mystic1947

March 7-25

I hesitated to write this report due to the fact that I didn’t want to instill fear or lack of enthusiasm on anybody’s future trips. In general it was one of the best vacations we have ever had but it ended on a sour note. We are seasoned travelers and truly enjoyed all of our experiences and we are cautious travelers and try to reduce our risk using common sense that she be used in any large city. We do not wear any jewelry or carry wallets. We dress conservatively and not flashy. We read our maps before going out and have a knowledge of where we are going so we don’t appear to be lost. We met wonderful people throughout our vacation in all of the cities we visited. We love to walk, we did take radio taxis when we felt we were out too late or in an area we were not familiar with but all our cautions were not good enough. Our first 17 days were wonderful and we walked all over all of the cities but our last 24 hours were a nightmare. We were hit with the stain and distract scam 3 times in 24 hrs in broad daylight. We were aware of this scam and did not lose anything as we walked away quickly and did not let the “thieves” clean us off. Believe me, they tried. But, we were “hit” with this horrible brown gooey liquid 3 times and in addition to the humiliation the stains do not come out. More later on these incidents. We both lost 3 outfits in our last 24 hours and left Buenos Aires on a sad note. It is a beautiful city with wonderful caring people and we were all ready planning on a return visit and now I will have to rethink that thought.

Ok, arrived Santiago early morning and took a taxi to the Four Points Sheraton in Providencia. Hotel was good choice, probably a 3 ½ star hotel in my eyes. Room was nice, beds comfortable and location great. I would stay here again as the staff was wonderful. We arrived before 10am and even though I paid a discount rate through my TA, Mayra Brill they put us in on an SPG floor since we have the card. We gad to wait only about 15 minutes for our room to be ready and they treated us to cappuccino which was a nice start. Breakfast was ok and included in the rate of $95 as were the taxes. A good deal.

Unfortunately, I don’t take notes while on vacation so I am a little unsure of some of the restaurants but we did not have a bad meal on this entire trip. Between the wonderful meals and the great wine we were in gourmet heaven. Even though I am armed with a list of restaurants we tend to get lazy if we find one we love and land up going back a few times. Not a problem for us as we don’t like surprises and we are quite fussy about eating. I highly recommend Rivoli which was across the street from the Four Points. Wonderful salads, fish, pasta and different vegetables. We also enjoyed Café Liguera which is next to the Orly Hotel where we had drinks and met some nice folks. Had a great meal downtown in the Mercado. Enjoyed eating scallops in the shell together with the roe and also Machas which are pink clams similar to razor clams. Took a bus to Vina del Mar and walked for miles to the Hotel Oceanic and had a wonderful seafood lunch. The view from the Oceanic is worth the trip. Of course one could take a taxi but we enjoyed the walk and took the local bus back to the center. Spent another day in Valprariso and had lunch at Coco Loco which is a revolving restaurant. Food was ok but a bit touristy imo. If I had the choice of only going to one place I personally would choose Vina del Mar over Valpariso but that is a personal opinion.

Next stop Buenos Aires which I will continue later. My one mistake was to fly into Santiago at the start of the trip instead of the end. We had to pay $100 each which could have been eliminated had we reversed the trip. I used FF miles on American and didn’t give it much consideration while booking the awards. It’s not a big deal but more planning would have saved us $200

mystic1947

Back again, forgot to mention that we flew LAN Chile from Santiago to Buenos Aires. We loved Santiago and my DH speaks Spanish so language was not a problem for us but we were surprised how few people spoke English. We were told that English is mandatory in school but the younger people prefer not to use it. In Argentina language was not a problem as many people spoke English and all store owners seemed to master enough phrases to insure a purchase.

Nice flight on LAN and arrived Buenos Aires and went directly to the Manuel Tiendo remise service and were quickly whisked into the city. We had reservations for 4 nights at the Regal Pacific hotel located on 25 de Mayo off Cordoba in the downtown area. We were impressed with the hotel, lovely staff and very nice rooms. We were given a king room on the 5th floor overlooking the pool area. We were happy with the room selection as the other side was right on the street and possibly could be noisy. We enjoyed a nice glass of wine in the evenings served by either Maria or Pablo and we enjoyed their company and advice. Maria was especially helpful in suggesting a Milonga where we could either take lessons or enjoy watching others. At her suggestion we spent a fun evening at Ideal and really enjoyed the late evening. Breakfast at the hotel was delightful with a wide selection of delicious items. Our 4 nights were weeknights and the area is packed with business people and we felt safe walking anywhere. We stumbled upon La Establo and we were delighted with the food and ate here a number of times. We especially enjoyed the bartender, Mateo, and would sit at the bar and finish our wine and have coffee and complimentary lemoncello. My husband was delighted with the grilled mollejas (sweetbreads) as this is difficult to find in the states. We also had the kidneys just because we could Service was attentive, prices were incredibly reasonable and we felt like this was a second home.
We walked to San Telmo and made a mental note to return on a weekend. Of course we walked to Recoleta and visited the Alvear Palace and the Cemetery. We thoroughly enjoyed our days and nights in Buenos Aires. Walking Florida and Lavelle streets was a great form of entertainment on its own. We still had much to see and wanted to shop but we would return after our trip to Bariloche.

