We had been planning this trip to Chile and Argentina for a long time; came back with memories, stories and inspirations that will last a lifetime and a wish that we will be able to better this someday soon.
Having grown up being an ardent fan of Latin American football and truly believing Maradona is God, Argentina was always a dream destination. And after the trip to Ecuador the next obvious extension
was Argentina and Chile. But deciding where to go was not easy. Argentina and Chile are vast and diverse countries and have unique experiences to offer.
Again, falling back on our experience from Ecuador and what we love to do as family we decided to soak in as much nature and outdoors as possible.
The itinerary soon shaped to be a trip through mind-blowing falls, frontier towns, wind swept Patagonia and treks through the mighty peaks of Andes.
We skipped the big cities and wine country which might be something of interest to other travelers.
But first about planning for the trip. For us planning is half the fun of taking a trip.
Maybe we are suckers for the self-inflicted pain and we really enjoy it. Planning on your own means,
you will need to start really early and you are taking the risk of any last minute unfortunate event.
But when has a little risk scared us. We met a whole bunch of travelers on this trip and we were the only ones who did all the planning, scheduling and bookings on our own. Was our plan any better or cheaper than
the others? We would love to believe so... but better and cheaper are so subjective. What we can share are a few tools that helped us plan.
Google Maps - we absolutely love this tool, specially the "my maps" feature where you can map out the entire itinerary with map layers for each element like places to visit, restaurants you want to visit, airports, transportation etc.
JustFly - we were extremely skeptic to use the site but we just could not pass up the amazing flight offer we got for our international flights. I read some scary reviews on the internet that it is really difficult to change the tickets if you book through JustFly but it worked out just fine for us. Though we did not have to change our tickets.
AirBnB - All time favorite alternative to hotels. We mixed up the stays between hotels and AirBnB which allowed us to take a more relaxed pace in certain places and just chill out with a bottle of wine and some good chorizo and olives. We booked all the hotels directly from their sites which we have always found to be the better option.
We planned our trip going North to South, into Chile and back. Our trip started in Buenos Aires where we spent just about enough time to get into the groove.
We then went to Iguazu on the Argentina side flying into the Aeropuerto Internacional Cataratas del Iguazu (IGR).
The next stop was all the way to the end of the world in Ushuaia. Aerolinas Argentinas turned out to be a fairly reliable airlines for us.
Of all the flights we took only one was delayed for a few hours. El Calafate was the next stop and we took a day trip to El Chalten from there.
The final destination was the magnificent Tierra Patagonia in the Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile. On our way back we drove to El Calafate and
then flew to Buenos Aires to take a flight back home. In retrospect we could have just driven to Punta Arenas in Chile and flown to Santiago to
get get back home which is what most travellers do. But that was probably the only thing we would have changed in our self planned trip.
Get out of your comfort zone, get uncomfortable, get lost, be directionless and enjoy the exploration. The disorientation of a new airport specially after the most turbulent flight of your life
where the only warning offered before it started was in Spanish and by the time you could piece it with your rudimentary language skills was that the pilot said it will last for 4 minutes of the descent.
I was already reaching for the sickness bag and it lasted for 30 minutes.
On landing in Buenos Aires from an international flight you will have to go through customs and immigration. Though we did not have any forms to fill, you will have to give the address of your stay and fingerprints.
Buenos Aires has two airports, Eziza (EZE) which is the international airport and George Newberry (AEP) which is where most of the domestic flight go from and they are about an hour apart if you are taking a cab.
Make sure you account for enough time if you are transferring between these airports.
A thing about exchanging money in Buenos Aires. Many places in the city will take a card but some wont, like the neighborhood grocery store or the cabs. So you will need to take cash. Also as you travel deeper into the country you will find many places that take cash only. Whenever we travel abroad from the States, we usually take some local currency of the destination country by exchanging at the Bank of America local branch before travel. However, you cannot get Argentinian Pesos in the US. So our only option was to get them in Argentina. There is a limit on ATM withdrawal of 4,000 Pesos a day. However you can go to an exchange or a bank and convert US Dollars cash to Pesos which is the best option. However, if you are landing on a weekend day like we did you will need to either wait till Monday or go to a mall (we went to the Liberty mall) and get them exchanged at the money changer there.
Buenos Aires is a beautiful big city. Also a city that is easily walkable.
We landed in Buenos Aires after a recent strike perpetrated due to changes made to the pension scheme and ugly barricades and graffiti covered most of the city.
We just had about a day to explore the place before we flew north. So of the key highlights we saw were Punta Mujeres, the famous Calatrava bridge;
Casa Roasada (pink palace) which is the presidential mansion and few other buildings. I wish we had spent a day more to get the know the place a little better.
Kirchner Cultural Centre, the largest in Latin Amercia
ARA Sarmiento frigate museum ship, launched in 1897, was one of the most advanced of its day.
Pizza Guerrin
You can almost trace the entire history of a place by exploring its culinary scene and Argentina is no different. You can instantly identify its strong European and specifically Italian roots with its numerous pizza and pasta places.
Pizza Guerrin is one of the more famous ones for locals and tourists (probably more of tourists). It's an old establishment on Avenida Corrientes 1368. It is very crowded and you will see people just standing on a common table and eating.
But they do have tables and they will seat you.
We tried the anchovy and blue cheese pizza. The pizza itself was very different, somewhat closer to a Chicago pizza but not really a deep dish.
It is just thick and loaded with cheese. Get a Quilmes to wash it down or a glass of wine if you so fancy!
La Cabrera
First taste of famed Argentinian beef or bife if you spell it like a local and it was the best dinner of our entire trip. Again this place is famous and therefore difficult to get a reservation. We called in and were told that we can try to come in after 11 PM and try our luck. We did get a place with around 30 minutes of waiting. But I would recommend to definitely book a table if you want to have a choice of all the available cuts. We really wanted to try the bone in dry aged beef but had to settle for the without bone version.
They also have an extensive wine menu. What struck me with the beef was the flavor. It is sublime and almost tastes like milk.
The sides are to die for, specially the caramelized garlic, pumpkin puree and the ubiquitous chimichurri sauce.
And of course wine by the bottles!
We were a little apprehensive when it came to flying the regional carrier Aerolinas Argentinas. But it turned out to be a very decent airline. We had previous experience of flying on LAN the other large Latin American carrier but AA was a great surprise. They have very efficient check in and helpful staff. The domestic airports are small and functional and some of them are really quirky, utilizing unique materials for construction. We flew from AEP to IGU which is a short 2-hour flight.
