The South American Adventure, Part I

We are trying to see as much of South America as we possibly can in the time that we have (2 weeks for me, 3.5 weeks for R). As a result, we are heavily dependant on our flights to get us around the continent in a timely fashion. Until now we have had very good airline Karma; all international flights, as well as the TAM flight from Rio to Iguazu and the Aerolineas Argentinas flight from Iguazu to Buenos Aires have been on time. Our first setback was this morning, as we arrived with what should have been enough time to check in for our 5:30 AM flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia. After being moved between several different queues by the airport personel, we arrived at the check in counter 15 minutes before the scheduled departure, and when we got there there was only one available seat on the plane! So we were bumped to the 10:40 departure, throwing our Ushuaia itinerary into chaos. We´ve had some time in the internet cafe to re-work our schedule, but it looks like we won´t be able to do the boat tour of the Beagle Channel. In addition, the weather report for Ushuaia still looks intimidating '' our fingers are still crossed!

Buenos Aires is quite the gastonomical experience. Argintinean restaurants serve beef, and a lot of it. I`ve been having the bife de Lomo (Tenderloin Steak) pretty much everywhere we go. Some places, such as El Mirasol have been fantastic. Another parilla, La Cabrerra, was the site of a minor international incident. My bife de Lomo was excellent, but R´s meal tasted a little funny. We asked for something different, but there was a significant language gap between us and the waiter. As a result, we think that they thought we were horribly insulted and they responded by trying to placate us with plate after plate of free food (and a couple of drinks)! They even brought me an entirely new plate of steak. There was enough food to feed a medium sized family! We weren`t trying to be the ugly Americans, but it seems to have turned out that way. In any case, we left a big tip because the food was good and the service was fantastic, even if communicating with the waiter involved more hand gestures than we would have preferred.

Royal Without Cheese

I rarely (if ever) step into a McDonalds in New York, so I would never expect to intentionally go to a McDonalds half way around the world. However there is something special about one of the three(!) McDonalds locations in Buenos Aires´Abasto shopping center. It is the only Kosher McDonalds outside of Israel. The food tasted like... well... McDonalds, but the trip provided a good photo opportunity for R (until the security guard chased us away for taking pictures!).

We arrived in Buenos Aires on Wednesday night. The tour books say this is a very cosmopolitan city; they are correct. Much of the architecture has heavy european influences, and you do get the sense that many of the residents would be right at home in Spain or Italy (probably not England). The cab ride from the airport took us down Avenue 9 de Julio, a street so wide it seemed impossible to count the lanes of traffic (not that the lanes mean anything -- drivers here seem to come from the New York City taxi driver school of driving). In fact the whole city felt similar, but not quite identical, to New York. And though the vibe on the street may have been the same the Pizza was nowhere near as good.

Before arriving we booked reservations at the Clan House, a Bed and Breakfast located in the Microcentro neighborhood of Buenos Aires. The building itself is a spectacular bit of urban architecture and design. Our room had a 20 foot ceiling, deep brown hardwood floors, and a mixture of modern and shabby chic furniture elements. By morning we also realized that it is located across the street from a nightclub (thump thump thump) and that the walls and doors are paper thin. Listening to the nightclub and its patrons as well every resident of the B&B who walked up or down the stairs outside our door got old quickly so we checked into the decidedly more pedestrian Hotel Wilton in the Recoleta neighborhood the next morning.

On Thursday morning we took a tour of the Jewish neighborhood of Once (the Buenos Aires equivalent of the Lower East Side, except without the colorful condos). It was especially powerful to visit the site of two major terrorist attacks (the Israeli Embassy was bombed in 1992 and AMIA, a social organization, was bombed in 1994).

We also took self guided walking tours of the San Telmo and Palermo neighborhoods, saw a Tango show, and took a half day excursion to the Tigre Delta where there are no roads, and the residents commute by all manner of watercraft. As our tour guide said (over and over), there is a bus boat, a taxi boat, a supermarket boat, an ambulance boat, as well as kayaks, canoes, and quite a few other types of water travel. I am guessing they don´t swim; the water looked quite murky.

After Buenos Aires, our trip heads back to the rugged country with stops in Ushuaia (the southernmost city in the world) and El Calafate. The weather forecast looks intimidating at this point -- we`re keeping our fingers crossed!

Elanor Roosevelt is said to have made this remark upon first seeing Iguazu Falls. I can not make a fair comparison as I've never been to Niagra but I will say that Iguazu is impressive. The falls are bordered on one side by Argentina and on the other side by Brazil; to get the complete experience one must visit national parks in two different countries.

