Buenos Aires - and some….
We took a 3hr flight from Rio to arrive in Buenos Aires on Sat Dec 16th. As we had the use of a flat ‘for free’!!!! in a fabulous central suburb thanks to our friends Diego & Vero back in Perth…. we decided to use it as a base for a couple of weeks to regroup from the hectic (not!) cruise schedule and get out and see the sites around the City. But we also had some other further afield trips to do; Iguazu Falls (2hrs flight away and overnight stay), Colonia, Uruguay (a 1hr ferry ride from BA) and also the Tigre Delta, a local train ride 1hr north of the City.
The night of our arrival in Buenos Aires there was a massive storm - biggest they had in decades; there were cars crushed under trees, road closed and debris everywhere. As such the first few days the weather was quite cool, first time we had long sleeves on since we left Barcelona. When we weren’t travelling further afield we spent our seeing the BA sites - Royal Palace, some of the many monuments, La Recoleta cemetery, Obelisk, the Malvinas (Falklands) war memorial, San Telmo markets and the port area.
Andrew’s birthday is just before Christmas - how chuffed was I to have found such an appropriate birthday card for him whilst I was back in Australia in August. It even looks like the car we have now bought and put a roof top tent on - hahah!!.
Early 27th Dec we headed to the airport early to fly up to Iguazu Falls. The 2 hour flight took us to Iguazu on the Argentian side of the Falls. The Falls are located on a three way corner of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Arriving there just after lunch we got a driver who took us immediately over a bridge - the border with Brazil - and went to visit the Falls on the Brazilian side. They were nothing short of spectacular, The recent huge rains made them even more impressive. Often compared in size to Victoria Falls in Southern Africa, Iguazu is actually wider but split into approximately 275 distinct falls v Victoria’s largest curtain of water in the world.
After a drenching under the Falls (you can see the platform in photo 6 above), we headed back to our hotel and went out for the most amazing - and cheap - Argentian parilla / meat fest! - and Malbec. The next day we had all day to wander the Argentinian side and take even more photos of this incredible sight. Later that same night we returned late to the big smoke for a very quiet few Christmas days.
Buenos Aires isn’t very Christmasy really. The family time is Christmas Eve before then a big party and major fireworks at midnight. Needless to say all the restaurants are closed Christmas Eve - and Christmas Day. Good job we had Andrew on hand to cook us chicken curry and have a beer on the balcony as nothing else was open! Boxing Day all gets back to normal - so we consequently booked a boat from the harbour to take us over to Uruguay that day.
Its a day trip on a catamaran ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia in Uruguay. Colonia is a gorgeous small colonial town with a very cute historic centre.
It was a long day having been up to get the early ferry at 0600 and getting back at 2300…but we still wandered into Buenos Aires city centre to get some nice night time photos of the City
Another highlight of the City was the ‘La Boca’ neighbourhood. Traditionally an old melting pot of different migrants calling this suburb home, known for their ‘fighting spirit’ (v the richer mans northern suburbs) and reflected in the Boca Juniors football club. Now a tourist destination to visit the colourful houses, watch the tango dancers perform in the street and take photos of the Argentinian ‘football stars’ Maradona and Messi.
On one of our last days in Buenos Aires we took a train an hour north of the City to the Tigre Delta. Tigre sits on an island created by loads of small streams and river where locals have now populated with ‘stilt houses’ and have their boat ramp access to the waterways. For the tourists their are traditional styled wooden long boats for a leisurely few hours visiting the stilt houses and other significant sites.
Next stop - Santiago, Chile….to pick up ‘Wanda’, our wanderlust wheels.