Our wonderful time in Argentina
 

hola amigos

well our time in Bs As, Glacier and Iguazu NPs far exceeded our expectations ( which were high!).

We took off from Victoria w/ temp 6 degrees C and landed 24 hours ( after a few typical Air Canada delays) 24 hours later at EZE and 36 degrees. Great for those of us experiencing winter and surprisingly not at all uncomfortable after a days adjustment.

The tone for the trip was set when our young driver had to go into the terminal for some $ and left us w/ his car and keys and great tango music on the radio.

Our apartment in the tall building at 4551 Guatemala ( x Armenia) was exactly how the pictures presented it. And before we went out for dinner we were treated to an exquisite sunset. While the apartment and building were wonderful. The service from apartments ba was not. The usual problems reported here. I won't bore u w/ the details. Michael credited us back some money for our pain and suffering. I sense when he is out of town ( which he was) the mice are off playing instead of attending to renters. Hopefully he will try to get some more responsible staff.

We loved our Palermo Soho neighbourhood: a great mix of architecture;restaurants; shopping and access to the parks for running if one is up early to beat the heat or in my case out all night. People in the neighborhood were extremely welcoming and my castellano quickly surplanted the italiano that was at the front of my brain. While one can travel in Argentina w/o the benefit of castellano, the ability to speak it created some wonderful opportunities to interact w/ local people and opened the door to new friendships

more later
cheers
andrewdavid

Hi AndrewDavid,

Glad to hear you had a wonderful trip. Looking forward to reading more about your time in Argentina.

raquel

Hi, AndrewDavid!

Glad you had a good time in our country during your honeymoon!

As you know, I would NOT be at all bored by "the details" of the problems you had with your apartment. LOL!!!!

Glad you had such a wonderful time in Arg. Its such a fabulous country. We're in the early stages of planning our trip to Argentina and thinking about renting an apartment in Palermo Soho. I have been following the various threads here and on TA re apartment rentals and problems. So I too would appreciate hearing what types of service issues you had with your rental.

Well, AndrewDavid, your original post promised "more later".

We are all ears. LOL!!!!

amigos,
well we spent our first 8 nights in Bs As and were sorry to leave but knew we would be back intermittently between our trips to patagonia and iguazu. friends of ours from here in victoria were down for 2 months and their apartment on thames was just a few blocks from ours. our friend Ron took us out for a walking tour down santa Fe Ave and Libertador working downtown via design center, bellas artes and recoleta cemetary our first day. we loved the hot weather and felt dressed like many folks comfortable nice shorts and shirts. i expect the city is more formal with the cooler weather. Got down to the cathedral and casa rosada before we pooped out and hopped in a taxi. the cabs were all great and quite reasonable for us and had a variety of music which i could chat about in castellano.

we really liked our palermo soho neighborhood; lots of cool older and newer buildings and lots of construction and renovation taking place which interested me greatly as an architect. i chatted at the edge of job sites w/construction foremen and fellow architects which is always a treat to hear how things r done. anything we needed was convenient and the plethora of parks, shops and restaurants and cafes was great. we ate like kings due to the exchange rate but knew from conversations w/ adjacent tables that it was not so easy for people living about us. whenever we wandered into the Disco supermarket they seemed to be playing either the elevator or techno version of "don't cry for me argentina" which we laughed abit about.

The produce in the Disco and local markets was excellent and great value for us from the frigid north where almost everything is imported at this time of year. Of course i got greedy when i found a 10 kilo hunk of fresh watermelon for 3 pesos and laughed at myself when i missed turning onto guatemala and walked 10 blocks beyond until i realized i wasn't making progress. but the fellow who walked me back part way invited me into his house for a coffee so vale la pena!

more later
cheers
andrewdavid

Thank you for great second chapter AndrewDavid!

Don't forget yestravel, who is planning a trip and "thinking about renting", asked "what types of service issues you had with your rental."

I'm just curious, because, as I live here, I most certainly won't do a short-term rental.

