Our flights were all pretty good. We flew from Columbus to Detroit to Miami to Buenos Aires, then reversed on the way back. The flight from Miami to Buenos Aires was a 9-hour overnight flight. The nice thing was that there was no jet lag: Argentina is only one hour ahead during our summer/their winter. That made arrival a little easier.
Language wasn't a problem for two reasons. First, we traveled with Carlos, and he is a native. Second, Claire is studying Spanish, and she got to practice from time to time. She didn't do too badly, actually. But she did beat up Carlos a lot for help with her Spanish: lots of questions!
The first comment I can make about Argentina is that it is two countries: Buenos Aires, and all the rest of the country. Buenos Aires is a big giant city, the third largest in the Americas behind Mexico City and Sao Paulo, Brazil. The rest of Argentina, at least what we saw of it, was like Ohio: flat farmland. We saw lots of crops growing and lots of farm animals. There are more parts of Argentina that we didn't see: Patagonia, near Antarctica, in the far south, and the mountains in the west near Chile. Our general impressions of all of Argentina are good.
Buenos Aires was very interesting. The European architecture reminded Claire of Antwerp in Belgium, and the size of the city reminded me of Tokyo. The buildings seemed to need a little cleaning or refurbishing, but in general, the architecture was very nice. There was graffiti everywhere and of all types: politics, sports, romance, the lot. Traffic was a mess; Carlos didn't drive his car to Buenos Aires, so we walked and took taxis and buses. There were cafes all over, and we made several stops each day: about noon for a snack, at three for lunch, another snack at about six, and dinner at about ten. Not what we're used to, but when in Rome, ... We did a lot of walking around, and never felt in any danger. Perhaps our friend was able to steer us clear of any trouble, but we sure didn't see any trouble. We almost got fleeced by some scam artists, but we didn't lose anything, and we didn't feel threatened.
The food there is very much like American food. Not at all spicy like in Mexico or other Latin American countries. Breakfast, free in most of the hotels, was almost always "Medias Lunes", that is, half moons or croissants. There was something on them that made them sweet, and just a little different than French croissants. Lunch was often sandwiches, some of them on toasted bread; these are called "tostadas". There is beef all over the place; Argentina has the highest per capita beef consumption in the world. I had a good steak one night for $5, but it was an extra dollar for the "papas fritas", the fries. There was also lots of spaghetti and pasta there. All very much like here.
We found the people all over Argentina to be very friendly. We didn't run into any grouches, and nobody resented Americans being in their country. Regarding the economy, there were poor people on the outskirts of all the cities, big and small, but there seemed to be a very large middle class. The large majority seemed to be doing alright. And I don't think I noticed anyone that was wealthy.
It was winter when we got there, almost the solstice, the shortest day of the year. The weather was very mild. It only got below 50F/10C once. Because we had a cold spring in Columbus, we were accustomed to the temperatures. It only rained a little bit. Toward the end of our trip, there was big time snow further south. Several towns were cut off by the snow, and a few people died in weather related accidents. We were lucky, because we didn't have any of that. I could have used more sun for my photography, but the weather was quite nice under the circumstances. I only wished that there was more daylight so that we could have seen more.
We arrived on Sunday morning after an overnight flight. Our baggage arrived with us (a good start), and we had no trouble at immigration or customs. Carlos met us at the airport. We took a taxi into the city and our hotel. Carlos told us not to worry about changing currency; he said that American dollars were almost the same value as, and were interchangeable with Argentine pesos. We were leary of the "interchangeable" part, but when the cabby paid a road toll with an American one dollar bill, we figured that dollars would spend anywhere! And they did, but with only a few exceptions.
For the next three days, we walked around and saw all the tourist attractions. We saw Recoleta, a part of town with the big cemetery. Eva Peron and her family are buried there. There were lots of street entertainers, including mimes who dressed like statues. They would stay very still, then change position very slowly. One would open her eyes and wink if you put coins in here collection can. We also went through an art gallery there and did some shopping. I saw a soccer game on television, and it involved the team from Columbus, Ohio, our very own "Columbus Crew". We crossed the "Avenue 9 July" many times. With 20 lanes of traffic, it is the widest street in the world. There are two lanes in one direction, followed by a small median area with trees, then eight lanes in the same direction, followed by a larger concrete median with some statues here and there, followed by eight lanes in the other direction, another small median, and the final two lanes. It appears that shops on one side are half a kilometer from the shops on the other side, and it takes two light changes to cross. And while taking a taxi cab, we got caught in a traffic jam there. Very exciting!
We saw some parks and the zoo. It was a good zoo with animals from all over. The interesting thing is that there were lots of cats that lived in the zoo. These were common house cats that lived on their own. Presumably these guys knew to avoid the other animals! The cats and lots of ducks would beg and scavenge for food in the refreshment areas.
We saw the major Art Museum. They had a good collection, complete with works of Degas, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Corot, and some 20th century painters. We also saw "Teatro Colon", the opera house. Colon is the Spanish word for "Columbus". We took a tour and saw costumes from previous productions. Some big names sang there: Maria Callas, Enrico Caruso.
We went to "La Boca", the docks area painted in bright colors. There were more things for sale here, and there was more street entertainment. Aristotle Onassis started his business here. We took a bus (a standard city bus) from La Boca, in the western part of the city, to a train station on the east side. The bus trip took over an hour and a half! We took the train to a recreation area on the Rio de la Plata river. The river was like the ocean in that you couldn't see the other side.
We did some shopping, but only bought some minor souvenirs. I couldn't find any major purchases that I both really wanted and could afford. Claire never really got the opportunity to shop for clothes, partly because she was with two men most of the time!
