Fill your life with experiences, not things. Have stories to tell, not stuff to show.

– Unknown

Going into Argentina, we knew we’d have about 3 weeks to spend before we needed to be in Buenos Aires to begin our trip to Antarctica. We had done our research, and there were four areas/regions that stood out as places we really wanted to go. So we did the best we could to work out an itinerary that encompassed all of them. Argentina is very large and our destinations were quite far apart. The Parque Nacional Iguazu Falls is a very large park and is home to the beautiful Iguazu waterfalls on the Brazil and Argentina border. It is in the North East section of the country. Parque Nacional Los Glaciares is a mountainous region in the Patagonia region which lies to the south. San Carlos de Bariloche is a cute little village in the mountains, and it borders the glacial fed lake in the Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi. This city is on the Western side of the country And Buenos Aires, on the Eastern side of the country is of course, one of the biggest cities of the world, so we wanted to spend a little time there.

We chose to go to Cordoba first simply on the basis of cost. Transportation within Argentina was very reasonable, but getting there from Peru proved to be rather expensive. Flying to Cordoba was the least expensive, reasonable option we had, so that’s where we went. We had no idea what was waiting for us there, but we knew that if we could just get into Argentina, we could figure the rest out from there. So after flying through the night, we landed safely in Cordoba in the wee hours of a Thursday morning.

Cordoba is actually Argentina’s second largest city. Aside from picking a hotel for the one night we were planning to be there, we actually didn’t know anything about the area. We’d already booked our flight to San Carlos de Bariloche for the next day, so we knew we wouldn’t be there long. In hindsight, the town was really nice, the weather was great, and I wish we could have stayed a little longer.

The town felt more like the United States than anywhere else we’d been on this trip. After traveling for months through Central and South America, this was the first place we’d been where the people were quite diverse. As soon as we landed in Mexico, we began standing out because of the color of our hair and skin. As we traveled further south, those things continued to set us apart, but the people got shorter and smaller; all of a sudden, I began to feel tall as we walked down the street. But in Argentina, we saw many people of every color, shape, and size. Everyone still spoke Spanish, even though they used a modified vocabulary specific to Argentina, but the look of the crowds became more varied. Aside from the language barrier, it felt like we were walking down the street in any of the bigger towns in the US.

Our flight arrived around 4 am, and our AirBnb wouldn’t be available for check in until much later in the day. Our host was kind enough to allow us to drop our bags while the cleaning service was doing their thing at 10:00, but we wouldn’t be able to check in until early afternoon when they were done. Since our bags were heavy, and we had no where to go, we hung out in the airport lobby for several long hours. The airport seemed small, but it was very quiet, and we were allowed to lounge there by ourselves for most of the morning.

At around 9:30, after withdrawing some pesos from the ATM, we took our taxi to the apartment. We arrived, and Gabriela, the lady who was there cleaning let us in. The apartment was on the third floor, and she taught us how to use the manual elevator instead of taking the stairs. We all giggled as the three of us crammed into the tiny closet elevator, closed the gate, and slowly inched up to our room. Our place was nice, but of course, we were not planning to stay here long; we’d really only be here long enough to get a hot shower, a bite to eat, and a few hours of rest. We walked around town near our place to find some food, and we were pleasantly surprised to find we’d left the tortillas, arepas, and other flat breads behind in lieu of gloriously fluffy and sweet medialunas (lightly glazed croissants). The next day, we ate breakfast at a bakery across the street from our apartment, and then we caught our taxi back to the airport. It was time to head towards our first intended destination.

San Carlos de Bariloche is a beautiful little lakeside town nestled into the foot of the Andes Mountains. It reminded us a lot of Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Our hostel sat in a residential part of town. About 5 blocks down the road though, the residential buildings morphed into the tourist-centric stores lining both sides of the street selling everything from fine chocolates to ski wear. There were hundreds of stores and restaurants representing many different cultures and regions of the world. Most of the buildings were built and decorated in a Bavarian/Swiss/Mountain style, and that made it easy to forget that you were walking in the southern portion of South America. And did I mention, that this town sat on the shore of the most beautiful blue lake I’ve ever seen?

