Iguazu Falls - Part 2

Today we explored Iguazu Falls from the Argentinian side. In the longstanding debate about which country has the better view of the Falls, Brazil wins. Hands down. It was still incredible to see the Falls today, but the up-close-and-personal feel of the Argentina side cannot compete with the beautiful panoramic views from Brazil.

We explored all of the paths that were open (the Devil's Throat path was closed, unfortunately) for a couple hours and took a ton of pictures. Our favorites are below - enjoy!

Another day of perfect weather.

The sound of the crashing water was much louder on this side given how close we were to the Falls!

According to some of the signs in the park, 1.5 - 3.0 million liters of water flow down the Falls every second (depending on the season). From here, I believe it!

Still plenty of rainbows on this side!

More beautiful waterfalls.

Definitely "up-close-and-personal" as advertised.

After we were done walking the paths we headed back toward the park entrance to eat lunch. Like yesterday, we packed lunch because we heard the restaurants inside the park were overpriced and didn't have great food (both true). We paused on our way back to the entrance for sodas - during which Sarah set her backpack (with our lunches) on a bench. In only a matter of seconds, a troop of Coati had grabbed it and were trying to run away! Coati are these Raccoon-like animals that roam around the Falls on both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides. We knew to be careful with our food around them, but it wasn't even unpacked! I was able to get the bag back and we both decided it was wise to walk well-clear of the jungle before really stopping to eat!

Here are some Coati we saw earlier in the day - I didn't have a chance to snap a picture of the 15 or so that descended on Sarah's backpack!

Tomorrow we fly back to Buenos Aires for a day, then on to Rio (our last stop in South America!) on Monday. Hopefully some of our Gringo-Spanish skills translate to Portuguese!

Iguazu Falls - Part 1

Our last day (well, technically second-to-last since we will be back for one night before flying to Rio) in Buenos Aires was pretty mundane: resting after another 14-hour bus trip back from Mendoza, making sure our laundry was done and hitting up one more restaurant recommendation from a friend.

We headed to Las Pizarras (thanks Jennifer!) for a great meal with fantastic service and great wine. The menu changes daily and is presented on multiple chalkboards, but definitely has a strong Argentinian / French Bistro / hope you love meat attitude. The standout for us was actually the steak tartar appetizer - it was substantial, really well-seasoned (capers!) and very different from what we would have gotten in NYC (small mound of raw steak with an egg yolk). So far, all of our restaurant recommendations have worked out pretty well!

I'm not even a big fan of steak tartar normally but this was delicious.

Thursday morning we woke up and headed to the airport to catch our flight to Iguazu. We had originally intended to take another bus, but after learning the trip was actually 24 hours (!!), we opted for a quick 2 hour flight instead.

We arrived at Casa Yaguarete, a small B&B I had found via Trip Advisor (of course!) and were warmly greeted by our hosts, Lorena and Andrea. Lorena promptly gave us an overview of the property, told us which tours we should take (and on which day), gave us a map of the city and provided hand-written directions for everything else. We headed into the small town of Puerto Iguazu, Argentina (about a 40-minute walk) and took a look around before grabbing a quick meal and heading to bed.

Friday it was time to head to the falls, starting with the Brazilian side as recommended by our kind hosts. A note on the geography: Brazil and Argentina each have their own national park, small tourist town and accompanying airport to provide access to Iguazu. Crossing the Argentinian / Brazilian border via bus and going through customs was actually very easy (thanks for picking up our visas Nick!) and we arrived at the national park in about an hour. From there we took another bus and headed deeper into the park and closer to the falls, which was clear as soon as we heard the sound of rushing water. There were many paths to take to continue observing all of the different falls from various vantage points, but I'll let our pictures do the talking here!

There was actually a line of people to get a photo at this overlook. We saw some other tourists scoff and move on, but figured it was worth a five-minute wait to get this shot!

Sort of the "gateway view" of the falls.

One of the various "platforms" between different waterfalls.

Another waterfall "platform."

More waterfalls.

I wondered how many individual falls actually comprise Iguazu.

Given all the mist in the air, there were many different places to see rainbows around the falls!

It felt like the falls just kept on going.

