Travel for Love

I keep procrastinating on my follow up Buenos Aires posts, after writing a little about our lodging experiences there. I’m starting to realize I keep putting off writing the follow ups because I don’t really have that much to say.

I had a lot of fun in Buenos Aires, and I definitely enjoyed places in the city. But, I wasn’t crazy about it. To me, BsAs did not have the energy, vibe, or instant appeal that I have come to find in cities like NYC, Rio, Istanbul, or even Paris. Maybe to me BsAs was just lacking that special something, the same way I’ve found Miami, Chicago, Shanghai, and LA.

So rather than try to write up a half-hearted summary of our mediocre food experiences and decent but not remarkable activities there, I will leave you with my impressions of Recoleta Cemetary. This was one part of BsAs that I definitely loved.

Yes, the first thing that struck me was that you could see inside the tombs – see actual coffins!

Once I got over that, I spent most of my time in the cemetery taking pictures of the cats. There were kitties everywhere! I saw that people had left food and water around, so the cats must have a nice peaceful life there.

The poor things looked pretty ragged though.

But sweet.

Some like the kitties more than others.

What a life!

As I mentioned in my Buenos Aires post, Roberto and I took the overnight bus to Mendoza as a side trip from the capital city. Originally we planned on staying just one night – two full days – in the city. Upon seeing the incredible snow-capped mountains rising from the desert as we approached Mendoza, we decided to stay an extra day. We changed our bus reservation at the madhouse of a bus station, and set off to find a rental car.

Disclaimer: This was not a well-researched trip. As I mentioned here, we were hoping to visit Patagonia on this trip. Unfortunately, we found out the gringo prices on Argentinas Airlines were around twice as much as indicated on the website, and flights there would cost around $400 per person.

We found a campground in the San Martin park on the edge of central Mendoza. It seemed that the campground and some other amenities in this park were built in the 70s when Mendoza hosted the World Cup. The campground was very… concrete, with identical campsites. It was more than adequate though, and we enjoyed our night there. They even had wi-fi.

We enjoyed a nice dinner near the park, in a fairly touristy area. Roberto came back from the restaurant men’s room with this photo:

Right. So…

The next day we waned to drive to the mountains. The guy at the campground told us to take the road to Chile to see Aconcagua. I had never heard of this place but apparently it’s the tallest mountain in South America. And the Southern Hemisphere. And the Western Hemisphere. Actually, the tallest mountain outside of Asia! It’s 22840 feet, with Everest being 29002. Mount McKinley is 20,320. So yea, we had to check that out.

We set out on a beautiful dessert blue sky day, on a breathtaking drive into the mountains. First we climbed grassy foothills, which gradually gave way to rockier hills covered in cacti. As we climbed higher and higher, the mountains got more and more rugged. We marveled at how each one had a unique color, as we caught glimpses of snowy peaks beyond the hills. We couldn’t get enough of the beautiful scenery.

As we drove up into higher elevations, the scenery continued to be spectacular. We had a nice lunch at a mountain restaurant, and noticed a couple ski resorts (closed for the summer of course). We also noticed quite a few campgrounds, and decided to stay in the mountains that evening at one of them. We also saw countless groups of Argentines having picnics and cookouts.

We continued up the mountains to Puente de Inca, a strange rock formation and old building.

Just a couple miles up the road was Aconcagua national park. We parked and decided to hike the 3km loop trail in the beautiful valley below the peak. As we got a bit further up the trail we realized we could hike much further than the 3km loop, taking the mule path used by the mountain climbers. We did see several herds of mules, driven by Andean cowboys, carrying supplies to the base camp.

Interestingly when I got out of the car and started hiking, I felt kinda funny. As if I was coming down with something, or hungover… just off. Then, I realized it was due to the high elevation. It made the hike a little more difficult.

I thought the “mountain climbing” vibe was really cool. We talked with some of the climbers returning from summit attempts, which was interesting. I had not expected to see that sort of thing! We ended up hiking for most of the day, only turning back when we knew we’d run out of daylight. It was not a difficult hike, but between the elevation, the dust and rocks, and the hot sun yet cold wind, it was grueling.

