Looking for daytrip options from Santiago, I quickly settled on Valparaíso. Photos of the colorful coastal city drew me in and I liked the idea of such a contrast to Santiago. After reading great reviews, I contacted Christian Herrera (Vámanos Tours) as our driver/guide. He was quick to reply, offered some additional options, and we settled on a plan for a full-day trip to Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, and wine tasting in the Casablanca Valley on the way back to Santiago.
It’s about an hour and a half drive from Santiago to Valparaíso. Christian picked us up at 8:45am. He pointed out favorite spots as we drove through green hills and down valleys dotted with vineyards. Beyond the Casablanca Valley, the hills were dotted with a mix of pine and palm trees, a combination unfamiliar to us. We stopped briefly mid-way at a big tourist shop with kitchy faux Easter Island moai out front so Christian could grab a coffee and we could browse (or not) and take a bathroom break. It’s a typical guide move to stop at such places where they’re getting a commission. Happily, rather than pushing us to buy anything, Christian warned us about prices there and he really seemed to just want to offer a quick break. We were quickly back on the road.
As we entered Valparaíso, Christian told us he was going to park near the port since he had a friend there who would keep an eye on his van. He said he used to park up in the hills of Valparaíso, but his van had been broken into there. As we got out to view the nearby Plaza Sotomayor, the stately Armada de Chile building and market stalls set up in front, Christian asked us to tell him if we planned to take photos and not to take out our phones until he was ready to keep an eye out for snatch thieves. It was just one more of the many warnings we received about crime in Chile. It’s a shame, but we stayed vigilant and never had a problem.
Armada de Chile
Just around the corner from the Armada de Chile building we rode the El Peral “elevator” (really a funicular and one of many in Valparaíso) up the steep incline to reach the iconic painted buildings that dot the hillsides of Valparaiso. There are 16 historic funiculars in Valparaíso (not all in working order), and there were once as many as 30 of them. The El Peral funicular cost a negligible 100 pesos (about 11¢) collected by an attendant who mans the ornate metal turnstile.
El Peral funicular
The funicular deposited us near a wide terrace with sweeping views. Up here, Christian said we could relax our guard a bit which made this delightful part of the city even more enjoyable. Valparaíso really is a treat for the eyes. Painted murals seemed to cover most of the buildings and the buildings themselves are part of the art that is this unique city. This was what had drawn me to choose Valparaiso for this daytrip and it exceeded expectations!
It was hard not to want to take a photo of every painted wall, every vista. I wanted to just wander, taking it all in. Christian, of course, knew the city well, so we could just trail along with him, wide-eyed at the over-the-topness of this place. We spent most of our time on the hillside just walking the streets, but also browsed an art gallery and peeked in shops. We lunched on seafood on the pretty terrace of La Concepción, a restaurant overlooking the city, port and ocean beyond. I got a kick out of our time in Valparaíso, and I won’t try to explain more. I’ll just let those photos do the talking:
Leaving Valparaíso, Christian drove us to Viña del Mar, an upscale oceanfront town whose border with Valparaiso is hard to pinpoint. We strolled a wide oceanfront promenade, stopping to watch a dance group in native costume, part of the Chilean independence day celebrations that had the country dotted with flags during the whole month of September.
Viña del Mar waterfront
Viña del Mar is also home to an authentic moai statue from Easter Island. (A plaque in front of the statue states it is a gift, something heartily disputed by the Rapa Nui we met later on Easter Island.)
The final stop on our day tour was back in Casablanca Valley at the Bodegas RE winery. Bodegas RE is based on an interesting concept of creating “wines of unique character, based on REcreating, REinventing and REvealing ancestral wines from the biblical stories to the wines produced in the past centuries by the family, in noble and beautiful clay jars…” We enjoyed an interesting tour of the winery. Our guide, who’d lived in NYC as a child and who spoke perfect English, was intrigued that we’d recently visited Georgian wine country with its ancient wine-making heritage and tradition of aging in clay pots. We also chatted about orange wine we’d tried both in Georgia and Slovenia which garnered us a comped extra tasting of Bodegas RE’s own orange wine. Bodegas RE is a relatively new winery (2008), but its founders come from many generations of Chilean vintners. With its intriguing wines, pretty shop and its location in the vineyards of Casablanca Valley, Bodegas RE made for a nice end to a truly enjoyable day.
We arrived in Santiago Chile on a 2h20m Aerolíneas Argentinas flight from Buenos Aires’s regional AEP airport. With the now familiar warnings about taxi scams in mind, I’d arranged for a transfer to Hotel Boutique Le Rêve with Christian, the driver I’d also booked for a daytrip to Valparaiso, Viña del Mar and a little wine tasting. Christian’s friendly father, Antonio, covered for Christian for our airport transfer. Antonio spoke no English, but we got along fine with my rusty Spanish.
