South America Travel Log

BA – Iguazu
We flew to Iguazu and took the bus back due to time and money constraints.

We checked the prices of flights from BA to Iguazu with our hostel travel agents, 1 real travel agent and the airline websites themselves. The cheapest deal we could find was for $155 one way on LAN Argentina’s website. Then, I used kyak.com just in case and we found the same flight as LAN had for $133. So, we bought it.

Taxi from down town to national airport $7

We saw signs that said we needed to pay an airport tax, but we never could figure out where to pay it and no one asked us for any kind of proof. But, if you do actually have to pay it, then it is important to add that amount ($12 I think) into the cost analysis of bus vs. plane
The plane ride was a little over an hour.

Both the airport and the falls are a good 15-20 minutes outside of town. A private taxi ride from the airport would be pretty expensive. They do have a shuttle for about $3 per person that will drop you off at your hostel, so it is a good deal. There is a little booth right outside the room where you pick up your luggage and before you leave the airport. You pay and get a ticket there.

The ride is pretty and there are yellow butterflies everywhere.

We tried to book a room at The Hostel Inn Iguazu http://www.hostel-inn.com/realindex.php?lang=en
It looked great from the outside, although it was a little outside of town, meaning more complicated to go in to grab a bite to eat. There were no doubles available, so we had to find something else.

We stayed at Residencial Uno
http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/ResidencialUno-PuertoIguazu-16107 (this is hostel world’s website)
Price - $20 for a double with a bath, small breakfast, and weak air conditioner.
Cleanliness – It wasn’t dirty, but it didn’t feel clean either.
Comfort – Not much. The bed wasn’t so hot, the shower was weak. There was no a/c in the lounge areas. It was too hot to be in there in the afternoon. It only had hard wood backed chairs to sit in, so it wasn’t really a comfy place to chill out and watch a movie at night or anything either.
Character – Nothing much to speak of. They are adding on some additional rooms. Maybe those will be nicer.
Amenities – TV and DVD player in the lounge, really slow internet wireless and 2 computers, an uninviting swimming pool, breakfast, luggage storage
Recommended? Not really. I do recommend getting a/c or at least a fan unless you just love the heat. Some of the dirt cheap places don’t have those options, but there were many other places of a comparable price that looked nicer.

The town itself is small enough with quite a few hotels, that this is a place you could go check out a couple once you got there to see which one you liked. The only problem would be availability.

You can get to the falls by bus or taxi. The bus costs $2.50 round trip. It leaves every half an hour from the terminal. Not on the hour though. More like 10 and 40 past.

We ended up having to take a taxi back from the falls because we ended up staying late and we would have missed out bus back to BA if we waited for the next return bus. The taxi cost about $14 – sucky for us (I’ll explain why later).

We went to the falls at 8:10am and left at 4:45 to catch our 5:30 night bus to BA.(at least 15 minutes from the falls to the town)

We used up every second of out time there. Some of the night buses left at around 3pm. I don’t see how you could possibly see all the falls have to offer in less time than we spent.

Entrance fee - $10. The food was all a little expensive, but not outrageous. We actually ate at the fancy restaurant in the hotel. The buffet was recommended by LP as being a good splurge. Well the buffet was almost $25 per person, we couldn’t do that, so we just ate $7 sandwiches. I loved it though because the wait staff treated us like royalty despite us still being damp from our dunking in the waterfalls and having completely messed up hair etc. The view was also very pretty.

I was really excited to go on one of the rafts that take you into the falls. What I couldn’t decide was whether to pay $15 for a 10 minute raft ride into the falls or $30 to go on a 8km trip though the jungle on a big truck, a longer raft ride down the river and a dunk under the falls (1 hr total).

We decided to go for the whole package in the end. I don’t regret it because my feet and legs were exhausted and I really needed to just sit down and take a break for a while, but we really didn’t see anything of great worth and I felt a little silly riding around on the top of that monster truck. So, my advice $15 for the raft ride is definitely worth it. The other half of the trip wasn’t.

We booked our ticket in a local travel agency in town. They charge the exact same amount no matter where you go. You can also book it once you get to the park if you aren’t sure what you want to do.

The falls were beautiful. The best view was from the raft. The second best view is from the island in the middle. I had read that it was more of an intense hike. True the stairs were steep and long, but I’m not very fit, and I was fine although a little breathless. It was worth it.

The devil’s throat falls are amazing too, but you normally have to ride on their little train to get there. The walk from the train to the falls is very beautiful. We were told to go in the later afternoon because you have the best light without the sun blinding you. It takes a good 15 minutes to walk from the train to the falls. We were supposed to catch the train back and head straight for the bus so we could catch the big bus back to BA. Our plans were thwarted when a tree fell on the train tracks and we couldn’t continue on. They had to bring people in with chain saws and all that to remove the tree. That extra time caused us to miss the bus back to town and so that’s why we ended up taking a taxi.

The bus we took didn’t have the full sleepers or alcohol on board, but I’m glad we took the later trip because we really enjoyed our time at the falls and wouldn’t have wanted to leave earlier. I think it would be great to spread it out over 2 days, but then you have to pay another $10 to get back in the next day, so we didn’t, but I would recommend that if you aren’t on a tight budget.

The bus from Iguazu to BA cost about $45 and we arrived the next day around 11am.

I know many people think the long overnight buses are a great way to travel. I agree for the most part, but every time we did it I needed at least 5-6 hours after we arrived at our next destination to recuperate. I’m just pointing that out because everyone raves about them all the time, but I see my exhaustion – almost like jet lag – as a big disadvantage, and a good reason to fly if you can afford it and are short on time.

We did not go to Brazil because we are Americans and were told that we would have to pay $100 each just to cross over for a few hours.  One travel agent said if we went on an organized tour we would not have to pay for the visa, but I did not have that confirmed by anyone else.

We arrived from Buquebus and took a taxi from there to our hostel in Recoleta. It cost U$S8. I have a sneaky suspicion the meter was going up faster than it should have been, but I can’t be sure. It seemed like it was flying, but it was our first taxi in BA, so I didn’t have a good comparison level. But, I never saw a meter go that fast before or since in BA or elsewhere.
Who knows…?

Hotels: It wasn’t hard to find a place to stay for 1 or sometimes 2 nights, but it was challenging to find a place to stay for more than 2 nights in a row. If you have your heart set on somewhere specific, then I might suggest making a reservation before you come.

Southern House BA Hostel (Recoleta)
http://www.southernhouseba.com/index2eng.php
Price - $35 for a double with a private bath and descent breakfast ($9 for a dorm room)
Cleanliness – clean
Comfort – Nice firm bed, good small shower, There were no curtains in the room and the shade thing was broken, so we had to hang a blanket over the window. A little traffic noise, but no hostel noise.
Character – It had a modernish feel to it. Especially in the lobby area.
Amenities – breakfast, wireless internet, but no computers for those without, travel agent (we found a better deal online than they quoted for a flight), discounts and passes to clubs, restaurants etc. a board with announcements about the going ons around the city. Large screen TV and DVD in the dining room.
Recommended? Yes, I liked the place, but we decided to leave because we thought $35 was too much money and they don’t have any shared baths outside of the dorms. The employees were nice. It had a lot of amenities and things going on for visitors to participate in. Good location (4 blocks from a subway).

We didn’t want to waste money on a taxi, so we took our luggage on the subway. It was a little bit of a pain getting up and down the stairs, but doable. The subway costs 70 centavos (22 cents American) much cheaper than taking a taxi all the way from Recoleta to San Telmo. I would just caution not to try this at rush hour.

Our next step was not totally logical, but there is a hotel recommended in LP for a splurge. We looked at their website and it sounded amazing and barely any more expensive than what we had just paid the night before. So, we thought, what the heck…unfortunately, it wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be.

Boquitas Pintadas (In LP) now Youkali Hotel (The vicinity of San Telmo)
http://www.youkali.com.ar/
Price - $40-80 for a double with a private bath (1 room has its bath outside the room) and delicious breakfast
Cleanliness – clean, but it was in an old building and so there was some wear with age that was obvious.
Comfort – The bed was okay, but I had a neck ache when I woke up. The water went off around 9pm and didn’t come back on until around noon the next day, so I didn’t get a shower. I asked for a discount to compensate for the fact and they gave us 10% off.
Character – It reminded me of San Francisco/Berkeley area. Lots of old Victorian stuff mixed with more modern styles. Each room is decorated differently according to the description (part of what we thought was cool), but it turns out that really means everything is pretty much the same except for 1 item hanging on the wall and ours happened to be a giant blue bow. I wasn’t really impressed with that. I did kind of like the disco ball in the stair well though.
Amenities – breakfast, wireless internet, TV with cable in the room.
Recommended? - It was a funky place, but not nearly as cool as it was made out to be in both LP and the website. So, we looked for somewhere a little more affordable to stay.