Hiking in Aconcagua national park made me want to climb a mountain sometime. Not that one… too advanced for me! But I can definitely see the appeal. A mountain like that just inspires the urge to get closer and closer to the top. This was my first experience with really big mountains, and I definitely think I will seek more out in the future.

We finished the day off with a drive up a crazy road to Christo Redentor on the Chilean border.

It was COLD up there, but very pretty!

We crashed at a nice little campground in one of the gorgeous mountain valleys. It was only 10 pesos per person, less than $3! I was surprised at how many hiking backpackers and mountain bikers were camping there, but we didn’t really get to know anyone that night. We slept very well after our long day, and I have never seen so many stars.

And I thought Mendoza was all about wineries.

South America has had its share of torrential rains in the past few months, with the latest stranding thousands of people in Aguas Calientes, near the Machu Picchu site. The main method of accessing the ruins of the historic Inca city is by train (if you don’t want to hike, anyway). Due to heavy rains causing mudslides and washing out portions of the train tracks, many visitors found themselves stuck on the mountain. Considering most people visit Machu Picchu as a day trip, getting “stuck” there would be no picnic. I am especially intrigued by this story since Machu Picchu is very high on my list of places to see.

Here is a youtube video showing the flood waters and evacuation effort.

Peru came to the aid of the nearly 4000 stranded people by flying them out in helicopters. I can only imagine what it would be like waiting for space in a helicopter to come get you, with thousands of other people. Imagine all the vacation plans ruined as I’m sure people missed flights and tours and couldn’t partake in scheduled plans. According to the news, Aguas Calientes was very short on food and hotel rooms for the unexpected customers. Many people were forced to sleep in the train station and depend on generous locals for food. Although I haven’t been, I have heard many reviews stating that Aguas Calientes is NOT the kind of town you want to spend more time than absolutely necessary.

Almost reminiscent of the Titanic evacuation, elderly and very young tourists were evacuated first, probably leaving a crowd of 20-30 something backpackers stuck. There have been rumors of price-gouging, as hotels and restaurants raised prices due to the sudden high demand. It also sounds like many of the residents were generous with what food and space they had. I found it interesting the Fox news reported the most of the Americans paid for hotels, and left the sleeping in the park to the South Americans.

The Inca Trail has also closed, after a mudslide along the trail reportedly killed two people. The reports are indicating a total of 7 deaths in the region due to the rain. The area has been declared a state of emergency. Machu Picchu is going to be closed for several weeks, if not months, while the train tracks are repaired. This is very unfortunate for the region, and also travelers who have booked trips during this time period.

I’m sure some people may be more hesitant to visit MP after this news. Some may wonder if people would have been stranded for so long if this had happened in a “first world” country. What would the US have done in this disaster? I did read that the US actually did send 2 helicopters. Unfortunately this is a consideration when traveling to a country whose infrastructure is not as advanced as the US, who may not be as prepared to pull off a large scale evacuation effort. From what it sounds like, Peru has pulled off a very successful evacuation. But, I am sure there are people hearing this story and saying, “This is why I don’t leave the US.” Their loss, I guess.

I’ve always wanted to check out Buenos Aires, and we found some decent flights on Gol so we booked a flight to spend a week there. We purposely only booked a place to stay for the first night only and traveled with backpacks to have the flexibility to travel to another part of Argentina as well. I’ll go more into that in another post. In this post I will focus on the places we stayed, cause we had some fairly unique lodging experiences. In later posts I’ll get into more about what we did and saw in BsAs.

So we looked around for lodging in BsAs and decided a hostel (with a private room) was the best option for us. There are tons of different hostels in Buenos Aires, many more than good, reasonably priced hotels. I found PAX hostel online and made a reservation which ended up being around $50 US for the night. Despite the great exchange rate with the dollar (almost 4 to 1), lodging in BsAs just wasn’t cheap.

Our flight arrived at around 9:30 at night, so we took a taxi for the 30-40 minute ride to downtown. We went through some really scummy looking areas on the outskirts of town and, while it looked a little nicer as we got further into town, we did not think the area around the hostel was that nice. Definitely not an area I would feel very comfortable walking around at night. For what it’s worth the hostel was advertised to be in the San Telmo area but it was definitely on the crummy edge of that neighborhood.