We walked around for a while, taking in the view from each overlook. There is apparently a lot of debate over which side is preferable - Argentina vs. Brazil - but it's hard to imagine the views from Argentina can top the ones we had today. We'll find out tomorrow!

Bicycle Wine Tour

Sarah and I took a wine tour yesterday for our final day in Mendoza. Since many of the vineyards are near one another, a popular way to visit several over the course of a day is on a bike tour: we were picked up from our B&B in a van, driven to the first vineyard, then rode bikes to the second, third and fourth stops. The weather was gorgeous again so we were happy to spend most of the day outside; plus, the health benefit of riding 15 kilometers helps offset all the day drinking along the way, right?

Our first stop was Cecchin Winery, a smaller, family-owned, organic winery that only produces a few thousand liters of wine each year (as opposed to the bigger, more industrialized wineries which produce millions of liters annually). It was a good start to the tour - we had a very informative guide who explained the organic wine making process and we were able to taste four wines. That said, I'm glad this was only the first stop because the wines weren't that good! Guess I'm not an organic wine fan...

Fun fact: winery is "bodega" in Spanish. Not exactly the same as the bodegas we're used to in NYC!

Another cloudless day. It's a dry winter in Mendoza so the vineyards looked a little barren - but still a great view!

The house sommelier? Based on how the wines tasted, he might be!

Our next stop was the much bigger Vistandes winery. Our guide here gave us a tour of their facilities then let us taste five wines...and he had a heavy hand when it came to pouring each glass. Our bike guide was a little concerned by the end - he asked several of the other people on the trip if they thought they were still able to ride their bikes! "Are you sure? The van is very comfortable." Ha!

We liked the wine so much that we bought a case of one of their "Grand Reserve" series - so keep an eye out for a FedEx package from Argentina, Mom & Dad!

Much different feel than the first winery - lots of big, new wine-making equipment.

The owner's wine cellar.

We tasted wine #3 outside so we could savor the view.

Vistandes turned out to be the highlight of the tour: the third winery was a "boutique" that only let us taste one wine and the last stop was a beer brewery that had run out of their famous Red Lager. Their Blonde brew was good, but our bike tour guide had been getting us excited for the Roja Cerveza all day so we felt a little let down.

Posing for a picture on our bikes.

From the brewery we were taken directly to the bus station to catch our overnight bus to Buenos Aires. I was a little less excited about the trip this time. Even though we both slept pretty well, I think we'll take it easy for the rest of the day today. We both want to be fresh for our trip to Iguazu Falls tomorrow!

Mendoza = Malbec + Mountains

We arrived in Mendoza yesterday after a 14-hour bus ride from Buenos Aires. While I don't think the accommodations quite lived up to Alex's luxury bus fantasy, it was much nicer than the bus / train rides we are used to in the US: the seats reclined into flat beds, we watched a movie on our private TV and we were served wine and dinner. That said, a 14-hour bus ride can only be so fun...

Selfie before sharing Alex's headphones to watch Drive.

We made it to our bed and breakfast, Casa Aristides, and were greeted warmly by our hosts, Marcelo and Pamela. We were starving after the long journey so Marcelo helped us locate a local breakfast spot, which was a big help since most places are closed on Sundays in Argentina. We were rewarded with a cheap and tasty meal at Maria Antonieta, including the best croissant Alex has ever tasted.

Fluffy cheese omelet, café con leche, croissant and our first tabasco sighting in weeks? We might be back here. 

After our meal, we walked around downtown Mendoza. The weather was perfect so even though most places weren't open, we had a nice time checking out the town. Once we made our way back to the B&B, we unpacked and rested a bit, booked a couple tours (with Marcelo's help) and then headed to find a place where we could try some Malbec, the local specialty.

For about US$12 we had an amazing bottle of wine, which we paired with a massive antipasti plate. Definitely a nice way to end a sleepy Sunday.

A meal in itself!

Similar to our ATV tour in Peru, today's excursion was full of surprises. We woke up early to join a bus tour that took us past the vineyards and into the Andes mountains. Our first surprise was that we weren't really going to be doing any walking / hiking in the national parks but would be shuttled from place to place instead (I think our lack of Spanish and Marcelo's lack of English were to blame for us not fully understanding the nature of the tour). Still, the scenery was beautiful and we were lucky to have blue skies all day (seriously, we did not see a single cloud all day!).

