Heaven on earth and other things..

The previous post on this series is here..

Our original flight from Iguazu to Buenos Aires was supposed to leave at 6PM to a local BA airport. We were to go from that aiport to the hotel, sleep and wake up at 5AM and leave in the morning for our flight to Rio.

We had just rested after a long day of seeing both sides of the falls in one day (being wet all day) and woke up to news that our flight in the evening is delayed or possibly cancelled because of severe weather. 

Martin came to the rescue and said "just go to the airport now and see if any flights have seats left". So we packed in a rush from the Airbnb and went to IGR airport. The other airlines said they will give us a refund but that wasn't going to solve our problems if we were stuck in Iguazu! So we went to all other (two in total) airline counters at that airport and found that one local airline had 4 seats left for the next flight. We booked it right there and took off to BA. It was the best decision we made.

We got to check in and spend an evening on the Ricoleta side of Buenos Aires. We took a local map and walked around. I really wanted to see at least two places.. the Colon theater (which was ruled out as we needed prior arrangements to go inside) and El Ataneo, which we did walk and see.

Buenos Aires is beautiful. People are nice. We walked around the parks, took a "bench photo"

saw pitcher plants being sold on the side of the street in carts (nice natural way to keep out insects in the homes! this would be a big hit in India was my thought)

walked past beautiful buildings

had some hot drinks in the local cafe's

went and saw the bookstore that got the title of "worlds most beautiful bookstore" from National Geographic..

For a book worm who loves the smell of new books, this was defnitely heaven. This store used to be a famous theater where the likes of Carlos Gardel had once performed..(you can go read up on Gardel.. he features in my Ph.D thesis dedication). They have retained most of the theater and made an amazing book store! This is a must see if you go visit Buenos Aires..

Then we walked back to the hotel and took an Uber to eat at one of the best local Indian restaurants in BA. I liked it. The family had very high expectations and the waiter did mess up our order and got us one wrong dish and claimed this was what we ordered. Eventually they got us the right dish. Masoor daal is not a fav in this house and that was completely wasted. Yello daal tadka, we will devour any day! It was also too dark inside. Candlelight may be good for a romantic atmosphere but you still need to see who you are romancing. 

All said and done the family gave the restaurant an above average rating. For a guy who was already craving desi food after 4 days in Argentina, this was great! I gave it an A. 

After that dinner and debate on the food, we Ubered to our hotel and had a nice rest. The flight change worked in our favor. The next morning we had an uneventful trip from BA to Rio!

will pick up the travelog in Rio tomorrow..

The mother of all waterfalls

The previous post on this series is here..

The main highlight of the Argentina- Brazil year end trip was a visit to Iguazu falls. This was the bucket list long awaited visit.

After spending two days in Buenos Aires, we flew to Porto Iguazu airport (which is inside the national park) and had a taxi pick us up and drop us at an Airbnb. Porto Iguazu is a small place with a bunch of hotels, restaurants and shops mainly catering to the falls tourists. It was raining as expected and we were in the middle of the jungle in a small town. We had a good nights rest and were to be picked up at 7AM. 

Our plan was ambitious. See both the Brazilian side and Argentinian side of the falls in one day. Iguazu means "big water" in the local language. 

We waited to get a same day visa to Brazil at Faz Iguazu (Brazil means Portugese becomes the language!) at the gates and after a 30 minute wait we were waved through. We were dropped off at the ticket center for the falls with precise instructions from Martin (our driver for the day). He communicated with us using Google translate on his whatsapp the entire time while trying to improve his English. There were three stops. First stop was a jungle walk (optional) which I did with a sub group from the bus. Second stop was a boat ride to the falls and back which the entire family went on. Third stop was a vista point with a walkway to the edge of the falls (again I went alone). 

The boat ride took us to the Brazilian side of the falls. We were all completely wet anyways after that boat ride. The walkway to the edge of the falls was unbelievable. There is no way to describe this in words or capture my emotions as I wandered through this place. So here are the pictures in slideshows..

 

and some pictures with us ...

After the walk to the vista point we got back on the bus to the ticket center, waited for Martin to pick us up. This place reminds you of the Antarctic penguins documentary where everyone is trying to find their chosen one in a crowd.. unfortunately Martin and us did not have any specific Yaadon ki baaraat type songs to call each other.. in a mad crowd of drivers trying to find their respective tourists, we decided to wait as opposed to get lost. Finally our driver found us and off we went back to the border. 

It was interesting as the Brazilian side had no record of us entering that morning as their computers had an issue updating. So we waited as they made manual passport entries and finally let us go back into Argentina. That cost us another precious 30 mintues. Martin raced us to the Argentinian side of the falls where we were to take yet another bus ride, followed by open jeep looking vehicle ride, a walk down 500 steps, and a boat ride. Given the wet clothes, San and the little one decided to walk and see the falls. It was a 2 plus mile hike and they preferred that to getting wet again. 

Jr. felt bad for daddy and agreed to join me. She later told me it was a great decision as she thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride and falls. This trip to the falls was 10X better than the mornings trip. The highlight of the falls is a place called the "devils throat" where water just gushes out. The Argentina side of the falls is a must see just for this. It is risky as we don't get anything but a life vest and the waters are turbulent. However, all is well that ends well.. definitely recommend going on that boat.

we got gopro videos from both rides. I also took videos using my iPhone and the SLR and have combined them into multiple clips.. 