This was our first time staying in a hostel and we weren’t sure what to expect. We were greeted at the door by a cheerful English girl who ushered us around and made A LOT of small talk. It was a little much after a long night of travel but she was definitely very helpful. She showed us around and showed us to our room, which was a little disappointing. It was very very small, the bed was super hard, the pillows were just foam rubber, and it could have been quite a bit cleaner. We were also situated right in the lobby where everyone came and went, and our window was facing the noisy street below.

The hostel had a bar downstairs, which was nice. We went down to have a beer and order some takeout (Chinese food!!! After 2 weeks in Brazil I was sooooo excited for Chinese!). The place was pretty busy, with a table of rowdy Spaniards, 3 punky Brits who were intrigued by the prospect of trannys in the shady neighborhood close by, and a few other random people. It was definitely the stereotypical young backpacker crowd, and the hostel was set up for meeting people and participating in tons of activities. The hostel also had free wi-fi everywhere which was great.

The next day we had our included breakfast with two nice French girls who were starting a round the world trip in BsAs. The poor girls had spent the night at PAX after they showed up at a different hostel they had booked only to find no record of their reservation. The staff at the hostel was very very helpful. They sat us down with a map of the city and showed us all sorts of nice landmarks and restaurants. They also showed us areas to avoid at night, which included the area our cab had taken us through on the way to the hostel. They recommended we just turn left when exiting and avoid the area off to the right. The area to the left was definitely much nicer, but it makes me wonder if some other hostel a block to the left tells it’s guests to avoid the PAX area… Like I said, I didn’t think it was in the nicest neighborhood.

This is the only photo I have of the neighborhood cause we did not feel very comfortable taking out our cameras and snapping away. Roberto took this pic cause he was so disappointed in his first impression of the city after always hearing how BsAs was the Paris of South America.

We had to check out of PAX and they did not have any more vacancies for the next night, so I used some Marriott points to book the Plaza Hotel. I was planning to do this for one night and it seemed like the perfect chance. We then planned on taking our side trip the following day, after maximizing our time at the Plaza.

I am not sure how much the Plaza costs per night but it is definitely a great hotel in a beautiful part of town (no disappointment photos here). We saw more Americans in the lobby than anywhere else in BsAs. The Marriott Plaza Hotel is a historic building right across from a beautiful park and very close to a busy area tailored for tourists. The staff was a little snooty with us when we wandered in with our backpacks, but I requested an upgrade to a room with a park view and they gave us one. But we did have to wait for it – the lady said the room wasn’t ready and to sit down and she would bring us our key when it was. After about 20 minutes when I went and asked if it was almost ready she looked at some paper and said it was. I wonder how long it was ready before I had asked. Other than that we found the concierge to be very helpful and the rest of check in and check out smooth.

Our corner room was very big (many of the rooms are tiny in this old hotel, so it helps to request a bigger room if need be) and we had a great view of the park from one big window and of the outdoor pool terrace from the other. The hotel and amenities were completely up to the Marriott standards and the building was also quite charming. One thing I didn’t like was the wi-fi wasn’t free in the rooms, but it was in the lobby. This is typical of Marriotts, anyway. We definitely had a very comfortable night there and they were happy to hang onto our bags all day after we checked out.

The Marriott was a great place to stay, but it felt a bit sterile and isolated from the city. It was truly an opposite experience from PAX, where we were tossed right into the bustle of the city to fend for ourselves. We felt totally safe and comfortable at the Marriott, but at the same time we didn’t feel like we were in BsAs. While I don’t think we fit in at the youthful PAX hostel, I don’t think the Marriott was where we belonged either. Especially with the loud American guy talking to the concierge in 1st grader English, explaining that he and his wife had “5 suitcases, and need either two taxis or a van to go to the airport,” because the one taxi that brought them there was “just too small for us.” We did not have a conversation with a single fellow guest, despite spending plenty of time in the public areas.

After those two nights we decided we would fit in best with something in between those two extremes. Not a fancy stuffy hotel with stuck up guests and staff, but also not a party hostel with a bunch of European kids looking to get drunk and laid. I’m sure Buenos Aires has plenty of options that would better suit us. I did notice some cute boutique hotels for fairly reasonable prices on Tripadvisor prior to booking, but the hostels were just so much cheaper.