Av--thanks for the reminder to AndrewD. I may start a thread here and on TA to get some thoughts on rental versus staying at an apt.

oops -- that would be thoughts on apt rental versus staying at at hotel.

You can e-mail me and I'll tell you all the pros and cons or you can do a little research on the trip advisor Argentina forum, where the subject has been covered extensively.

Thanks -- i will have to dig up your email. I have done LOTS of reviewing TA and this site and am still uncertain.

That one's easy.

1) Click on my screen name.

2) Find my "The REAL Buenos Aires" thread, which is in about 10th position, at this time.

3) Open it. On the 11th post you will find my e-mail.

Happy digging. LOL!!!

the issues were lack of towels and tub for 4 nights; lack of hotwater for 2 nights ( until we just started pressing buttons; lack of response from repeated phone calls. Michael the owner was out of town when he came back the issues were corrected and he credited us back money for our inconvenience. i expressed to him that he needed more reliable staff who wouldn't make promises they wouldn't keep. i believe he is working to avoid the issues we encountered. time will tell
cheers
a/d

ps i wonder about the way respondents focus on the negatives rather than the positives that r the bulk of my entries. none of this was life threatening or prevented us from having an awesome time in Bs As. Personally i never let minor inconveniences rentals; hotels (unless filthy) or transportation delays get in the way of enjoying travel. These often provide opportunities to interact with local folks that is always educational and often hilarious!

that should b tub stopper ; we had the tub from the get go!

a/d

AndrewDavid! Hola!!
So happy to hear that you enjoyed your time here..
I like to hear all the Good stuff so more details darlin..shopping? where did you eat? Did you buy music while you were here?
I have been listening to Otros Aires .. you'll love it.. Hurry back~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsPr_...eature=related

AndrewDavid -- thanks for explaining what your issues were with the apt. Sorry if I appeared to be focusing on the negative...just gathering information for our trip. Glad you had such a wonderful time in a wonderful country and looking forward to hearing more details.

golly scarlett now u have me at a disadvantage. i am terrible on restaurant names, but could walk u everywhere or explain via my free phone to Bs As !

we ate mainly in palermo soho: l'ecole ( which was not particularly french ; my friends kept thinking its a cooking school which it is not), a fabulous morrocan restaurant on armenia maybe 6 blocks off santa fe. exquisite meals at bobo hotel where we stayed 2 nights. new years eve at el gardelito on thames i think; us and a lively crowd of locals. a great parrilla on guatamela perhaps corner of jorge borges w/ dining street side down and upstairs

shopped mainly in the neighborhood: shorts , shirts; shoes ( plaid high tops for dancing) in the boutiques; my AFA jersy at the sporting store on santa fe near the plaza italia metro. books at MALBA; cd's ( i guess our tastes r alike as i am listening to Otros Aires now! as i write) at Notorious ( we had been downtown to their record store jazz club a few times for shows

yestravel: i would defintly recommend apartment life better value ( we had a gorgeous one bedroom w/ queen sleeper in livingroom. a/c/ pool and gym; staffed front desk 24/7 for $US 850 for 8 nights. great location guatemala and armenia

cheers AndrewDavid

Otra vez, hola amigos

we used our apartment kitchen for breakfasts and pre dinner cocktail parties. our balcony had a lovely sunset view over the neighborhood. we also snuck food down to the pool for luncheon there one day.

Although it took us a few days to adjust to the dining schedule we adapted to dinner at 10:30 I loved coming out of a restaurant at midnight to find people waiting for tables. With the fine weather and long hours of daylight ( summer time in the southern hemisphere is luscious , eh) u could walk about before and/ or after dinner. By the way there was no place we walked day or night and sometime we were out until 4 am that we didn't feel perfectly safe . Our experience was if we looked slightly lost people would approach u to help and the only mis information i received was unfortunately whilst wandering about w/ my 10 kilo chunk of sandia ( great in the blender)

For restaurant we ate mainly in palermo soho: l'ecole ( which was not particularly french ; my friends kept thinking its a cooking school which it is not), a fabulous morrocan restaurant on armenia maybe 6 blocks off santa fe. exquisite meals at bobo hotel where we stayed 2 nights. new years eve at el gardelito on thames i think; us and a lively crowd of locals. a great parrilla on guatamela perhaps corner of jorge borges w/ dining street side down and upstairs

shopped mainly in the neighborhood: shorts , shirts; shoes ( plaid high tops for dancing) in the boutiques; my AFA jersey at the sporting store on santa fe near the plaza italia metro. books at MALBA; cd's at Notorious ( we had been downtown to their record store jazz club a few times for shows.

