Argentina 2007
Overview:
Argentina? Why go there? Several friends assumed we had taken up hunting. We love to travel and Shasta’s sister, Shannon, and husband, Howard, had recently acquired an apartment in Buenos Aires as a home base for raising and training horses. With the recent devaluation (2001) and increasingly stable government, the country is attracting a lot of smart money investors. We thought it would be a great time to check the place out.General Notes: There is a countrywide reluctance to take credit cards, much more so than in Europe. This makes trip planning more complicated since you tend to need more cash. We were able to take out 300 pesos at a time twice a day at the ATM. We had some problems with finding a good internet café. We took a laptop to use for downloading pictures as well as checking email, and finally we found a strong wifi connection on La Prida at Cornelia, a block from the apt. Our favorite guidebooks were the Time Out Buenos Aires and Argentina. There is also a magazine of the same name for each. We were told to only take radio taxis. Tom did figure out the bus system and was able to get a small book.Our travel expert, my sister Shannon, the Delta employee, recommended making trip plans for traveling within Argentina before leaving the U.S. This was good advice since Tom later found out that there was only one flight a day to Patagonia and it only flew in one direction, and English was not spoken as often outside of B.A. Book preview with more pictures here.
Itinerary:
Our loosely planned itinerary was as follows: Day 1: Shopping in trendy Palermo Viejo and book trip to Uruguay, Day 2: Day trip to Colonia, Uruguay, Day 3: Japanese Botanic Gardens, Zoo, BA Design Center, Recoleta Cemetery, Day 4: San Telmo Fair, Pink House, Cathedral Metropolitana, shopping on Ave. Florida, Day 5: Galerias Pacifico, Ave. Florida, Richmond Café, Café Jorges Borges, Day 6: Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Day 7: Shopping Recoleta, Day 8 La Boca, El Obero, Puerto Madero, Women’s Bridge, Day 9: Airport, Day 10: Flight to Ushuaia, and boat trip on the Beagle Channel Day 11:Jail Museum, Museum at the End of the World, Day 12: Hanging loose in Ushuaia Day 13: Hanging loose in Ushuaia Day 14: Trip home.
