After Peru we headed to the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Now I wanted to come here for the meat, D had other reasons :-), but guess what we ate, "STEAKS THE SIZE OF MY ARM". The food is fantastic, and really cheep. Just like in Chile we stayed in a real up and coming neighborhood of the city, far away from hotels and tourists, giving us the real experience of Buenos Aires. Our accommodation was a guesthouse, a just beautiful, multistory home, built around a courtyard. If you are planning a visit, check it out http://www.gardenbuenosaires.com/
So besides enjoying the local restaurants, what did we do? Well, we found a "free walking tour of the city", actually they work for tips, but we knew this. We did 2 of their tours, the first was their evening tour in the aristocratic neighborhoods like Recoleta and Retiro. We were told a little about some of the families that built some of the more incredible buildings, but Danielle being a little bit of a busy body / social historian wanted to learn more. The second tour was in the afternoon and it was of the city center and the political history of Buenos Aires. We walked from the congress building to the Pink House, learning about past protests and other political movements, seeing lots of interesting buildings and statues along the way. (The Pink House is Argentina's version of the white house. Our tour guide even noted what balcony Evita stood at to give her famous speeches) The tours are run by a local brother and sister and were very enjoyable. Danielle and I also made a special trip to Recoleta Cemetery where Eva Perón "Evita" is buried. This place was crazy, a mini city of mausoleums, each one trying to outdo the other, most have have the ground floor room and stairs that descend below ground for more coffins. Really creepy stuff... and to top it all, most have glass doors, so you can peak in and see the coffins. Apparently there is one with glass coffins, but I could not find it :-). We walked the famous Calle Florida for shopping and had a milk shake at cafe Tortoni. The rest of the time we tried to enjoy the surroundings of our little guesthouse.
Our next journey took us north to the boarder with Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, the Port of Iguazu. We traveled all this way to see some of the worlds largest and most impressive waterfalls. We stayed as another local guesthouse which was great, a good thing because on the flight to Iguazu I started to feel ill, and on arrival all I wanted to do was sleep. That night I attempted a nice dinner in town, but 30 mins later was in a cab back to the house and in bed. In the morning I was still not good, so Danielle and a friend of the guesthouse owner took a car and drove to the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls. From what Danielle tells me, they had a great time and given her new friend was local and studying agriculture, D got lots of info on the rain forest. Danielle's words to describe the experience "100 times larger than Niagara, It was so large a panoramic picture still could not capture the whole scene. It was so amazing and the noise was deafening!" At lunch time D stopped back at the guesthouse and I figured, I came all this way I must try to see it, so we ventured to the Argentina side of the falls, and the "Devils Throat", and it was everything D had described, really awesome. The only problem, I was not awesome, the sun and walking was not a good idea and it was back to bed for me.
We spent our last night and day in Argentina at the Buenos Aires guesthouse again and now we are off to Rio (in fact by the time I post this we will be in Rio or maybe even Ilha Grande, an island south of Rio.
Check out the pics and video using the links below...
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ourdreamlist/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/vanwykrl
9 days until we are back in the States. And one last thing re Buenos Aires, it is also the city of dog walkers, you see them everywhere (which D likes) and plastic surgery (its included in state health care coverage), so you do the math...
Ryan
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