Palermo soho is full of beautiful shops w/ great window displays and interior architecture. There r not an enormous # of bill boards but many r fairly seductive: i love the hosed down futbol jock model in the AFA jersey that looms above Recoleta cemetary)

One of our nicest days intown was actually just out of town down the rio sarmiento from Tigre. We took the regular train for about 2 pesos from retiro station. entertainers hopped off and on the train to provide music and a group of twenty somethings invited us to share the ubiquitous and delicious mate. we walked 3 blocks to the estacion fluvial and chose a restaurant/ hotel and were directed to the appropriate beautiful wooden waterbus. After about a 40 minute cruise we were dropped at the dock for Dos Ciervos ( or something similar) and had enough parrilla for six before siesta on the lounge chairs above the river. There is a wonderful procession of boats, kayaks, canoes, waterbuses and barges going by : not unlike the grand canal in Venice w/o the palazzi. After awhile we swam in the warm silty brown waters of the river.
Whilst swimming i started chatting w/ a young argentine. it turned out when we came out of the water that he and hiis friend were sitting near us. so Lucas and Gaby invited us to share their cerveza and thanks to my castellano we spoke for a few hours and had a few more beers until the time came for the last boat back to Tigre. We agreed to meet in a few days for dinner. i would love to go back and explore some more branches of the river and stay for a few nights in the modest but extremely friendly resorts scattered about the delta.


to b continued

cheers
andrewdavid

hola, I'm a bit out of synch here but wanted to reflect on our new years eve. as i mentioned we ate late at El Gardelito on Thames in Palermo Soho. This is a cosy spot which we shared w/ a crowd of people who lived in Palermo Soho or friends of same. I believe our dinner was 100 pesos and good . At midnight we all took our inclusive champagne out on the street to watch the ad hoc and somewhat frightening firework shows (the news the next day was full of fire works related injuries)

We stood outside for about an hour and the wait staff brought dessert out to us. It was warm and friendly and we enjoyed chatting w/ our fellow diners.

Someone had the bright idea to go down to the Obilisco and see if there was a crowd. By the time we caught a bus and got down there around 2 am the crowd was mainly empty bottles. We roamed around down town and looked for a club/dive in which to dance but most were closed that we checked. At about 3:15 am we started to look for a taxi and thought we might be stranded . My husband was sure we could walk back to Palermo Soho and I was sure we couldn't ( our first married fight!). Luckily just as I was about to lie down on the pavement a cab pulled up ; dropped someone of and picked us up and got back to the apt at 4am. We realized if we had walked we might still be walking.

cheers
AndrewDavid

ps
avrooster how is ur knee?

Making slow progress. Yesterday, the doctor told me to start walking without any support, but it still hurts, when I do so.

Thanks for asking.

hi avrooster et al

glad u r on the mend. r u getting any physio therapy to help ur recovery.

On New years day we got up later after our adventures of the early am and lounged about the pool at our apartment building w/ a group of both local and international tenants. (a quick aside about the weather: the whole time we were temporary portenos we only felt rain once. late one evening after dinner a spectacular rain and lightning storm rushed in and we were treated to quite a show. Is the dryness normal in late december early january?)

we chatted w/ some dutch visitors who invited us to join them for dinner. although i was not wild to see Puerto Madero, I was interested in eating and seeing the beutiful santiago calavatara bridge down there. I was surprised that the area was full of folks speaking castellano but underwhelmed by the presence of Hooters ( although appreciative of their washroom!)
We strolled about amidst the happy throngs and litter of champagne bottles ( wonder if there were fireworks on new years eve there) and had supper at a quite good but overpriced italian restaurant. there r interesting views looking back at the city including some huge tower topped french style office blocks that no one could identify aside from the douana

mucho mas, mas tarde!