We stayed at the Kospi Hostel, and it was one of our favorite lodgings on the trip. The hostel was in an old house that had been converted into a hostel. Our room was spacious with a queen bed, a set of bunk beds, and a private bathroom, and we had access to the very well stocked kitchen and comfortable living room as well. The house reminded me of my Aunt Glenice’s home that we used to visit when I was a kid. It was warm and inviting, and it felt like a real home. In many of the hostels we’d stayed at, we’d had access to the kitchen, but hardly anyone would actually cook meals while we were there. This one was different. There was someone cooking a meal quite frequently, and it seemed like the house always smelled of something delicious. And our host, Ruben, was incredibly helpful to us as we began learning to live in Argentina.

I should tell you that things are different in Argentina than anywhere else we had ever been. First, people here live on a different schedule than they do throughout North or South America. Breakfast was normal time, usually consisting of medialunas, coffee, and juice. Lunch was normally around 12-2 or so and it was a ‘normal’ meal, a lighter, smaller version of dinner. Almost all businesses take a midday break from 3-6. Grocery stores, retail centers, restaurants, you name it – if you didn’t get what you wanted before 3 pm when they closed, you’ were just going to have to wait. And dinner starts no earlier than 8 pm. Now, I’m usually almost ready for bed around then, but here, the restaurants generally don’t even open before 8. We would leave a restaurant full of families with little bitty kids at 10 pm, and the kids were all wide awake still. It takes some getting used to, for sure, but once you adjust, the schedule does work pretty well.

The other challenge to life in Argentina is cash. Most merchants either take cash or they will charge a 10% fee for using a credit card, so of course it is much better to pay in cash. Also, because the value of the Argentinian peso is quite volatile, there is a blue market for cash. The credit card companies will charge you based on the official exchange rate which was close to 100 pesos per dollar. If you can exchange money through the blue market (money changers on the street), you could get 200 or so pesos per dollar. So, if you could get US dollars and exchange them on the street, prices in Argentina were very low (about half of what you’d pay in the US). If you paid credit card rates, they were about the same as in the US. So cash is better, but the kicker with this is that getting cash (US or pesos) is very difficult. The government has imposed very low ATM withdrawal limits, which combined with very high ATM fees, limits the amount of cash available. We spent hours upon hours trying to use money transfer services to get the cash we needed. And once you got the cash, you had the challenge of hiding it. Most stores/restaurants cannot accept big bills, so when you do get the pesos, you end up with a very large stack of cash that isn’t worth a whole lot. While it was fun to fan through your bundle of bills and pretend you were rich, it wasn’t much fun to keep a large wad of bills on you discretely. It was a terrible system, but if you could learn to play it correctly, it worked to your benefit.

Another small but frustrating issue related to cash was that the amount you are charged and the amount you pay are usually different. There are bills that go down to 20 pesos. For amounts lower than 20 pesos, there were coins, but there aren’t very many in circulation. We would go to a market, and our total would be 363.05 pesos. You’d either pay 360 or 370 pesos depending on the cashier. If you didn’t have small bills, you might even pay only 350 if the cashier was particularly generous. This wasn’t much of a problem, unless you tried to use your receipts to remember what you’d spent money on. We learned pretty quickly to write everything down right after we spent it.

Most of the time we spent in Bariloche was actually getting ready for our trip to Antarctica. We needed a few more clothing items, and we opted to purchase them here. The weather in Bariloche was chilly, so we expected to have a better chance finding waterproof pants and warm gloves here than the other cities we planned to visit. We did take a day to explore the Parque Nacional Nahuel Huapi. We caught the city bus to the visitor center in the park. After a relaxing picnic lunch, we set off to see the viewpoints over the water.

Not quite done getting our fresh air, we hiked to the top of Camp Campanario. For a fee, you can take the ski lift to the top, or if you are up for the challenge (or cheap), you can hike up the mountain like we did. The views of the surrounding lakes were gorgeous, and the cool mountain air was refreshing.