After the second night we didn’t stay in a hotel or hostel, but slept on a bus. This sounds awful but it was actually quite comfortable and convenient – we were travelling to Mendoza (more on that in another post) by overnight bus and had booked cama (bed) suites. The price was about what we’d pay for a hotel and included dinner, snacks, and drinks. The seats folded all the way down to horizontal and included a full-sized footrest that made the whole arrangement about the size of a single bed. The seats were very comfortable and the ride was great for lulling us to sleep. I even had an awesome view of the incredible starry night over the plains of Argentina as I fell asleep.

The meal and drinks were served to us like on an airplane and both ways the steward was excellent. We also had movies: on the way there we saw the latest James Bond movie, and on the way back there were 3 – some John Travolta terrorist action movie I didn’t watch, a really sad holocaust movie called The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, and Righteous Kill. Oddly enough on the way back all three movies were in English with Spanish subtitles, while on the way there the movie was all Spanish. We were very pleasantly surprised with the bus trip and will definitely use this option more in the future.

Once we got back to BsAs we just had one more night. I found another hostel online, Telmotango, that was cheaper than PAX and in a nicer part of San Telmo. It appears many of the hostels are in this neighborhood; real estate is probably cheaper there. We showed up there in the morning after arriving at the bus station and taking the subway over. It took a little while to find and walk to, but when we got there we were impressed with how cute it was.

Telmotango hostel is built in a converted old mansion and has a stained glass solarium as the common area. There are some rooms indoors and the rest are on two floors of outdoor access surrounding the solarium. The decor was really cute, with potted plants and flower boxes all over the place, and the hostel had a nice big terrace on the top floor. I was pleased with the room and how comfortable the bed was, as well as the bathrooms and common areas. The hostel did have alot of backpackers but there was a wider variety of guests, including some older people. The crowd seemed a little more low key that the PAX guests. I liked this hostel a lot better.

Since we were also camping this trip, we were pretty prepared with just about everything we needed to stay somewhere. But, for those new to hostels, there seems to be a range of amenities offered. From what I’ve seen, nearly all hostels do not provide shampoo, soap, or any other toiletries. I would definitely bring shampoo, conditioner, and body wash or a bar of soap if you do not already travel with them. Additionally, some places do not provide towels (although both of our hostels did), and I have yet to find a wash cloth anywhere in South America. I just bring one along. Even cheaper hostels probably will not provide sheets, or just “rent” them out for extra. Definitely something to be prepared for if staying in hostels. Oh and you DEFINITELY want flip flops for dorm style showers.

Buenos Aires definitely has lots of lodging options. Another popular choice seems to be renting an apartment in the city, with prices as low as $35 per night for a week. I would have definitely looked into an apartment rental if we were planning to stay in BsAs for a solid week, especially since it seems like many of them are in Recoleta. We really wanted to stay in that neighborhood but couldn’t find any hostels there. We both agreed that the hostels were both good, comfortable, cheap options. We look forward to staying in more in the future, in other cities!

As I mentioned in the previous two posts, Roberto and I drove from Criciuma to to Iguazu Falls with another couple. It was just under 2000 kilometers round trip, and I think the trip was around 26 hours total of driving. We drove through some interesting countryside, including a very nice mountain region, and some interesting small towns. The drive was definitely very different from a US road trip on interstates with all the conveniences designed for long distance drivers.

The trip started out with a climb up the Serra do Rio do Rastro in the fog. The road up the mountains is a windy two lane road that switchbacks up the mountain, with a good deal of truck and bus traffic. We were behind a big double decker bus that could barely make it around the sharp curves, and we could see the nervous passengers looking out the windows at the long drop down.

On top of the mountains the landscape is quite different from the hot and humid areas close to the coast. It’s very windy and rocky, and there are these crazy Dr. Seuss looking pine trees growing everywhere. They are apparently called pinheiro trees and produce and interesting seed/fruit that tastes like a chestnut but looks like a pepper. There are also hydrangea bushes (yes, bushes) all over the place.