I’d read great things about our hotel and was looking forward to staying there for a few days and exploring Santiago and a bit of Chile. In addition to the Chilean capital, I had Valparaiso, Rapa Nui/ Easter Island and the Colchagua Valley wine country in my sights.
In Plaza de Armas
Hotel Boutique Le Rêve met my high expectations. In a charming, vine-covered building with a large back courtyard, it has sofas in a common area that feel more like a living room in a very nice home, a free serve-yourself coffee/tea time each afternoon and an honor bar. Our room was stylish and quietly elegant with big windows overlooking the courtyard both in the bedroom and the spacious bathroom. Le Reve is located in the Providencia neighborhood of Santiago on a pretty street near lots of restaurants and in walking distance to the Cerro San Cristóbal cable car and the vast Metropolitan Park of Santiago.
Hotel Boutique Le Rêve
We walked all of about three minutes to dinner our first night at La Bifería, a steak restaurant recommended by the super helpful desk clerk at our hotel. The clerk also handed us a 20%-off coupon before we left which made me wonder if he’d steered us to a tourist trap. Not at all! We had a fantastic meal kicked off by excellent pisco sours. (And, our waiter happily accepted our coupon, informing us it applied to the total bill, including drinks.) When driver Christian recommended La Bifería the next day, he was impressed we’d already discovered one of his favorite spots. [I’ll write up our Valparaiso day with Christian in my next post.]
I’ve tried a few “free” walking tours in different cities (Hakodate, Japan, and a fun food tour in Sofia, Bulgaria, come to mind), and I thought that might be a good way to get a quick overview of Santiago. These guides live off whatever “tips” visitors choose to pay. In Santiago, they recommended $15-20pp. I’d found a highly-rated guide via GuruWalk and signed up for Diego’s group tour some weeks before our trip. Unfortunately, Diego canceled and and I was back to the drawing board the night before my preferred day. I was able to sign up for an English-speaking tour anyway, so we found ourselves at Plaza de Armas at 10am on a Sunday. Our new guide, María-José arrived in an Uber just as we did. She asked us to wait on a park bench to see if more English speakers might arrive. (GuruWalk guides in Santiago wait in the plaza wearing green caps, so it’s possible that people will just show up rather than signing up in advance.) We said we thought we’d go check out the interior of the nearby Cathedral while she waited, but she said she preferred to take us there herself when the tour began and asked us to stay. So began the less-than-auspicious start to our walking tour.
On our walking tour
I’m going to vent here about one of my pet peeves with guides. (So you may want to skip this paragraph.) I want to scream when guides make their customers stand somewhere while they speak at length, wasting tourists’ precious time that could be spent walking while they talk. Or at the very least standing somewhere interesting and keeping it short. (A guide in Petra, Jordan, was the absolute worst, having our small group stand by trash cans near the entrance of the famous canyon thoroughfare while he blathered on and on until we just walked off and left. The only guide we didn’t really enjoy in Uzbekistan did the same thing, walking us outside the walls of Khiva to a parking area where she talked at length while our impatience grew to roam the streets of that gorgeous city.) Nice as she was, María-José violated this should-be-a-rule, keeping us in Plaza de Armas for nearly 40 minutes, moving us and two late arrivals only slightly to various historical markers around the plaza then launching into a detailed dissertation on local history at each spot. She made it worse by promising (as if it was a good thing) to give us a detailed history, followed by a summary. Oh good grief, just give us the summary and let’s walk around this intriguing city! Scanning the plaza, I realized the guide for the larger, Spanish-language group was doing the same thing. Who tells these guides to do this?! It’s a walking tour! To make matters worse, we spent all of about a minute in the back of the Cathedral because a service was going on, something I’d have been happy to stay and watch and could have done prior to the tour if María-José hadn’t asked us not to. Thankfully, it got better as our small group tried to impress on María-José how we’d like to see things go. She did pick up the pace, and she definitely knew a lot about Chilean history. We saw some highlights we might have missed or missed the significance of and that made the tour worthwhile. I’d recently read Isabelle Allende’s The House of the Spirits and I was touched to see not only the monument to President Salvador Allende, but also Morandé 80, the door through which the body of Salvador Allende was removed from the presidential palace after the coup of 1973.
Happily back on our own, we headed to Giratorio, a rotating restaurant, for a celebratory birthday lunch. It was fun to take in the city and the surrounding hills and mountains as they slowly passed by the windows. Lunch was tasty and the waiters very accommodating, cheerfully moving diners from inside tables to tables next to windows upon request as other diners left.
On the telérifico de Cerro San Cristóbal
Cerro San Cristóbal (Saint Christopher Hill) and the teléferico (cable car) to the summit beckoned in the afternoon. The base of the cable car was a fifteen minute walk from our hotel in the huge city park, Parque Metropolitano de Santiago. We bought cheap timed tickets for the cable car in machines at the bottom. There were a fair number of people in the park, but the line for the cable car wasn’t bad and moved quickly so we were soon aboard. (I’d looked at buying tickets in advance online, but the site showed only expensive package tickets, not what we were looking for.) The views from the cable car are stunning with the snow-topped Andes in the distance. Santiago is home to the tallest building in South America, the Gran Torre, and its presence rising above the city adds to the dramatic scene. It’s possible to get on or off at a midway point near a parking area, but we rode to the summit, the highlight of Cerro San Cristóbal.