After six nights in Bariloche, we caught another flight further south to the mountain town of El Calafate. El Calafate is another very small town, and it sits on the glacier fed Lago Argentina (Argentina Lake). We stayed at a little hostel a few blocks off of the main strip called the Calafate Viejo Hostel. Our room wasn’t much, but we were comfortable, and our host, Claudia, served us a delicious breakfast every morning. Henry spent several hours playing in the back yard, and I think he really needed that bit of normalcy. The food here was delicious, and we discovered Bife de Chorizo, a tender, juicy steak that melted in your mouth; almost all of the restaurants in town had their version of this dish, and they all tasted amazing. There were good reasons for Argentina to be known for their grilled meats, and El Calafate helped us discover them. All of our meals were very good, and all three of us began to pile back on the weight we’ve lost throughout the first months of our trip. Everything was just so good!

The whole of town is on a 1 mile stretch down the main road which is lined with restaurants, markets, travel agencies, and souvenir shops. There’s not much to do in the town itself, but it is the home base for most of the trips into the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. From there, we took a day trip into the park to see the Perito Moreno glacier, and it was well worth our time.

Our driver picked us up early in the morning from our hotel, and we made the hour long drive to the visitors center. We brought every layer of clothes we had because we’d read that the weather near the glacier was very cold and windy. For the first hour or so, we needed them, but as they day drew on, we lost layers until by the afternoon, we were in short sleeves and our last layer of pants. The Perito Moreno glacier viewing area was set up very well, with railed boardwalks lining the shore to view the glaciers from several different points. We easily walked the paths and admired the stunning glacier from every angle. The Perito Moreno glacier is the third largest in Argentina, and it is bigger in size than the entire city of Buenos Aires. At its centerpoint, the glacier is 650 ft thick. At the face, the glacier stands anywhere from 130 to 230 feet tall above the water. For an extra fee, tourists could board a boat and see the glacier from the vantage point of the water. We didn’t do that, but seeing the tiny little boats driving beside the enormous glacier really helped put the glacier’s size into perspective. We watched the glacier calve over and over, listening to the explosion like sounds the ice made when it cracked. It was absolutely amazing to watch the ice break off in massive chunks and fall into the lake. We learned that the Perito Moreno glacier is one of the few in the world that is actually maintaining its size. While the front face calves regularly, the back side of it continues to grow at a rate matching the loss.

After 3 nights in El Calafate, we caught a double decker bus to visit El Chalten. El Chalten is a really small town of only 300 people about 3 hours north of El Calafate. It is a relatively young town, established in 1985, and there really is nothing there but a basecamp for the region.

We were in the Patagonia region in the Andes mountains, and the peaks of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre towered above us. Interestingly enough, the mountains in this region are the silhouette you see in the Patagonia brand logo.

While on the bus, we met Chris, a fellow traveler who had come to Argentina to go to Antarctica. Unfortunately due to COVID, his voyage was cancelled. Since he was already scheduled off of work, and he was here, he was making the most of his time by visiting this area. Up until this time, I don’t think we had seriously considered what would happen if our trip to Antarctica was cancelled, but we all got very nervous about it. Chris was very kind, and we traded travel tips and advice with him for a bit.

When we got to El Chalten, we caught a taxi to get to our AirBnB. We’d rented a two bedroom apartment, and we were too tired to wander through town trying to find it. It was after 9:00 pm, and although the sun was still up, we were wearing out pretty quickly. Our driver pulled up to a ramshackle building, and my heart just sank. I was wondering how in the world we were going to make it for three nights in this shack; it didn’t look like a shack when I’d booked it, but there hadn’t been any outside pictures in the listing either. Just as I’d resigned us to making it work in this dilapidated house, we realized we were not quite at the address. We drove down the road just a little further, and there were a few buildings within a fenced in yard. Our host, Juan, was working and couldn’t meet us, but he said he’d leave the apartment unlocked for us. We weren’t really sure which one was ours, so hoping we weren’t breaking and entering, we knocked and tried the door on one of the buildings to see if it was unlocked. It was ours, and inside, it looked just like the pictures I’d seen online, thankfully.

The weather was much colder here than any of the other locations we’d been in. In Cordoba, the low temperatures were around 70-degrees. In Bariloche and El Calafate, the temperatures ranged from 55-65 at night and 65-75 during the day. It was very windy there, so even though it was warm, it felt very cool. Here though, the evening temperatures were closer to 40-degrees, and the daytime highs were in the 55-60 degree range. Like Bariloche and El Calafate, the winds were tough. We’d seen and heard about how windy the Patagonia area could be, but here is where we really experienced it.