Our next hostel wasn’t our first choice, but it was the 1^st place that had room for more than 1 night at a time.

El Firulete Downtown (We stayed in the Center, but there is a Palermo location too)
www.el-firulete.com.ar
Price - $28 for a double room and shared bath
Cleanliness – clean
Comfort – Nice firm bed. The baths were shared, but there were plenty of them, so I never had to wait in line. The showers were in private cubicles, so you could have some privacy. There were soap dispensers in the showers and soap and paper towels by the sinks.
We stayed in 2 different rooms. The wireless connection didn’t reach to the 3^rd floor, so we switched to the second. The 3^rd floor was really quiet from all hostel noise, but there is pretty heavy traffic there and the noise carries. The room in the second floor was windowless, so no traffic noise, but all the music, people, activity from the common room could be heard easily and I felt very claustrophobic being in a room without windows.
Also, the list of amenities includes air conditioning. The common room has air, but none of the other rooms do. I would hate to be there in January.
Character – It was pleasantly decorated.
Amenities – breakfast until noon was great after the late BA nights, wireless and 2 other computers, TV in lounge, laundry, if you get the right person, they can help you to make travel arrangements, but it took them a day to get back to us with the answer.
Recommended?-Yes, it was reasonably priced compared to some of the other places. It seemed like they had thought about some things like the soap and breakfast that other places don’t. It was also in a perfect location to catch almost any of the subway lines.
I wouldn’t stay here in the summer though. The traffic makes it too loud to open a window and without air or even a fan, it would be miserable.

We left to go to Iguazu Falls and we returned to a different hostel.

Posta del Barto Hostel (Downtown near the congress building)
http://www.postadelbarto.com/indexpopbarto_ing.html
Price - $15 for … well we reserved a double room, but they double booked so we ended up in a dorm room that had 6 beds, but only us in it. Shared bath
Cleanliness – ok, but not super clean. For example, there was a table in the room that still had something sticky like dried orange juice left on it. The drainage in the showers isn’t good, so the whole shower area is covered in water.
Comfort – Not much comfort here. The dorms had bunk beds with really thin mattresses on them. I took the mattress off the other bed and put it on mine to have 2 and I could still feel the wooden slats digging into my back. There weren’t any comfy couches or chairs in the common areas. The bathroom was down a narrow winding staircase. Not the most convenient for a midnight bathroom run. Especially, if you are still a bit tipsy from a night out.
Character – Just eclectic furniture. It looked like they just assembled what they could find at a garage sale.
Amenities – small breakfast, 2 computers and a cord for lap tops to plug into. They provided sheets, but you had to pay extra for towels $1 and pay a key deposit. TV and broken CD player. There are no lockers in the dorms. I’m not sure what they expect their guests to do with their belongings when they go out, but that seemed ridiculous to me to expect people to share a room without a way to keep their things safe.
Recommended?Not unless you are on a really tight budget. It did cost a lot less than everywhere else, but we left the next day because it was not my idea of a place I wanted to be.

Thanks for Jorge from the TT for providing a list of hotels. That is where I found this place.

Hotel Marbella (Downtown)
Price - $33 for a double with a private bath and breakfast
Cleanliness – very clean
Comfort – Nice beds, good, but slightly strange shower with a spout that shot water up too. The window opened to a courtyard, so there was no hotel or street noise! Even though it was on a very busy street.
Character – The room and hotel was simple, but pleasant.
Amenities – breakfast, air conditioning/heater, 1 slow computer in the lobby, TV with cable in the room, helpful front desk, wake up call. Airport transfers
Recommended? Yes, I wish we had stayed here the whole time. It was the best nights sleep I had the whole time we were in BA. The only disadvantage is that it is not set up to meet up with other travelers really. I felt like we got the most for our money here.

