. When Jeff, while surfing the Internet for things to do in Buenos Aires, announced that he’d found a free tour of the city, I scoffed. There had to be a catch. Free…but only if we stayed at a certain hotel. Free…but boring as sin. Free…but we had to listen to …

6 responses to “There May Not Be Free Lunches…”

So yes, we’ve been slow with the posting lately, but we have good reason: my parents have been visiting us since March 1. We’ve been hanging out in Buenos Aires for the past week, and tonight we’re headed up to Iguazu Falls for a short visit before returning to Buenos Aires for my birthday on the 10th. Then it’s less than a week until we leave South America for the great and unknown (to us) continent of Africa. Expect a …

1 responses to “Alive and Well in Buenos Aires”

As we made our way around the Valles Calchaquies, from Salta to Cachi, Cachi to Cafayate, Cafayate back to Salta, most of what we seemed to see was the vast emptiness of a difficult but stunning landscape. There were a few small established towns, places with a market and a restaurant, running water and electricity, and in the larger ones maybe even a bank and a gas station. As we explored these larger towns, I’d find myself wondering what brought …

6 responses to “A Privileged Way of Thinking”

I’m not 100% sure what most people think when they think of Argentina—perhaps its the European style of Buenos Aires, the sizzle of tango, the melt-in-your-mouth taste of steak, the wilds of Patagonia, or the gauchos of the pampas—but I’m pretty sure it’s probably not cacti. In northern Argentina, however, that’s exactly what you’ll find: huge cacti and marvelous rock formations. And oh yeah, vineyards too. Lying west and south of the major city of Salta, the Valles Calchaquies is …

4 responses to “The American Southwest Meets Sonoma in Argentina”

We’ve seen the mummies in Egypt. They’re in a small room at the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo, and as it costs extra, we found ourselves bribing the guard to allow use of our student cards to enter. Inside a small room are a world renouned collection of mummies in incredible condition, preserved for thousands of years. Those mummies may as well have been skeletons compared to what is at the MAAM museum in Salta. The story goes back 500 …

3 responses to “Children of the Mountain”