Argentina - Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls National Park

Brazil - Rio de Janeiro and Iguassu Falls National Park

Buenos Aires

About

Overview – My wife, Sandra, is from Buenos Aires, so our intention was to spend most of our two weeks visiting friends and family.  It was the 80th birthday of Sandra’s oldest sister and her husband Alex. So, we decided to take our first airplane trip since COVID and our first trip overseas in quite a very long time. On one of our three flights, Sandra got COVID and we assumed that I did too. This altered our plans somewhat. Luckily, we both had very mild symptoms.

You could probably get a good feel for the city and see everything you would want to see in one week. Buenos Aires is a beautiful cosmopolitan city, home to tango music, old world architecture, modern fashion design, art and let’s not forget Pope Francis.  Because of its architecture and demographics Buenos Aires feels more to me like a European city then a South American one. 

Demographics – With a metro population of 13,750,000, Buenos Aires is the second largest city in South America. Almost one out of every three Argentinean live in this single metro area. It is also a very white city, with Caucasians making up 89% of Its population. Its biggest ethnic group are Italians, followed by Spaniards, Germans and Jews. Buenos Aires is home to the world's largest concentration of Jews outside of Israel, the US and France.

Safety – If you spend most of your time in the central area of town, you will have little to fear for your personal safety, even very late at night. Argentinians love night life and the streets are often crowed in the evening. Buenos Aires has a Travel Safe Ranking of 60 out of 100. For reference New York City ranks just a little safer with a score of 67.

Food – Argentinian food is quite good, but being that I am not a meat connoisseur nor eat a lot of Italian food, I found that there was not a large range of dishes to choose from. And unfortunately, there was not a significant array of good non-Argentinian restaurants available. When it comes to ethnic restaurants, even our small hometown of Madison seems to have a better selection. However, we did enjoy excellent Armenian food at Sarkis Restaurant just a few blocks from our apartment. For those eating gluten free or vegan, there are a gazillion options available, far greater than what we found in our travels in the US. Organic produce was hard to find unless you are a local participating in a CSA program. Sandra had a great time enjoying all the gluten free versions of dishes and desserts from her childhood, and we especially enjoyed Buenos Aires Verde, an amazing raw dish restaurant.

Getting Around – Most days, we were chauffeured around by Susana & Alex, so we did not take advantage of any of any of the city’s very extensive mass transit system, and much of what we saw on our own was walking distance (some days very long) from our apartment with the occasional Uber or taxi ride to get back.  Though we did not utilize it, I was happy to see that central part of the city had a vast network of protected bicycle lanes and bicycle rental stations.

Getting There – No visas are required for Argentina.  However, when we arrived at the Madison airport, we found out that we each had to fill out a lengthy on-line document with required fields we did not have answers to, such as the exact address with postal code of the place we were staying. I only brought the street address with me and Sandra had to key in random postal codes before it took one.  It was a little tense, but we arrived two hours before the flight, so we had time to spare.  After all that work, we were surprised to find upon our arrival to Argentina that there was no record of my file in their system.  Thankfully, our immigration officer was in a good mood and just waved us through.

Palermo Neighborhood – Palermo, where we stayed, is one of the hippest areas of town, with many modern upscale apartment buildings sprinkled between 19th century classical French and Italian style structures.  It is a very walkable area with a vibrant nightlife, and either a market, produce stand, restaurant, tavern, or coffee house on almost every corner.  There is a lot of places to visit in Palermo such as the Botanical Gardens, the Latin American Art Museum, Tres de Feberero Park, the National Museum of Decorative Art, the Japanese Gardens, and the Planetarium.  I especially enjoyed the Japanese Gardens.  I am somewhat a connoisseur of Japanese Gardens, and this is one of the best I have seen.

Recoleta Neighborhood – Next door to Palermo is Recoleta, the city’s most elegant neighborhood. At one point during its history, Argentina was the eighth richest country in the world. During that period, Recoleta was the place where the uber rich of the country built their stately homes. Most of these homes and public buildings were designed by imported French architects using materials from Europe. Many of these grand buildings are now gone, but enough of them remain to give you the impression you are walking the streets of Paris. One of the main attraction in this area is the Recoleta Cemetery, an eerily beautiful place, with a labyrinth of narrow alleyways bordered by towering marble mausoleums rich in art deco, baroque, and neo-gothic architectural styles. At every turn you can find marble statues, decorative iron gates, and beautiful artwork. Each of the 6,400 mausoleums are owned by an individual family and are big enough below ground to house the remains of generations of family members. If a family falls on hard times, they can sell their mausoleum for as much as $150,000, depending on its location. As with all real estate it is location, location, location.

