Two weeks in Argentina and Uruguay

To start reading from the preparation... HERE

To start reading from the beginning of the trip... HERE

By Day:
Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 (Part 1), Day 3 (Part 2), Day 4, Day 5 (Part 1), Day 5 (Part 2), Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11, Day 12, Day 13, Day 14, Day 15


By Place:
- New York, United States | Post

- Ushuaia, Argentina | Posts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | Videos 1, 2 | Guide

- San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina | Posts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 | Video | Guide

- Esquel, Argentina | Post | Videos 1, 2

- Buenos Aires, Argentina | Posts 1, 2, 3, 4 | Guide

- Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay | Post

- Puerto Iguazu, Argentina | Post | Video | Guide

Puerto Iguazu: Restaurant, Accommodation and Tours

Restaurant
I was only in Puerto Iguazu. The helpful host at the B&B recommended me to eat at Yuca Restaurant, she said it has good foods and is not very expensive, even locals would go there and there. I attested that statement.

Yuca Restaurant & Lounge
Address: Av. Brasil 95, Puerto Iguazu

Tour
No guided tour is needed, you can easily see Iguazu Fall yourself. There are a few options, the Argentinean side has clearly more viewpoints and it gets really close to the waterfalls. But the Brazilian side has the helicopter ride if that is what you fancy. It is also said that the Brazilian side has a better panoramic view. I did not go to the Brazilian side so I don't know if that is true. Nonetheless, I think the Argentinean side has plenty to see. And there is a island right below the waterfall you possibly can take a boat to see from more unique angle. That option really depends on the river condition though. Another thing I think you can possibly see or do in this region, the border monuments between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. This is where the three countries met, each has its own monument. In fact, if you have enough time, you can just do a trip across all 3 countries in a day. That may be an interesting thing to do.

Accommodation
I stayed in Residencial Iguazu Villa 14. Location wise, it may looks a little far on the map, there is a 5-10 minutes walk from the city center, but Puerto Iguazu is really small actually, once you walk the center, everything is right there. I did not mind the walk, even though it was on a quiet street, I felt pretty safe. The room was clean, not the best B&B I have ever stayed, but not the worst neither. Claudia, the host, was really friendly and helpful. She gave me about the the airport pick up, the restaurant, the national park, and she spoke really good english. Just a lovely woman running a B&B. I am glad that I stayed there.

Residencial Iguazu Villa 14
Address: Fray Luis Beltrán 462 - 3370 Puerto Iguazu
Website: http://www.iguazuvilla14.com.ar/

Buenos Aires: Restaurants, Transportation, Accommodation and Tours

Restaurants
Interestingly, I was in Buenos Aires for 3 and 1/2 days, but I ate at the same restaurant for 3 nights on a row, it was just a friendly neighborhood restaurant kind of place in Palermo, at the corner where Gallo meets Paraguay. Its name is Restaurant Los Amigos, like its name, I felt like the server did treat me like an amigo. The food was good, not very expensive. The place may look a bit old, but it was never crowded (I went between 6pm and 8pm). After a long day of sightseeing, it felt kind of good to just sit there quietly, have a cold drink and some grilled chorizo. I didn't speak much Spanish, the server was very patient to try to understand me or recommend me something by adding a lot of body language to explain what kind of meat I am ordering. I just felt really welcome there. I wish I remember his name, but it is a small restaurant, he pretty much is the only one who serves. So, for those who wasn't good with Spanish and stay near the area, I would definitely recommend this restaurant. Another restaurant was in La Boca area, there were so many restaurants in La Boca, most of them were heavily touristy. I mean if you eat there, most likely, it is not for the values, but for the some photo op for some tango dancers.

Restaurante Los Amigos
Address: Paraguay 3100, Buenos Aires
Phone:+54 11 4963-8674

Tours
I did not join any local tour in Buenos Aires, since one really don't have to. There are a few must see for me: La Boca, Recoleta Cemetery, Obelisk are among the top of my list. A day trip to Colonia in Uruguay is also recommended. Galaria Pacifico was a beautiful mall, not that I would buy anything there. Big ben clock tower near Retiro and the train station  looked fantastic at dust, so does the Puerto Madero at dawn. Buenos Aires is just one of those cities, you can explore it as short as 2-3 days or up to a week or more, if you are interested in nightlife and all that.

