South America - Iguazu, Argentina (Sept 2018)

Coati's!!! That’s primarily what I have to say about Iguazu, particularly Iguazu Falls, but more on that later. On the afternoon of September 8th we arrived at Iguazu, Argentina, from Buenos Aires. Puerto Iguazu is in the northeast part of Argentina. It was a lovely, small, not-terribly-tourist laden airport but hard to tell who was a tourist and who was local, though my guess is we are practically all tourists since EVERYONE wants to see Iguazu Falls - THE main site to see when one visits this particular town. A simple shuttle bus ride from the airport and about 20 minutes later we’re entering the town of Iguazu, Argentina. I state the country because there is also Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, which is the town just on the other side of the river from Puerto Iguazu. It actually makes for an amazing region because we were staying in the Argentina side and with an amazing view of the La Triple Frontera - the meeting point of the Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay borders established by the two rivers that form the three bordering frontiers!

Our Airbnb hostess, Daniela, greeted us and gave the rundown of the area, a set of maps and brochures to get know how to best walk around Iguazu Falls - the largest waterfall system in the world - among other local sites and eateries. Dani was an amazing hostess and wealth of hospitality and information at the very centric location of her apartment! This is one of the - if not THE - reasons why I love to travel around the world to get to know great people like this and across the locality.

Once we were armed with an annotated map of the town, bought some water at the market across the street (we gotta figure out a way of reducing the exponential growth of plastic bottle trash from tourism!!), and settled into our room, Kristina and I embarked on walking and selfie tour of the north-northwest part of town that afforded us an amazing view along the riverfront as we neared the Triple Frontiers park. It was a somewhat uphill, but easy walk towards the park where, wait for it, there were a TON of people doing the same thing we were planning to do and, for some reason, thought we had original thoughts. [Ed.: this is sarcasm.]

• Taking selfies in front of the Triple Frontiers river view.
• Taking selfies in front of the 3 flags of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.
• Taking selfies in front of the multi-country and multi-city signpost.

After walking back towards our apartment and quenching our appetite - not until after some argument as to where the “local fish place Dani told us about” ensued - we were ready to crash in a nice, cool room and recharge for tomorrow’s bus ride to Iguazu Falls and…COATI’S!!!

While lot’s of great prose and imagery of Iguazu Falls can be had on the Internet, I do have to say that the majesty and scale of the falls are breathtaking. There are 5 overall trails that one can traverse to attain different perspectives of the falls.

1. Boat ride that comes within close proximity to falls to render whatever you’re wearing soaked and unusable unless chaffing is your thing. We opted out of needing to bring a spare set of clothes.
2. The green trail which was roughly an 8 kilometer roundtrip and mostly jungle without view of the falls. We opted out as we wanted to get up close and personal with the falls as much as possible and we’ve trekked plenty of jungle/forest/greenery trails.
3. The red trail, or lower falls trail, which affords a variety of views of the lower falls pretty much from one end to the other. Lot’s of pics, selfies, and shoving and pushing with other tourists were had, but beautiful views of the main falls as well as a variety of mini falls, twin falls and other oddities of the geologic structure and flows of water in the area.
4. The blue trails, or upper falls trail, which affords amazing views of the upper falls height and our best pictures of Iguazu Falls.
5. And finally, the backside falls trail which is accessible via a short train ride (by train, I mean something you’d see in Disneyland) to an approximately 1+ kilometer walk along platforms built on top of the river system culminating at the end and the Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat) which is the chasm that provides about half of the water that flows over the falls! I’m in awe of nature when I see sites like this.

We had such a great time in Pueblo Iguazu that we decided to extend for another day, once we made arrangement for our next destination. Sadly, we had to check-out of Dani’s apartment and its awesome centricity and moved to another Airbnb (last minute can be limiting) where Nelson had a nice room available about 1 mile down one the main streets of Puerto Iguazu. Kristina was not in the mood for a slightly uphill walk to the new apartment, so a simple taxi ride did the trick.

The main reasons for extending our stay were twofold: the Animal Refuge park and the Guaraní indigenous communities. We took one of the local buses that, after asking the amazingly friendly driver we wanted to go to these sites and if he can point them out to us, the Animal Refuge was the first visit. The backstory on the Animal Refuge is that it is a semi-government funded program that rescues indigenous wild animals to either rehabilitate and house them, or rehabilitate and re-release to the wild. The reasons for the existence of the program vary.

