What a Difference a Day Makes...

Buenos Aires, Argentina

April 12, 2007
S 34°35.045
W 058°24.500

The clap of thunder and brilliant flashes from lightening woke us in the middle of the night. The beautiful day we had at Iguazu Falls was now being washed away by a tropical thunderstorm. It continued to rain as we headed out to find our morning coffee and never ceased as we boarded our flight back to Buenos Aires. What a difference a day can make…

Iguazu Falls wouldn’t have been the same in the rain—no butterflies fluttering through the forest, no iridescent rainbows in the mist, no brilliantly intense sun, and definitely not as many photo opportunities. We felt very fortunate for the great day we had; having timed our visit perfectly with the weather, unlike our visit to Torres del Paine… we deserved a break!

Safely back in our apartment in Buenos Aires, we’re preparing for our trip back through San Francisco. We’ll spend the majority of Friday cleaning our apartment and packing. We meet the owner of the apartment on Saturday morning at 10 AM for a final inspection, and head out for one free night at the swanky Buenos Aires Marriott (thank goodness for Marriott Rewards) before our long flight home.

Other notes: I have officially grown tired of Argentinean food. I can not bare another piece of grilled meat, dish of pasta, or pancetta pizza with canned mushrooms. Buenos Aires does offer more variety than many of the small towns we’ve passed through, but even the nice restaurants have a menu primarily of meat. Our favorite meals have been at the Asian restaurants—Green Bamboo (Vietnamese), Sudestada (Asian fusion) and Biwon (Korean); however, most of these places are pretty pricey and out of our budget for nightly meals. As Marc said, “we’re just spoiled by the diversity of food living in San Francisco, none of the restaurants we’ve visited would even make Michael Bauer’s Top 100”… I don’t necessarily agree with him since the above mentioned restaurants were top notch. I think Michael would balk at the décor in Green Bamboo, for example, or criticize the place settings, but overall he would rate the food for what it is… excellent.

We created a list of restaurants to visit during our quick visit “home.” I’m not sure we’ll hit them all, but we’ll try. The list includes: Little Thai, Giordano Brothers, Nick’s Crispy Tacos and a few others (none of these are on the Top 100 though). One thing is for sure…we will not be going to a steak house on our visit to SF!

Shock and Awe...

Iguazu Falls, Argentina

April 11, 2007
S 25°41.250
W 054°26.700

We took the 9:00 AM bus from Puerto Iguazu to Iguazu National Park. We wanted to maximize our time in the park to ensure we saw all of the great sites including the Garganta del Diablo, or Devil’s Throat, which we saved for the grand finale. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in the sky and the temperature at departure was a balmy 80F.

We entered the lush, green park, in the middle of the rainforest we saw from the plane yesterday, and made our way down a well marked trail (appropriately named Green Trail). At the end of the Green Trail two routes lead tourists down different paths (Upper & Lower Circuits) to see the main show, THE WATERFALLS. We opted to hit the Upper Circuit first since it was closer and we were anxious to catch our first glimpse of the falls.

First, I should mention we have heard a lot of mind blowing stories about the glory of Iguazu Falls from other travelers during our travels, and everyone describes them as a “must-do” in South America. We always planned to visit the Falls on this trip, but kept our expectations low to avoid potential disappointment… and to make the overall experience of seeing The Falls truly our own. We’re not waterfall “experts” by any respect; we’ve never seen Niagara Falls or any of the other “big boys.” Our only real experiences are the summers we’ve spent in Yosemite where numerous falls are calming to the soul and spectacular in their own right.

With that said, our first views of Iguazu can be described as Shock and Awe. It is very difficult to express the gargantuan beauty that stood before us at our first lookout point. Yes, we expected a big, beautiful waterfall; however, nothing could have prepared us for the massive amount of water aggressively pouring over the numerous cliffs stretching across the horizon for at least a mile. The greenery of the rainforest intertwined with the white water created a perfect marriage; symbolized by the rainbows arching across the emerald pools at the base of the falls.

As we moved from viewpoint to viewpoint we were able to see more falls from different angles and even peer across to the Brazilian side—which didn’t look nearly as exciting. We continued to weave our way along the catwalks set-up through the forest for several hours, passing small swarms of butterflies soaking up the sunny weather and even catching a glimpse of a toucan quietly eating his lunch above our heads.

