My Travels Around the World

Category: Argentina

Buenos Aires Part 6 – More food, more tango

Monday, October 23, 2017

Today was our food tour day.  We met Mariana, our 25 year-old guide, in the lobby of our hotel. She works for craft beer company, working with the brew master when she is not acting as a guide. She had set up a mate brewing station as that would be our first lesion and taste.

Mate

Mate (pronounced MAH-tay) is in your face aggressive when you first drink it, that’s how strong it is. But in BA, everyone, EVERYONE drinks it all the time.  They drink it on the street. They drink it in the subway. They drink it on the bus. They walk around everywhere carrying their thermos and other mate paraphernalia. And they share it with all their friends, so it is also a very social drink.

Buenos Aires Part 7 – Final day, final thoughts

Tuesday Oct 24, 2017

Today was the start of our National Geographic trip (please see the posts on the Falklands and South Georgia Island). But since we had already done most the of the tourist stuff they were doing in Buenos Aires, we went off on our own to see some of the things we had missed so far. This would be our final day in Buenos Aires.

Palacio Barolo

Our first stop was the Palacio Barolo. We had tried to come several other days, but always missed the time for the tour in English. So today was the day.

Buenos Aires Part 5 -San Telmo

Sunday, October 22, 2017

San Telmo

Since today was Sunday, it was time to visit San Telmo and the famous Sunday market. Our new friends, David and Judi, from New Zealand, who we had met at Iguazu Falls and who happened to be staying at the Sofitel, joined us. We shared an Uber over to the San Telmo area. Street musicians were filling the air with their music. It was a sea of people, both locals and tourists, and both sides of the street (streets) were lined with craft stalls selling souvenirs, homemade art, freshly squeezed orange juice and antiques.

We walked around the stalls, slowing, looking at the antiques, the souvenirs, the junk, but mostly the people. Tourists. Locals. Families with children. Shopping. Bargaining. Cafes and restaurants with outdoor tables. It was spring. Winter was over and everyone was enjoying being outdoors.

Buenos Aires Part 4 – Tigre

October 21, 2017

Tigre

Today was the day to head up the river to the Tigre. Tigre is a town just north of Buenos Aires (BA), right on the Parana Delta. In fact, it is considered the gateway to the rivers and wetlands of the vast Parana Delta. The delta consists of several small islands, together known as the Islas de Parana. The delta covers about 200 miles but is only anywhere from 11 to 37 miles wide. And it the only river delta in the world that is not in contact with the sea but rather with another river. And thus the Parana River is the third largest on the American continent, after the Mississippi and the Amazon.

We were part of a small group of tourists. Our guide, Juliet, picked us up and after several stops to pick up others, we headed to the Puerto Madero, the port. We embarked on the boat, the Sturla Viejes, which had a deck on top, but inside looked like an airplane with three seats on each side and a narrow aisle. We were asked to stay in our seats until we were out on the water, at which point we could go up to the deck.

Buenos Aires Part 3 – La Boca

October 17, 2017

La Boca

We approached the La Boca neighborhood, known as the barrio of Buenos Aires. As with most of Buenos Aires, it has a strong European flavor as many of the early residents were from Italy, specifically, Genoa, as well as from Spain, France, England, Ireland and other eastern European countries. While most people think it is called La Boca (the mouth) because the neighborhood sits at the mouth of the Matanza-Riachuelo River, another theory is that it was named after the Genoese neighborhood of  Boccadasse (or Bocadaze in Genoese dialect).

Football

The first thing we saw was murals on the walls of the apartment buildings, of the most important things in Argentina – tango and football (ie, soccer).

Buenos Aires Part 2 – So much Jewish history

Oct 17, 2017

Jewish Buenos Aires

This morning, after breakfast, our guide, Jessica Cymerman, and our driver met us. I don’t usually use last names in my blog, to protect people’s privacy. But Jessica was such a terrific guide, and she is listed on TripAdvisor, so I want to give her a shout out. Jessica grew up in Buenos Aires (BA) and was going to take us on primarily a Jewish tour of the city. There is a lot of Jewish history here.

Buenos Aires Part 1 – So much to do, see and eat

Monday, October 16, 2017

Arriving in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires, which means “fair winds” or ‘good airs,” is one of the largest cities in Latin America. The locals are called portenos, people from the port, implying that most of them are immigrants in one way or another. And this was our destination and would be our home for the next week.

Heading to the Falklands and South Georgia Island: Day 1

Wednesday, Oct 25, 2017

Leaving Buenos Aires

Wake-up call was at 545.  And thus the trip began. We all gathered for breakfast in the Sofitel hotel. You could feel the excitement and anticipation. We were off on a National Geographic (Nat Geo for short) trip to the Falklands (or Islas Malvinas as the Argentinians call it – more on this later) and South Georgia Island. A place people say is one of the most beautiful in the world.

Iguazu Falls

We’d been in Buenos Aries (look for the Buenos Aries blog) for a few days and were now doing a side trip to Iguazu Falls.

Flying to Iguazu

This morning was an early one. We had to dash over to our next hotel, the Sofitel, to drop off our luggage, and then head to the domestic airport in Buenos Aries (Aeroparque Jorge Newbery) to catch a flight to Iguazu Falls. Our driver picked us up, and because it was still so early, 630 in the morning, there was no traffic.  Argentinians stay up late and sleep late.  It took us less than 10 minutes to make our way across town, drop of the luggage and head to the airport.  We got to the airport about 2.5 hours before the flight. The airport was packed and the line to check in was long. But I noticed some check-in kiosks, and since we had no luggage to check, I decided to give that a try. The only problem for me was that Spanish was the only option. So I just tried to follow the instructions. Basically, the layout is the same at all airports kiosks throughout the world, so between my experience as a traveler and my very, very basic Spanish, I figured it out and within minutes had our boarding passes.

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén