Sorry, mispelled the timeframe. Left @ 5pm, got in at 10am the next day. It's best to take an overnight bus of course for the sleep.

Regarding the waiving of the 18% sales/hotel tax when paying with US dollars, don't count on it. One of three hotels we stayed at wouldn't do that, claiming that they didn't have the right papers.

marking for future trip...thanks

To follow up on a couple of themes:

I have been to Argentina twice. First time did the north including Igauzu. Second time (last month) did Patagonia including Chile.

I was able to avoid the tax in Chile when paying by credit card but not in Argentina. I think it is not always consistent.

I entered Chile by bus and did not pay the $100.

Re planes passing thru BA, I used the layover time to go into BA (see my more detailed post under Ar trip report (I'm the most recent poster - same time as this one)

Re Igauzu, I stayed in town and easily took the bus to the falls for the day. I walked over to the Sheraton. I thought it was nice and had a cool view but I actually prefered staying in town to get more of a local flavor. Besides you don't need to have a view from the room during the day since you will be outside at the falls all day.

I would try to fly when feasible and make due with the bus sometimes. If you buy 3+ flights on AA from outside the country you qualify for cheaper prices. It is called something like Passport Argentina.

Susan

I

Aerolineas Argentinas has great deals for multiple stops flights.

For example:

sao paulo - buenos aires
buenos aires - santiago
santiago - sao paulo
US$ 449

sao paulo - buenos aires
buenos aires - santiago
santiago - montevideu
montevideu - sao paulo
US$ 477

Interesting that this has come back up. I do hope that this thread end up being useful to any that need it. I hope that someone is us in the future, but it won't be too soon. We ended up going to off-track Cambodia this year and didn't make it to S. America. A great trip too, but a different one. Thanks though for the recent posts. I'm sure they will be useful at some point in our future.

Hi Clifton, nice of you being up front, hope you had a great time in Cambodia. Please tell us about it.
I also hope that one day you will go to S.A>Good luck