I wanted to buy some clothes while I was there. We went to Palermo on Saturday and found an amazing market there full of fun, funky, cheap clothes. The only problem is that they are all made for really tiny body sizes. I had to forgo a lot of things because they didn’t fit.

Other than that, I think we were pretty typical in where we went and what we visited. So, I’ll leave you to form your own opinions. I will say though, that I loved BA. We spent 8 days there and could have spent another week at least. There is so much to see, do, eat, everywhere. It is all still fairly affordable. I went to Paris for one day when I was in college, and had to leave because I couldn’t even afford to eat lunch there or ride the subway. This was like getting to luxuriate in the lifestyle of Paris, but I could actually afford to stay and enjoy myself.

Argentina to Uruguay

We arrived on a night bus from Mendoza and went straight from the bus station to the buquebus ferry terminal in a taxi.

We did not book our tickets before hand. It looked like one would be leaving at around 11am and if we arrived around 9:30am we thought we would have enough time. Once we got there we were told, along with about 10 other people before us, that there were no more tourist class seats available. We would have to buy first class tickets if we wanted to go on that particular ferry. We could have waited, but spending the next 5 hours waiting around a ferry terminal with all our luggage didn’t really appeal, so we sucked if up and bought the first class. There are different categories of ferries and different classes within the ferries as well as various destinations. You can go to the website http://www.buquebus.com/
You can even buy your tickets online, but I’m not sure exactly how it works since I didn’t do it. First class is nice, but not worth the extra money. We arrived in Colonia and there was a bus waiting at the ferry station to take us straight to Montevideo. The whole trip including bus and ferry lasted a little over 3 hours.
The immigration process was the easiest of any we have passed through yet.

A note about Uruguay: Many people visit this country as a short side trip from BA. I think a 1 week trip would be about perfect to see the highlights (Colonia, Montevideo and the beach). This country doesn’t have the main attractions that some other places have. The one thing is definitely has going for it are the people. They were the nicest, friendliest and most helpful people that I met out of the 6 Latin American countries we visited.

Montevideo

The buquebus dropped us off at the central bus station. We took a taxi from there to our hotel in downtown ($3). Taxi’s have a different system there. The number on the meter is not the amount you pay. The number corresponds to an amount on a chart that the driver carries with him. I am always suspicious when things are different than I expected, but it is legit.

Hotel Arapey
http://www.arapey.com.uy/
Price - $18 for a double with a bath. No breakfast
Cleanliness – okay. A little on the shabby side.
Comfort – Mattress was okay, but the pillow was very thin. I did find a second one in the cupboard. that helped. It did not have a lot of street noise, but the hallways echoed and the couches on each floor were right in front of our room. People were sitting and talking loudly on them at 12-4am one night
Character – We found out about this place through lonely planet. I quote, “gorgeous (if slightly over the top) furniture…” I would not call this place gorgeous. It is in an old building and a lot of the furniture reflects the right time period, but it is run down and hasn’t been taken care of the way it should. It has the old fashioned character though. If you turn on a light switch, music will come on through speakers into your room.
Amenities – some rooms have cable, but not all. There is a phone that calls down to the front desk – sometimes it works. They will wake you up in the morning if you ask. Luggage storage.
Recommended? - It all just seemed a little dark and dreary to me. It was fine for sleeping, but I didn’t really want to be there too much otherwise. I met someone who was staying at the Red Hostel she really liked it there. http://www.redhostel.com/

I looked into working as an ESL teacher here as well. There were opportunities to teach business English to managers etc. in companies. Language schools for high schools and children also exist, but they run more on the school schedule of March – December. The pay was nice, especially compared to Mendoza, but Uruguay was more expensive in general. Rent was about $500 for a furnished 1 bedroom apartment in the central areas. Eating out cost more like $10 per person instead of $5 like we found in Argentina. The transportation system involved buses that would work, but would take time to figure out. Especially because the teachers have to go to the various offices, so there is a lot of moving around necessary to get from one job to the next. We decided not to stay here, but I think it was my favorite capital city of all the countries we visited if I was going to live in one (Not for vacationing). But, I prefer things to be a little smaller for living.

We moved on to Punte Del Este for a nice side trip to the beach.

