After lots of planning, the date for our
second trip to South America was upon us. Last year, we travelled through the north-western side of South America. This year, we are travelling through the north-eastern, central and southern parts, and really looking forward to some wonderful adventures.
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| Flying over the Andes Mountains |
To get there, we flew from New Zealand, across the Pacific Ocean and the stunning Andes Mountains into Argentina.
But our adventure first began after we left home in Wellington, New Zealand and flew into Auckland. We had an 8-hour layover, so we hired a car to get around the city to visit friends Penny, Di, and Joan. It was a lovely day.
We had plenty of time to return to the airport and catch our LATAM flight to Santiago de Chile. Then after a brief stop there, we flew on to Buenos Aires (BA), our starting point for this tour.
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| Map of our route |
From BA, we'll travel into Paraguay then Brazil. After that, we'll return to Buenos Aires to pick up a hire-motorhome to drive through and around Argentina, Patagonia, and Chile.
Next will be a cruise to Antarctica, followed by a return to Buenos Aires for Christmas, then Uruguay for New Year's Eve. Finally, we'll return to Buenos Aires for our flight home to New Zealand. We will be travelling for 4 months.
But first; BA. After landing, we caught a bus from the airport into the city, then a taxi to the very charming Sissi Haz Boutique Hotel in the Palermo neighbourhood of BA.
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| Sissi Haz hotel, Buenos Aires |
Sissi Haz is a small family run hotel, and Palermo is a fantastic area in which to stay. There are lots of eating places and shops, it's an easy
walk to the Sube (Metro), and is a nice area to wander around.
After a peaceful night’s sleep, we purchased a Sube card, loaded on some cash and caught the train into BA.
Our first stop was the Terminal de Autobus
(bus station) to purchase a bus ticket for our upcoming travel to Posadas in northern Argentina.
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| Lane near the station in Buenos Aires |
But we had to walk past interesting-looking laneways and street-sellers, and through huge road-works to get from the train station to the bus station. We eventually made it, bought out tickets, then headed off to explore BA.
Close-by was the Retiro neighbourhood. We found it interesting and visited the Plaza General San Martin, a lovely grassy area containing the famous Torre Monumental.
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| Leigh at the Torre Monumental (Monument Tower), Retiro, Buenos Aires |
You can climb to the top of the monument's clock tower but we decided not to as we had lots more to see at ground level first.
Around the Plaza San Martin, we saw the Art Deco Kavanagh Building, the San Martin Palace, the Baroque style Estrugamou Building, and other buildings with interesting architecture.
From there, we found our way to BA’s popular Calle Florida.
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| Florida St shopping area, Buenos Aries |
The street is lined with interesting historic buildings, and we found ourselves walking along it with our eyes on the attractive skyline instead of the shops. This busy and vibrant pedestrian street was absolutely full of shoppers and street entertainers.
Then we wandered on, finding more interesting architecture, soon arriving at the 100-year-old opera house called Teatro Colón.
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| Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires |
Apparently, this opera house has been ranked the third best opera house in the world by National Geographic, and acoustically, is considered to be amongst the five best concert venues in the world.
At this point in our wanderings, we had crossed the amazing Avenida 9 de Julio a couple of times, and honestly, each crossing was such a mission. Named for Argentina’s Independence Day (9th of July 1816), it is the world’s widest avenue being 16 lanes wide (or 140 metres).
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| Avenida 9 de Julio with the obelisk in the distance |
At the centre of the Avenida, there is a huge landmark consisting of a 67-metre-high obelisk (the Obelisco). It was erected in 1936 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the city's founding.
This wide avenue was first planned in 1888. However, by the time the land had been purchased, hundreds of buildings demolished, thousands of citizens displaced, and the massive roadworks undertaken, it was not completed until 1980.
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| Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires |
After more walking, we found the famous Plaza de Mayo, or more properly called, Plaza 25 de Mayo. It's name commemorates the date of the Revolution that led to the resignation of the Spanish Viceroy and establishment of the independent government of Argentina.
It is the city centre of BA and has seen many demonstrations and historic events over its lifetime, such as those organized by Evita Peron, or by the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, the women whose children disappeared during the military dictatorship of 1976 to 1983.
