Crazy Colombia!: January 2020

Before coming to South America I had a few things on my wish-list. Visiting Argentina (particularly Buenos Aires) was one of them. Now, 2 years after moving to the continent, I've managed to visit.

I travelled with a colleague from work and our trip started with Buenos Aires, a place I'd heard so much about and was excited to visit. It did not disappoint.

The city was well organised, the buildings were old fashioned and it made me think of many European countries. I also became enamoured by the Argentine accent. It was very sing-songy and reminded me of the way Italians speak. I know it's a cliche but it really was Europe in South America (also in terms of how the people looked: taller and blonder than what I was used to in Latin America).

We started our trip by visiting Cafe Tortoni, the oldest, most traditional cafe in Buenos Aires.

Cafe Tortoni interior

The typical snack there is coffee with churros (though we also ate dinner there and watched a tango show).

Coffee and churros but also cider and cheese!

stage for the Tango show

We went on a city tour on a 'hop on - hop off' bus. This was great to get an overall image of the city and to get off at a few sites.

Hop on - Hop off bus

Buenos Aires buildings

Buenos Aires streets

Buenos Aires buildings and Giant Flower

At this last place there was a large mechanical flower which was made to open and close with the climate and time of day (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floralis_Gen%C3%A9rica).

Colourful buildings of Caminito

At Caminito (Boca region) we got off and Henry went to look at a football stadium (Boca Juniors). This was of less interest to me so I stayed and people watched at a local cafe!

Club de Pescadores

At the other end of the route we passed the Club de Pescadores, which was close to the other football stadium (again, I omitted this). From one of our flights we had a very clear sky and a view of the stadium.

Estadio Monumental (River Plate team) from the air

One of the key places to visit is Recoleta district, and especially the cemetery. This is where Eva Peron (Evita) is buried.

Recoleta Cemetery

Eva Duarte's grave (Eva Peron/Evita)

In the area leading up to the cemetery there were some bizarre sights.

Henry and I helping statue of a man holding up the tree

Given Argentina's history with England (especially over the Falkland islands) it was surprising to find red pillar box telephone cabins and post boxes.

Henry in between typical English phone boxes

Argentine (English?) post boxes

The area we were staying in was called San Telmo. One Sunday we went to Plaza Dorrego which was bustling with a market and people dancing tango. We enjoyed soaking in the atmosphere and people watching over a quiet drink.

Feria de San Telmo

Tango dancers

Henry learning to play Monopoly Deal over drinks and snacks

I tried to upload a video but it wouldn't work. You can find it here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pNpcjD7DT1UlMAJeHebLkKVpqWbrt5es/view?usp=sharing

From Buenos Aires we went to a boat trip to the 'Delta el Tigre'. This is a network of islands and canals flowing into the Rio Plata (which separates Argentina from Uruguay). Apparently when it was first discovered they saw Jaguars there which they called 'tigres', hence the name.

observing the landscape of Delta el Tigre

Delta el Tigre

floating shop in Delta el Tigre

Preserved Sarmiento House in Delta el Tigre

This preserved house used to belong to one of the Presidents of Argentina. It's a national historic site and a musum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarmiento_House)

History museum in the town of Tigre

Given that Uruguay was across the river from Buenos Aires we thought it'd be silly not to visit! So we did a day trip to Colonia de Sacramento in Uruguay. This was a cute little town, which was (as its name suggests) very colonial.

town map

edge of Colonia, within the city walls

light house

Patricia beer cafe

old cars in Colonia

Colonia streets

Chess board by the seaside

Colonia dock

beside Colonia dock

with Henry on Colonia dock

Colonia buildings

Back in Buenos Aires we continued our exploration of the city and visited the Casa Rosada (Presidential House) and some of the museums.

Casa Rosada

Jesus looking into our hotel bedroom

Evita museum

Immortal Evita

Juan and Eva Peron

History museum

We even came across a wineshop and a book shop beneath it. My friend loves books and I love wine so it was perfect!

wine or books?