We went on a couple of hikes in the mountains. Our first was to the Mirador de Los Condores and Las Aguilas. We hiked out of town and down the road to join the trail. The visitors center was closed, so we snapped a few pictures and then hit the trail. It was an easy trail, but the elevation and wind made it a little tough. The view from Mirador de Los Condores was beautiful. Sitting high above the river and road, you could see the entire town nestled in under the peaks of the mountains. We were warm from the climb, and the wind blowing through our hair felt great.

After resting a little, we took off for the Mirador de Las Aguilas. This trail took us through a plain and around to the back side of the mountain. The views here were also spectacular, and we enjoyed the warmth of the sun as we basked out on the rocks.

On another day, we decided to hike to the Mirador del Torre, a great viewpoint for the Cerro Torre Range. The trailhead for this one was just outside our apartment. The mirador (viewpoint) was only about 1.8 miles from our apartment, and it was supposed to be mostly level, so this would be a relatively easy hike for us. We reached the viewpoint and had a look around. It truly was beautiful. The trail continued on for another 3.7 miles to the Torre Lake, and if you went another 1.2 miles past that, you would reach the Mirador Maestro and be able to really admire the face of the Maestro glacier. We were already a little tired, but in true Swain style, we decided that we could make it to the lake. Henry began complaining of a sore ankle somewhere around half way to the lake, and he and I decided to turn around and head back to the apartment. We talked Brian into going the rest of the way on his own because I knew he’d regret it if he didn’t make it to the end. Henry and I made it back with no issues, and while Brian hiked the entire distance to Mirador Maestro and back, Henry and I feasted on warm, freshly baked brownies at a nearby restaurant.

We really enjoyed El Chalten, but it was time to move on to our next destination, Puerto Iguazu. We caught the bus back to El Calafate, and the next morning, we flew to Puerto Iguazu. As I said earlier, El Chalten was very cool, and that made Puerto Iguazu seem that much warmer. Puerto Iguazu is a town that borders Paraguay and Brazil, and it lies in a tropical jungle. The lows here were around 80-degrees, and the highs were near 100. We stayed in a nice 2 bedroom apartment with a pool. The apartment was nice, especially considering that we only paid $12 a night. On our first night there, we found out that we’d be sharing the space with a giant cockroach, and that put a bit of a damper on it. But we named it George, and we pretended he was our pet. Sometimes life gives you lemons.

We explored the Parque Nacional Iguazu Falls, and that was quite a day. We started our morning out with a boat tour of the falls. From the park entrance, we loaded onto the back of a pickup truck and traveled 30 minutes or so through the jungle to the water. After donning a life vest and grabbing a waterproof bag, we boarded onto a boat and began our journey up the river to see the falls. It was very pretty here, and the terrain reminded me of Tennessee. Argentina was on one side of the river, and Brazil was on the other. We made it up to the falls, and our captain gave us all a good opportunity to take pictures. Once we’d gotten the shots we wanted, we prepared to get wet and put all of our things into the waterproof bags. The captain took us up close and into the falls and let us all get drenched several times. It was fun, and the cool water felt amazing after roasting in those tropical temperatures.

When we got back to shore, we spent a few more hours exploring the park. This park had walking circuits you could take, and each one had lined boardwalks with great viewpoints of the falls. We walked the lower circuit, and when we were done with it, we took the park train to the Devil’s throat, the top of the falls. The water was clear, and most of it was not very deep. However, the horizon as far as you could see was covered in water. As these waters fell over the cliff edge, beautiful rainbows appeared. You couldn’t hear much over the roar of the water. The combined flow of all of the 275 individual falls here makes this the largest waterfall system in the world; it is taller than Niagra falls and twice as wide.

The falls were sunning, and the river ride was nice, but our favorite feature of the park were the showers that were located throughout the park. When you got really hot, you could go douse yourself and cool down a bit. They were amazing.

We also went to visit the Hito Tres Fronteras while in Puerto Iguazu. This landmark sits at the confluence of the Iguazu River and the Parana River. Standing where we were, you could look across the Iguazu River to Brazil or you could look across the Parana River to Paraguay. Henry was not happy with us for wanting to walk the 2 miles from our apartment to see this, but his attitude changed significantly when he found the water fountains there. I’m sure the locals thought he was crazy, but he played hard in the water just like the local kids (who all happened to be much, much younger than him).