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| Top: Casa Rosada and the Bank of Argentina. Lower: Metropolitan Cathedral and House of Culture |
The Plaza is surrounded by some of BA's most notable buildings. We thought the most interesting to be the Casa Rosada (seat of the President of Argentina), the Bank of the Argentine Nation's headquarters, the Metropolitan Cathedral, the House of Culture, the Buenos Aires City Hall, and the Cabildo of Buenos Aires building.
The attractive white Cabildo building was once used as the town hall.
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| Marg in front of the Cabildo of Buenos Aires |
A cabildo is a local governing body, and this building, dating back to 1610, was home to the town council during the colonial era. It was also used as the government house of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata created by Charles III of Spain.
Today the building is used as a museum, and classified as a National Historic Monument of Argentina.
After a great day, we navigated our way to the correct Sube line, and found our way back to the Sissi Haz with no
difficulties.
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| Marg's injuries |
That evening in Palermo, we set out to find a nice place for dinner. But while crossing the road, Marg tripped on a ground-level marker-stone. She managed a very hard face-plant in the middle
of the road.......in the path of a fast-approaching car!
Leigh jumped in
front of the car with madly waving arms yelling out "stop, stop"! Luckily the driver did stop, and a group of
young people helped to pick Marg up and get her off the road.
She now has a pretty impressive bruise on the left side of her face, extending from eye to jaw (which has worsened since the photo above).
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| Just near where Marg tripped in Palermo, Buenos Aires |
The young people were so kind and concerned, and one of
them brought ice down from her apartment to put on Marg's injury. After that, we staggered back to the hotel for running
repairs before going out for a quiet meal.
Despite injuries, the next day we hopped on a tourist bus for a tour of the wider BA city
area. We thought this would give us a good overview as we were staying such a
short time now, but planning to return later when we could explore more.
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| Puente de la Mujer, Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires |
Our first stop was Puerto Madero. We particularly liked the Puente de la Mujer (Woman´s Bridge), which has a white wing-like sculpture that shoots up from the footpath of the bridge.
Puerto Madero is along the waterfront and has some lovely smart skyscrapers, expensive restaurants and interesting shops.
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| The Russian Orthodox Church in quirky San Telmo, Buenos Aires |
We also enjoyed the San Telmo area, the oldest residential neighbourhood in BA. Many of the old buildings and landmarks have been retained and restored, and the streets are narrow and full of antique shops, markets, old churches, and museums. It is a very vibrant area and we loved it.
Moving on from quirky San Telmo, we were soon in the La Boca neighbourhood. It is also quirky, having multi-coloured apartments, interesting street art, and busy pubs.
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| Top: La Boca street art and the Boca Stadium. Lower: Two of La Boca's colourful apartment buildings |
This area is famous for tango dancing and football, and we managed to get a look at the famous blue and yellow Boca Football Stadium.
The next morning, knowing we will be back in BA again later, we grabbed a taxi to the bus terminal to catch our overnight bus from BA to Posadas in northern Argentina.
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| Posadas on the Parana River, Argentina |
Getting to Posadas, enabled us to cross the Parana River into Paraguay, our next destination, for 70% less than flying out of BA.
The bus was great with wonderful reclining
seats (cama or bed seats), a pillow and a blanket. and there was much more leg-space than on an
airplane! Dinner (of sorts) was provided, plus some
bubbly wine to finish. We arrived in Posadas after breakfast, then got a taxi to the train that would take us over the international bridge connecting Argentina with Paraguay.
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| Posadas in Argentina, seen from Paraguay |
There was quite a queue waiting for the train, so our taxi driver offered to take us over the border and right to our
hotel in Encarnación (Paraguay). After some haggling, we agreed on a price and off we went - and
what a good move it was.
We stopped at the Argentinian checkpoint, our taxi driver handed
over our passports; then lots of smiles, stamp, stamp, and on to the Paraguayan side.
More stamps, and over the bridge to our hotel – all for 500 pesos (about NZ$40).
Great value and no queues.
So, after a very short stay in Argentina, we are ready to explore Paraguay. We found the Argentinians very friendly so are
looking forward to returning later in our trip.