A large terrace near the cable car station gives way to a wide uphill path past food and souvenir vendors to a final terraced slope atop which sits a 22-meter tall statue of the Virgin Mary (Sanctuary of the Immaculate Conception). A small church sits to the right of the hill, but it’s the statue that draws people to its base to sit and admire the views.
Sanctuary of the Immaculate Conception
Our time in Santiago was laid-back and enjoyable. We didn’t have a lot of must-sees, just a desire to experience the city. We used the cheap and efficient metro system for longer distances. (We loaded a metro card loaned to us by our hotel as needed. A nice lady working in the Pedro de Valdivia metro station helped us calculate how much our planned trips would cost. Prices vary by destination and time of day.)
In the Pedro de Valdivia metro station
Constantly warned by locals about potential theft, mostly of the pick-pocketing variety, we kept an eye on our belongings, but never felt uncomfortable in the nicer areas where we focused our time. We did avoid the Plaza de Armas area at night, again after several warnings about more serious crime there and in other areas of the city. These kind of warnings are not uncommon in South America and merit taking seriously.
Practical Info:
As in Buenos Aires, finding an ATM that didn’t charge exorbitant rates was a challenge. Unfortunately, we needed cash for a few things. The ATMs in the Pedro de Valdivia metro station raised the rip-off factor to new heights: Not only do they charge a high fee, they also charge a poor exchange rate and another separate conversion fee. The total on one withdrawal would be 25%! We found a better alternative at the Santa Isabel grocery store at Av. Providencia 2178. Also, be aware that bank ATMs close on Sundays and after business hours along with the banks themselves.
We woke to sunshine the morning of our visit to the Argentine side of Iguazu Falls. Talk about good luck with timing! Despite a deluge our first night in Puerto Iguazú, a cloudy morning had turned to blue skies for our previous day on the Brazilian side of the falls and now the cloudless skies and warm weather were about as good as we could hope for this day’s adventure.
With the national park entrance only 20-25 minutes from our jungle hotel, we arrived not long after opening and bought tickets on the spot. Moderate crowds were already gathering, but we picked up free timed tickets from a kiosk en route to the Estación Central for the open-air park train and were aboard a short time later. We bypassed the intermediate stop to head straight for the terminus of the train track, wanting to get to the top of the Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat) before things got too crowded.
Snaking around groups in guided tours, we walked briskly on the raised metal walkway constructed over water and through small islands thick with vegetation. Beyond a open stretch of shallow moving water and rising above trees of yet another islet, we spotted the telltale column of mist rising into the sky that signaled Devil’s Throat ahead.
Mist rising in the distance signals the approach to Devil’s Throat
Stopping at a bench at a small rest area, we suited up in the rain gear we’d brought before continuing on. The distant roar of the falls grew louder as we approached. Ahead to the right, water streamed into a massive circular space truly looking like some leviathon mouth.
Approaching Devil’s Throat
This was Devil’s Throat from above. And to the left at the end of the walkway, those towering columns of mist from a gorge where massive cascades spilled. Once again, we were drenched as we stood smiling and awe-struck at the top of these mighty waterfalls. It’s an experience I’ll remember the rest of my life.
On the summit of Devil’s Throat
Retracing our steps to the train, we could slow down as we passed the growing tour groups heading out to Devil’s Throat. Turtles sunned on rocks in the shallow moving water that flowed under the raised walkway. What looked to be a large catfish swam past. A sign stated that many of the fish on this upper portion of the Iguazu River are unique and evolved separately from the fish below, where larger predators could be found.
We rode the train back to a midway stop to begin our hike on the Circuito Superior (Upper Circuit) where walkways run along the upper rim of a long string of waterfalls. We’d seen people on the walkways the day before while on the Brazilian side of the Falls and now we could look back down and across to where we had been. Periodic viewing spots widened to allow visitors to stop and take in the spectacular view and roaring water as it spilled over the cliffs at our feet. The sheer power and scope of these waterfalls is mesmerizing!
On the Upper Circuit of Iguazu Falls, Argentina
After hiking the length of the Upper Circuit, we were hungry so stopped to eat outdoors at one of the small restaurants that dot the park. Before we sat down, I noticed several people looking upward and followed their gaze to see a monkey dining from a Styrofoam clamshell he’d stolen from below. We shooed a coati from our table and watched another coati swipe food from a nearby table, running off with its loot while some of his buddies followed on his heels. When they ducked through the fence, a veritable swarm of coatis appeared to follow the thieves further into the thicket.
(A lot of) coatis stealing food.