The videos ..

Bus ride and walk to boat ride on Brazil side

Brazil side boat ride

Vista point walk on Brazil side

Argentina side boat ride including a visit to "devil's throat"

Videos we paid for and got.. again the Brazilian side was a lot less exciting and a lot more expensive..

Was not even able to find the video from the Brazil side. One reason why I should try to blog as soon as trip is done!  

Jr. and me had to walk back a good mile and a half in rain to get back to the entrance and then we made it back to the Airbnb. We got some to go food at one of the local restaurants, rested for the night and were off the next morning. 

We said bye to Martin.. good people come in many shapes and forms.. Martin, is "good people"!

We got to see the falls from the plane and it was magnificent.  

also got to see some beautiful sights from the plane as we flew along the river..

There was still an evening to spend back in Buenos Aires near another airport and we were to fly to Rio from there the following morning..

More on that tomorrow.. 

Old city charm and an odd Obelisk

The previous post in this series on our travel in Buenos Aires is here..

For some reason, I decided to use iPhone photos for the most part, that too without any processing and my FIL promptly told me that my photos are usually a visual treat and my standards are going down.

Given few people still read this blog, decided to use nicely cropped, edited photos for this post. It is still mostly iPhone photos. Hope it gets the bar back up again..even if slightly..

After the cemetery visit, we drove to La Boca, which is not an upscale neighborhood but is one of the oldest places in Buenos Aires that was populated, mainly by waves of immigrants. There is an old world charm in this place that is very unique! Parts of it, the walls, the doors and windows reminded me of walking around old neighborhoods in Mylapore. In fact one of the steets brougt back memories of TSV Kovil street. My brain does a number on me when in new places and connects random things. So walked around in a daze absorbing the sights, sounds and smells.

one of my favorite shots on this trip!

Caminito was interesting.. with the center piece being an ice cream shop. There was a long line so we skipped the ice cream. We were also on the clock for the private tour. 

this photo courtesy of our tour guide who was trying to direct folks to be out of the shot.. he did a great job!

Then we moved on to San Telmo area and the market. The entire place was full of antique shops. Old books, LP's, cameras that went extinct, Simpson's bobble head dolls, crazy stuff that used to be in the last bottom row in Navarathri golus when I was a small boy.. it was amazing!

we went into a lane that had these umbrellas.. it had more of a French vibe to it than the Spanish vibe we expected.. the place started getting crowded, given there were offices there.. we managed to take a few photos 

Once the crowd saw what I was doing with the next shot, everyone was trying to copy it.. was telling the family that I take it as a compliment and am not the least bit offended.

After the family decided to eat some empanadas at one of San Telmo's hottest places, we made a move to see the Obelisk and what is dubbed the Times Square of Buenos Aires.

There was no parking, so our guide stopped the car on the road side and said "10 minutes is all I can wait if you want to run across and take pictures".. and we did manage to do that and get back, jump in the car and go back to our hotel area. 

this whole obelisk thing was weird. It was in the middle of the busiest part of the city and the barricades and barriers around it made it less appealing. There were too many walking signals around and the pedestrian and car traffic was a disaster waiting to happen. Also there is no way to get a decent shot of us and the Obelisk given the short distance in front of it. The locals seemed to be very happy with the monument.. we were all wondering how it fit with the rest of the area.. it stuck out like a sore obelisk!

the kids never share their pics with me.. and I am definitely not allowed in their social media circle.. but I do have these type of memories.. watching them grow into confident young women!

we stopped at a few more places to take photos of monuments (our time was up and I made a request.. so it was nice of our guide to do this!) 

we even stopped by the area where all the big hotels are.. the lobby decorations in Buenos Aires are interesting..

We thanked our guide who was a really nice person and ate leftovers from what we had packed for lunch at the hotel. Had to finish the food anyways as we were to check out. We had two hours to spend before our ride to the airport. San and the little one stayed in the hotel restaurant after checking out.  Jr. and myself decided to go back to the waterfront to get a taste of the famous Luciano's ice cream. It was a 40 minute walk one way but we made it, had ice cream and got back in time to catch our ride to the airport... only after coming back to the US did we realize that this ice cream is from California but has become very popular in Buenos Aires!! 

the dulce de leche here is apparently a hit.. so we had to get a taste of it. It was yummmmmmmmmyyy!

we walked past the boats (which were museums .. didn't realize it the previous evening!)

We made it in time for our flight.. but it was late. So we ended up in the crowded airport for an extra two painful hours before finally boarding for Porto Iguazu..

A video for the last part of the city tour. We covered a lot of places in 4 and a half hours! 

Would definitely recommend this private guided tour of Buenos Aires through Viator. Our guide was Martin and he was a really sincere guide! Not sure if you can ask for him through Viator tours. . . 

We said bye to Buenos Aires as there was not going to be any more walking around the city.. we had no idea.. 

The whole trip was all about Iguazu falls. Have way too many photos and videos to process from the next day of the trip. The next post on this series will have to wait..