La Boca Neighborhood – Whenever you look at a blog or tour book about Buenos Aires, the picture on the cover is usually of colorful Caminito street in La Boca.  La Boca was a busy harbor in the 1800s and is the area where many Italian immigrants settled. The neighborhood still has a strong Italian flavor, but over the years it has been converted into more of a Disneyland like tourist haven.  It is still a fun place to visit with its colorful houses, market stalls, street performers, artists, tango clubs and Italian taverns. The neighborhood is home to one of the countries most popular soccer teams, the Boca Juniors, and also the Fundación Proa Museum which offers excellent views of the harbor from its rooftop terrace. The actual tourist dominated area is only a few blocks. Venturing just outside this small area, the neighborhood changes very quickly to a far less safer area for tourists to hang out, specially after dark.

San Telmo Neighborhood – One of the oldest neighborhoods in the city characterized by its colonial buildings, cobblestone streets, cafes, art galleries, and antique shops.  Sundays are a great time to visit the neighborhood as the Feria de San Telmo craft and antiques market takes place on Plaza Dorrego. On market days the main streets become filled with vendors, tango dancers, puppet shows and jugglers. A must see in the area is the San Telmo Market, a massive 19th century structure with an Italian façade that is now filled with numerous stalls selling food, antiques, and crafts. We ended the day with a stroll through beautiful Parque Lezama, one of the city’s oldest parks and had a drink at one of the of historic bars facing the park.

Iguazu Falls National Park

Overview – Considered to be one of the best national parks in South America, and the most impressive waterfalls in the entire world. The Iguazu Falls are actually a chain of 275 individual waterfalls stretching for nearly two miles along the Iguazu River on the Brazil Argentina border. You cannot imagine the power one feels standing next to all of that rushing water. 46 million liters of water flow through these falls every second. By contrast only nine million liters a second flows through Niagara Falls. This is why when visiting these falls Eleanor Roosevelt was quoted as saying “My poor Niagara”. There are actually two Iguazu Falls National Parks. One on the Argentine side and one on the Brazilian. The perspectives from both parks are completely different. The Brazilian side, which in Portuguese is called Iguassu, provides a more stunning panorama of the falls, while the Argentine side offers more in-your-face vantage points from where you can actually get up close and personal with the falls. I would recommend spending three to four days here and prepare to get wet.

Getting Around – We flew into Puerto Iguazu, the nearest town to the falls on the Argentine side. The only way to get from town to the park is either with a tour bus group or to hire a driver. We were a group of four, so hiring a driver was actually cheaper than four tour bus tickets. Once you get to park’s main entrance, there is a toy train to take you up to the trail heads. To get to the falls on the Brazilian side our driver took us to the park’s main entrance where we caught a bus to the trail head.

Argentinian Side – This is where most of the falls are. The three main areas to visit in the park are the Superior Circuit, the Lower Circuit, and Devils Throat. Unfortunately, when we were there, the water level was so high they had to close the Devils Throat, and we were not able to see it from the Argentine side. The trail along the Superior Circuit was spectacular. It wound through lush jungle past numerous waterfalls offering amazing views of the rushing waters. Despite the persistent rain some critters where not intimidated by the bad weather. We enjoyed the view of a monkey getting away with somebody’s lunch and a family of coatis strolling among a sea of tourists.

Brazilian side - The park here is much smaller, with one main trail offering magnificent panoramic views of the Argentine side and ending at the foot of a huge semicircular waterfall. The day left us time to enjoy the Parque Das Aves (the Bird Park), a very beautifully planned bird sanctuary for 143 amazing tropical species, spread over 40 acres of jungle. There is also a duty-free shopping shopping center that tourists like to visit that was surprising much more crowded than the national park. Other attractions which we did not visit included the Dream Museum and the Valley of of jungle.

Paraguayan Side - The Parana River and the Iguazu River met just two blocks from our hotel forming a three-way border. Even though Paraguay was less than half-a-mile away, there were no bridges anywhere near us. If we wanted to visit Paraguay, we would have needed to travel through Brazil requiring four border crossings in one day. It would have been fun to visit another country, but we were told that it definitely was not worth the hassle.