• Wild animals taken as pets, or mascotes, are abandoned by their “owners”. This happens in so many places around the world where the notion of having a puma in their backyard seems to appeal to some people. Sad.
• Wild animals that are injured, most of the time due to some sort of intervention with humans or civilization. We heard stories about birds getting hit by trucks or cars, animals eating local people food, and other atrocities that occur to local animals from the “mighty presence of human beings”.

I love organizations like these are their missions! We saw so many interesting animals from toucans, pumas, monkeys of varying types, turtles, ox, pigs, on and on. And every single one of them has had some sort of hurtful encounter with human beings!

Before we actually made it to the Guaraní community, we couldn’t help but notice this sign by the main road going into and out of Puerto Iguazu - Ice Bar. Hmm, let’s go check it out, Kristina. Actually it was her idea. We walk up the entrance and turns that it’s…an ice bar. OK, more specifically a gimmicky bar that is entirely made out of ice and protected inside this building where you enter wearing arctic-class coats and gloves. What the hell, we’re here already. We waited about 20 minutes because we were early and they hadn’t quite opened yet. Nothing like starting our drinking in Argentina at 2pm in the afternoon (spoiler: we’ve done worse). So the program goes like this.

1. Pay your entrance fee - it was moderate.
2. Don the arctic coat and gloves.
3. Stash your smartphones.
4. Walk into the “acclimatization” room for about 10 minutes - a mere 5 degrees C.
5. Keep your smartphones stashed as they don’t react well to thermal shock.
6. Walk into the actual Ice Bar - a more mere -10 degrees C.

Did I mention that the entrance fee gets you ALL-YOU-CAN-DRINK-FOR-30 MINUTES? Well, it does. So Kristina and I are on the clock. After a series of boozy-sweet drinks concocted by the bartender inside the ice bar, boozy-boozy drinks (bourbon), and whatever we could down in 30 minutes, we proceeded back out to the “acclimatization” room so our bodies don’t crack from the roughly 80+ degrees F outside (I’m bad at converting temperatures) and wait to get the pictures taken by the photographer inside the ice bar. Soooooo, how can he take pictures with a digital camera and we can’t with our smartphones? The camera lives inside the ice bar in a cooler behind the bar! Crazy, huh? So after picking out 5 over-priced photos from his screen, we then walk outside to find some food because it is now IMPOSSIBLE to make our way to the Guaraní community in the inebriated state we’re in. No worries, there’s a restaurant right next door to the Ice Bar. Convenient.

Our first Airbnb hostess, Dani, actually works a an NGO that works with the Guaraní indigenous people. That’s how we got the idea to hopefully enter their community and engage with someone mildly representing a “tour guide” sort of person. Long story short: we sobered up, entered the community, but found no one (official or semi-official) to approach. Nevertheless, we marveled at the time warp we walked through with mere hundreds of meters from the town limits of Puerto Iguazu. It reminded us a lot of the remote villages we visited in Cambodia with the minimalist huts/homes, rigged wiring and plumbing to get basic facilities to the homes, and their artisanal and agricultural economies. But they do not skimp on two things: satellite TV and soccer fields. We actually spoke to a couple of local boys about their soccer game. I asked one of them, “ganaste?” He responds, “si”. Thrilling conversation! Seriously though, we didn’t get strange stares or glares as we walked through the dirt roads observing the community. I probably would have had I been in their shoes, but maybe their used to asshole tourists in their hood. Though according to Dani, they welcome interest from outsiders and gladly welcome opportunities to teach about their customs and community.

OK, I’m going to close this post with the coati. One word for them - ravenous! While many are wild around different parts of South America, these particular ones we encountered at Iguazu Falls park are simply too used to having the tourists and getting fed by them. Or more likely, helping themselves to the tourists foodstuffs. This includes sandwiches, cookies, soda, water bottles, you name it. Here’s the sad part of this story. Many of the semi-domesticated coati’s in the falls park suffer from rotting teeth, diabetes, obesity, heart problems, and other ailments due to easy access to people food. Yet more casualties of the dominant human civilization! The coati is part of the raccoon family as we suspected up until I looked it up. In one particular incident, I was eating one half of my sandwich while sitting at a picnic table in one of the visitor stops in the park. The coati’s actually came up on to the table, on my leg in a simulated begging pose, and under the table to do whatever it takes to get my sandwich. So resolve the matter, I ate while standing. These resourceful varmints figured out a way of clawing up the pool near me and almost dove into my daypack where the other half of my sandwich was hidden, though from sight, not smell. Moral of this story? DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS!! We hear and see that all the time all throughout nature parks of every type and locale. Please do not feed the animals. They’re cute, but we do them more harm then good with a bit of bread here, a cookie there, or whatever. Lord knows we humans shouldn’t be eating some of this.

