Wondering Around Buenos Aires

As our trip was inevitably nearing the end, for the last few days we chose to stay in Buenos Aires and explore this big metropolis. Our first stop was the Museum of modern latinamerican art in Recoleta, better known in Buenos Aires as MALBA. As the name suggests, the museum is very modern insideout, however, looking at some of the paintings or pieces of art, as someone would call them, I can´t keep myself from wondering what goes on in the heads of some of the so called ¨artists¨. Some of the works look like a 2 year old could do a better job if he/she took a stab at it and others have the constant resemblance of something found on a garbage pile. If this is where our art is going, we are in deep shit.:). If anything else, you get a good laugh at the museum, so I´d recommend it.

Weekends in Buenos Aires belong to local fairs and the always entertaining street performers. On Saturday, there is an intriguing arts and crafts fair right in front of the famous Recoleta cemetery. On Sunday, there is a unique arts and antique fair on the Defense street in San Telmo where you can make your day by munching down on some great empañadas off the street sellers and flushing them with cool liter of Quilmes.

Another place we paid a visit was the local Planetario in Palermo. The night sky show is very good, however, I wouldn´t recommend it if you are not very proficient in the Spanish language. We couldn´t make much out of the commentary:). The Holocaust museum in Recoleta is on the other hand very well documented with a guide written in English. It is the only museum of this sort in South America and it gives its visitors a good view in to the life of Jewish communities during the war and also how it affected Argentina. There are also on display the falsified documents of Adolf Eichmann who was one of the mastermind in the Jewish extermination during the world war. He was luckily captured by the Israeli folks after living normal life in Argentina for a few years and put to trial and hanged.

During our stay in Argentina we couldn´t escape the famous Parillada in one of the local restaurants. The meat lovers special consists of pretty much anything and everything that can be harvested from cows starting from glands, kidneys, blood sausages to tender steaks. Though Jenni started off as being very hungry and interested, it slowly dwindled out as she explored the grill. Thus salad became the food of choice. However, I have to say that the tripe was probably the least favorite, but the glands were a very pleasant surprise especially if dipped into the hot chimichurri sauce. Well that is about it from our travels, tomorrow we are off back to Europe to attempt to reunite with the everyday hussle and bussle of life.

Ibera Wetlands aka A Guide to Colonia Carlos Pellegrini

Esteros del Ibera is a stretch of wetlands and marshes in the Corrientes province which is not yet visited by many tourists as the transportation options are not very straight forward. The best access place to the wetlands is from a small town called Colonia Carlos Pellegrini (only about 400 inhabitants) which can be accessed from two different bigger cities, Posadas on the north coming from Puerto Iguazu and Mercedes coming probably from Buenos Aires. Before I get into that though, I wanna tell you why you should visit.

If you are a nature lover or just like the peacefulness of countryside without the hussle and bussle of big cities and many people, this is the place for you. The animal life in the wetlands ranges from plentiful cayman crocodiles, capybaras, swamp deer to many, many, many species of birds. It is just a paradise at your fingertips out there. The many posadas or hospodajes (your accommodation options - about 20 of them) arrange for day or night boat trips to the lake and its marshes, horseback riding and trekking trips and probably other ones as well. So, once you book your accommodation and transport you can sort everything else once you get there.

There are luxurious posadas and also the most rudimentary hospodajes in Colonia Carlos Pellegrini, so you have plenty to choose from. We stayed in a mid level price range posada called Ypa Sapukai where the owner Claudia, speakes fluent English, so booking and arranging transport is not a problem. You can choose from half board (breakfest + dinner) or full board options to begin with. Beware though, there is not much cell phone coverage, so you either might get lucky and your phone works or it doesn´t (like ours). Well, if you don´t have a tri band phone, it will not work anyway :). We did manage to find an internet place as Ypa Sapukai´s was broken at that time, at Hugo Boccalantro´s house (just go to the tourist office and ask for a map, his house is on it).

Now about how to get to this place. To and from Posadas there is supposedly one sort of transport that goes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but you definitely have to have the hotel in Colonia Carlos Pellegrini book it for you (I was told it was 90 pesos per person). The other option is to take a private transport in 4x4 vehicle which is around 550 pesos per car. We unfortunately had to opt in for that one which put a hole in our pockets, however, was very fast (2.75hrs) and the driver waited for us at the bus station when our bus arrived. I asked him what was the longest time he drove from Posadas to Pellegrini and he implied that in a heavy rain it took him once 7 hours (ouch).

From Mercedes there is a bus in the afternoon around 2pm, I think . To Mercedes there is a bus in the morning between 3:30-4am and in the afternoon between 4-5pm (about 25 pesos per person). The trip takes between 3-4 hours, but can be longer or might not be happening at all if the rain is heavy. In that case, you might want to arrange for a private 4wd vehicle for 300 pesos with your accommodation manager.