On Friday, we walked around San Nicolas, a town of about 30,000 people. It was a nice city with a nice town square. We saw Carlos' athletic club, and we sat in cafes and talked with some of his friends.
On Saturday, we started our long drive to Iguazu Falls. These are the giant falls on the border with Brazil. We started by visiting Rosario, the town where Carlos currently lives. We met his sister Alejandra at her optician's shop. We walked around the city for awhile and saw the big memorial to the flag. The city was decorated because the Argentine president Menem had visited there the day before. Rosario is on the big Parana river that stretches from Brazil to almost Buenos Aires. We were on a recreation area next to the river. Us and about a thousand youth basketball players from all over Argentina!
We left Rosario and drove through lots of flat countryside. We felt like we were imposing on Carlos, his driving that great distance with us. But he had not been to the falls before, so that made us feel a little better about it. We spent the night in Goya, a town about the size of San Nicolas. We stayed in a nice hotel, but were rudely awakened at the crack of dawn by lots of roosters! We continued our journey northward; it's a thousand miles from Buenos Aires to the falls! The roads were mostly good, with only a few miles of bumpy ride. But the roads are all two lane, and there were intersections and slow trucks to contend with. There were also several police checkpoints. They only wanted to know where we were going, and they wanted to see the ownership papers of the car. On Sunday, we stopped at the ruins of San Ignatio, a Jesuit missionary colony that operated from the 1600s to 1843. We arrived at the falls after dark on Sunday night.
There was another part of the falls that we wanted to see. It is called "Devil's Throat" because it is the center part of a circular falls. The water is really violent in that area. But the area was closed due to high water from heavy rain that had fallen the week before.
Food at the hotel was pretty good, but the air conditioner didn't work! The concierge told us that they thought it would get cold, so they scheduled service on the air conditioners. We got a discount on the room rate because of the discomfort!
On Tuesday we went into Brazil, mainly to see the other side of the falls. We found out on Monday night that we needed a visa to get into Brazil. We for sure needed it if we went in on a tour bus. So we hired a private car, driven by Omar, our personal tour guide for the day. Omar knew the border guards, so we had no problem getting in. I asked if we could go back and get our passport stamped, and even Omar got a laugh out of that. The view the falls was supposed to be better in Brazil, but I didn't think so. It was different, and I'm glad I went, but I don't think it was better. After seeing the falls, we went to a bird sanctuary. It was pretty interesting: lots of birds from the jungle. Really colorful parrots and toucans, some of which were out in the open, so you could both take pictures of them and get your picture taken close to them. There were also some not so colorful but just as pretty birds. These were more similar to the North American kind. We went into a city and walked around for a while. It happened to be a holiday, so most shops were closed. The one that was opened was owned by Arabs (The Fouad Center). The employees (not Arabs) had masks and funny things drawn on their faces, and "The Beer Barrel Polka" played over the intercom. Very surreal! Brazil was somewhat depressing; it was not nearly as well off economically as Argentina. We drove back into Argentina. The border guards stopped us and asked for our passports. They only looked for the stamp that said we had previously entered Argentina legally. They never even looked at the picture. We went to where the Iguazu River met with the Parana. That is the border of three countries: Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. There were monuments in each country painted with the colors of the flags. You could see all three monuments there. We went back to our hotel and walked around in the little bit of daylight we had left.
On Wednesday, the part of the area that had been closed because of rain had reopened. So we found ourselves a short tour that involved getting close to "Devil's Throat", and a canoe ride afterwards. We got to yet another place to view the falls. Again, interesting, but not as good as on the first day. "Devil's Throat" was good: a lot of really swirling water. After seeing that, we went on a short canoe ride with Vicente. He took us along a quiet part of the river. By this time, Carlos was a little disappointed; his friends told him that you could see a lot of animals by the falls. So far, we had seen only one toucan. But Vicente did see a monkey at the top of a tree, and he pointed it out to us. After the tour, we left the hotel and began the long journey back to San Nicolas, to Carlos' mother's home.
We arrived in San Nicolas on Thursday evening and met Carlos' other sister Marina and her boyfriend Cristian. They also lived in Rosario, but were visiting for a short time. On Friday, we tried to do some shopping, but there wasn't a lot to see in San Nicolas. But we enjoyed walking around. It was nice and leisurely, a change of pace from the falls. We bought bus tickets for the trip back to Buenos Aires on Saturday.
During our trip, Carlos had spotted four or five famous people. At least famous in Argentina. He had seen a newscaster, the star of a weekly television comedy show, and a singer (I forget the fourth person). Claire recognized a movie star, too. She said he looked familiar, maybe she had worked with him once. He was an Indian fellow (Asian Indian), and he had appeared in, among other things, "A Passage to India". Claire spoke to him, and he was very nice. He was in South America for a movie, but he was on a break and he and his wife were visiting the falls. The movie is "Semana Majica" or "Magic Week".
On Saturday, we got back to Buenos Aires. From the bus station, we took our luggage to Carlos' cousin's apartment, and did the very last of our souvenir shopping. Unfortunately, not many shops were open on Saturday afternoon. We bought tickets for a bus ride from the city to the airport. We said goodbye to Carlos in the city, then rode out in the dark. We had a scare when Claire realized she didn't have her purse. But she re- membered that she left it at the x-ray machine; it was there when she went back to get it. I guess it had to be safe with Security! We boarded the plane at about 10 PM, and got into Miami at about 5. Again, no trouble at customs. No trouble with the domestic flights either. Karen and Jon and Heather met us at the Columbus Airport. Heather greeted us with a big screech!
It was a really nice trip. It was great seeing Carlos and meeting his family. He really showed us a good time. And we saw some really interesting things. We couldn't have asked for a better trip.