Well, the next installment will be from the other end of Argentina - Patagonia and El Calafate in southern Argentina. BIG change in weather and climate as well…brrrrrrr!

South America - Buenos Aires, Argentina (Sept 2018)

Kristina and I get up at the a** crack of dawn to get to our flight from Portland PDX airport. While I like the productivity aspect of making as much time during the day alongside hating red eyes, it didn’t make it any easier. Our route to Buenos Aires, Argentina, our first destination of a small list of anticipated destinations, was with Air Canada and 3 hops - Portland to Vancouver, BC, Vancouver to Toronto, Toronto to Buenos Aires. Our first hop was fine and made for an extremely uneventful 2 hour flight. The beginning of the second hop was a little more eventful at the gate while boarding. Generally, we both like to carry-on all our luggage given that we’ve had bad experiences in the past with late or lost luggage. That happening on this trip would be an insane disruption, irrespective of the great Diver’s Alert Network travel insurance I always carry on international trips. Basically, our backpacks which were our luggage were “too big for the overhead compartments”, according to a rather rude gate agent in Vancouver boarding flight AC110 at 10am Pacific time (in case anyone wants to pass on this dissatisfied customer feedback). Now, what was the measure of the “too big” opinion of the gate agent you ask? It was the silver tubular frame in all airport terminals and sprinkled throughout a few of the boarding gates for the allowable carry-on size. Our backpacks in fact did NOT fit in that measurement frame, but neither would half of all the roller luggage being brought on the plane that quite comfortably accommodated them in the overhead compartment, as ours would have as well. In my opinion, I think she just didn’t get her “French press coffee” that morning, if you get what I mean.

Kristina was disappointed and a little deflated during that 4 1/2 hour flight to Toronto, but that all changed as soon as we boarded the final flight to Buenos Aires as we cozy up into our international business class (there was no first class, so this was basically the same) that I waited to surprise her for her birthday. Needless to say, endless pampering, leg room, flat bed sleeping, and wine have a way of helping one regain a perspective on the unimportance of one person with a bad attitude (yes, looking at you Air Canada gate agent) and enjoying the little things in life.

We arrive at 7:15am local time in Buenos Aires so have a ton of time to take in the city on our first day. Several weeks prior, I setup a public trip on Couchsurfing to announce our presence in the various cities and towns we knew would be part of the agenda with the express intent of meeting locals. I got a few hits from both Buenos Aires (dinner with May and Lucas, and their 8-year-old son, Fausto; drinks with Eduardo) and Viña del Mar, Chile, (Alex who has kindly offered to host us) which is close to Valparaiso. If you’ve not checked out Couchsurfing, you must try it out! Fortunately, our AirBnB in Buenos Aires (Moira and Cara) were kind enough to allow us to check-in at 11am after we got through a super long customs line (1-hour) and after THE FOURTH UBER to finally find us at the parking lot B waiting area! It took as long for Uber - it’s not quite legal yet in Buenos Aires - as it did to clear customs!

We’re staying in the Recoleta barrio of Buenos Aires. It is one of many though this one was recommended by
one of my MBA classmates’ friends who frequent tango dancing in Buenos Aires practically every year. Nice neighborhood, relatively centric, and all the necessary things nearby, so no complaints. But knowing what I know now about the San Telmo barrio, I would have preferred to stay there instead - more on that later. We drop off our bags in the AirBnB and head out to explore some of the neighborhood before we meet up with Eduardo at Las Violetas cafe restaurant, apparently a famous place with ornate decor and local history. After recharging on some caffeine (not jet lagged per-se, but still tired as we’re not early risers) we head to Las Violetas where we’re immediately seated in a 6-person table after I tell the very jovial and funny older gentleman host we will be a party of 5. Kristina and I get there a little before our “scheduled” 4pm time with Eduardo and a Canadian Couchsurfing couple he was bringing along. We order some jamon con queso sandwiches and a few boozy coffees of various interesting flavors and add-ins. Then 5pm rolls around and no Eduardo. I text him via the Couchsurfing app to no avail. We decided to leave and chill out somewhere else to see more of the city before we need to meetup with May and Lucas for dinner at 9pm (EARLY dinner for them, by the way). We make our way into a couple of cafes to have a sit, some conversation with locals from time to time, and kill some time. In the last cafe before we grab an Uber (only 1 this time and they found us reliably), some older ladies who happen to be university professors ask me where I’m from on their way out. I tell them I was born in Cuba but have lived in the US for most of my life. One of their professorial colleagues is also from Cuba and they comment to me on how familiar the Cuban accent is to them. I get that a LOT anytime I travel in a Latino/Hispanic country :)

