After five days in Chile it was time to for Sean and I to move on... So we hopped on the Andesmar bus that took us up, over, and through the Andes from Chile into Argentina. This bus ride went much more smoothly than our last bus trip in Peru. The scenery was fantastic- so many breath taking vistas, and mountains beyond mountains. I was so busy taking it all in that I forgot to take any photos! Except for a handful of blurry ones from the bus window.
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| On our way out of Santiago....Take me to Portillo! |
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| That is seriously what the road looked like on the route through the mountains... |
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Finally! We've made it to Argentina!
It wasn't for another thirty minutes after we crossed the border that we actually made it to the official Argentinian border crossing. And here we spent a really fun and freezing two hours getting off our bus, lining up to have our visas checked, getting back on our bus, only to get off again with all our luggage... and then after they did a cursory check (i.e. idly rifling through bags at random) did we get back on the bus for good and lumber on to Mendoza.
At this point our first stop in Argentina was Mendoza... and I took approximately zero pictures during the day and a half that we stayed there. Which isn't to say its not a beautiful or interesting place, we were just busy walking around and drinking as much wine as possible. The wine is great here, but the city itself is kind of like a ghost town. There is not much going on besides tours of vineyards. And many of the buildings had a run down look to them. Plus, it was about 85 degrees which was an awful shock coming from far cooler temperatures in Chile.
From Mendoza we flew to Buenos Aires. While Sean spent the day in the US Embassy I met up with two of my friends, one of whom lives in BA. So, she took Naomi and I on fun walking tour of the city.
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| After dropping off the guys at the Embassy we walked through the meticulously maintained rose garden, although there were no roses in bloom as it was early spring. |
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From the rose garden we walked over to the Japanese Garden.
Buenos Aires is one of the nicest cities that I've been to so far in our travels. It has tons of well maintained green space, and it doesn't feel as dirty as other cities (I'm looking at you Lima.) And over all it just had this sense of being a well cared for city which made it pleasant to walk around.
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| I would love to live in one of those buildings over looking the Japanese Garden. |
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| Reflecting pond in the Japanese Garden. |
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| A fancy capuccino! Every cafe I went to served a more and more elaborately prepared cappuccino. |
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| An exhibit on Paraguayan art at the Museo Bella Artes. |
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| A giant bench! |
The next day Sean had a free day, so on the recommendation of our friends, we walked over to explore Recoleta and find Evita Peron's grave.
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| A bit of England in Argentina? |
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| I was really captivated by the endless rows of elaborate mausoleums. |
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| Taking BA in on foot and discovering the city has it's own "Washington Monument" |
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| Visiting the grave of Argentina's national hero: José de San Martín |
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| The Floralis Generica, a really cool giant flower sculpture that opens and closes throughout the day. |
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Evita.
Buenos Aires is an absolutely fantastic city that I completely fell in love with. I definitely did not want to leave (and I hope we get to go back for a longer trip some day soon). I loved that nearly everywhere we walked in the city we'd find some kind of art- whether it was sculpture, a monument, or an excellently curated art museum- I really appreciate a city that takes some civic pride and uses art to help make it a beautiful place.
That night our friends took us to their favorite restaurant, called La Carniceria. So, if there is one thing you should know about BA, and the Southern Cone in general, it's that they take their meat seriously. And as I'm sure you can infer from the name of the restaurant, we were in for a meat experience.
Luckily they also served fish on their menu, so I was able to continue with my haphazard pescatarian/vegetarian diet (it's been hard maintaining down here!) And you can see in the bottom right photo, that they served me an entire fish! With head and spine still attached! But, just look at the cuts of meat they served everyone else.... absolutely insane, right? Although La Carniceria, is one of the newer, hipper restaurants in the area, they did not skimp on portions. And most places we went to in Argentina (and Uruguay, for that matter) served equally as hulking slabs of steak.
And thus ended our time in Buenos Aires, in the morning we were off to Iguazu Falls!
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