Sunrise over the mountains in Mendoza.

The second surprise was a stop at a "ski resort" which seemed like it hasn't seen many skiers for some time. We took a chairlift up (and down) in our regular clothes and just looked around for a bit. There was definitely nowhere near enough natural snow and no visible snow machines for proper skiing which made us wonder whether the only people coming here were confused tourists like us.

View of the "ski resort." Where is the snow?!

Our next surprise was a stop to see the highest peak in both South and North America, Aconcagua. The views were nice, though I think we were pretty spoiled after our incredible trek to Machu Picchu.

Standing in front of Aconcagua.

Lunch turned out to be another surprise as it was not served until 3pm (gotta get used to this later schedule!) but it was hearty and delicious! Worth the wait and now we won't be hungry for dinner until 9 or 10pm, a much more appropriate hour for dining for Argentina.

Next, we learned that we would be heading all the way into Chile. I thought: "Cool! We weren't planning on going there" while Alex worried "Shit, I didn't bring our passports." Luckily for both of us, we only just crossed over the border and the customs checkpoint isn't for another 4 kilometers or so.

We made it to Chile...sort of!

Our final surprise was the activity planned for our one hour in Chile: "playing in the snow." I'm not kidding when I say we literally pulled off a highway so that the majority of our South American tour mates could walk and sled around some dirty, hard snow. Guess we've been spoiled in the US with much snowier winter sports conditions.

Not our idea of fun.

Much like our stop at the "ski resort" Alex and I were a little confused - according to our guide it never snows in Argentina which is why we had to cross briefly into Chile? Definitely not a highlight of the trip but an amusing stop for sure.

While our trip through the Mountains in Mendoza didn't go exactly as planned, we still had a nice time checking out the local landscape. Tomorrow we are signed up for a winery biking tour so hopefully that turns out a bit differently!

Almost Like We're Back in New York

Buenos Aires is definitely the biggest and most cosmopolitan city we've been to so far on our trip so we were expecting it to remind us of home a bit, but it really felt like we were back in New York as we walked around today. As we would begin many Saturdays back home, Sarah picked out a brunch place for a filling meal to start the day. Magdalena's Party also happens to serve some of the best bloody Mary's we've ever had - no horseradish, but plenty of peppers to give it a nice kick!

The morning sun made the celery look like it was glowing; it also gives you a detailed look at the thickness of my beard!

I got the steak and eggs sandwich. I've never seen this classic brunch combo on a roll before, but with an onion ring and "special sauce," it was really phenomenal.

After brunch we walked up to what I would describe as Buenos Aires' version of Central Park. Along the north part of town there are a series of connected parks: the Japanese Garden, the Rose Garden, a bunch of Plazas, the Botanical Garden and the Zoo. We spent a few hours walking around enjoying the weather and the sights. We had to be careful as we were walking on paved paths though because there were literally hundreds of rollerbladers throughout the park - in Central Park I feel like you only need to watch out for these guys, but in Buenos Aires it seems like everyone rollerblades.

It started as a bit overcast today but fortunately the weather cleared up for our walk!

Sarah at one of the many plazas scattered throughout the parks.

More than a small resemblance to Bow Bridge over The Lake in Central Park.

No palm trees in Central Park though.

Sarah paused for a rest on one of the benches by the pond.

As the afternoon came to an end we wanted to get an early dinner before our overnight bus trip to Mendoza. Sarah had been eyeing a southern-style gastro-pub called Nola and I'm really glad she found this place. Great selection of craft beers (a welcome change to the usual pilsner offerings we're used to) and delicious fried chicken! If you want some decidedly un-Argentinian food when you're in town we highly recommend you stop by. 

The friend chicken at Nola - so good we each got our own order.

Now we are getting ready at out hotel for the overnight bus trip. Normally I would not be excited for a 13-hour overnight trip, but the busses are supposed to be nice and we booked a "suite" class ticket so I'm hopeful that it's a pretty enjoyable experience! Next stop: Mendoza!