Whilst walking around we saw these Tango step instructions on the pavement!

Tango steps

Argentina is famous for its beef and wine and whilst we had plenty of that we also went to the oldest pizza restaurant in town (serving Argentine pizza which have a fairly thick base) and had countless of media lunas (sweet croissants) for breakfast.

Roasting beef

Güerrin Pizza - oldest pizza restaurant and reputed to be the best pizza in Buenos Aires

coffee and medialunas with sparkling water

One thing that struck us was that with every coffee we ever ordered we received a glass of sparkling water. I asked why this was and some said it was to cleanse your pallet before you drank your coffee and some said it was for after. I guess you can do both.

One thing we didn't get to taste (though we saw plenty of it in the shops) was Mate. They even had one called Amanda.

Amanda Mate

story of Mate

The river front area is called Puerto Madero. This was where we found the Puente de las Mujeres. The name was apparently inspired by the number of streets in the area that have women's names. It's a swinging bridge that allows water traffic to pass. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puente_de_la_Mujer)

Puente de la Mujer

with Henry at the Puerto Madero riverside

Puerto Madero

Puerto Madero

This was also where we spent New Year's Eve, with another colleague who was also travelling in Argentina when we were.

Puente de la Mujer on NYE

with Eloy and Henry on NYE

For Christmas we flew to the Iguazú waterfalls.

We'd arrived on Christmas Eve in Iguazú and found everything to be closed or only offering very expensive set menus for dinner. We knew our guest house didn't have a restaurant so we bought a bottle of wine at a shop and ordered a pizza for our Christmas dinner!

Christmas Dinner (wine, pizza, empanadas and Monopoly Deal

However, the falls weren't going to close so that's where we spent Christmas Day. They were incredible and spread out over such a big area, spanning across both Argentina and Brazil.

Iguazú waterfall from Brazilian side

with Henry at Iguazú Falls

Iguazú Falls discoverer

Devil's Throat

Iguazú Falls (Argentine side)

At Iguazú Falls

Looks like we weren't the only ones with this idea as some areas were incredibly crowded. This picture was on the Brazilian side on the day after Christmas. Fortunately the Argentine side hadn't been so congested.

crowded walkway (Brazilian side)

We also encountered some wildlife in the Iguazú park. This funny looking creature was called a Coati. It looked docile, until there was food around. I watched one take a sandwich from someone's hand when they'd sat down to eat.

Coati

The town of Iguazú sits on the crossing of 3 borders. On the right is Brazil, Argentina on the left and the river also went to Paraguay (straight ahead).

3 borders at Iguazú River

with Henry at 3 borders at Iguazú River

After the heat and humidity of Iguazú we went to the dry heat of Mendoza. This is one of the main wine regions of Argentina, in the west, in the Andes mountain range. I'd wanted to go there as Malbec (which is from that region) is my favourite red wine variety.

Upon arrival we could see the mountains.

From Mendoza airport

Andes mountain range

We spent that first afternoon visiting 3 bodegas (vineyards) and an Olive Oil factory.

Mendoza vines

Wine tasting instructions

Vineyard barrels

Viña el Cerno wines

different wine tastes

Cecchin wines

Florio wines

Some creative use of the corks.

chess set at Cecchin vineyard

Olives are also grown in the region.

Pasrai Olive Oil

Olive oil making machines

Olive oil tasting

We didn't only drink wine whilst there - we also toured the city which looked very relaxed with plenty of parks and fountains.

Mendoza

Mendoza - with very large gutters

Mendoza - Plaza Independencia fountain

Mendoza

Mendoza houses

Alfajores are popular sweets in Argentina (a sandwich biscuit with dulce de leche inside) and I visited a shop/factory to see how they were made. Unfortunately, due to the holiday season, the factory wasn't working but I was shown around and given a quick overview by someone there.