The Paseo Inferior (Lower Walk) took much less time to hike than the Upper Circuit, as a portion of this circuit was blocked. Still, the views were spectacular.
Back at the mid-point train stop, we watched a large group of monkeys in a tree as we waited for the train. Their eyes searched for visitors with food who ventured out of a wire-enclosed dining area, ready to dart in to steal a prize.
Back near the main entrance, we spent our remaining time in the park in a free exhibit about jaguars. A woman told us she’d become a volunteer after learning about a project to protect the dwindling population of jaguars in the “Green Corridor” area that includes both the Argentine and Brazilian Iguazu National Parks. She invited us to watch a film in an air conditioned tent set up nearby. We readily agreed, intrigued both by the subject and the offer of cool air as the day had gotten progressively warmer. Impressive conservation efforts have seen the population of jaguars rise to over 100 jaguars in the Green Corridor up from a low of just 40 in 2005.
It was a beautiful day in the Parque Nacional Iguazú and an unforgettable experience at what is truly one of the great natural wonders of this beautiful planet. If you get the chance, don’t miss it!
I’d been excited about visiting Iguazu Falls, the enormous collection of spectacular waterfalls that straddle the Argentine/Brazilian border, from the minute I planned this trip. I knew I wanted to see both sides of the falls but wasn’t sure which side of the border to stay on. A little research confirmed that it made the most sense for us to fly from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazú, Argentina, rather than neighboring Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. There were good flight options on Aerolíneas Argentinas from the close-to-downtown AEP airport in Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazú. So, I chose a nice-looking lodge in the jungle just outside the town of Puerto Iguazú and arranged for a driver to take us to the falls on each side of the border.
I’d also been eyeing a fun night called The Argentine Experience with locations in Buenos Aires and Puerto Iguazú. The Argentine Experience included wine tasting, cocktail- and empanada-making, a steak dinner and dessert followed by making yerba mate and popular alfajores cookies. Reviews were great for both locations, but I thought it would fit perfectly into our time on the border since the Brazilian side of the falls apparently only took half a day to explore while most sources said the Argentine side took a full day. I decided we’d do the Argentine side of the falls on our first full day, then the Brazilian side on the second day with The Argentine Experience that night. I could foresee ample wine drinking at The Argentine Experience and didn’t want any lingering effects to take away from a following day at the falls. That plan got reversed when The Argentine Experience contacted me to say they needed to move our booking by a night. They offered us a mate cup and bombilla as an apology for the inconvenience, I re-worked things with our driver, crossed my fingers that post-drinks headaches wouldn’t be an issue, and we were set!
A driver from our hotel was waiting when we exited the small Puerto Iguazú airport. Selvaje Lodge Iguazú turned out to be all I’d hoped. It’s a gorgeous lodge in the jungle with a beautiful pool, boardwalks out to the guestrooms, lovely common areas, a good restaurant and friendly staff. Our room was spacious with a balcony looking onto lush jungle greenery. We enjoyed a varied, included breakfast each morning in the airy dining room.
Selvaje Lodge Iguazú
The Lodge arranged a driver to take us into town the first evening (a 10 min. drive). Our first glimpse of Puerto Iguazu convinced us our choice to stay in the jungle was a wise one. The city is not particularly charming and street noise could be a problem depending on where you stay. We asked to be dropped off at a grocery store near our chosen restaurant so we could buy a large bottle of water before dinner. Happily, we made our purchase and walked the two blocks to Restaurante La Rueda just in time to escape a seriously heavy rain. Throughout a delicious dinner in a locally-themed atmosphere, we could hear the rain pounding on the roof, a deluge that kept up throughout the night.
Thankfully, the rain stopped by the time our driver Patricia picked us up the next morning for our trip to Foz do Iguaçu, the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls. Despite the fact we were only going to be in Brazil for the day, we needed to get visas under a new law passed this year. We’d bought those online prior to leaving home and, with visas and passports in hand, crossing the border was a quick affair.
It was still cloudy when we entered the national park on the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls. I’d bought tickets in advance on the park’s website for 9:30am, but we arrived earlier. Happily, there wasn’t much of a line at that time and they let us in early to board a free bus that shuttles visitors to various points in the park. We opted to hop off at a mid-point by the elegant pink colonial Das Cataratas Hotel and begin our hike along the falls there towards the Garganta del Diablo (Devil’s Throat) and the end point of the bus route.
Our first glimpse of the falls streaming off the cliffs on the opposite side of the Iguazu River in Argentina was breathtaking and the views just didn’t stop. The heavy overnight rain looked to have contributed to the volume of water in the cascades. Following the path along our side of the riverbank took us up steps and down slopes, constantly looking for the next vista beyond the green jungle sprinkled with flowers. As we approached the end, a wide column of mist rising high in the sky signaled the Devil’s Throat in the distance. A boardwalk extends out to a viewing platform near the roaring waterfall. Amazingly, birds darted through the rushing water to light and nest on the cliffs behind the waterfalls. Without rain gear (which we brought), there’s no way not to get soaked to the skin on the platform, but what an experience!