cheers
AndrewDavid

Hi , I go often to Buenos Aires, the matter in fact I have returned today, only once I tried to stay in an apartment for a month, BOY did I regret it, there are so many options of hotels, apart hotels, and b&b that frankly having heard and lived the night mare of things that do not work properly and that more often that not people who rented the apartment does not give a FAST solution I cannot imagine while people do not study carefully the option of staying in place, with SERVICE. such a great feeling to have clean towels everyday and the room properly done daily. Security provided by a front desk etc. Being restaurants not expensive in Argentina I do not picture myself cooking in an apartment kitchen to save money. Because most of the charm of the stay would be lost for me.MY advice is put all the options and choose carefully.

well it was sunday so time to visit san telmo for the ambience and the markets.we walked over from casa rosada and enjoyed chatting w/ stall keepers, poking our heads in the antique shops and people watching. didn't do much to support the local economy as between the 3 of us all we bought were 2 leather belts. that way if we were bored we could fight over who wore them. we had a lovely lunch at an italian restaurant overlooking the plaza good food and more people watching. next we grabbed a cab and headed over to la boca. liked the colour and the touristy vibe got groped by tango dancers and obliged w/ small tips for photo ops to shock the folks back home

cheers
andrewdavid

hola, I'd like to recommend the jazz club/ record store, Notorious. we were taken by friends and heard a great jazz flute and piano program over dinner and spent an hour or so listenening to discs. at the end of our trip we went to their branch in palermo soho to by cds as presents for friends.fyi cds r about 1/3 the cost of same up her. the house is now filled w/ tango both traditional and electronica and i'm trying to get the dj's at one of our local dance clubs to spin some!
cheers
andrewdavid

hola amigos

well after all our partying, swimming and generally lounging around in loche cafes we thought we shoud absorb some kulture. grabbed a cab and whizzed down to MALBA. This is certainly one of the best collections i have ever sen. I am fairly catholic in my taste in art, but it is unusual that i like every piece in a gallery. the selection ( or is it the entire) permanent col;lection is outstanding. I am familiar with many of the artists whose work is dispalayed and believe me this is all first class examples of their ouevre. the building is stunning and being an architect i had to sneak alot of illegal photos. the temp exhibit on the top floor artist name escapes me was wonderful: th guy is a painter , photograoher ( including rock stars) collagist and just a wonderful original talent.
the museum cafe is a great place for lunch and in the nature of small world we were seated across the bar form a young woman from vancouver who is working in southern Brasil ( where she says there is a bit of a succesionist movement : news to us) and saw our dutch friends form the apartment dining outside on the terrace!

I wlked throught the galleries twice and highly recommend this excellent museum
cheers
andrewdavid

hola, well coming back to plaza italia in a cab, my husband left our camera on the seat as we got out. when i called my travel agent to find out where i might report this, her assistant offerde to loan us her camera. how kind!. she said to report loss at the police station nearest the loss. i went in there and although i spoke enough castellano to make myself understood, for some reasonn they didn't want to deal w/ me directly so they sent me downtown to the tourist police to make report IN ONE OF THEIR OWN POLICE CARS ( although i couldn't get them to turn the siren on, it was a unique experience) Of course when i got doowntown they told me the local station should have processed it . they asked if i minded changing the location of the incident to nearer the nearest local ( to the tourist police) police station which i didn't so a very nice opolicewoman walked me a few blocks and i made my report. this misadvaenture turned into a wonderful adventure and i left w/ a well written ( of course in castellano) tourist report for my insurance agent to puzzle over. even though my deductibvle was more than the value it was fun y vale la pena
cheers
AndrewDavid