To be continued

mystic1947

Before leaving for Bariloche, Mayra Brill contacted us at the hotel to let us know of a flight change for our return. She is still out on maternity leave but she was extremely helpful to us in planning our trip and didn’t miss a detail. I appreciate all the help we received from Mayra and she was a pleasure to deal with. I understand she should be returning to work on April 1st and if so, I would highly recommend using her services.

Arrived Bariloche and was so impressed with incredible scenery of Nanuel Huapi and the incredible mountains. We stayed outside of town in Deisgn Suites and it was a lovely hotel. We checked in on the weekend and the rooms were full so they upgraded us to a suite. Design Suites is a newer hotel, very modern. Our apartment had a very comfortable feel to it. Breakfast was mediocre but we were eating plenty on this trip so it didn’t matter much. We would have preferred staying in town but we did fine and it gave us the opportunity to walk into town. All dirt roads so be prepared to kill a pair of shoes if you walk like we do! There is a huge Swiss influence in Bariloche and again we had some wonderful meals. The first night we still had steak and it was a great meal at Don Mulino. The next night we discovered La Marmite and thoroughly enjoyed the trout. My DH had the smoked trout with a garlic butter and I had sautéed trout with brown butter. They serve a wonderful aioli instead of butter with the bread and I could have made a meal on that alone. Again, prices were incredibly reasonable and a great value. Every time we tried to order two salads the waiters would insist that we have only one and they were always right. We went Sunday brunch and drinks at Llao Llao and it was beautiful – absolutely beautiful. We walked to Cerro Oto one day and another we took a day trip to San Martin de los Andes. The drive through the 7 lakes was not as exciting as I expected but the drive back was lovely. All in all it was a nice day. Had a wonderful venison stew and salad in San Martin but the restaurant name escapes me. We went into town every evening and enjoyed walking around and did some shopping. Also had a typical swiss dinner in Casita Suiza, another winner. We found gorgeous suede jackets and felt we got a better price here than we would have in BA. I may be wrong on this but we loved the jackets and that’s what counts. If anyone stays at the Design Suites I can highly recommend getting a massage with Laura. She was wonderful and on 95 pesos for a one hour massage! Bariloche is a touristy town but it is still gorgeous and I am glad we included it on this trip – the scenery is incredible.

We returned on Aerolineas to Buenos Aires for one night. Again stayed at the Regal Pacific and had a nice evening. Early morning we were up and walked over to the Buquebus for our ferry to Montevideo. Had reservations at the Four Points and it was ok. Once again we were upgraded to a suite. The hotel is only 3 years old but you can see the rooms get lots of wear and tear from the hordes of groups that travel through. People were nice but it was a long hike to Montevideo’s Mercado del Puerto. This was the place for us, we loved it. We went to the busiest parilla and elected to sit at the counter where we could watch the food going out. The people were friendly and whatever we saw served we ordered. That was an incredible day of eating and fun. We had to skip dinner that night! If I had listened to Mayra I would have preferred staying at the Radisson as it was a much better location for us but I wanted to use some Sheraton points. Live and learn.
More to follow