Transportation
The subway is good, 4.5 Argentinean peso a ride. Buses are even cheaper. It is not really that bad once you get a hang of its system, how to get on and pay your ride. The difficult part is to figure out what bus lines go to where, and what roads they are going to be on. For both subway and bus, it would be a huge advantages to get a SABE card (transport stored value card). If you are staying with a local, or someone from Airbnb, definitely ask about it and see if they can get you SABE card. Otherwise, you must have the exact change (in coins) to get on a bus, that can be a bitch. Comparatively, the tourist bus day pass or taxi are quite expensive than the subway or regular local buses, I believe the tourist bus day pass is about 240 peso for the first day, then 170 peso for each day after. Taxi drivers can be sneaky sometimes, and they would say you need to pay subcharge for the bag, or they try to not use the meter. I try to avoid taking the taxi, but sometimes it is unavoidable. If you do rather taxi, it might be wise to look at the map ahead of time, and kind of get a sense how far your destination, and recognize some street names, so don't just let the taxi driver to take you as long as they want.

Accommodation
For Buenos Aires, I definitely recommend to find something on Airbnb, in neighborhood like Palermo or Recoleta, you can find some really nice apartment or studio for very very reasonably price. I stayed with Diego Coria, super nice guy, extremely helpful and understanding about traveler. He has not only let me use his SABE card, he also provided me a sim card for my unlocked cell phone. He lives in the same building, if you need anything, advice, special arrangement on check-in and check-out, he would totally work with you. I was so lucky to have bumped into him on Airbnb. His studio apartment was clean, quiet, homey. Love it! Totally recommended.

Diego Coria
Airbnb profile: https://www.airbnb.com/users/show/1751072

Day 15: Another Cemetery? Sure.

Waking up to witness the major fog condition in Iguazu (again), I was sure that my flight back to Buenos Aires would be delayed. But Claudia, the host lady at the B&B, did not think so. She said in autumn it was pretty common to have early morning fog, but it would clear up in an hour or two. My flight was at 11:35am, sure enough, it took off on time. Special thanks to Claudia, she has been a very nice host, and very helpful in giving me advice about getting around from airport to town, the restaurant where I could find some more reasonably priced food. She also helped me to reserve the airport transfer pick up, prepared a huge breakfast for me this morning. Even though her B&B was a bit further than other more conveniently located B&B, hostels and hotels, I think it is a good choice. Her hospitality triumph it all.

Back to Buenos Aires, it was already 1:30pm, my flight will not leave until 11:00pm, so technically I have had the entire day to see more of Buenos Aires. But I couldn’t ask Diego to wait for me to go pick up my bag all day long, so I texted him, agreed that I will go to his place to pick up my backpack at 4pm, I have about 2 hours to do something. I thought I missed Carlos Gardel’s grave the other day in Recoleta Cemetery. Turned out I didn’t, Gardel’s grave is actually in Chacarita Cemetery. It is right by the B line metro, so what the heck, let’s go to get that done too.

It took me an hour or so to travel from the domestic airport to Chacarita Cemetery. Oh dear, it is actually a real regular cemetery, massive in size, people are having funeral there and stuff. I was like, what the hell am I doing here? I walked in anyway, and there were no map, I blindly walked for a circle, and couldn’t see any signs about Carlos Gardel’s grave. I gave it a shoot, walked into an office there was a lady, first I said “Disculpe!” (I am sorry..) and asked where is Carlos Gardel’s grave. She pointed me the directions. It didn’t seem too far, and at last I did find it! I am the only one there in a quiet cemetery looking at this tango singer’s grave. If one really think about it, that kind of made me a weirdo. I don't even know the singer, I just saw a picture of the grave on the internet and I wanted to see it in person. Hehe... I don’t mind being weird. I didn’t mean to make cemetery visits as my highlights in Buenos Aires though.

I thought about the wall I saw the other day, where the musical notes of one of his songs was painted on the wall. The song is called Volver. I google it, “Volver” means “Return”. Kind of appropriate for today. So here it is:

Diego let me hang out at his place for a bit while he finished cleaning up. We chatted a whole lot about Argentina’s economy, social problems, Airbnb, and other stuff. Great young man. I hope all the best to him. I am so glad that I have used airbnb in this trip. Both places turned out to be fantastic.

Now, I have more than 2 hours to kill in the airport. Out of peso, maybe I will have to grab a coffee with my credit card instead.

Volver...