Argentina: Tuesday September 18, 2007

We chose to skip the R150 ($75) per person guided tour offered through our hotel and instead took the R2 ($0.66) public buses to and from the falls. This was a little inconvenient as we needed to switch buses at the Puerto Iguazu bus terminal on the way there and again on the way back. We also came precariously close to missing the last bus back across the border from Puerto Iguazu and Foz do Iguaçu (in Brazil) where we are staying.

At the park itself, we started with the upper circuit, followed by the lower circuit, a "Nautical Adventure" boat ride, and the Devil's Throat. This ended up being a good order in which to explore the park because each activity revealed more of the falls than the previous one. The viewing platform at the end of the last trail overlooks the "Devils Throat": the largest and most impressive part of the falls. It is only from this platform that you get a real sense of the massive volume of water going over the falls each second. At the bottom of the cascade the mist is so thick it is impossible to see the surface of the river.

Brazil: Wednesday September 19, 2007

We toured the Brazilian side of the falls on the next day. While the Argentine side offers some light hiking and views of the falls from a number of different angles, the Brazilian side only has one real trail that leads to the falls. The view is no less impressive however. The viewing platform is located below and a short distance downstream from the Devil´s Throat and it provided a beautiful panoramic view of the falls. The weather was also a little nicer and we saw several large rainbows in the mist at the bottom of the falls.

We found out on Tuesday night that Aerolineas Argentinas moved our flight back by several hours. With the unexpected extra time we walked up the road 100 meters or so to the Bird Park after leaving the Brazilian side of the falls. The park was a pleasant surprise; we saw all manner of colorful, rare, and exotic birds. Just don´t eat at the cafe... take our word for it.

Next Stop: Buenos Aires

After the Bird Park we picked up our bags at the hotel and set off for the Puerto Iguazu airport. After a brief stop at the Brazilian and Argentinean passport control offices, we had an uneventful flight and arrived in Buenos Aires at around 8:30 PM local time. We´ll have more updates when we get more time to access the internet.

We didn't have any real extended time in Rio to use the internet, so I wrote a number of mini-updates which I am posting now:

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

It took 22 hours and the combination of the PATH, NJ Transit, American Airlines, and the "Green" radio taxi, but I finally arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday morning. The cab ride from the airport was interesting; it passed by one or more of Rio's favelas (shanty towns), where a gun battle actuallyshut the airport down earlier this summer. As it turns out, the only real danger came from the cab drivers loose interpretation of any sort of traffic rules and regulations.

Touring

We've done a lot of organized touring here in Rio. R went on two tours that she thought were excellent: a 16 hour long tour to Ihla Grande (normally a 2-3 day trek, but R is crazy like that) and a walking tour of the downtown and Santa Theresa areas. On Sunday morning we went on a jeep tour of Tijuca forest and Cristo Redentor (The big statue of Jesus). Cristo Redentor was impressive and provided the opportunity for some corny pictures. Tijuca forest was a bit of a let down though as we went only on one short hike with the tour group.

Gunshots Rang Out Like a Bell...

The touring got more interesting Sunday night as we went to the Maracana to see a Flamengo vs. Vasco football match. The stadium is set up to handle the intense rivalries between Rio clubs -- there are separate entrances on opposite sides of the stadium for opposing fans and 12 foot high plexiglass barriers separating the partisan sections from the neutral seats (and from each other). On the way into the stadium, fans supporting opposing clubs shouldn't be mingling with each other. On Sunday night they did, and as we approached the stadium, the Brazilian military police were firing their weapons in the air while the nearby crowds scattered.

We finished up the touring this morning with a Favela tour, which have become very popular in the recent years. The concept struck me as exploitive at first, but if the money from the tour is helping the school that we saw, then that could be a very good thing. That being said, the cynic in me would not be surprised if a good chunk of the money went toward bribing the favelas infamous drug cartels.

The Power Blows...

The tour wrapped up around noon giving us a solid three hours to do some laundry and pack before leaving to catch our flight to Foz do Igauçu... or so we thought. About 10 minutes before the washing machine finished up the main circuit breaker in the laundromat blew. The staff could not figure out how to reset it, and we had a plane to catch. This left us running through the streets of Ipanema looking for another laundromat with our wet, heavy basket of laundry and our extremely limited command of Portuguese. We eventually found another place, and with very little time to spare we caught our cab to the airport.