Page 1 Argentina Chile 2007

Page 1 - Buenos Aires

As Christmas presents 2006 we received some tempting books (Moon Handbooks & Discovery Insight Guides) about Argentina, Chile and Peru from our son Michael. Previously the same year Jens had also bought books about South America during a business trip to the USA. For some years we had talked about practicing our Spanish in some of the old Spanish overseas areas. So during the summer 2007 when Michael visited us in Virksund in Denmark flights from Alicante via Madrid to Buenos Aires were booked with Iberia. A roundtrip was just below 1000 Euros/pp. The trip was planned to last for one month (29th Nov. until 30th Dec.). As we had heard and read that Peru would be more complicated to travel safely on our own we decided to concentrate on Argentina and Chile and plan a roundtrip by rental car. First problem was road maps, but Michael had found some reasonable maps in Birmingham. Distances are very far in Argentina (about 5000 km from Iguazu in the north to Ushuaia in the south) especially as all the most spectacular places are in the far corners of the country. It soon became clear that at least to the famous "Iguazu Cataratas" (waterfalls) we would have to fly. On the Internet we were able to book a flight with Aerolineas (Argentinean) but we were asked to pay in one of the company offices. This was too complicated so we booked our Aerolineas flights by a Travel Agency in Spain despite an extra charge of 45 Euros for our 3 tickets. Normally we don't like to book hotels in advance as it is much easier to estimate the quality on the spot. We decided only to book in advance for the first 2 days in Buenos Aires and a hotel in Iguazu. It turned out to be quite complicated as most hotels did not reply to our e-mails. For Buenos Aires we made reservation of Los Dos Congresos, a 3* hotel quite in the center for 80 US$ incl. breakfast. On the internet we booked on e-dreams.es hotel Carmen, a Spanish owned 3* hotel for 75 US$ incl. breakfast and dinner for 3 persons pr day. It turned out to be quite a good bargain. Michael found a suitable rental car on the internet at Thrifty for about 2000 US$ for 3 and a half week incl. international permission to drive into Chile and all the insurance. Evidently rental cars are rather expensive in Argentina. A day before our departure from Spain Michael arrived from England and the next day (29th of November) we were driven to Alicante airport by our German neighbor.

You can get a map of our roundtrip by selecting MAP

(In blue is our flight Buenos Aires to Iguazu
In red is our roundtrip in rental car)

We arrived in Buenos Aires International Airport (12 hours flight from Madrid) as scheduled in the morning at 8.20 and went easily through immigration. Outside the airport we found an official taxi stand and got a price (89 pesos) for a large taxi which could take us and all our big suitcases to our hotel. We arrived just before 11 am and found out that our internet reservation was ok and our room was already prepared. From the outside the hotel looked nice and the location was very convenient for the central Buenos Aires. But the room was not very clean and was in urgent need for some restoration. But the hotel was quite busy with many guests.

*The Congress opposite our hotel*	*The Senate also opposite our hotel*
*Outside the entrance to "Los Dos Congresos"*		Outside our hotel was Plaza del Congreso with both the Congress and Senate buildings. In the park were many homeless people just like in the park outside the White House in Washington. On the street were many small restaurants, especially one of these was our favorite with tasty pizza`s. From the Plaza we had direct access to the center via avenida Rivadavia; about 3 km until Puerto Madero. In the afternoon we walked into the center. Michael found out that his digital camera was not able to focus so he started looking for a new camera and the following day he found an Olympus x-785 for about 400 US$ incl. 2GB memory. We had a wonderful lunch in one of the restaurants on av. Rivadavia and the servant recommended to us not to use the subway for transportation due to crimes against tourists. We also visited Florida pedestrian street and Casa Rosada (presidents building).

The next day, Saturday, we decided to take a 3 hours bustrip to explore the city. We made the reservation at our hotel for only 16 US$ pp and was picked up by the bus the next morning. We went through different barios of Buenos Aires. First to the north (Retiro, Recoleta and Palermo) which are the richest parts with many beautiful mansions and parks. We made a stop at the Recoleta Cemetery which has some impressive mausoleums incl. the one of the Duarte family where Evita Peron is buried. Then we went through the central part and made stop on Plaza de Mayo where the presidential Palace (Casa Rosada) is situated. This is a busy square surrounded by many colonial houses and churches. Afterwards we drove south to the San Telmo and La Boca barios. These are poorer areas where the working class live. Artists and Antique dealers have now settled in San Telmo. In La Boca are many beautifully decorated houses with pastel colors including the famous El Caminito. These are the areas where tango was born. And in La Boca we passed the Bombonera stadium where Diego Maradona was the soccer hero for many years. Also here we passed the oldest house in Buenos Aires. At El Caminito we made stop to enjoy all the art exhibitions and the tango dancers. We drove on passing the harbor. The old abandoned harbor looked miserable and many poor people were living here under awful conditions. Finally we got off the bus at Puerto Madero and decided to walk the 3 km back to our hotel. In the bus we bought a CD with some of the old famous tango and Jens had a photo from tango performance.

Buenos Aires CITY-TOUR with Bus

*Entering our bus*		*Modern Sculpture*
Recoleta Cemetery	*Evita Perons grave*		Impressive mausoleums at the Recoleta Cemetery
*Plaza de Mayo in front of Casa Rosada*		*On Plaza de Mayo*
*Caminito*	*Tango "posture"*		*Painters exhibition at Caminito*
Tango experience at Caminito		Poor people's living in old Puerto Madero

At Puerto Madero were many restaurants and a nice promenade along the river. Many redbrick houses had been renovated. A modernistic pedestrian expansion bridge, Puente de Calatrava, crosses the basin here, but allows vessels to pass via a rotating center section. Here we had our first Argentinean steak in a Fridays restaurant. This was supreme so after that we had steaks (Bife de Chorizo) at least once a day (Uhm!!). On our way back we walked north to the parks where you have a nice view to the Torre Monumental and the Cavanagh Edificio. In the parks Jacaranda trees were in full blossom (blue). We then followed the pedestrian Florida shopping street and went into the Galerias Pacifico shopping center. Here were nice decorations for Christmas and Anna was lucky enough to find the blouse she needed so much! On our way back to the hotel we also passed Avenida 9 de Julio which is a broad (claimed to be the broadest in the world) boulevard with many traffic lines and a huge obelisk at Plaza de la Republica.

Walking in Buenos Aires

*Michael and Anna in front of Puente de Calatrava*	*Skyline behind Puerto Madero*
*Our first Argentinean steak at a Fridays restaurant*	*Jacaranda trees in blossom*
*Edificio Kavanagh*	*Torre Monumental*
*Galerias Pacifico in Florida street*	Avenida 9. Julio with obelisk at Plaza de la Republica

We still needed to experience one of the famous Buenos Aires Tango shows, so when we returned to our hotel we made reservation for the mostly visited of these shows at Senior Tango for the evening. We were picked up by bus at 21 o'clock for the show which was in the barrio Baraccas close to la Boca "tango" area. Most guest have dinner as well but we rejected that because of our limited time. We had a welcome drink and the show started at 22 o'clock (with some delay !). The show lasted until after 1 o'clock and we returned to our hotel very late. The next day we had ordered a taxi from the hotel to the local Aeroparque Jorge Newberry airport for our flight to Iguazu. So in the morning we had to pack our suitcases after breakfast and then it was time to leave Buenos Aires after two wonderful days. Our taxi driver was of German heritage and had lived in Montevideo (Uruguay) for most of his life but now jobs were better in Buenos Aires he told. Our tickets bought in Spain were ok and Aerolineas accepted our luggage despite an overweight of 2-3 kilos.

Tango

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We arrived at Senior Tango just before 22 o'clock in the night after our bus had collected people from different hotels. We had our table on a balcony as people were dining on the floor. So the show was also a dinner show. Many people were attending; we estimated that about 25 buses left when the show was over. We had a welcome drink and the show was fabulous, we had heard the best of all tango shows in the "city of tango". Very professional and emotional.The last song was "No llores por mi Argentina" with all guest singing along, even a big party of Brazilians. Everybody were touched when a huge Argentinean flag dropped from the ceiling at the finale.