Day 14: Iguazu Falls

My morning flight to Iguazu was delayed due to major fog condition in the Iguazu area, I checked the weather.com, the visibility was 0.1 miles. I was getting more than a little antsy since today was my only chance to see Iguazu Falls, if my flight got canceled, that would be it, nothing I could do about it. Tomorrow I will have to fly back to the states from Buenos Aires. Anyway, luckily, an hour and a half later from the original departure time, we were finally boarded and was ready to hit the sky. Arriving in Puerto Iguazu it was already 12:30pm, the park gate closed at 5pm, so I decided that I would just go straight to the Park instead of going to the B&B first. Diego was kind enough to let me keep my backpack at his place, so I have only had a small bag today. I went to the Argentinean side instead of the Brazilian side, partly because of the interest of time. But also because both the host of the B&B and Diego who originally came from this region mentioned that there are a lot more trails to walk and viewpoints to take pictures from the Argentinean side, the only thing Brazilian side has and Argentinean side doesn’t is the helicopter ride. I would love to have the Brazil stamp on my passport too, but I had to pass it this time.

The only option to go directly from the airport to the national park is by taxi, even though the park is actually midway between the airport and the town, it cost a lot more to go to the national park by taxi. They said it is a “fixed” rate, no metered taxi available. I asked around, and didn’t think I had other choice, so I just paid the AR$160 for the cab. The Iguazu National Park entrance fee was AR$170. There was a free train to bring you to different trail start in the park once you are in the Park. There are 4 major trails: Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat), Circuito Superior (Upper Trail), Circuito Inferior (Lower Trail) and Isla San Martin. The last one was closed because of the river level and wave condition. I first asked the man in the welcome center, he suggested to go the sequence Devil’s Throat, then Upper and if I still have time, then Lower. That is actually a very good advice. I think I have seen the Fall from pretty much all angles.

The temperature was actually lower than I expected, it said 50-70F, but with the humidity (over 70-100%), it felt like 80-90F after you walked a little. I can imagine how hot this place would be during the summer. I first went to the Devil’s Throat, there was 1.1km trail to walk before you get to the grand waterfall of the whole Iguazu Falls. I liked that, to start off with a bang! You walked on the wired platform above the rivers, you could actually see through it, see the running water underneath, it was not my thing, I didn’t like to see through what I was walking on. Nonetheless, I kept going. There were lots of butterflies along the way, many different colors (mainly purple and orange). There was one type with a bright baby blue, I wanted to take of that, but I couldn’t catch it. Soon, you would notice more animals, many colorful birds and toucan (the big mouth bird in the Amazon), I mean WOW! And then there was crocodile, turtles in the water; coati walking next to you, a lot of them, in fact, I was leaning against the rail for a few seconds, and suddenly one of them walked right next to me on the rail. He literally scared the shit out of me, and I jumped off. You would take great pictures at the Devil’s Throat, but do bring a poncho or umbrella, since it did get some mist and waterfall shower from time to time.

Took the train to Cataratas Station where both the Upper and Lower trails begin. The lighthouse is where divides the trails. I walked the Upper Trail (0.6 km) first. This trail had some nice panoramic views of the Iguazu Falls, you would stay dry on this trail mostly. The Lower trail was the longest, 1.4 km with a lot more steps to go up and down, it covered both the farthest point and also the closest point to the Falls interestingly, at the farthest point, you would get another full panoramic view from lower angle, while at the closest point, literally, you almost felt like the waterfall was hitting right at you. At that viewpoint, for sure you would get wet, definitely bring a poncho. I did the Tony Leung standing at the bottom looking up close at the waterfall and smile look. Asked a girl to take a picture of me standing there. Then that was it. It has completed my Argentina trip.

Took a bus to the Puerto Iguazu City, it’s like a different country here. The town is very undeveloped, and there are lots of kids sitting on the ground, playing with no shoes and dirty clothes, it seems like the tourist money never gets to these people. Their parents sell handcraft stuff on the floor as well. People here looks more mixed too, not as European looking as the lower part of Argentina. After I had dinner and walked back to the B&B, I looked up, I saw a lot of stars probably because there are no light pollution here, so many forest area. It was beautiful. Too bad, I cannot tell the difference between the star constellation in the Northern and the Southern Hemispheres. I did look for that Iguazu rotating lamp in Happy Together, I would get it if I see one. But no unfortunately. I think it was only in the movie.

Other photos from today: