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Day 37 – 02/14/2007 – Travel to Buenos Aires

The flight on Iberia from Madrid to BA was LONG. Since it was a daytime flight, we opted not to take Ambien. It’s amazing how much longer 12 hours is when you are awake for some of it. (Julee still managed to sleep for about 9 hours. Putting Julee on a plane is like putting a toddler in a car seat. As soon as Julee starts to feel vibrations she’s out cold. She wakes up to feed, burp, and then is able to fall right back to sleep again. I am not sure how she does it.)

We landed in Buenos Aires around 9:45pm and it took about an hour to get the luggage. We had both heard stories about how dangerous Buenos Aires had become since the Peso was devalued a couple a years ago during their last “financial crisis”. Coincidentally, as soon as we got off the plane, an airport security officer handed Julee a flyer warning against accepting “verbal solicitation” for a taxi. The flyers and guidebooks advise using a taxi service or “remise” with a booth at the airport. So, we went to the first booth we saw and put in our order.

It was about 20 minutes to the hotel, and we got our first taste of the CRAZY driving in Argentina. You know those gates at tollbooths to keep you from going though the speed pass lane without stopping? Well, our cab driver hit one!

We spent the night at the Art Hotel on the recommendation of our dear friend Mara. (She’s a true jet setter who spends several weeks a year in BA perfecting her Tango). We used this hotel as our home base for our stay in Argentina. It’s an old Victorian mansion remodeled as a hotel. Our room was cozy with just enough room for a queen size bed, two suitcases and a wireless connection. And the bathroom has everything in miniature to fit the comforts that you are accustomed to. But it’s charming, and the staff is wonderful.

By the time we got to the hotel, it was midnight. We grabbed water and Pringles from the minibar, bagged our laundry and
repacked our backpacks as quickly as possible. We fell asleep at 1:30am and we were up at 7:00am for our flight to Iguazu.
Day 38 – 02/15/2007 – Iguazu Falls

After our nap, we ran downstairs for the continental breakfast, which is included in the hotel stay. We had ordered the cab the night before and it was right on time. Thankfully, the domestic airport was only 15 minutes from the hotel.
Our destination was Iguazu Falls. The Falls sit on the border of Argentina and Brazil and can be viewed from both sides. It is actually a series of 275 waterfalls fed by the Rio Iguazu and declared a World Heritage Area by UNESCO in 1984.
(Frommers)
We landed in Iguazu and booked a taxi to the Sheraton Hotel, which is the only hotel inside the national park. It’s a discotastic Sheraton but the location was unbelievable. The lobby and terrace looked out onto the Falls, and they were stunning. (There are loads of tour groups and as you might expect, the average age of the guest there was 65 and a half.)

Hungry per usual, the first task was lunch. Having read that the Sheraton had the best restaurant in Iguazu, we thought it was a no-brainer. We were salivating for some Argentinean beef, and so we ordered hamburgers. OY – they were horrible. First of all, the patties were maybe 1/8” thick, they were green, and they came to the table bubbling, which means they were right of out of the deep fryer. They were THE WORST HAMBURGERS we’ve ever eaten. We had to hike off our anger immediately.

The Sheraton was literally 50 yards from the head of the trails. We just started walking and at the fork in the perfectly marked trail, choose between the superior (upper) and inferior (lower) trails. Both are beautifully designed catwalks over streams, through the jungle, and between rocks. Both trails have fantastic lookouts at all levels of the falls, including the feeder rivers, middle terrace and base. The tiered falls are stunning. The rushing water forms falls of all shapes and sizes. There are massive thunderheads and small linear streams, with an overwhelming amount of verdant jungle and rocks. Julee’s first comment, “Niagara Falls sucks.”

Like the tourists who feed the baboons in South Africa, the tourists here feed the Coatis (aardvark like mammals). These raccoons sized animals travel in packs of 10 – 15 and are all over the trails and will come within inches of tourists. There were also a number of and Tegu Lizards. They were huge! One of the lizards near that cafe had to be 3 feet long. Unlike the lizards in South Africa, who would take off when they felt vibrations, these lizards stuck around.

We took about 2 hours to walk both trails. Fearing the rigors of the Inca Trail, Julee made us do the lower trail again at “hi speed” just for the exercise. (If you’ve ever watched Friends, it was a very “Monica”.)

About 3pm, in the scorching heat, we headed back to the Sheraton to the pool. Everyone heads to the pool. It is “jungle hot” with blaring sun in Northern Argentina in the summer . After a long swim, sun we decided to nap before dinner. Interestingly, there were a ton of channels on the tube. But every program was overdubbed in Spanish. Unlike all the other countries we’ve been to, we couldn’t even get CNN or BBC. We ended up watching 2 episodes of “Studio 60” which we downloaded from iTunes. No nap.

That evening, we paid 80 pesos ($25US) to hire a taxi for the evening. It drove us into town (about 15 minutes), waited and then drove us back. We read in Frommer’s about “La Rueda”, and it was fantastic. We finally got our first Argentinean beef. It came as two HUGE filets. Lou nearly cried it was so good. For $35 US, we had 2 glasses of wine, 2 bottles of water, 2 diet cokes, 2 salads, a plate of pasta and enough beef for 4 people. We were heart-broken at leaving an entire filet on the plate. Future plan – share the beef.

Note: When you pack for a 9 week trip in a 26″ bag, you tend to bring a small range of clothes and everything must go together. Since our color palette was white, black and kahki, Lou and I had inadvertantly matching outfits nearly every other day.
Day 39 – 02/16/2007 – Iguazu Falls

We had until 5pm before we needed to leave for the airport, so we opted for the Gran Aventura – a buffet of activities. It started with a 6 km jungle tour, a short walk to the river and then the main attraction, a boat ride under the falls. We piled onto a tour boat, put on the stinkiest life jackets we’ve ever smelled, and put everything into a provided waterproof bag. We sped down the river towards the Falls. They stop the boat to give you a moment to take photos and then plow into the spray of the falls. It was thrilling. You can’t believe it’s safe.
After the aventura, we headed back to the pool and then a much needed shower in the locker rooms (since we had to check out of the hotel earlier that morning). Then Lou bought me a Valentine present – a mani and much needed pedi at the spa. And of course, he got a mani too. He’s Lou!

Then, it was back to the airport for another flight. Thus far and for the duration of our trip, LAN has been a great airline. The agent not only gave us great seats on a full plane, he also checked us in for our flights for the following morning. They continually practiced customer service that some American carriers couldn’t even conceive of.
Here are some tidbits regarding our experiences flyging LAN airlines:

- Even the seats in economy are comfortable.
- They play “Just for Laughs”, which is like candid camera, throughout the duration of a domestic flight. There’s no sound. Just the picture. But every once in awhile, the entire plane just busts out laughing.
- There is always turbulence climbing and descending.
- You can tell you’re in South America, because the women in the cartoon safety movie wear miniskirts.

Back in Buenos Aires, we realized our first “rookie mistake” of the trip; We forgot to write down the address of our hotel. Problem 1: Being relatively new, Art Hotel wasn’t listed in the local phone books at the airport. Problem 2: We had used the all the battery in the laptop on the airplane and didn’t have an adapter plug on us. Problem 3: All the stations at the Internet cafés were booked. Finally, a super cute British couple heard us and said that Art Hotel was in their guide book, “Time Out Buenos Aires” and we quickly copied down the address which is now permanently in Julee’s purse. Needless to say, we made it home just fine. Back at the hotel Julee was craving pizza, so we ate at a delicious café, Los Maestros, right around the corner. Pizza and Beer. Buenos Noches, Buenos Aeries.

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