Onto the viewing platform on the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls at Devil’s Throat basin
Swifts behind and flying through the Falls were easier to see from the side.
After viewing Devil’s Throat, we took an elevator up the cliff and past several scavenging coatis, the local ring-tailed cousin to the American raccoon. These little thieves populate both sides of the falls along with monkeys, stealing food and showing little fear of humans. But they are fun to watch!
Coatis
The terminus of the free park bus route is at this point along with a gift shop, medical post/ambulance, food court and restaurant. We rode the bus back to the Macuco Safari stop. We considered taking a boat there, but the boats pride themselves on going under waterfalls and neither of us felt like getting that wet on a relatively cool day. Instead, we took the nearby Caminho da Bananeiros, a path that led through the jungle, under trees full of monkeys, to a tranquil spot on the Iguazu River. By the time we reached the river, the skies had turned blue. It was so beautiful that we decided to ride the bus back to the Das Cataratas Hotel and retrace our earlier steps to Devil’s Throat in the sunshine. I checked my watch to confirm we had enough time before we really ought to let Patricia know we were ready to be picked up again. Why not?
We made the hike along the path back to Devil’s Throat quicker than the first time, but really glad for the chance to see those spectacular waterfalls again in the sunshine. What a difference a few hours can make!
The crowds had really descended on Devil’s Throat on our second visit.
The drive back across the border to Argentina was uneventful with only a quick stop to stamp our passports. We were back in plenty of time to relax before Patricia was back to take us to The Argentine Experience.
Of course, The Argentine Experience is a total tourist experience. We knew that going in, but it was big fun nonetheless and we learned something about local food and drink. Things kicked off with sampling local appetizers and wine-tasting that focused on identifying aromas and flavors in the nose and taste of wines from the Bodega Catena Zapata family winery. Our companions were an Australian couple, a family from the Netherlands, and a chef from Buenos Aires, everyone quickly in the spirit of things and all of us chatting and enjoying ourselves. Moving from the tasting table to long dinner tables, we were given black aprons and “chef’s toques” before making cocktails from wine and pisco, the grape-based liquor claimed by both Peru and Chile. Next up was empanada-making, an abbreviated but fun exercise that basically had us stuffing pre-made dough with pre-made filling, then working on our crimping styles before handing over our creations to be baked by someone else. The steak dinner that followed (with more wine, of course) was delicious. Then, it was time to learn about brewing yerba mate (mah-tay). I was actually really looking forward to this. I knew this was the national drink of Argentina and had seen it everywhere in Buenos Aires and Puerto Iguazu. The varied and distinctive drinking gourds looked to be filled with dried grass clippings and I’d read that the taste was bitter and unpleasant for the uninitiated. Hmm. I had to try it!
The Argentine Experience in Puerto Iguazú
We were all given mate cups and instructed us to fill the cups 2/3 full, cover the cup with our palm and shake vigorously at an angle to settle the dust in the yerba mate, leaving the yerba mate piled on one side of the cup. Then, we added hot water to the open side opposite the pile of yerba mate and let it sit a few minutes. Next, we levered the silver, pinched-bottom bombilla (straw) under the pile of yerba mate before pouring more hot water in the cup to just below the level of the yerba mate. Finally, we could drink, adding more hot water and sipping just afterwards, continuing the process as we drank. It is a bitter brew, much like unsweetened tea which I like so I was surprised to find I liked the mate more than I’d expected. Or at least I disliked it less than I expected. We accompanied our yerba mate with alfajores, cookies which we filled with dulce de leche and rolled in crushed nuts. Before we left, I was told to choose a complementary mate cup and bombilla from a wall of colorful cups for sale. I happily did so, impressed that they’d remembered the offer. All in all, we had a great time at The Argentine Experience (and felt just fine the next morning for our day on the Argentine side of Iguazu Falls).
In the next post: A day on the Argentine side of Iguazu Falls.
Practical Info:
The regional AEP airport in Buenos Aires is much closer to the city than the larger international EZE airport. This made it a lot cheaper and faster to get to from our Buenos Aires lodging. We used Aerolíneas Argentinas out of AEP both for our round-trip flights to Puerto Iguazu and for our later one-way flight to Santiago, Chile. Aerolíneas Argentinas flew on time and we had positive experiences with them. The only downside of flying international out of AEP is the complete lack of a lounge. This seems odd since there is a Priority Pass lounge on the domestic side of AEP (AMAE Lounge), but that is the current state of things. The flight time from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu is under two hours.
The Argentine Experience offers options of just dinner, just wine tasting or a combination called “the full experience” which we did. The full experience costs $90 per person and lasted over three hours.
The Brazilian eVisa is available online here. It’s good for 90 days and costs $80.90 per person, an annoyingly high fee for a daytrip like ours, but nonetheless a visa is necessary for Americans. The process online was quick and Patricia said that people failing to get their visas in advance faced delays at the border.