We left in the early evening and drove until almost 4 am. As we got into less populated areas the driving got a bit more interesting, since while these roads are two lanes (at best), they are also the main state roads from town to town. That meant there were lots of trucks which required lots of passing. There were also many areas where the roads were very bumpy and full of potholes. AND we also had lombadas to contend with; those are giant speed bumps that will REALLY mess up your car if you hit one at more than like 2 miles per hour. They usually have signs but often they creep up unexpectedly and you really have to pay attention to slow down in time. Plus, the roads are not well lit and there are all sorts of interesting things to watch out for: scooters and motorcycles with no lights, bike riders, horse carts, random pedestrians, cows…. I drove for one hour was exhausted from all that paying attention. Roberto drove the rest. What a trooper.

The first night we tried stopping at a couple hotels in the towns we went through but were not satisfied with any of them. We came close with one place, a mediocre hotel in a quiet area, but bailed after the guy kept changing the price on us. The boys went in first and explained that we were two couples and could either share a room with two beds or take two single rooms (it was 3 am, we probably could have slept in the lobby at that point). They guy said it was R$79 for a double room with two beds or R$45 for a single (about 40/23 dollars). Those prices were actually kinda high for a mediocre hotel in the middle of nowhere but we decided to go for it and take the two singles.

So we brought all our stuff in and then the guy said that the singles were only meant for one person and he could not put two people in one room. Not sure why he offered it when we asked for the options for two couples but anyway… Since we could not book the two singles we decided to take one double room. The guys filled out their information (you can’t do anything much in Brazil without providing lots of information) and handed the guy R$79 cash. He said “No, it’s R$139.” And they told the guy he had just quoted them R$79 for a room for two couples, to which he replied that the quote was for two people, and the additional two people cost R$30 each. We all looked at each other and told the guy to forget it. 3 am or not, I HATE being nickel and dimed like that!

We (well, Roberto. seriously, what a trooper!) drove for about another hour after that and decided to try our luck with a motel. For those not familiar with Brazilian motels, they are not like US motels. They are not made for sleeping. First, they have an hourly rate. They are also very private. Most places are behind tall walls or surrounded by trees. You pull in and speak to the reception through a speaker like you’re ordering a big mac from the drive through. They slide your keys to you and you drive to your room, which you access by pulling your car into a garage, closing the door behind you your car is not visible. This sounds really shady, but apparently it is very normal and socially accepted to “utilize” these motels. The reason they are so popular is because almost all young people in Brazil live with their parents until they get married. They are supposed to be very clean and safe.

So, we pulled into a motel. The four of us. They guy must have raised an eyebrow at 4 people rolling up at 4 am requesting a single room (actually he has probably seen it all). The rate was R$15 for two hours and R$40 for the night. We had our air mattress and had no problem setting it up for the night and sleeping on the floor for 3 hours before getting back on the road. The room was clean and normal but a bit interesting. The walls were a bright pink color and I think the curtains were plastic. There was a condom on the nightstand and a tv with the channels scrawled on a note in Sharpie: 2: News, 3: Soccer, 4: Porno. This was definitely no Marriott. But, it was a cheap place to stay for the night with a clean shower and no roaches or anything.

We got to Iguazu in once piece early the next afternoon. The roads progressively improved as we got closer to the city of Foz and the tourist mecca. But, we definitely paid for the privilege of driving on them: there were 4 toll booths on the road to Foz do Iguazu and the total came to over R$20 one way. This was for less than 50 km of driving! Ridiculous.

The trip back was more of the same. We did make better that way and once again spent one night on the road. This time we opted for a hotel (we found a reasonably priced place in a different town), and checked in before midnight to get more sleep. There was one nail biting part the last night where we found ourselves low on gas in the middle of nowhere (and things do get pretty “nowhere-like” in these parts). Each gas station we pulled up to had a different story: they were out of that type of gas, they were closed but the one down the road 20 km was open… Finally we actually ended up knocking on the door of a closed gas station owner’s house (as explained by some guy at a restaurant) to wake him up to come out and turn on the pumps so we could get some gas. I was quite amused when, after that, about 5 cars pulled up to also get gas. I’m sure the owner was thrilled.

This road trip was definitely an experience. I really appreciate the US interstate system a lot more after traveling long distances without it. But, driving here, while slower, isn’t as scary as I thought it might be. There are definitely plenty of facilities for food and gas (even if you have to wake someone up to open them), people are very helpful when asking directions, and there were plenty of police around. That’s a good thing, I think.