well it became time to leave our apartment and head down to El Calafate. Into a cab we hopped w/ our colder weather gear ( Art Hotel held the rest of our stuff for checkin). Hadn't realized how close the Aeroparque was to Palermo Soho so in a few minutes we were there to wait for our delayed Aerolineas flight. After a few hours of confusion and misinformation we took off and had a scenic flight via Bariloche. P/U at airport ( and a beautiful little steel airport it is and was easy and we were whisked to Kau Yatun , our hotel which is a lovely spot ( former estancia and subsequent additions) w/ lots of garden and comfortable rooms , personable service and excellent food. After a good nights sleep we boarded a van to a bigger van to a bus and headed out to Perito Moreno. y mas un poco tarde......

AndrewDavud

holas,
well the Perito Moreno "mini trek" day is an excellent experience. Travelling to the park by bus we ran along the edge of lago argentino. After entering the park proper, we started to see glimpses of the glacier in the distance. By the time we got on the boat to be ferried across the lake everyone was squealing like kids. Yes the VW size floats of ice are "icebergs" but rather small compared to the special effects used in "Titanic".

We stowed our day packs and lunch in an unattended hut ( no concern about possible theft: sweet) and our group was divided into castellano and non ( mainly english speakers) We walked down to the beach and our guide gave us the rudiments of glaciology. We could see people at the size of ants marching onto the glacier. I believe the face is 6 km long at the lakefront and about 30 meters high. Quite dazzling white w/ blue accents from pools of water within.

We strapped our campons onto our feet and off we went for about 1.5 hours across the granular surface . Periodic roars of explosion signalled calving off the face. Mainly sunny weather w/ fierce winds intermitantly. It was awesome trekking about on the actual glacier w/ the huge steel grey lake and mountains in the background.At the end of our trek we came upon a table w/a bottle of scotch and pitchers of glacier water and buckets of glacier ice to toast our avoidance of crevices.

We then reversed our steps picked up our lunches and piled out on the rocks to see calving . After we crossed the lake our buses took us to a visitor center and pathways led to terraces that gave views of the glacier from above.

The whole days excursion was extremely well managed and a good time was had by all except the most severely depressed.

cheers
AndrewDavid

topping for misterfuss

onto Chalten:

we were picked up from Kau Yatun in El Calafate and transfered to Los Cerros in Chalten in our own private l;ittle van. Nice driver w/ good conversation , snacks and drinks. The drive is across a somewhat empty but memerizing landscape. somewhere we came to the end of pavement and bounced on to Rancho Leona, a rest and cafe. My hub was not feeling great this am : the result of too much to drink and eat at a late dinner treated by friends from our perito moreno mini trek group. This is butch cassidy and sundance kid territory and there were fotos in the cafe.
After awhile we started to drive along lago viedma, i believe the largest in argentina and after about 3 hours arrved in tiny Chalten surrounded by the most awesome peaks which were visible throughout our stay , apparently a rareity.

We had opted for an all inclusive 3 night 4 day stay at Los Cerros which included a room w/ a view all meals and activities and snacks and transport back and forth to el Calafate whenever we choose. I believe we paid $US 1600 all in and although expensive , it was a great stay for me ( although not Tim as he was ill most of the time unfortunately)
details of our stay , next up

cheers
AndrewDavid

AndrewDavid,
Thank you so much for taking so much time to post all of this great information as well as such an entertaining report!

Wishing you many happy years together and no more cameras left in taxis :D

thank u scarlett; i was beginning to wonder if anyone was reading what i was bothering to write. while i feel it's my obligation to report to thank everyone for the info i received here, i understand there is no obligation to respond. my report seems to have garnered more interest from friends on the austalia chat. i am beginning to think about coming back next winter as argentina is such an interesting warm weather escape from the rigors of the canadian winter even in moderate victoria.

Los Cerros was the perfect place for Tim to recuperate, but unfortunately he missed the excellent food and wonderful activities.