mystic1947

We returned from Montevideo for our last two nights in Buenos Aires before returning to the states. We were assigned the same room and by now the staff knew us by name at the hotel. We checked in on a Friday and the area was still alive. We went back to El Establo to see our new found friends and had a nice dinner. We did our usual long walks and had a nice evening. Saturday morning we noticed a difference in the neighborhood. It was deserted due to the weekend. Also, it was March 24th which was the 31st anniversary of the military coup. We noticed a number of small demonstrations but everything seemed orderly. We spent the day in the Recoleta area and had a nice afternoon. Upon returning we noticed many broken windows on Cordoba right around the corner from the hotel. We inquired in the hotel and they told us about the anniversary and said that this happens every anniversary. At 5:45pm we walked to Cordoba and crossed the first part of Alem Street and that was the first encounter with trouble. A man pointed to my husband and said “pigeons” and this was a stain scam gone wrong. My husband was totally covered in this foul smelling liquid. I think the squirt went wrong as there is no way a pigeon or 10 pigeons could make this mess. Immediately a younger woman came out of nowhere with tissues and a bottle of water. They both tried to start cleaning off my husband’s slacks. I immediately realized what was happening and just told them NO and grabbed my DH and started walking quickly away. They were persistent in trying to “help” us and I became louder and louder saying No. We returned to the hotel and the management seemed shocked by the amount stains on our clothing. We were upset but not terribly as I was aware of the scam and things happen. We showered and changed and continued out for the evening. We figured we would stay local and just went to Broccolini where we had a reasonably good meal. Actually the calamari was very good and the pasta was fine. We then walked Florida street and had no problem and returned back to the hotel. Sunday was our last day in BA and we wanted to see the activity of San Telmo. We walked to San Telmo with no incident. The street leading to San Telmo were empty but we felt safe. We spent a couple of hours and thought we would take our last walk home before leaving. We went to 9 de Julio and were walking along and the same thing happened again. This was right before Juan Peron Calle and we were furious. Both men were in their late 50’s early 60’s – shorter stocky men. Once we heard the word “pigeons” we were livid. My husband dug deep into his Spanish vocabulary to find the words he needed and there was no longer an attempt to clean us off. We passed a police station and stopped in to tell them but as long as our money wasn’t taken they didn’t seem concerned. They did assure us they would walk over and check out the area. When we returned to the hotel they were shocked when they saw us. This time we had a very long walk back and I had this crap in my hair. The stench is so fowl it was horrible. We didn’t dare take a taxi and we were humiliated beyond belief. How could this possibly happen twice when we spent so much time in the area? We went up again to shower and change and went down to the lounge for a glass of wine and to calm down. Anthony, one of the bellhops told us the people go a little nuts around the “anniversary” but we were very upset. My had only 5 hours before we had to leave for the airport and my husband did not want to go back out. The area was deserted but I convinced him we should have a last lunch in BA. We agreed to take a radio taxi back to Broccolini since it was nearby and I knew they served lunch until 4pm. The calamari was so good we decided to have it again. We relaxed with a bottle of wine and couldn’t believe we were targeted twice after such a wonderful trip. We had a wonderful waiter and we were telling him our tales of woe and he too was surprised it could happen twice. Instead of calling a radio taxi back to the hotel and since it was only 4:30pm I foolishly convinced my husband that the walk back would be fine. There were many people out and earlier there had been police presence on Cordoba due to all the broken glass. I insisted we walk back along Cordoba and one block before 25 de Mayo we were targeted for the 3rd time. At this point I lost control. I was screaming POLICIA at the top of my lungs and people thought I was nuts – I didn’t care as I have had it. When we returned to the hotel the employee’s mouths dropped open in disbelief. We had already checked out and they sent the bags back up to the room so we could shower and change for the final time. I was so upset at this point I couldn’t even speak. We sat like mummies in the lobby for 30 minutes waiting for a remise to take us the hell out of there. This was such a disappointing end to a truly wonderful vacation. We had been making plans to return next year for a month and rent an apartment. When I started writing this report I was no longer considering it but the memories of such a wonderful vacation shouldn’t be ruined by a few crooks. I would NOT discourage anyone from going as this is not my intention. As a matter of fact, I have close friends who want to go and I am encouraging them to continue making plans. I would recommend staying downtown only on weekdays as the area is too isolated on the weekend. These incidents happened only when my husband was wearing light colored slacks like Dockers or linen pants. Had he had dark colors on the scam wouldn’t work as the pigeon crap would not show up and there would be no reason to attempt to clean him up/out. Had we departed 24 hours earlier this would be one of our absolute best vacations ever. I hope that time will erase that last day and we can go on with our plans of seeing more of this wonderful country.

Pat

rhkkmk

FOS

rhkkmk

great report, but i must admit that i did laugh at your plight....keep the ny humor...

mystic1947

Bob

I will never lose the NY humor but it wasn't too funny at the time. I am sure I will we will soon be able to look back and laugh - the spirt of the people will convince me to return.
Pat

avrooster

Pat/mystic1947:

No time to answer in full now, but later I'll reread thoroughly your reports and write a letter to our leading newspaper about it. It won't make any difference, but it's all I can do.

Should you decide to come back to our country, let me know and I'll invite you to a barbecue at my place. Ill informed sources say it's the best in town, but what do they know?

You can also tell your friends to write to me to [email protected]

DO try to come back soon.

avrooster

Sorry, but I typed that e-mail address wrong. It is, obviously:

[email protected]

mystic1947

Avrooster

You are too sweet! This is what I mean about the spirit of the people. I will come back and I will keep your address. Thank you so much
Pat

avrooster

Well, Pat, I read your reports carefully and besides being sorry for what happened to you and DH and probably writing a readers' letter to our leading newspaper, there's not much I can do.

However, let's see how your experience can help other visitors to our town.

In this respect, I feel there is a key sentence in your report: "I would recommend staying downtown only on weekdays as the area is too isolated on the weekend."