The bus ticket cost about $3.50 and took 2 hours. The drive was beautiful. We were smitten before we even got there.

I’m not a huge fan of sky rises on the beach, but the area around the peninsula was really nice and green and much more peaceful. It was kind of neat to have both kinds of worlds available so close together.

Brava Mar
http://www.topuruguay.com/es/hoteles/puntadeleste/bravamar/bravamar.htm
I think it has its own website too, but that one has most of the important details including other hotels.
Price - $30 for a double with a private bath and descent breakfast (during October. It goes way up in January and a little higher in the Spring) We checked out 3 other prices and that was the cheapest descent hotel we could find during our brief search.
Cleanliness – Very clean and tidy
Comfort – Nice bed, good shower, the shades on the windows that come down to keep out the sun and the noise. The room was not large, but it had closets to put your suitcases in to give more space.
Character – Perfect for a more budget hotel in the area. It wasn’t fancy, but it was pleasant. The colors matched and everything tended to be in beach colors, blue, white and beige. The tiles in the bathroom had images of shells on them.
Amenities – breakfast with a sea view, luggage storage, cable, but the TV picture was a little green tinted in our room. Near the main attractions like the giant hand, the bus station and the main strip of restaurants etc. We got a weak wireless connection, but we think it was coming from another building. No Internet.
Recommended? - The manager was extremely friendly and helpful. I thought it was a great place. $30 was a little more than what we had been paying, but the price vs. what you got thing seemed to be on target.

There is a hostel that sounds nice in the area, but they didn’t answer their phone when we tried to call from the bus station.

We looked into renting a car. Dollar was the cheapest at $32, but they didn’t have any economy cars left. $38-42 was about normal per day. You can rent the moto scooters for about $28 a day or $6 per hour. You need your drivers license from your home country. Passports aren’t good enough. Sometimes people say it is cheaper to hire a taxi for the day, so I asked just out of curiosity. The driver told me it would be about $100 for 5 hours. So, I guess not. Also, taxis in general tended to be a little expensive here.

Punte del Este to Colonia
We took a bus back to Montevideo en route to Colonia (Not normally necessary, but we had left one of our suitcases there, so we needed to get it back). Then caught a bus an hour later to Colonia. In total about 4 ½ hours driving and $7.50

Colonia

We arrived pretty late (around 8pm) without a reservation. We tried to go to a couple of places recommended in on a website about Colonia (www.guiacolonia.com.uy). It provided online booking, but no telephone #’s. I was trying to make a booking that afternoon right before we got on the bus, so the whole email thing wasn’t going to work for us, but we basically went around being told full, full, full. So, apparently, make a booking in advance here. Someone told us about a hostel nearby, so we finally were able to find a place, but it wasn’t the best nights sleep I’ve gotten.

We stayed at Posada Casa Los Pinas

There is nothing particularly special or bad about the hotel itself until 7am. The building next door is under construction. It sounds like they have a shared wall that they started hammering and banging on so freaking early in the morning. No amount of earplugs or pillows over my head helped. The building didn’t look close to being done, so I warn everyone to stay FAR AWAY for at least 6 months (May 07).

I went to the tourist information office and they had a brochure with hotels AND their phone #’s
She recommended the following

Posada San Gabriel 052 23283
Posada Del Angel 052 24602
Posada De La Armonia 052 28645
Hospedaje El Espanol 052 30759
I don’t know much about them, but you can go to the website to get more info and then call them if you are interested.

Eating Out

We ate at 2 amazing places while we were there.

Viego Barrio was good Italian, but the real highlight was the waiter. He was a crazy fun guy who kept changing from one crazy hat to another. We asked about mate because so many people were drinking it, but no one sells it in the little cafes or whatever. So, he went and got his own cup and then gave us a little mate making and drinking demonstration then he let us try it.

Parrillada El Porton had great pork. Everything that came off the grill was so succulent and tender, but the pork was phenomenal.

Colonia - Buenos Aires

We left that night around 7pm to head back to Argentina on Buquebus. This time we went on the 3 hour ferry (around $22) in order to save money. It wasn’t too bad. The ferry is so comfortable and you can get up and walk around and everything, so it is worth it if you are on a budget. Not if you are on a time crunch.