Our next stop was to Siga la Vaca, a moderate parilla for asado (Argentinian for a LOT of meat). We met May,
Lucas, and their son, Fausto, there. They were marvelous hosts and really nice to speak with, share our experience thus far, and getting tips from them across Buenos Aires. We also spoke quite a bit about the Argentine government, economy, and their many woes. In fact, we heard these topics from every single one of our Uber drivers while in Buenos Aires. They REALLY like to chat about the local economy, things their president can do better (I think we United States folk know a little about that topic), but in general, they always concluded with a sort of “it is what it is” attitude and they enjoy what they can. Their soccer (REALLY big here), their food, their families! We wrapped up the night with some flan for dessert, and hugs and kisses with May, Lucas, and Fausto, as we took our Uber back to the Airbnb, although this time, no conversation about Argentine government nor economy…the driver was from Venezuela :)

The next day was jam-packed with a whole itinerary of target places and neighborhoods Kristina wanted explore and experience. Here’s the rundown and we did almost all of it by foot.

• Recoleta Cemetery: fabulous architecture and many old mausoleums dating back as far as 1700s, that I saw. Plus we took several pictures of Evita Peron’s mausoleum with the many flowers and plaques honoring her.
• La Casa Rosada (The Rose House): very distinctive building with serious security around it where apparently Evita Peron gave her famous speak from the balcony. Great people traffic around this area as it has a few government buildings and many speeches and protects going on about one topic or another.
• La Boca barrio and walking tour: we had an amazing time exploring around La Boca neighborhood and their incredible fandom for their soccer team! The team’s color’s were everywhere, amazing murals and street art (reminded us of our own Alberta Arts district neighborhood in Portland, Oregon) and very unique artisanal work in the area known as La Boca Walking Tour. We stopped to have some empanadas and beer to give our weary feet some time to rest, as well as take in the people watching opportunity.
• San Telmo barrio and market: this was my favorite area of the day! We braved some more walking, even with Kristina’s blisters violently reminding her of how bad of an idea that was, and reached the San Telmo neighborhood. The only way to describe it is Bohemian in nature. Narrow cobblestone and brick streets, old world building architecture reminiscent of Paris’ Left Bank or some of the off-the-beaten-path neighborhoods of Rome, Italy. We perused the neighborhood market and bought some empanadas for the flight to Iguazu Falls the next day. Then we walked around the corner and stood in line for a well-recommended restaurant called La Brigada about 20 minutes before it opened (yes, there was already a long line formed and all the other open eateries around were empty inside). I have NO words to describe the quality, ambiance, and flavor of this restaurant and its food and service! One of the BEST culinary experiences I’ve had in a long, long time!
• Closing out San Telmo was #BarSur a couple of blocks from La Brigada and it’s nightly tango show. We were a few hours from midnight and Kristina’s birthday, so it was a perfect pairing and experience to wrap-up Buenos Aires. Bar Sur was quaint (aka, small) and very intimate in that the service with the tuxedo-dressed host was personalized and impeccable, I could reach out and touch the musical trio playing their renditions of Argentinian tango music, and the tango dancers (both from Mexico and living in Buenos Aires) practically brushed against us during each set - not to mention spoke with us for quite some time and took pictures of Kristina and I pretending to dance tango with them. The Bar Sur host even arranged for the musical trio to play Happy Birthday for Kristina as she had her choice of a birthday shot…she chose Tia Maria because she’s a fan of coffee!

A few hours later for wake-up, an Uber ride to the airport (with our requisite political discussion with the driver) and we’re on the plane headed to Iguazu Falls in northeast Argentina - goodbye, Buenos Aires! Fue un tiempo splendido!!!