I have NEVER advised tourists to stay downtown, because I feel it is not a nice area, too busy during the day and too deserted in the evening, as it is mostly full of offices.

It is even worse on weekends, because, as you well say, some streets could be "too isolated", both day and night.

So, I'm taking your word that you'll be back and my barbecue in your honor will include some nice and crisp grilled "mollejas" for your DH!!

See you next year! Or earlier?

mystic1947

Avrooster,

I really appreciate your kindness and your sincere offer. I would love to come back but it would not be until next year as we are going to Europe for a few months this year.

What area would you recommend? I did like that fact that I could walk to everything from my location as we love to walk. The walk to Palmero Hollywood was a bit of a stretch but we made it round trip on foot!

I sincerely hope people do read the report and just take it as a warning to be careful. This could happen in Europe just as easily as it did in Argentina.

Thanks again for your kindness
Pat

ronjrich

Sorry to hear of your troubles. AVRooster, can you clarify which areas you would recommend staying in? I have started a different thread previously, looking for ideas for our family, but am now wondering about our plans to walk to the zoo, botanical gardens and japanese garden, as well as many other parts of the city. I am not yet familiar with the layout of BA overall, but are we going to need to be careful if we are hoping to do a lot of walking with a stroller and our 2 year old daughter? We like walking and exploring and had hoped it would be a big part of our trip... we are planning on staying at the Park Tower, which sounds like it is right downtown.

avrooster

Mystic Pat: To say where I suggest you stay, I would need to know more about you, but you sound as if you should stay in the Recoleta or Barrio Norte.

Further research here or in the tripadvisor.com Argentina forum should enable you to decide what is right for you.

All right, the "mollejas" will have to wait until 2008!

ronjrich: you sound younger than Pat and her dear DH. LOL!!!

I had read your other thread but I did not think I could help much.

That Sheraton is quite good, so if you get to stay for free, I would not change it.

However, I would get out of there with a cab duly registered by the hotel's doorman and head with your child to Palermo, which is our Central Park and has a decent zoo and a lake in the "Rosedal", where you can get your boat ride. Just 10 minutes by cab. Then you can walk back to the heart of the Recoleta area, walking along Avenida Libertador. When you feel like going back to your hotel, ask the Alvear Palace Hotel's doorman to get a cab for you.

If you believe you would enjoy riding a horse, I suggest checking out Estancia Los Dos Hermanos. You can go for the day or stay overnight. Your kid should have a blast, particularly if she likes dogs and horses!

http://tinyurl.com/3xna57

mystic1947

Avrooster - yes I agree that ronjrich is probably younger than I am. I just turned 39 twenty years ago and my DH is older than I am!!

I did like the Bario Norte and Recoleta areas very much. I really didn't mind the downtown area when it was busy - just the weekends I would avoid.
Pat

avrooster

Well, Mystic Pat, that's what I figured 1947 stood for!!! LOL!!! I'm a 1940 model rooster myself!!

CynthiaLUVtravel

Hello all. hi avrooster! remember me? we had a little something something on tripadvisor a while ago. Remember me? I hope so. You are evrywhere?! are you retired? how lucky you can talk about Argentina for hours. I recommend staying at Recoleta and try to do nice things around, there is plenty of activities. Try wine tastings in Buenos Aires are a lot of fun!
stay safe!

Graziella5b

Hi mystic, I am so sorry. Very sorry indeed. I understand you perfectly because we have recently come back from Spain a country we love and where we go almost every year. We have been there tons of times and I though I knew them all. But this time I found out about a terribly reality, EVERYTHING IS CHANGING FAST, we were kind of mugged/robbed, this is the way it happened to us, also a Sunday at lunch time in plush Salamanca neigborhood. Out of the blue moon these people surrounded us, the one in front pretending he had dropped something ,others from the side pushing and one from behind pickpocketing my husband. Fortunatelly we did not had much, but the level of agravation and humilation were high indeed.
I have written about this experience on the European forum, because I feel that tourist should be aware that NOW,

ANY PLACE
ANY WHERE
ANY TIME
ANY DAY OF THE WEEK
they would attack you to robb you in small groups.

Spain, Argentina, here in the US, anyplace.

Now that I think about it, Sundays seems to be a day that is good for them to act, because there is less people in many places.

mystic1947

Graziella,
I am sorry you also had a bad experience and I also understand that it doesn't make you love the area any less. I think people have to be aware of problems all over the world. I loved Argentina and I realize there are too many good people in this world to let a couple of rotten ones spoil a wonderful experience.
I think you have a point about Sunday.
Good luck to you
Pat

manika

thanks for wondeful report. sorry for what happened (ruined clothes).

can you please explain how flying into Santiago last would saved you $100 entry fee? My parents are flying from Iguazu to Santiago on LAN via Buenos Aires tomorrow. they can avoid that $100 entry fee?