Fresh off a few weeks in Patagonia, we landed in Buenos Aires, retrieved our big bags, and hopped into an Uber to our Airbnb. Then we got pulled over. Uber is apparently illegal in BA (as it is in many countries in South America) so despite us trying to pretend that we didn’t speak Spanish, we were kicked out of the car, reprimanded by airport transportation security, and the driver got a ticket which he said Uber would pay. Take two: in a (more expensive) taxi, we headed straight for our Airbnb in San Telmo. We were insanely excited for this place after weeks of either sleeping in hostel bunk beds or on the ground. Having the whole place to ourselves was a luxury!
That night we met up with Cally and Luke from the O Circuit trek at a fancy Thai restaurant. Unfortunately, there are no pictures because there was so much chatting. We hope you two are well!
We had some errands to run the next morning; we had lost the mirrorless camera lens cover on one of the suspension bridges in Torres del Paine, and Coons had been using a sock to keep it protected, which looked pretty hilarious, and he got a lot of compliments on his cleverness. Buenos Aires seemed like the city to get a new one. We found a street seemingly dedicated to camera accessories and found one in no time! Luckily for us, there was a pizza place nearby that other bloggers highly recommended. Pizzería Güerrin did not disappoint! You have to weave through other customers to the register where you order and pay for your food — it reminded us of late night slices in college. We settled on three pieces to share: a cheese, a veggie, and a red pepper/olive slice with ham & cheese in the middle.
After paying, you hand your ticket to the next man behind the counter who gets your slices ready while you grab silverware and (of course) beer. You post up, standing, at any counter space you can find. The place was absolutely packed! The dough was so fluffy and thick and just smothered in cheese. No need for toppings, the cheese was by far our favorite. Mucho queso!
We walked to the park to see the government center, a famously pink mansion where the President of BA lives.
After crossing these must-dos off the tourist list, we set out to watch tango dancers. We went back near our hostel to another park where they have outdoor seating and servers are happy to bring refreshments while patrons enjoy the show. Instead of tango dancers, this firecracker got on stage with a guitarist and accordionist and treated the crowd to a song and dance.
In true South American fashion, the tango dancers would not come on until much later. Having some time to kill, we walked to Bier Life, to sample some locally made beer. We tried different variations of their honey beer while enjoying their outdoor garden and funky signs.
When it was time for tango, we went back to the park and sure enough there were tango dancers setting up their stage. This gentleman took a few minutes to teach Kourtney a couple of moves; let’s just say she’s more of a leader than a follower!
The tango is so precise and intimate — the dancers were so lovely. We watched them for so long we didn’t start dinner back at our place until 10pm.
Saturday, we set out to visit the colorful district of La Boca. Although it is quite vibrant, we were a little disappointed, for La Boca is slowly losing its historic charm to cater to tourists. There were two colorful streets packed with souvenir shops, and the rest of the streets are destitute. We wouldn’t put this on our “must see” list of the city.
After enjoying a coffee and smoothie by the harbor, we quickly hopped back on the bus to navigate back to our place.
Cally and Luke had talked about the famous cemetery and a cultural center nearby in Recoleta, so we decided to check that out. We were wondering if we’d enjoy this cemetery as much as we did the one in Guatemala during “El Dia De Los Muertos” and we did but for very different reasons. In Guatemala, there was much more of a community feel; there are memorials for the rich and the poor and it seemed everyone was welcome, but in Recoleta the buildings looked like monuments and some were valued (we overheard) at 21 million dollars!
The cultural center was definitely a highlight for us in Buenos Aires! Full of evocative historical and political pieces, we walked through numerous rooms, moved by the local artists and their vibrant, opinionated collections. Kourtney particularly enjoyed the hall dedicated to the Women’s Rights Movement!
On our way to lunch, we walked by more breweries promising on Google to be open, but alas, closed. This is a city that does NOT like day drinking. Other bloggers were raving about this little empanaderia called La Cocina. In this small little nook, we enjoyed chicken, spicy beef, and something called picachu. One can always count on Coons to try any unnamed food item — the picachu is a mix of onion, cheese, and a special sauce, which turned out to be our favorite. That night we spent some quality time relaxing in our Airbnb and watching the new hit Netflix movie, Tres Fronteras. Who doesn’t love a good heist movie where the gang comes back for one more job?
Sunday is a big day for the San Telmo area as most of the streets close down so local vendors and artists can line the blocks to sell their antiques, jewelry, and crafts. We walked along the crowded streets for a while until it was time to catch our ferry to Colonia de la Sacramento, Uruguay. In Uruguay, our goal was to relax for some Surf & Sun, but you’ve already read all about that…right?!
We would return to Buenos Aires again to celebrate Coons’ birthday with beer, ice cream, and an 18-hour bus ride to Puerto Iguazu. We did ride in style though with full cama seats, movies, and cocktails.
Puerto Iguazú exists to bus tourists to the national park every twenty minutes, provide them accommodations, and a few places to eat. Otherwise, the place is pretty quiet. We found a hostel with air conditioning — thank goodness — but no kitchen. So we set out that night for Van Burger. Coons had the Super Van, a double stack of beef, with cheese, tomato, and caramelized onions. Kourtney had the M Van, beef with blue cheese and malbec-soaked pears.
The next morning we set out for Iguazú Falls. There are boardwalks along the upper and lower section of the falls and we decided to walk it in that order before ending on the highlight, Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat to all you gringos out there). The waterfalls stretch 1.7 miles in two levels of curtains from Argentina to Brazil and reach up to 269 feet tall. We definitely enjoyed the lower section of the boardwalk because we got up close and personal with some of the falls and we could see a rainbow the whole time!
The views kept getting better every turn we made; not to mention all of the animals we saw along the way!
According to Wikipedia, on average the water falls at 61,600 cubic feet per second! The water flows at its fiercest at the Devil’s Throat. We were able to see the 360 views of the falls which meant that we got totally soaked as its mist can reach near 500 feet! This was an absolutely incredible experience from start to finish!
From Puerto Iguazú, we took back-to-back overnight buses with a short stopover in Resistencia. We spent the day taking over a small corner of Cafe Martinez, working on the blog and budget spreadsheet. We like the idea of night buses because it’s like a two-for-one: we get transportation and accommodation for one price!
Finally arriving in Salta, we spent one day relaxing and trying to obtain Kourtney’s Bolivian visa; you need a lot of information for this including $160 USD in perfect condition, a copy of a yellow fever vaccination, passport photo, proof of financial means, itinerary, confirmation of accommodations, and reservations for leaving Bolivia (geeeez). The consulate was closed the first day, and when we went back the next day, they were out of stamps, so stayed tuned to find out if Kourtney makes it to Bolivia — Coons already has a visa from his travels five years ago.
Anyway, we were there to rent a car so we could go cruise the area for a couple of days, so we went to Hertz to pick up our little standard, two-wheel drive Nissan. As if driving a manual in cities isn’t bad enough, there are no stop signs at most four-way intersections in town. Whyyyyyyy? Coons killed it (no one else though) and got us out of town safely and onto the open road towards Humahuaca. Cruising along, we came to a police checkpoint. We didn’t have our lights on, so the cop brought Coons into the station for a ticket. He was given a choice: a 250 peso ticket or a 100 peso gift for the officer. So he handed over a 100 peso bill which the cop swiftly put in his pocket before sending us on our way.
Given how lucky we’ve been when hitchhiking, we decided to #payitforward and we picked up two different couples hitchhiking on our way. We even brought Ines and Edu, a couple from Spain, up to the 14 Colors Mountain which was our major excursion for the day. This mountain is incredible!
We had to much fun talking to them that we got happy hour drinks and dinner afterward.
The next morning we packed up our wet tent and headed towards Cachi up some awesome switchbacks and down some roads where the rocks threatened to put a hole in our poor Nissan’s exhaust. On the way, there was another seven colors mountain with a small hike, so we decided to stretch our legs and have a look!