After four nights there, we caught our flight to Buenos Aires. We landed in Buenos Aires after a short flight, and we found our room at the Del900 Boutique Hostel. It was a quaint little lodging in a beautiful old building. Our room was a corner room overlooking the street, and we had a kitchen, pool table, tv, and couches in the common room to use. We loved this place, and our hosts were very helpful.

Brian tried mate for the first time, as they had it available for guests to drink in the common area. Mate is a drink that is wildly popular in Argentina. It’s similar to hot tea, but the leaves are loose in the drink while you drink it. To keep from drinking those, you use a special straw to filter them out. In nearly every store, you’ll find mate cups, straws, leaf storage containers, and stylish thermoses so you can easily carry your supply of hot water around with you. The mate cup is specially made for the drink, and we were told that at least historically, people drank it from a hollowed out hoof. Yum. Some of the cups and straws were really fancy, but there were little plastic versions for small kids in some of the stores too. (I’m not sure if kids actually used them or if they just played with them). In many of the nicer stores, you could even find these personalized carrying baskets to keep all of the mate supplies together when you are out and about. You’d see people going about their daily business with their mate baskets in tow, and at many of the public places we visited, they had hot water refilling stations to make it easier. Brian had been wanting to try mate for a while, but because of the way it is consumed (not with food), it’s not something you can find in restaurants. The drink is so popular here, though, that no one even recognizes that us tourists don’t know how to make it or drink it. Our hotel had the supplies we needed (including a water kettle with a special ‘mate’ setting), so we gave it a whirl.

We only had a few days in Buenos Aires before we’d meet our Antarctica travel group, so we enjoyed the time as best we could. We did a little Christmas shopping so that we would have a few gifts to open on the boat. We each had a $5 gift limit. Because we will continue to travel for another 6 months and we’d have to carry anything we bought, we decided it would be best if our gifts were edible. We tried to find treats that we enjoyed but haven’t had a lot. Henry had wanted gummy worms, I wanted caramels, and you can never go wrong giving Brian good dark chocolates.

Interestingly enough, we noticed that they really love The Simpsons here. It came on television every night. There were Simpsons painted on park benches and murals. We also saw lots of people wearing Simpsons t-shirts walking down the street. When we were Christmas shopping, we found plush versions of the characters as well as The Simpsons Clue game. I almost bought The Simpsons deck of playing cards just because I thought they might be a fun memento of our time here.

We woke up one morning planning to get some breakfast at a local shop. As we exited our hostel, we heard someone beating on drums. Out on the street, we saw a crowd forming and they were all carrying signs that said Polo Obrero. Not being from the area, we didn’t know what that meant. We thought we’d get a little closer to see what was going on. There were hundreds of people – men, women, and children – in the street, and it appeared that they were getting ready for a parade. We’d seen hundreds of people go down the main road riding motorcycles and wearing Santa gear the day before, so we just assumed it might be something similar. Either way, we didn’t want to be in a crowd that size, so we turned around headed the opposite direction to get some breakfast.

The restaurant we found had wifi, so while we were waiting on our food, we found out that Polo Obrero is a group that holds (mostly) peaceful protests to get the government to act on their cause. They don’t protest often, but they’ve been around for 20+ years. They were intentionally protesting in an extremely busy area to create traffic congestion and draw attention to their cause today. We watched more and more people walk by the restaurant window heading towards the protest, and on the restaurant’s television, we saw the news reporters discussing the protest. We had planned to do some shopping, but we decided that today may not be the day to be in that area. We needed COVID tests for our Antarctica trip, so we found a free testing center away from the chaos and walked there instead. By the time we returned in the afternoon, the group had made their way further down 9 de Julio Avenue and away from us.

One evening, hungry for good grilled meats, we found a restaurant that had wonderful reviews. The restaurant was very fancy, much more so than we are accustomed to eating at on this trip. Their menu offered a parrillada, an assortment of grilled meats, that we could all share. We didn’t know what everything in the meal was but we figured that we could try it all, and we could all find something we enjoyed. We intentionally did not look up what everything was so we wouldn’t have any preconceived thoughts about the foods. Um. Let’s just say this will always be one of the most memorable meals we’ve ever eaten.