We jumped on a small train, specially built for transporting tourists through the national park, and took a twenty minute ride along the rails to the staging area for the grand finale, Garganta del Diablo. The entire park had already far exceeded our expectations, what could possibly be next?

At the “train depot” we could see approximately 400 M of catwalk stretching across Rio Iguazu towards the falls. As we made our way across the river, we could see the current quickly being drawn to one spot, the Devil’s Throat. The immense volume of water poured down with such force it looked like a massive caldron of boiling water; mist and steam filling the air. There were rainbows everywhere; you literally needed to turn in a circle, wiping mist from your eyes, to take in the phenomenal site! The sheer drop-off, the intensity and violence, has been compared to what the early European sailors imagined the edge of the flat earth to be like—a perfect assessment.

Overall, the day was absolutely perfect in terms of weather, scenery and, of course, company. Iguazu Falls should be on any South America itinerary and rates number two on our list of favorite sites in South America. (Look for the entire list coming out with the South America Wrap-up next week.)

A Welcomed Change of Scenery...

Iguazu Falls, Argentina

April 10, 2007
S 25°41.250
W 054°26.700

The plane touched down at Iguazu International Airport right around noon. As we were landing we looked out the window and all we could see was rainforest for miles—we were out of the city! As we stepped off the plane we could see thousands of butterflies fluttering outside on the tarmac; their colors so vividly fluorescent. The airport was surrounded by lush trees; the terminal itself constructed of red bricks, perfectly blending with the red-clay soil and the beautiful surroundings.

We made tracks straight through the terminal, bypassing the luggage carousel since we didn’t check anything, and waited for the bus to town. The weather outside was a little humid and in the high 80’s, warmer than BA, but a welcome change from the low 70’s over the last few days. As we waited for the bus we got a much closer look at the different butterflies; the colors were even more brilliant close-up, fluorescent blue, green, yellow and red. We took a deep breath of fresh, steamy, air, pleased to be out of Buenos Aires for a few days and closer to nature.

The bus finally arrived (really a minivan) and we were the only two passengers. The route from the airport was a paved road lined on both sides with green, luscious trees. We saw more butterflies as we made the trip; unfortunately several of them saw their ultimate demise as they crashed into the windshield of the van. After several kilometers we turned off of the paved road onto a cobblestone street in the town of Iguazu. The van made a few more turns before dropping us off right in front of Hotel Lilian.

We quickly headed out into the streets of our new town; ready to explore something new. We simply wandered for awhile, trying to get our bearings before finding a little road that twisted down to Rio Iguazu and the port. Iguazu Falls is located in the North-East corner of Argentina and borders Paraguay and Brazil. There are different attractions associated with the falls in each country, but the serious debates occur between those who visit the Argentina side versus the Brazil side. We will only visit the Argentina side since the Brazilian government makes US citizens pay $100 USD for a Visa—not really worth it for a day.

We relaxed at a little Hamburguesería overlooking the river, simply enjoying the scenery of the Rio Iguazu. An occasional motor boat would zip by heading back from Paraguay. The customs office was a stones throw from where we were sitting, monitoring the boats going in and out of the port, ensuring no laws were being broken. The forest surrounded us as we shared a hamburger and enjoyed a couple 750ml bottles of ice-cold, of all things, Budweiser.

As we talked at our table, over looking the river, we agreed this was a perfect way to end our time in South America. The natural beauty and the numerous parks are the main attractions down here—the great cities such as BA and Bariloche are just an added bonus!

Just a Few More Must-Dos...

Buenos Aires (Palermo District), Argentina

April 9, 2007
S 34°35.045
W 058°24.500

Since we only have a few more days left in Buenos Aires, we’re trying to get through our “list of must-dos.” Today we hit a “must-do” on the list, the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, or MALBA for short. The museum houses modern art in Buenos Aires, showcasing a few special shows and even has a cinema which shows art-house films.

We were lucky enough to see two special features at the museum. The first one, David LaChapelle, made a name for himself at a young age working with Andy Warhol. Mr. LaChapelle has photographed numerous famous people, some of which were on display in his exhibit Heaven to Hell, including Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Drew Barrymore, Pamela Anderson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Courtney Love. The exhibit was definitely our favorite in the museum.

