We went to Argentina in February. It is now June. Oops. I knew this would happen eventually, but I really wanted to stay up to date and stay in real time (which actually never happened). We have just returned home and have so much to catch up on the blog. We also have so much to process in terms of being home once again. I have no words to describe any of that yet. Until then I am going to time travel back to Argentina and think about all the wonderful times there.

_____________________________________________________________________

South America…finally! I have been itching to get to some Spanish speaking countries for a while now. Emalie, my sister-in-law, wanted to come visit us in South America and we decided Buenos Aires was just the place to do that! We never really anticipated making it to Argentina on this trip and we certainly did not expect to spend 18 nights here. Our original plans included Maccu Piccu in Peru and the Bolivian Salt Flats, but our plans on this trip are constantly changing in a way that has been impossible to predict. We had no gear for Maccu Piccu, we would be arriving in rainy season, and we would be unable to do any of the treks we wanted to do because we didn’t sign up in advance.

Since we would be so far south in Argentina in Buenos Aires we started thinking that maybe Patagonia would be a possibility. The weather is perfect this time of year, we found relatively cheap airfare to get there, and we have always dreamed of going there so a new plan was born (Sidenote: This plan really makes no more sense than Maccu Piccu since we still have no hiking gear, but I digress). Since our trip to Buenos Aires and our adventures in Patagonia are complete opposites of one another, I am going to write two separate posts.

Countries Visited

Argentina and Uruguay

Cities Visited

Buenos Aires and Colonia del Sacramento (Uruguay)

Things We Liked

Seeing family, steak, empanadas, pools, free walking tours, wine

Things We Disliked

Expensive, potentially unsafe cities, hot weather (really, really hot), and malbec

We had heard that Buenos Aires might not be the safest of cities and we found out the hard way one night when we almost got robbed under a bridge (that was out of the view from the road) just a block away from our apartment. In our 7 months of traveling, I have never felt so unsafe or uncomfortable. Lesson learned…we took Uber and taxis at night going forward.

Highlights

1. Emalie in Buenos Aires

We spent just over a week in Buenos Aires with Emalie eating empanadas, learning about tango, getting some sun, taking day trips to Uruguay, sampling all the helados (ice cream) and wandering the city. We were so, so sad when it was time for her to go back to the US at the end of the week! We had a wonderful time exploring a new place although we all agree that Buenos Aires might not be our favorite city in the world. Spending 9 days there was maybe a few days too long for us, but we never ran out of things to do, see and eat! We are starting to feel really tired of moving around every few days so it was really awesome to unpack our bags and stay put for a while. Also, Emalie visiting was a breathe of fresh air…we much needed her impromptu mini-concerts in the living room to take away some of our stress (although it did not help us book anything any faster)  🙂

Special thanks to Emalie for putting up with Scott and I try to frantically plan Patagonia a few days before the trip (like I said…it was a tad bit stressful for us).

2. Patagonia

More on that in the next post!

3. Day Trip to Uruguay

We talked about doing 2 or 3 full days in Uruguay to check out Montevideo and Colonia del Sacramento. In the end we decided to be lazy and just take a day trip to Colonia, a cute town that is a UNESCO site and that is quite literally the opposite in every way to Buenos Aires. It is about 1.25 hours away by fast ferry service. We enjoyed some quiet wandering around the cobblestone streets and almost melted due to the heat. There is not a ton to see in Colonia del Sacramento so once we had seen all the site we checked out the beach close to town along the banks of the Rio de la Plata. Even with no ocean in site we enjoyed our afternoon at the beach before catching the last ferry back to Buenos Aires.

In an attempt not to just tell you the awesome stories and show you beautiful pictures I must admit to a blunder we had the first attempt to make it to Uruguay. Scott had not been feeling well for about 24 hours and decided the morning before our 8:15 am boat that he would not be going with Emalie and I. We obviously didn’t like this as life is more fun with Scott in it so we tried calling the boat company a few times – I am pretty sure the answering machine told me in Spanish that the office would not open until 8 in the morning, but there was no way for certain. We had to leave the house way earlier than that to make it to the boat on time. We wasted a lot of time trying to get in touch with them that we were running later than we wanted to be. Finally we decided we had to go and we would try to get them to change the tickets and if they wouldn’t then we would be going to Uruguay without Scott.

We hopped in an Uber and told the driver we wanted to go to the port. Well, he took us there and upon arrival we learned that we were actually 10 minutes driving from where we should be. Finally, we arrived at the ferry company’s port at 8:20 am. 5 minutes after the ferry took off…

We talked to the office and they told us we needed to get a doctor’s not for Scott if we wanted to change the tickets. Emalie and I are pretty okay at expressing ourselves in Spanish usually, but both of us were unable to communicate effectively. It was embarrassing how badly we were communicating. It just wasn’t working for us. When they asked what was wrong with Scott and why we wouldn’t go to the doctor we explained we were afraid to go because our Spanish was so bad (not totally true, but I had limited vocabulary to explain our situation). We must have butchered the language so bad that they felt sorry for us. Tickets were changed for two days later and we were all able to go to Colonia together!

Beating the Heat at Parque Norte

There is no beach in Buenos Aires much to all of our surprise.The city sits along the Rio de la Plata and there are no beaches within a few hours of the city. A heat wave had rolled through town right before we arrived we knew we needed to find a pool. Enter, Parque Norte. This place reminded us of a Vegas pool or a water park and it is a popular local hangout. It is located under the airspace of the domestic airport located in the city. Every few minutes a commercial jet would fly pretty low over the park as it was approaching the runway – it was nice to relax and watch the planes fly by. We rented some lawn chairs, an umbrella and drank some cold refreshments while enjoying some sun. We went back again we enjoyed it so much the first time around!

The Best and the Worst Steak

Argentina is known for beef, especially steak. We have some mixed reviews. We went to a restaurant nearby our house with good reviews. The service was awful (even bad in South American standards), it took us over an hour to get a bottle of wine we ordered, and the steaks were up there with the worst steaks I have ever consumed. It was confusing to say the least.

We decided that this could not be our only steak experience so we headed to one of the most well known places in Buneos Aires, Las Caberas. They have a happy hour deal every night that is 40% off your entire bill. All you have to do is shown up just before 7 and be out of the place by around 8 so they can continue their regular dinner service. It was fantastic! When we passed back through Buenos Aires after our Patagonia trip we hit up the happy hour here one more time.

Queso, Queso, Queso

Everything in Argentina has queso on it. Argentine style pizza 10% crust and 90% cheese, we ordered a steak, which came with more cheese than steak, and there was rarely anything we ate that did not come with a healthy amount of queso. I love cheese just as much as the next person (or maybe more), but perhaps they have taken the level of mediocre cheese on everything just a bit too far.

The Stats (including Patagonia)

 Total Number of Nights: 18

Languages: Spanish

Currency: $1 USD = 15.4 Argentine Pesos

Number of Miles Traveled:  10,000 miles (including our flight from London and to Patagonia)

Number of Miles Walked:  144 miles (average of 8 miles per day)

Steps Taken:  310,504 steps (average of about 17,250 per day)

Transportation Used: Taxi, Uber, bus, boat, and plane

Type of Accommodations: Hostel/hotel (3) and apartment (2)

Number of Beds: 5