The tray of meats looked and smelled amazing when it arrived at our table. Brian would pick one item, serve each of us a portion, and then we’d all try it at the same time. On our tray, we had bife de chorizo, a fantastic cut of steak that we’d grown to love, a grilled chicken quarter, and a link of chorizo. We decided to hold off on eating those until the end since we fully expected they would be great. We didn’t really know what anything else was, so each different meat was an adventure.

Henry’s least favorite dish, was a large purple bean-shaped mass. Brian put it on his plate to slice some for everyone, and when his knife pierced the outer casing, the soupy black mush inside began to spill out. I nearly gagged just watching that, but it actually smelled pretty decent. Brian spooned some out to all of us, and we gave it a try. Henry could barely keep it down. He has an issue with mushy textures anyway, and this one was just too much for him. I honestly thought the taste wasn’t that bad, but I wouldn’t try another bite because the texture just felt like this uncooked cornbread batter in your mouth (not that I’ve ever tried that). I’ve never eaten anything like it, and I pray I won’t again. When we were able to figure out what it was, we learned that it was blood sausage, literally blood that is thickened and cooked in a casing, and it was exactly as gross as it sounds.

We didn’t know what chinchulines were, but I kid you not, I thought they had to be pig tails. They were small tube like pieces of meat that circled around just like a pig’s tail. When we tried them, it took everything I had in me not to throw up right then and there. Henry kept laughing at me because I was trying not to make a scene in this fancy restaurant, but the thing was incredibly chewy, so much so that I couldn’t get it to break apart so I could swallow it. I threw up in my mouth, and I had to use Brian’s red wine (which I don’t like) to wash it down when I’d drank all of my own drink. We later learned that it was beef small intestine, and it was easily my least favorite dish on the table. It was awful.

Brian’s least favorite dish was next, and it was rinones. Without knowing what it was, we assumed this one had to be some really fatty section of pork. It tasted dirty and rotten, though. I didn’t like it at all, but with enough Coke, I managed to eat my portion. This one turned out to be kidney, which apparently tastes just like a kidney should. Nasty.

We were beginning to wonder if we were in an episode of Fear Factor. Everyone else seemed to be eating these things just fine, and they seemed to be enjoying themselves! We were already on our second round of drinks, and the meal had barely started. Thankfully, our last three meats were really quite good, and we enjoyed them very much. We couldn’t stop laughing about how catastrophically bad the first three meats were. The restaurant itself was phenomenal, but we just had no appreciation for these local delicacies!

I also got my first haircut away from home in Buenos Aires. I’m not very picky about my hair, but I’ve been very nervous about letting anyone touch it. It was starting to look a little rough, though, and it needed some help. I followed a recommendation of our host, and I walked to a little salon not far from our hostel. With my google translations all ready, I walked in prepared to ask for the most basic haircut possible. I was enthusiastically greeted by an English speaking man who welcomed me inside and sat me in the chair. Max, my stylist, tried to talk me into a better haircut, and with a silent prayer, I agreed. As he worked on my hair, he talked about his life in Argentina. He told me about his children, about the poverty in Argentina, and about the last few years trying to survive with all of the COVID restrictions. I loved my time with him, and he did a really nice job on my hair. I also loved that I was able to have a real conversation with a local resident. He spoke only a little English, and I spoke only a little Spanish. I didn’t understand everything he said, and I’d guess he didn’t understand me completely either. But, we talked in two languages as best we could and we both learned a lot from each other.

With our Antarctica group, we also had the opportunity to visit the Ushuaia area. You can read a little more about that in my blog, The Bottom of the World.

I don’t know what we expected for Argentina, but we really enjoyed it here. The country is very big, and across the land, there are so many different regions and climates to enjoy. The mountains of Patagonia were simply beautiful. The tropical jungle of Iguazu was a feast of sights and sounds. Buenos Aires is as metropolitan as they come, and you can find anything you want there. And there were places we didn’t really get to experience either. Cordoba was nice, but we were only there for a few hours. We hated that we didn’t have the time to visit Mendoza, the wine country; Brian loved their red wines. Ushuaia is another area we’d like to have spent more time in as well; the islands here have so much more to see than we could in a few hours. I suppose those will have to wait for our next trip, because for now, its time to move on.