We made a short detour to visit the Argentinian salt flats and practice some perspective photos. While not nearly as massive as the ones in Bolivia, they still provided us a great canvas.
At one point on the dirt road, a truck stopped us and said that the pass was closed, so we had to turn around and find a different route to Cachi. After ten hours of driving, we decided to find a camp spot for the night near the river with the cows.
On the third day, we packed up another wet tent (thank goodness for blue sky days and desert heat) and started cruising down more dirt roads, but this time we saw a herd of llamas!
The road towards the “other” wine country in Cafayate soon turned muddy and cloudy as we drove through a national park.
The cool thing about this journey was that the landscape was always changing from multi-colored mountains, to rolling valleys covered in cacti, to red rocks, to salt flats, to green landscapes covered with grape trees. Some of the driving was treacherous, and we really pushed the limits of what a two-wheel drive Nissan could and should do.
Once in Cafayate, we stopped into Bodega Domingo Molina for a tour and wine tasting. The tour was awesome because we got to see the whole process from truck to fermentation. Our guide even let us climb on the tanks to peer inside!
The tasting consisted of five wines: a white Torrentés, two of their high-end Merlots, a Malbec and a Tannat from their sister bodega, Domingo Hermanos, and a sweet red Malbec. The whole tour and tasting only cost $11 and came with cheese and crackers! Walking around the winery there are thousands of vines — ranging from ten years old to the Pachamama vine that is 120 years old! There is a nice sitting area outside and cacti all over the place! We adored this winery mucho!
We visited two more wineries: Bodega Nanni and El Transito. In Nanni, we got to see the bottling and labeling process which was really neat. El Transito was very beautiful inside, and one lady was kind enough to let us try wines even though they were closing (a half hour before Google says, of course).
Kourtney started developing a fancier taste, enjoying wine that’s been aged in French or American oak barrels (and therefore more expensive), and Coons started to change his tune about some of the whites.
For dinner, we heard that we had to try Locro, a thick creamy soup, muy popular in Northern Argentina, so we shared a bowl with a bottle of Syrah. It was delicious! Then we went to Bad Brothers, a restaurant with exquisite tapas and their own bottled reds. After our fancy romantic dinner for two, we retired back to our tent for our last night on the road. Before we left the next afternoon, we decided to stop at Helados Miranda, who is the creator of wine ice cream as it clearly says on the sign outside.
We both got two scoops: Torrentés white and Cabernet red. It was so yummy! Smart woman that Miranda.
Next up — another night bus from Salta at 1am with a border crossing into Chile on our way to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. This spot is a tourist mecca. Information centers and tours galore! Due to the inflated prices of everything, we decided to book only one tour: sandboarding with Sandboard San Pedro. We went in the morning because the afternoons are brutally hot! In the Valle de la Muerte, just outside town, resides a 400-foot sand dune just begging to be shredded. We laced up our boots and walked up to the top to ride giants! The walk up is well worth the ride down and we took about seven runs throughout the morning. Riding on sand is a little slower so it’s best to just send it straight down. Turning is a full body workout, but carving is still fun to try too. We had a freaking blast and can’t wait to do it again!
The last day in Northern Chile, we decided to rent bikes for the morning. We rode from town to the Valle de la Luna, which is the driest desert in the world. Because we started out so early, there was no one at reception and so we biked around the entrance area without paying the fee. Of course, Coons didn’t know this ahead of time, how dare you suggest such a thing? Valle de la Luna is so unique that NASA uses part of it to prep for missions to Mars. We hiked for a while on some dunes to take in the vast valley of salt and sand.
We explored salt caverns that were blocked off until we couldn’t go any further. The salt in those caverns drips down like icicles — it’s so cool!
Then, we thought it was time to start back. After a scary or thrilling downhill (depends on who you ask), we crushed it up one huge hill to find that Coons’ bike was malfunctioning. We consulted Allen, a biking expert from back home and some blogs, but to no avail. After being passed by multiple trucks, we eventually got through to the company we rented from and they came to get us. All in all, it was a perfect way to end our time in Chile, because it wouldn’t be Chile without a little mishap!
