Thursdaysd, I have yet to start blogging yet as the web access here is appalling! Went to bookmark your blog and discovered I already had!!

It would be great to meet up if our paths do cross next year..

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/201...atagonia-chile

Bit out of your/my price-bracket but looks great! Are you going down here?

Hi gertie - sorry, I missed your post.

Am definitely planning to be in Puerto Natales, in order to take the boat to Puerto Montt, and take a peek at TdP. I will not be staying in one of those pricey places in the park, but a couple of the B&Bs in that piece are affordable.

Am currently trying to decide on somewhere to stay in BsAs (have booked for Rio, Igauzu and Uruguay). Am leaning to the Palermo area, or maybe San Telmo. Might try AirBnB.

San Telmo is a great area to wander around, particularly on a Sunday but I don't think - would want to stay there. Palermo IMO is a better option

In BsAs you might enjoy the Lola House. It's in a suburb, but a pleasant one with cafes and bars and restaurants and pastry shops etc. And the subway is only a block away. Las Violetas (finer than Cafe Tortoni in my opinion) is about half a mile along the street the hotel is on. The reviews on TA are accurate.

Thanks, someotherguy.

I did look at Lola House, but I wanted to be further in on my first visit. I booked a non-refundable rate at Duque in Palermo.

OK, but don't neglect to visit Las Violetas (it's by the Castro Barros subway stop): http://www.lasvioletas.com/eng/html/...ura/index.html

For the food or the architecture or both? Did you see my other post about Art Nouveau?

Incidentally, I was at Iguacu Falls last week. I used a taxi to visit the Brazilian side from my hotel in Foz do Iguacu, and I stayed at the Sheraton to visit the Argentine side. From what I could see, most people come on guided tours from hotels in either Foz or Puerto and are herded round in a mass. It's not a problem if you are there independently as you can just wait them out, but I don't think it'd be much fun to visit that way, even though it's undoubtedly convenient. So if you stay in Foz or Puerto and want to be independent, you either have to waste time with the regular buses, or pay for a taxi or private car.

The food at Las Violetas is certainly OK (I ate lunch there) but my Spanish isn't up to drilling down on their sweets and desserts, which are supposed to be their speciality. It was the architecture that attracted me to the place, but I'm not an educated judge.

I assume you know the famous buildings, but one I didn't know about until I saw it mentioned in an ad for a walking tour is Palacio Barolo.