I originally booked Javier, Patricia’s husband, as our driver. Javier was sick when we arrived and Patricia filled in and had the necessary credentials to drive professionally and cross the border. The SUV was clean and comfortable and she was a very good driver. She spoke very little English (I think Javier would have been the same), but we managed fine with my Spanish and she was very nice. The cost was 90k Argentine pesos for the Brazilian day, 60k for the Argentine day at the falls, and 15k RT for the drive to The Argentine Experience, cash. Our hotel also could book rides.
Calle de los Suspiros (Street of Sighs) in Colornia
Founded by the Portuguese in 1680, Colonia, Uruguay, with its UNESCO World Heritage historic quarter is an easy ferry ride from Buenos Aires and a picture-perfect way to spend a day away from the bustle of the city. Doing a little research, I chose the Buquebus ferry service over ferries operated by Colonia Express. Buquebus operates out of a large modern terminal in Puerto Madero.
I bought Buquebus tickets online, opting for Business Class as it was only about $10 more per person and allowed first on and first off privileges. I’d read there could be a line at immigration at times and, since I only wanted to do a daytrip and didn’t have time to waste, that was a deciding factor.
Business Class on Buquebus turned out to be a surprisingly posh experience. We breezed through security and customs (exiting Argentina and passing Uruguay passport control a few feet apart in the Buenos Aires terminal) and initially missed the special Business Class lounge behind a door just in front of us before turning left around the open atrium of the terminal, then to the right towards the large Turistica Class waiting area. Realizing our mistake, we returned to the Business Class lounge just in time to board. True to the billing, all Business Class passengers were ushered onboard first and to the second deck Business Class seating overlooking the small ship atrium with its duty-free shop. Crew handed out flutes of sparkling wine at the top of the steps indicating the open seating beyond consisting of large leather chairs clustered around tables, all surrounded by large windows. Very nice!
Aboard the Buquebus ferry: Business Class seats upstairs and duty-free shopping and money exchange below
The trip to Colonia from Buenos Aires takes about 1h15m and we were soon docking. David and I were first off the boat. We stopped by the nearby tourist center (just across the parking lot and to your left as you leave the terminal), grabbed a map of the historic walled city and were off. We walked past the old wooden Colonia train station down a road towards the main gate to the old city a short distance beyond. Crossing over a footbridge and through the gate, we were soon in the large main cobblestoned plaza flanked by colonial buildings. Palm trees, flowering plants and orange trees heavy with fruit adorned the area. Vendors had set up tables offering trinkets and souvenirs. Guitar music played and a scattering of people enjoyed the sunshine in cafes that dotted the left side of the plaza that leads to the iconic lighthouse.
Historic Colonia is small and easy to walk. The “must-sees” really aren’t and you could enjoy the town without climbing the lighthouse, going inside the colonial church or walking down cobbled Calle de los Suspiros (the Street of Sighs). We did visit the church (Iglesia Matriz) and check out Calle de los Suspiros, but we opted to skip the lighthouse other than to view it from outside.
Iglesia Matriz : The current church was built in 1810 on the site of Portuguese churches dating back to 1680. It is one of the oldest churches in Uruguay.
We enjoyed just roaming the streets, enjoying empanadas and cold local craft beers (gluten free by default) in a café, browsing the shops, and admiring the wide tree-line avenues just outside the historic center (Someone planted a lot of trees a long time ago and would be pleased to see how they’ve grown!)
In warmer weather and if the spirit moves you, I understand there are nice beaches nearby. There are also wineries to visit with tours on offer for those who want to spend more time in the area. I’m sure an enjoyable overnight in Colonia can be had, but we preferred to get back to Buenos Aires before dark and were very happy with our afternoon in Uruguay.
Practical info: Obviously passports are necessary to cross the border between Argentina and Uruguay, so don’t forget to bring those.
I bought tickets online just a day or so prior to our daytrip. I’d been checking and saw that the ferries were not full. This could change in the summer. Buquebus offers other destinations from Buenos Aires, including Montevideo.
Buquebus asks that travelers arrive 90 minutes prior to departure of their ferries. We did so, but had plenty of time to spare. We were there in September (roughly equivalent to March in the northern hemisphere), though, and I could imagine crowds being larger in the summer.
Since we were traveling Business Class, we avoided a long line of people waiting to board in Colonia, and were allowed on the ferry as soon as we arrived (about an hour prior to departure). Passport control was quick and efficient (but again, we were traveling in September, not the height of summer).
Most places we visited took credit cards, but otherwise prefer Uruguayan pesos. Most would also take Argentine pesos and US dollars, but exchange rates might not be good. We didn’t change money given our short visit, but there was a currency exchange service on the Buquebus ferry.
We used Uber to get to Puerto Madero from our apartment in Recoleta. It was rush hour when we returned and no Ubers were available. There were taxis around the port, but we opted for a longish (40 min.) ramble back as it was a beautiful evening. Still, just a heads-up for anyone wanting to return during rush hour.