The other special exhibit was Marta Minujin, Los meses del ano, or months of the year. These were large (12-15 ft tall) metal sculptures, depicting different human forms; one for each month of the year. Six forms were on display outdoors on a shady, brick balcony on the second floor of the museum; illustrating they can endure the weather of any month too. I immediately thought of my Uncle Del, an artist that works in metal, as soon as I saw the sculptures. I knew Uncle Del would really appreciate Minujin’s work as well as the LaChapelle’s pictures of Pamela Anderson… and of course the rest of the art in the museum!

We have a few more things to check-off on our list of “must-dos” in Buenos Aires, but the remainder will have to wait a few days. We leave for Iguazu Falls on Tuesday morning and return on Thursday. It’s crazy how quickly the past 2 ½ months have gone by for us. We’ll be back in San Francisco this time next week preparing for our next phase of the ATW trip—New Zealand.

Happy Easter!

Buenos Aires (Palermo District), Argentina

April 8, 2007
S 34°35.045
W 058°24.500

Happy Easter! We had a nice little Easter brunch in our apartment before heading out to explore more of the city. During the weekends many of the public squares in Buenos Aires are filled with merchants selling all kinds of jewelry, leather goods, mate gourds, and other trinkets.

Well, I should tell the whole story…we decided to go to Recoleta after taking a detour on our way to the San Telmo district. San Telmo hosts an antique fair every weekend with Tango in the square; we thought we could get a twofer. San Telmo is at the complete opposite side of the city from the Palermo and we planned on walking there—that is how we get everywhere, not because we don’t want to take public transportation or a cab, but because it helps us get our exercise and allows us to really see the city at the same time.

We walked for about an hour when we found a cute little park and decided to take a quick break. We walked through the gates and quickly realized it was the same cute park we were in yesterday; a park that is really only fifteen minutes from our apartment. I decided to take a different road, not realizing it took us out of the way before it looped back. We were still at least 6 KM away from San Telmo. That is when we altered our plan and decided to go to Recoleta instead. We’ll go to San Telmo next weekend before we fly home and when we are staying closer to the area; our original plan before I tried to deviate today.

The Recoleta fair was happening even though it was Easter Sunday. There were plenty of tourists outside in the sidewalk cafes, in the park and walking through the art faire. The Hare Krishnas were out dancing; working up a sweat before sneaking off to get some ice cream at Freddos, one of the famous local ice cream joints. We sat on the lawn of the square, enjoyed the sun, and shared some mate before wandering back to our place—no shortcuts this time!

We missed coloring and hiding Easter eggs with all the kids in Hughson America, being with family, and playing the traditional Armenian egg-cracking game, but we had a nice day wandering around BA and enjoying the sun.

24x7x365: We haven’t given an update about us for a week or so… things are still going well. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to enroll in Spanish classes due to the numerous Argentinean holidays last week. I figured four classes wouldn’t really improve my Spanish, especially since I won’t use the language again until Spain. We plan on getting an apartment in Barcelona in October/November and I’ll definitely enroll in classes in advance. Needless to say, Marc and I have been together continuously for the entire trip, except for the fifteen minutes I went out today to buy a phone card! Yes, it was really the first time one of us has gone out without the other. We still love each other, so that is good and I am sure we’ll get a small (and welcome) break in San Francisco next week.

Other Notes: The City of Buenos Aires seems to be doing a great job renovating their parks; however, they decided to renovate nearly all of their parks at one time. We like seeing the money going into the city. But from a tourist’s (and Project Manager’s) perspective they should try finishing one project before starting another and develop a repeatable process.

Also, we’re not convinced there’s enough money budgeted for all of these public works projects. There are signs at each park, or building renovation, stating the allocated funds for the project, but some of the dollars and the ambitions of the project seem a little out of whack. We’re not sure how the local government can accurately estimate the cost of these projects when it appears it has been at least 30 years since a renovation of this scale has occurred. We just hope they have enough money to complete all of these projects. I guess we’ll find out during our next visit to BA.

Google Analytics Update: We’re continuing to monitor Google Analytics on a regular basis. We are happy to announce we have had visitors from across Europe, China, Australia and, or course, the United States. The majority of our hits this week, 33 out of 206, came from Madera, CA. We believe some of these hits are coming from Grandma Heckman who lives near-by in Selma, but we want to give a shout-out to the rest of our fans in Madera, CA! Another interesting note, which is to be expected, 66% of our hits are from people returning visitors. We hope you are enjoying our trip as much as us. Thanks for checking in and please let us know your thoughts.