Rio de Janeiro

Overview – Rio de Janeiro is an intense and lively vibrant city, famed for its Carnaval and samba-fueled nightlife. And it is probably the most beautiful location you could imagine for a major metropolitan city.  Everywhere you go in the city, you are a stone’s throw from either a lush mountain overlook or a shimmering beach walk. We spent 12 days enjoying this amazing city. Although many people feel that a few days in Rio is enough, I would recommend a 1½ to 2 weeks visit to do all of Rio.

Demographics – Rio is a large city with a metro population of 12,280,000 Because of its former extensive slave trade, 51% of the city’s population are of full or mixed African descent. Even though the blacks are in the majority here, they lack the political and economic power you would expect to come with their numbers

Safety – Rio only has a Travel Safe Ranking of 43 out of 100.  For reference, New York City has a score of 67.  We wanted to have a more flavorful and local experience and decided not to lodge in Ipanema or Copacabana as most of the tourists do. Our Airbnb host warned us about venturing out at night and to always remain watchful and try not to look like a tourist it that was possible. So, I let Sandra with her passable Portuguese do all of the talking. During our stay, we were always alert while going out-and-about and returned back home shortly after sunset. Being alert meant keeping our valuables in front of our bodies while in crowded places, and holding your phone firmly when taking pictures as it is a common occurrence of speeding motorcyclists grabbing your phones or valuables and being a half a block away before you realize what happened. As we became more familiar with our surroundings, we also became more relaxed and started to have even more fun.

Food – Brazilian food is very good and their tropical fruits are beyond delicious. Fortunately for me, the variety of traditional dishes that I liked was greater than in Argentina, but unfortunately, the array of good ethnic non-Brazilian restaurants was even smaller.  Also, we found a smaller selection of gluten free or vegan options, but we were now able to purchase some organic produce at big supermarkets.  We especially enjoyed all the seafood dishes and the Rodizios all-you-can-eat Brazilian barbeques, where they would come to your table with different cuts of meat on a skewer for you to sample. But in my opinion, going out for this kind of food once a week was more than enough.

Getting Around – Rio has a very good clean modern subway system, that was able to take us almost everywhere we wanted to go. Towards the end of our trip, we realized that hiring one uber vs paying for two subway passes was not tremendously more, so. we got lazy and ubered almost everywhere. After dark taking an uber was the safer option.

Getting There– There are no flights to Rio from Puerto Iguazu, so, we had to cross the border again to fly out of the Foz do Iguassu Airport. To get into Brazil no visa was needed, but we were required to show proof of Covid vaccination. I guess anti-vaxers are not welcomed in Brazil.

Lapa Neighborhood – We chose an apartment in Lapa which borders the neighborhoods of Santa Teresa and Centro that was only an 11-minute walk to a subway station.  Lapa is best known for its lively cultural life, restaurants, bars, and nightlife filled with music and samba circles.  Unfortunately, because we were so paranoid to venture out after dark, we were not able to take advantage of much of this activity.  Lapa is a very old neighborhood, home to lots of interesting Portuguese architecture with many of these buildings in poor shape.  But I feel that this kind of added to the charm of the neighborhood. Fortunately, there is now a conservationist movement to preserve these structures, and if the entire building can not be saved, the old facades are required to be left intact, sometimes leaving a hollow open space inside.

Houses of Santa Teresa overlooking Lapa

Santa Teresa Neighborhood - Located on top of hill, during the 18th and 19th centuries Santa Teresa was a haven for the upper-class avoiding the illnesses plaguing the city below.  The wealthy are gone now, but many of their opulent villas still remain.  The neighborhood now has more of a bohemian atmosphere with art studios, restaurants, and bars.  We visited this area twice.  The first time was after climbing a very long series of steps and hilly streets.  The second time was on the Bondinho streetcar that began whisking us along the top of the 18th century Arcos da Lapa aqueduct, giving us fantastic views of the city, and then along narrow winding streets.  It was loads of fun and almost felt as if we were on an amusement park ride.  A main attraction here is the Selarón Steps which is a beautiful stairway covered with colorful mosaic tiles from all over the world connecting to the Lapa neighborhood below.  It took Mr. Selarón working alone, 20 years to complete project.

Lapa to Santa Teresa via the Selarón Steps

Sugarloaf Mountain from Ruins Park

Centro Neighborhood – In Centro you can find everything you would expect from the central business district of a major metropolitan area.  There are tall modern skyscrapers, mixed in with old colonial structures like the ones you can still see at Rua do Ouvidor, the Old Parliament building, and 19th century beauties like the Opera House. One of the area’s main attractions is the Catedral Metropolitana. Outside, the cathedral looks like something from the set of a dystopian movie such as Blade Runner. However, inside it is quite beautiful with impressive 315 feet high stained-glass windows. For some reason the cathedral was built without a cross on top. The owner of the office building across the street wanted to rectify this and had his structure built with a negative space for a cross. To see the cross perfectly aligned over the cathedral you need to be on top of Sugarloaf Mountain with a zoom lens.