Bus from Buenos Aires gets into Mercedes at about 6am and on the way back it leaves back for Buenos Aires at 9pm and 11pm I think. The companies to check for times are Fletcha bus, San Cristobal and San Jose. Trip costs between 85-100 pesos depending on the luxury.

Well now, what are you waiting for. You don´t have an excuse not to go now:).

Iguazu falls

We were in danger of getting too used to the city life, so we decided to hit the road towards north. For us it meant subtropical climate, Iguazu waterfalls and Iberá wetlands.

It was time for a nightbus again, but in Argentina it´s pure luxury again. A warm meal and an English movie made the 17 hour experience quite pleasant and we found ourselves in the town of Puerto Iguazu in no time. The air was warm and humid again, so hello shorts, mosquitos and deodorant!

After a nice meal and a good night´s sleep, we started off to the main attraction in the area, Iguazu falls. Statistics: Bigger than Niagara Falls and featuring in the new Indiana Jones movie. Consists of 275 falls along 2,7 km of the Iguazu River. Some of the individual falls are up to 82 metres in height, though the majority are about 64 metres. The most breathtaking of the falls is 150m-wide Garganta del diablo (devil's throat), with an impressive drop of over 80 meters. It's quite a feeling to stand by a thing like that, the thundering sound of water and the sheer mass of it makes it quite overwhelming.

The falls are situatued by the border of Brazil and Argentina, so you can visit the falls from both sides. The Brazilian side shows you a panoramic view of the falls, and on the Argentinian side you get closer to the falls. So it´s all a matter of choosing really. Since getting to the Brazilian side required some level of hassle, with taxis and extra fees, we decided to stick to Argentina. Though it's hard to say if we missed something vital, we were very happy with the Argentinian side and managed to spend the whole day in the area. The sun was shining as well, so it was really a great experience.

Besides the views, the area around the falls is full of colourful animals, like birds, butterflies and reptiles. Rarely you can also see some seriously big snakes and pumas. We walked many of the trails and found the place simply stunning.

Ode to a steak

Vegetarians might feel some discomfort while reading this post.

Our final destination was Argentina, the promised land of beef and red wine. We had heard so many legendary stories about the local steaks that our expectations were certainly set very high. After settling in our hostel in San Telmo district, we headed for a local restaurant to empirically test the steak theory. And for the love of god, every mouth-watering story is true! So tender, so moist and no unidentifiable stuff left between your teeth. The steak was so good that it needs a 2 minute silence to honor it, and maybe a national holiday just to celebrate its existence. Or at least a love poem, or a song! This place is truly a culinary heaven; in addition to steaks, the red wine is simply brilliant and a small jug in a restaurant costs about one euro.

We spent our first days in the capital Buenos Aires, which deviates a bit from our previous latin American destinations. Close connections to Europe means that people are more mixed and the fair hair and skin are not such strange things anymore. People often speak English or French, and some areas look and feel like Paris.

In the early days we sure walked a lot and eventually found our way to the Recoleta cemetary, which has many famous tombs, such as Evita´s. Quite a unique place, the tombs were huge, decorated with marble statues, and the area was built like a small town with little alleys. Evita´s tomb was easy to find, just followed the crowds and the flowers. It is interesting to note that as a character, Eva Peron is both admired and hated. Don't let the musicals and Madonna's history knowledge fool you, this lady also abused her power and you are sure to start a fierce conversation with the locals if you ask questions about her.

We also booked tickets to a tango show called "Señor Tango". I had previously thought that I knew how to dance tango, but I was wrong. This footwork was totally something else. Legs swinging everywhere...shiny hairgel...painful faces and the sound of the accordeon. And then something strange happened: An older gentleman, looking like something between Jack Nicholson and Nacho Libre, walks on stage and the ladies start crying and - oh yes - screaming. I felt like it was 1992 again and I was in a boyband concert. This man is called Fernando Soler and the picture on the right might or might not make you go hysterical. You decide. Neither Libor nor I shed a tear.

But that wasn´t the strangest thing yet. The show had been a pretty classy thing to watch, until about an hour into the program lights went out and some kind of a strange nearly-striptease thing started. So all of a sudden, this dressed-to-the-nines audience was glancing at a bunch of ladies in tiny lace underwear, sticking their butt cheeks into the audience while the saxophones played some raunchy tunes. This was the point where I ordered more red wine and reflected on the unfair questions in life. So to summarize: The male audience got a dozen half-naked ladies and us ladies got a Nacho Libre. Seriously.