Basílica Nuestra Señora del Pilar and the weekend craft market
We kicked off three weeks in South America (mostly Argentina and Chile) in Buenos Aires. With my Spanish minor and years working with Spanish-speaking clients near the Mexican border decades in the past, my Spanish was beyond rusty. Years of living in France and focusing on French doesn’t help, so David and I spent the weeks before this trip watching Argentinian and Chilean movies and shows to try to revive our Spanish. (He’d studied Spanish some years ago, too.) I love the language and listening and reading was a big help, but wow are those accents different from the Mexican Spanish I learned! Still, it had been awhile since I was in a Spanish-speaking country and I was looking forward to the challenge. And I was really excited about Iguazu Falls and the farthest-flung reaches of this trip, Rapa Nui/ Easter Island(!!).
But back to Buenos Aires, a city I’d wanted to visit for ages: We arrived on a comfortable American Airlines business class flight from JFK at Buenos Aires’ big Ministro Pistarini International Airport (EXE) at 2:30pm. After reading lots of warnings about Buenos Aires taxis, I’d arranged for pick-up with Manuel, a driver recommended by our AirBnB hosts. I figured we’d be tired from the 11-hour flight and it would be nice to not worry about either scams or any potential problems with finding the apartment. (Note: I read too many warnings about Buenos Aires taxis to ignore.) There’s free wifi in the airport, but my T-Mobile international service was good as always and I was able to coordinate with Manuel on WhatsApp without problem. He was reliable and the price was right, so I used him 3 more times for airport transfers.
Settling In I knew I wanted to stay in Buenos Aires’ swank Recoleta neighborhood and jumped to book when I found an AirBnB with a balcony overlooking the famous Recoleta Cemetery across the street. If unfamiliar with Buenos Aires, it may sound odd to want a view of a cemetery, but this cemetery is a top site, really beautiful and located in the center of many of the Recoleta attractions. The one-bedroom apartment turned out to be easy to find, modern, in a nice building, and at a really great location. The only downside was the noise from restaurants/bars downstairs that blared music to the wee hours. Fortunately, I’d read reviews about the noise that all said the music couldn’t be heard in the bedroom. Happily, that was true and we slept well the five nights we spent there. Anyone trying to sleep on the pull-out couch in the living room would have a different experience!
Recoleta Cemetery viewed from our balcony
As soon as we’d gotten the keys from our host and settled in, we headed out to browse the nearby restaurants which lined the street in both directions from our building’s front door. We had lots of options and were charmed by one that perpetually had a couple dancing the tango on the wide sidewalk although we ultimately chose another whose friendly waitress beckoned us in.
With chores taking up our first day (see “Practical Info” below), we didn’t have time for much that afternoon, so I opted for a walk to El Ateneo Grand Splendid an amazing bookstore in a former theater. El Ateneo exceeded expectations and we loved browsing the books and just taking in the spectacular building. There’s a charming café on the old stage and multiple stories of books and music. I couldn’t resist a bilingual book of short stories. Passing a local brewpub on the way back to the apartment, David was intrigued so we stopped in to try our first Patagonia beers.
El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore
We spent a full day exploring Recoleta starting with the Basilica Nuestra Señora del Pilar then strolling the nearby parks to marvel at the immense ficus trees near the end of Avenue Alvear. The huge trees, some with trunks wider than the average car is long, are a big part of the lasting image I have of Buenos Aires. I posed for David as if holding up a branch larger than most normal tree trunks before coming across the iconic statue doing the same thing.
Beyond the green plaza parks, we crossed the wide painted footbridge to the steps of the classical law school and on to the giant steel flower known as the Floralis Genérica. Normally, the flower opens and closes with the sun, but it was undergoing repairs when we were there. It was actually kind of fascinating to see it open with workmen bustling over it like ants.
Floralis Genérica
The September weather was gorgeous if a bit chilly. After months of Texas heat, we relished the coolness so put off indoor things like museums and decided to reserve the walled-in cemetery for our last full day, too. Instead, we walked the length of Avenue Alvear to the French Embassy admiring the familiar French architecture of the neighborhood.
Buenos Aires is a nice walking city and we definitely kept our Fitbits busy logging steps. A sprawling crafts market opens on the weekends in the parks and plazas around the Basilíca de Nuestra Señora del Pilar next to the Recoleta Cemetery. Art, clothing, jewelry, knives, lots and lots of mate cups and bombillas, and more fills booth after booth. Homemade baked goods and more tempt visitors.
Speaking of mate (mah-tay) cups, we knew going in that yerba mate is the national drink of Argentina and very popular, but that still didn’t prepare us for just how popular it is. We saw people with mate cups and metal bombilla straws everywhere, usually with a thermos of hot water tucked under their arm. The cups themselves can be really beautiful, made of tooled leather, gourds, ceramic and more sometimes with special stands. Looking like a cup full of dried lawn clippings, it’s a bitter drink and definitely an acquired taste.
