Seasons on the Move

Buenos Aires – May 15

Fab and I walked down town to San Telmo, an area historically known as the heart of the city´s art scene and ground zero for it´s Tango culture. The streets changed from wide paved boulevards to narrow cobble stone roads. The buildings became older, shorter and less grand, but had more character. We browsed through antique shops, designer boutiques and had lunch in Plaza Dorrego where we watched people dance tango in the centre of the square.

We left San Telmo in the early afternoon and walked the streets of Buenos Aires for another six hours, doing nothing except enjoying the city´s ambiance. Having visited many of the great cities of the world, I have to say that Buenos Aires deserves to be considered one of the greatest. The city loves good food, red wine, and the arts. More than that, it was easy to walk around, never felt crowded or unsafe and contained distinct neighborhoods that were a pleasure to discover.   

At night, we returned to La Chacra, where I had previously had the best steak of my life. We were due to depart Argentina the following morning for Peru and I needed to have one last piece of beef. La Chacra didn´t let me down. To make the meal even better, the waiter, who remembered us from our last visit, gave us a complimentary bottle of champagne.

We walked for another hour after dinner, sad that we were going to leave the city of Buenos Aires. I think we also felt a little melancholy because Peru marked the beginning of the end of our trip. 

Buenos Aires – May 14

Fab and I killed the day walking the streets of the Good Air. We checked our email, ate meat, haggled over laundry prices, drank coffee and sipped red wine. We followed our non-descript day by eating a midnight dinner at a packed restaurant accompanied by a bottle of cheap Malbec.

Buenos Aires – May 13

We walked up town to Recoleta, the area of Buenos Aires where the upper crust resides, after a brief stop at the hospital. Fab had run some tests to see what was going on with her stomach before we left for Iguazu. Luckily, nothing surfaced so the doctor gave Fab some anti-parasite pills and we were on our way. When we arrived in Recoleta, we went to see the area´s famous graveyard, home to Buenos Aires´ rich and famous. The site was filled with ostentatious mausoleums, sarcophagi and tombstones. Stray cats poked their heads out from cob web filled nooks while hired cleaners polished the grave sites of the well to do. Evita is buried in the graveyard, perhaps the biggest reason for tourists to visit the site. For Argentinians, a myriad of national heroes including General José de San Martin, liberator of the country, are buried there.

From the graveyard, we walked around the Recoleta neighborhood, spying dog walkers and fashionistas and stopping to window shop in front stores that were far beyond our credit card limit. We side stepped dog shit on the pavement (seemingly nobody in the city picks up their dog´s crap) and kept moving until our feet could take no more, whereupon we cooled our heels in a movie theatre and took in “Iron Man”. I liked Downey in the roll, but the film did little in the way of reinventing or reimagining the super hero genre. Also, there were way too many “building stuff” montages.

By the time we walked back to our hotel, we were dead tired. instead of going to a restaurant, we picked up some food at the super market and ate dinner in our room. Sadly, I did not eat beef.

Colonia to Buenos Aires – May 12

We took the ferry back to Argentina in the morning. After disembarking in Buenos Aires, we got lost and wandered the streets trying to figure out just where the hell we were. We ended up finding a subway terminal and rode the line down to the area of town where we wanted to stay. The subway car had all wood interior, a hold over from the 1940´s, with slat bench seats, doors that had to manually shut and dim lighting that cut in and out throughout the trip.

We checked into our hotel and hit the streets. We walked down Avenida de Mayo to the pink Presidential Palace where Eva Peron spoke to her adoring public during her heyday. Riot police surrounded the palace, protecting themselves against veterans from the Falkland Islands war that merely handed out flyers and held banners. From there, we walked and walked and walked, stopping only to buy a couple of yerba matte cups and a quick soda. At night, we went for steak and red wine at a restaurant that was half empty when we arrived and overflowing when we left around midnight.  

Iguazu to Buenos Aires – May 5

We flew back to Buenos Aires in the morning, checked back into the same hotel and ate dinner at same beef joint. The last week had drained us all, so we took it easy after dinner and played cards. The following morning, Luis and Alicia were due to return to Mexico. It would be sad to see them go. We had had a great time with them as our travel companions and their presence had given us a brief reprieve from the slog of the backpacker trail.

Iguazu Falls – May 4

I had kind of expected Iguazu Falls to be similar to Niagara Falls in that the surrounding area would be full of tacky stalls and overpriced restaurants. Instead, the falls were reached by a 1km catwalk that crisscrossed the Rio Iguazu, allowing us to experience the 55,000 hectare without being hassled by vendors. Seeing this made the gross excesses of Niagara all the more deplorable. I am pretty sure visitors to Iguazu don´t lament the absence of a Ripley´s Believe It or Not museum.

We first visited Garganta del Diablo, a giant semi-circle of falls that plunge downwards over top of a basalt plateau. A look out point provided a top-down view of the thundering water. Giant plumes of rainbow tinted mist rose from the base of falls, twisting and pushing upwards. We got spritzed on the deck and struggled to keep our camera dry. I stood and zoned out while looking deep into the falls until a case of vertigo forced me to stop.

The next viewpoints were away from Garganta del Diablo. More catwalks led us around the rest of the cataracts and were divided into upper and lower viewpoints, giving us a number of angles to appreciate the falls. Cuatis came out of the trees to sniff out food from backpacks and loot the garbage cans. I was blown away by the vast area the falls covered. My only experience prior to Iguazu was Niagara, and to be honest, Niagara has nothing on these South American beauties.

For the final portion of our Iguazu experience, Luis, Alicia, Fab and I all climbed into a Zodiac dingy. We stuffed our camera into a dry bag, took off our shoes, rolled up our pant legs and climbed on board. Before boarding the boat, we watched as groups of drenched tourists climbed on to shore.

The captain of the boat obviously enjoyed his job because he did his best to make sure we were all soaking wet by the time we disembarked. He took us deep into the mist, giving us a little taste of the falls, and then shot back out into the open water. Just a little tease. The boat twirled around in a circle, turning everyone´s stomachs and then shot back into the falls at high speed. First we got the mist, then some heavier rain like droplets, then the fire hose of the falls up close. I couldn´t even open my eyes. The force of the water winded me. When the captain relented and pulled away from the falls I looked back at Fab and Alicia. The makeup had been washed completely off of their faces. Alicia´s knuckles were white, her hands wrapped around the “oh shit” handles on the side of the boat. No matter, all four of us got off the boat giggling, shivering and five pounds heavier.

Buenos Aires to Iguazu Falls – May 3

We got up, bleary eyed and grouchy, at 4am. When we got to the airport, I stretched out on the bench seats by the departure gate and had a nap. Glass after glass of red wine and three hours of sleep don´t go so well together.

We arrived in Iguazu just in time to get the left over scraps from the morning breakfast buffet. After eating, all four of us retired to the rooms to catch up on our sleep. Fab and I resisted the urge to bicker with each other, knowing that my sass and her sniping had more to do with lack of sleep than the fact that being with someone non-stop hour after hour, day after day, week after week from months on end gets on your nerves after a while. At least the bed was soft.

In the afternoon we visited an animal sanctuary and rehabilitation center. I swear, seeing toucans flutter about in the trees is something special when you come from a place where the most exotic bird is a magpie. There was also a group of cuatis, a relative of the racoon with longer bodies and snouts, and some birds that were as big as german shepherds. At least five people in the tour group uttered, “dios mio” upon seeing those winged beasts.

After leaving the sanctuary, we dropped off Luis at the hotel (a nagging basketball injury was causing problems with his right knee) and went down to see the border area of the regions three countries: Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. From there, we browsed in a local market, bought some olives and yerba mate and then returned to the hotel for dinner and a round of cards.

Buenos Aires – May 2

Fab and I went down to the Peruvian embassy in the morning to secure Fab´s visa. We were told it could take up to ten days by the Buenos Aires tour guide, but Fab received it in less than an hour. Just goes to show that tour guides are full of shit. For some reason, I didn´t need a visa to enter Peru, but Fab did. She figured it was due to tough Mexican immigration laws against citizens of South American countries.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the city. I wanted to buy LPs. Having done some research on the internet the night before, I found four stores located in one area of town. I had missed out on buying Tropicalia records in Rio, so I figured Buenos Aires would be the next best place to find them. I wasn´t wrong. I found bin after bin of Brazilian records and ended up buying some Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso, Milton Nascimiento and Maria Bethania LPs. I also scored a couple of tango records that the shop owner recommended as well as “Immigrés” by Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour.

At night, Fab and I went with Alicia and Luis to a tango show. Fab and I had wanted to go to an intimate cafe to see a show, but her parents took us to an all out spectacle instead. We arrived at the theatre for our pre-show dinner and saw that the street was lined with tour buses. Not what we had wanted for our tango experience. However, the show was great, the live band smoked and the red wine flowed. The show, simply titled “Tango”, was akin to those found on Broadway or in London´s West End. There was plenty of high kicking, stilleto heels, matte painting backgrounds, operatic singing and calls of “bravo, bravo!” everytime a number finished. The night turned out to be a total delight. Too bad we had to get up at 5am the following morning to fly north to Iguazu Falls.

Bariloche to Buenos Aires – May 1

We flew from Bariloche to Buenos Aires in the late afternoon after wiling away the morning playing cards and drinking strong coffee in the hotel lobby. We got picked up at the airport, as per usual with Alicia and Luis, and transported immediately to our hotel. Men in tuxedos took our bags up to our room and left chocolates on our pillows. Luis knows how to roll.  

All four of us freshened up and then we went to a legendary steak house located just around the corner from the hotel. I had the bife de lomo again. Before leaving on this trip, I had thought that Canadian beef could compete with anything in this world. Wrong. The meat was so soft that we were given butter knives to cut it with. Comine the best steaks in the world with some of the best red wine in the world and you´ve got yourself a world class meal.