The meal menu gives u 3 choices in 3 courses, but they r willing to make up anything u want if they have the ingredients i imagine. The view from the dining room over the quaint town and of the mountains is spectacular. The view from our room gave us a beautiful view of the end of the valley and the mountains beyond. The rooms r very comfortable and the public spaces: huge livingroom; lovely dining room and spa area r well designed and quite comfortable also

The first day i took an included all day excursion to lago and glacier viedma. As we drove out of town we got to see all the high peaks that surround Chalten and these spire peaks r spectacular. The crossing of the lake was exceedingly rough and we were kept in the cabin. the viedma glacier is dirtier than perito moreno as it has a mountain somewhere out of sight in the middle of the ice that is being sandpapered by the glacier. we hiked about 45 minutes across the moraine before putting on our crampons adn then were on the glacier for almost 3 hours. this day only one group was on the glacier so it is a more intimate experience than perito moreno. we got down into crevasses and ice caves.the weather was quite windy and i was glad for all my gear ( all very light wet micro fibre and down: turtleneck, down jacket and wind jacket w/ long underwear under my light weight convertible pants and wind pants over, touque and gloves and i was comfortable. total weight less than 2 kilos). at the end of our cavorting we were treated to bailey's creme rather than scotch to celebrate before we rinsed off our crampons and reboarded the boat. Although the so called sack lunch the hotel gave me was excellent and quite large i was ready to plow through the nice range of food offered w/ pre dinner drinks upon my return to los cerros
cheers
Andrew David

I think a lot of people Read but don't always respond :)

I am going to copy this because my son will be coming for a looong visit and will want to see as much as he can..glaciers, falls , etc.

Not to mention .. we will be doing it too :)

dear scarlett, thanks 4 the encouragement. will continue scribbling. now remind me why we bothered coming home to vancouver island. snow skiing yesterday up island was really waterskiing as it was raining all the way up the mountain!!!

seriously thinking of a return to argentina next winter and imagine it would be more Bs As and then a couple more national parks for glorious argentine great outdoors. any suggestions?


well after a few more fabulous meals i walked over to the front desk on our second morning at los cerros to meet my group for a 18k roundtrip hike to glacier torre. well the group was me and my very own guide. kewl!
Pilar my guide was 23 and very knowledgeable about local landscape, flor and fauna and quite opinionated about the state of the world. we divided our 7 hours together evenly between castellano and english and i think both learned alot. she. like many of the young people i met in Chalten was working there on summer vacation.
It was a day that swung from fierce 80km winds ( I literally had to lie down to avoid being blown off the ridge of the moraine near lago torre) to shirt sleeves and warm sun. The hike was strenuous but beautiful. On the way back we passed by the campo de servizios ( i believe there r 3 in the area and u hike between them) where one can stay w/ food and tents and sleeping bags provided. This is set within a magical forest and we passed the occasional visitor hiking out to start the circuit. we came into town from the north end so looked down on the panorama.Pilar and i parted and i headed down to the spa for a massage and soak.

cheers
AndrewDavid

I'm enjoying your reports too, it's the one of the areas of AR we have yet to visit and want to. If you liked Calafate, you would love the Torres del Paine in Chile, we were almost "blown away" there too! It is amazing how the weather constantly changes in that area of Patagonia.

Owlwoman, we actually preferred Chalten to Calafate. Chalten is up against the mountains and is only a village of about 400 souls in season.
How long were u in Torresdel Paine. It seemed when i was a kid everyother issue of National Geographichad an iconic foto of Torres (slight exaggeration I know!) Did u post a report that I can still peruse.
thanks
Andrew

I posted the report back in '95
Latin America: Trip Report - Argentina/Chile if you click on my name, you'll find it.

We only did a very long day trip into the TDP, in retrospect, I would have liked to have stayed in one of the Hosterias in the park for a night, but it all worked out well.

thank u owlwoman, i just searched and nothing comes up before 2005 although i could read ur comments to others about ur trip. we were sorry we only had one full day in calafate as there was at least one other excursion we'd have liked to do. it was great having 3 full days at chalten; weather permitting they could keep u busy for weeks up there

cheers
andrewdavid

Sorry, the report was in '05...and it's there. I could top it for you if you want.