We arrived in Argentina by bus. And even though we still have some more places to visit here (our next post will be from Patagonia), we’ve already explored a few cities by now. We even made it across to Brazil and Uruguay, albeit for day-trips only.

Mendoza

We arrived at the bus station in Mendoza and found our way to the hostel. We had difficulties getting enough cash from the ATMs to pay for the hostel because they have high fees and low withdrawal limits. In the end, we used Western Union and it worked OK. The hostel was nice and we got to chat with many people.

Through the hostel, we booked a wine tour: a visit of some of the winemakers around Mendoza. The tour was very informative: we got to see the maturation tanks and barrels and ask a lot of questions. We also got to try some good wines. The region is mostly known for Cabernet but also grows a few more cépages.

The tour also included a visit to an olive oil factory (we also got to try some, as well as other products they do like tapenade and tomato spreads) and a chocolate/liquor workshop (with some more sampling!).

Mendoza being smallish, our new-year’s eve celebration was low-key: all the shops and restaurants were closed. We had planned for that and we cooked ourselves food and shared a bottle of fizzy whilst chatting with other guests of the hostel.

Mendoza has some nice wine and we’ll be looking for some of their exports after the trip.

Cordoba

Cordoba is the second biggest city in Argentina and it was a big change from Mendoza. We spent a lot of time just waling around different streets.

We also went to a few museums. The natural history museum had some good fossils of very big creatures (and kids running around them excitedly), and the fine arts museum had a good selection of paintings housed in a nice building.

Iguazu

Iguazu is a town at the border with Brazil and Paraguay. It’s also, more importantly for us, the place where the Iguazu falls are located.

We went to the National Park of Iguazu. Inside, we walked along paths through the jungle to get to the waterfalls. The waterfalls were very impressive and the boardwalks set up by the park got us very close, right into the deafening roar and the damp spray.

In the park, we also got to see coaties (which look like possums, big rats, or quokas) and some monkeys.

The next day, we went to the National Park of Iguaçu: a similar park but on the Brazilian side (hence the different spelling). There were more people and it was a smaller. But the boardwalks give a different view of the falls and we got to see a Tucan, so it was worth it!

Buenos Aires

We arrived in Buenos Aires and found our way to our hostel. The hostel is located in a hipster part of town with a lot of small restaurants and bars and a lot of big street-art murals. We spent some time just exploring the different parts of the city (each is very distinct) and we enjoyed a lot of ice-cream.

We went on a street-art walking tour in the neighbourhood of our hostel. The guide explained the history of street art in Buenos Aires and told us about the different techniques used by different crews.

For a day trip, we took a boat across the bay and visited the small town of Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. It’s a quaint town with a lot of old houses, some in South-American-Spanish style, others in South-American-Portuguese style, because the town was under different jurisdictions over its construction. From there you can only see the high-rises of Buenos Aires, the rest of the city is under the horizon.

Back in Buenos Aires, the day after, we went to a Parilla: an Argentinian barbecue. The barbecue itself was placed behind a counter, a bit like a bar has all it’s liquors. On the counter were different pieces of meat. This works much better than choosing from a menu and we enjoyed the meal a lot. They also grill vegetables and cheese, which was salty but good.

We went to another walking tour, this time in Recoleta. The tour started with a visit of the cemetery. There are a lot of famous people burried there, from Saint Martin (who fought against the Spanish for the independence of Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador) to Evita (the most famous first lady of Argentina who oversaw several of the major social reforms of the country). The cemetery was also a good place for our guide to talk about many other things – the local ultra-rich elite living a Parisian life-style, the Spanish, Italian, and more surprisingly, Irish early immigration, etc.

The tour continued in the streets of Recoleta, a posh neighbourhood that looks a lot like the Champs-Élysée. There are old manors and luxury brands. And it finished in Retiro, the commuting centre of Buenos Aires with it’s big old-London-style train station.

On our last night in Buenos Aires, we went to a Tango show. The dancers and musicians were all very impressive. There was also some singing but between the Spanish and the singing, we didn’t understand much.

We’re leaving Buenos Aires, but we know there’s much more to do there. We’ll maybe come back later!