Knives, mate cups and bombillas, leather goods and more
You could spend hours in the Recoleta Cemetery, admiring the architecture of the elaborate tombs and drawn in by the details of lives lived and gone. I was particularly curious about the large tomb visible from our apartment window. It was a bit of a let-down to realize it was the final resting place of a banker, not some famous personality. The tombs themselves can be fascinating if sometimes macabre with coffins visible through often dirty and cracked glass or the rusting filigree of an old iron door. I’ve always been a fan of historic cemeteries and this one reminded me of those beautiful Paris cemeteries I know so well.
En route to the impressive Teatro Colón opera house in the San Nicolás area, we checked out a small food market drawing lines of locals. The opera house itself was lacking lights when we arrive due to an electrical problem so we continued on the Plaza Lavalle park behind it to admire yet another enormous tree and the beautiful Templo Libertad synagogue. We got our worst meal in Buenos Aires at nearby Le Petit Colón. At least the friendly and apologetic waitress made no excuses for the inedible chicken, comped our lunch and offered espressos on the house. Hopefully, our experience was a fluke because it really is a pretty location.
We spent our last afternoon in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Fine Arts Museum) across from the law school. It’s a lovely building with a nice collection of art and is free on Sundays.
We broke up our first five nights in Buenos Aires with a daytrip to Colonia, Uruguay, which I’ll write about in another post. Walking back from the port gave us a chance to explore the high-rise business side of Buenos Aires around Puerto Madero and then more far-flung reaches of Recoleta.
We also spent three nights in a gorgeous jungle lodge in Puerto Iguazú in order to visit both the Brazilian and Argentinian side of Iguazu Falls. That will be the subject of future post, too. I scheduled a one-night stay when we returned to Buenos Aires from Puerto Iguazú to hedge against any delay causing us to miss our onward flight to Santiago, Chile. Wanting to experience another part of Buenos Aires, I booked us into a boutique hotel in the lively Palermo Hollywood neighborhood. Arriving before lunch, we had an afternoon to wander on foot, try a local craft beer bar and stroll the lush Jardín Botánico Carlos Thays. Rendez-Vous Hotel Buenos Aires turned out to be just what I had in mind. Our corner room with arched windows on two sides felt both quaint and elegant and was quiet despite the road outside. It was an easy ride to Aeroparque Jorge Newbery (AEP), the smaller regional airport, for our flight to Santiago.
Practical Info ATM Hassles: After a tasty “promo” meal of chicken and mushrooms and a craft beer at Bartola on our first afternoon, we spent some frustrating time with the local ATM’s. Our attempts to get several hundred dollars worth of pesos were rejected repeatedly (and not by our bank), with instructions to choose a lower and lower amount. And the fees are outrageous. At one point, a machine wanted to limit our withdrawal to approximately $50 with a $13 banking fee and a poor exchange rate! We soon learned this is common throughout Argentina and Chile. Happily, our bank refunds the ATM fees, but we were stuck with the exchange rate. Credit cards are accepted most places, but we needed cash for some things I’d planned and I’d read not to count on ATM’s in Puerto Iguazú to have cash. Eventually, we made the best deal possible and headed to a grocery store.
Groceries: I’ll give a quick shout-out to the nice Disco grocery store on Ave. Pres. Manuel Quintana. It’s fairly large and very modern with a great selection of wine and a bakery area with a selection of empanadas among the usual grocery store fare. A particularly kind and helpful lady at self-checkout, in particular, had us coming back to this store.
Recoleta Cemeteryis open daily, 8am to 6pm. Free guided tours in Spanish take place at 11am and 2pm Tuesday to Friday, and at 11am and 3pm on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Entrance costs and you can pick up a map to do a self-guided tour. Entrance for foreigners is 16,100 Argentine pesos (about $11.36 USD).
Restaurants:We enjoyed some good restaurants in Buenos Aires, but our favorite was the classically traditional Fervor for steaks and Argentinian wine. With its aproned waiters, black-and-white tiled floor, dark paneling and red leather banquettes, it felt much like being back in Paris. Its two-story, open-at-the-center layout even echoed my old neighborhood favorite Café du Commerce. And those steaks! The food was delicious and perfectly cooked, the service excellent.
Other Buenos Aires restaurants that stick in my mind are José Luis for a seafood break from ubiquitous Argentinian beef and La Querencia for casual, home-style local cuisine.
Safety: All in all, we enjoyed our time in Buenos Aires and felt safe in both neighborhoods we stayed in. I’ve read plenty of warnings about crime and places to avoid in most South American cities, including Buenos Aires. I have no doubt the warnings should be taken seriously, and we did. We also drove past some really wretched slums just minutes away from luxurious hotels and shops. The city is a mixed bag, but we had no concerns while sticking to nicer areas during populated hours.
