Travel Blog » Argentina

The Iguazu Falls – one of the “Must see before you die” destinations

Lucian — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 23:03:03 +0000

After a heavy rain which flooded the airport in Buenos Aires and led to the cancelation of all flights, we ended up spending the night in the airport. Fortunately for us, the airline tried to make it up on us and offered us a night in one of the most luxurious hotels in Puerto Iguazu and this package was probably more expensive than the flight tickets so in the end it was a good deal if it wouldn’t be for the experiences during the flight but that’s another story…

The Iguazu Falls are definitely one of the “Must See” destinations. We saw the Niagara Falls in June and that was amazing but the Iguazu Falls are on a different level. To give you an impression about the difference I can say that when the first lady Eleanor Roosevelt saw the Iguazu Falls she exclaimed “Poor Niagara…”.

The Iguazu Falls were voted one of the 7 wonders of nature. We visited the National Park on the Argentinian side because from this side you can get a closer look to the falls especially to the biggest of them “The Devil’s Throat”. Everything is very well organized and there are a lot of trails to see the falls from different viewpoints. The view of the falls is just amazing. It cannot be described in words and probably even the pictures don’t show its real beauty.

Next stop

Rio de Janeiro

Buenos Aires – the capital of beef steaks and tango

Lucian — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 02:11:46 +0000

After a flight that felt almost like in a shaker and a landing which tested the plane’s structure we arrived in Buenos Aires.

The portenos (that’s how the people from Buenos Aires are called) do most of the things that are important for them with a lot of passion. And we tried to experience these passions

Football – it’s not a secret that Argentinians are crazy about football with their crazy kid Diego Maradona who was voted the best football player of the past century. In order to get a little bit of this passion we went to the stadium and museum of the Boca Junior, the team for which Maradona played in Argentina. The stadium of Boca is the famous La Bombonera (The Chocolate Box). Here you can see the whole history of Boca Juniors and of course a statue of Maradona.
Dulce de leche – this is literally the sweetest of all passions for the Argentinians. It’s caramelized milk and almost every cake has at least one part or filling with dulce de leche.
Beef – the way the Argentinians treat the beef meat is almost an art. We tried all types of beef steaks with the favorite ones being Bife de Chorizo (Sirloin Steak) and Bife de Lomo (Tenderloin) and they all were knock outs.
Tango – we were so lucky because on the weekend was the biggest Open Air Tango Dancing event in Buenos Aires and portenos are crazy about tango so the streets were full.
Empanadas – An empanada is a stuffed pastery. In Argentina the most common ones are filled with cheese, ham, pork or chicken meat.
Malbec wine – this is the favorite type of wine for Argentinians. It’s not very common in Europe to have wine with mainly this type of grape and it can be found only mixed with Merlot but I will definitely look for Malbec wine in the future as we loved it.

We also took a free guided tour of the city and got some funny info about how portenos are. The people of Buenos Aires are in the top of the list on beauty-surgeries. This is because health-care insurance companies try to get as many clients as possible by offering them one free beauty surgery every 2 years. This is really crazy. Our guide referred to these persons as “Lions” and every tour through the city is just like a safari tour.

We also found out some things about the history of Argentina and why Evita Peron is still considered an icon even 60 years after her death. And then there are the Falkland Islands which Argentinians consider to belong to them. Unfortunately for them the rest of the world has a different opinion about this but all the maps that are sold here show it as an Argentinian province.

Next stop

Montevideo, Uruguay

Glacier Perito Moreno – incredible blue ice

Diana — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:43:21 +0000

The first big stop in Argentina was at El Calafate where we arrived after a 27 hour bus ride. The first funny thing that we found out about Argentinians is that they have dinner very late and in the evening restaurants are closed until 8 PM. Even on the bus to El Calafate when almost all the gringos on the bus were already sleeping at 10 PM, the bus crew waked us up to have dinner.

The reason why we went to El Calafate is that this is the main point from where the tours to the Glacier Perito Moreno start. Perito Moreno is one of many glaciers in the Los Glaciares National Park which is the 3^rd largest accumulation of glaciers in the world, after Antarctica and Groenland. Perito Moreno is 35km long, 5 km wide and 60m high and it’s one of the most spectacular glaciers worldwide. It’s also one of the most stable ones because 70% of it is the part where it accumulates new ice and only 30% of it is the part where the ice is melting or breaking. It’s probably the most visited glaciers in the world because on a peninsula nearby there are a lot of platforms with viewpoints where people stand and wait for a big ice part to break. We were also very lucky to see this spectacular experience and when the ice breaks the sound produced is incredible loud.

One amazing thing we’ve seen or done

The amazing thing we did here was to hike on the glacier. We received special crampons and after a short training we were able to walk on the ice. The small rivers on and under glacier are amazing and you can hear the noise from the water under your feet. There are also a lot of beautiful ice shapes with amazing blue color. Hiking on this glacier was definitely one of the most amazing experiences so far.

Next stop

Punta Arenas, Chile