Vermelha Beach & Urca Mountain – Sandra and I agree that Vermelha Beach is by far the most beautiful urban beach we have ever seen. This beach which is only a block long is void of cars, lined with loads of vegetation, and has a spectacular view of towering mountains on both sides of the narrow bay. From the beach it is a short walk to the Urca Mountain trailhead. Urca Mountain (700 feet) is the little brother to Sugarloaf Mountain (1,300 feet). Most people take a cable car from Vermelha Beach to Urca Mountain and then a second cable car to Sugarloaf Mountain. We opted instead to hike to the top of Urca Mountain and passed on the second cable car ride. We were informed that view from the higher mountain was only marginally more spectacular. We waited for a day with good visibility, and it paid off, from atop Urca, we were gifted with great views of the city. Afterwards, we enjoyed an lovely walk through the Urca neighborhood.

Sugarloaf Mountain from Vermelha Beach

Sugarloaf (left) and Urca (right) from Botafugo

Vermelha Beach From Urca Mountain

Botafugo and Christ the Redeemer From Urca

Christ the Redeemer - Considered to be Rio’s most popular tourist destination. We were there on a weekday during the offseason, and it was still wall to wall people. The 98 feet tall open armed Cristo Redentor can be seen from almost everywhere you go in the city. And as can be imagined, the views from the top are absolutely amazing. To get to the Cristo you have three options. Hike up the 2,300 feet high trail from the park entrance, drive to a parking lot a little below the top, or take a delightful cog railway train that winds its way through thick jungle. Being that all three options cost the same amount, we opted for the railway.

Centro (top) & Santa Teresa (bottom)

Ipanema from Christ the Redeemer

Copacabana & Ipanema Beaches - Sandra and I are not really beach people, but we enjoyed a 2.5 mile walk along Copacabana, a short walk through a connecting residential area and then half of Ipanema before we were beached out. These beaches are famous for their artistic mosaic sidewalks designed by Roberto Burle Marx. Unfortunately, both sidewalks ran adjacent to noisy multi lane roadways and offered little shading vegetation. On the east end of Ipanema Beach there is a small hilly peninsula jutting out into the water with trails leading to great views of the beach. We loved that part of the day’s hike the most.

Copacabana Beach

Ipanema Beach

Favela Rocinha – Touring the favelas/shanty towns of Rio is now a common tourist experience. We were a bit skeptical about doing it but we selected a tour where the tour owner and guide were from the favela, and a percentage of the revenue went to support community projects.  Favelas are easy to spot from a distance.  They appear as a blotch of tiny homes clustered tightly along a very steep hillside.  In Rocinha, a community of 180,000, a city within the city, there is only one main road going straight up at a ridiculous steep angle.  To get around, you must either walk or take a motorcycle taxi.  Our guide took us up on motorcycles, and I have to say that it was an absolutely terrifying experience for me.  Imagine sitting on a back of a bike with gravity and momentum constantly pushing you backwards and only thing keeping you in your seat was your death grip around two side bars.  It was interesting that all the moto-taxi drivers had helmets, but there were none for any of the passengers.  Fortunately, the ride was over after just a few minutes, and rest of the tour was spent walking back down the mountain through a series of winding alleyways. 

The residents of Rocinha have access to running water, sewers, and electricity, but not gas.  They need to carry their gas canisters and everything else they need for life up the narrow steep passageways.  Some homes lie considerable distances and elevation away from a road. Taking up large items like a refrigerator can be a logistical nightmare.  Your item can only be as wide as the narrowest point along your route, and these alleys get very narrow at points. Most of these homes do not have street addresses, so their mail is left at different gathering spots in the neighborhood for the residents to retrieve. Surprisingly, our guide said that most residents like living in the favela, and even if their economic circumstances change for the better, many prefer to stay.

Tijuca National Park – This very large mountainous park is one of the largest urban forests in the world. It’s almost completely surrounded by Rio and its suburbs with the city’s development going right up to its border.  There are many entrances to the park.  We chose the one across the street from Afonso Viseu City Park because it was just a subway and short uber ride away.  That day we chose a moderately difficult circular trail that took up past waterfalls, grottos, and the lushest green landscape we have ever seen.  Even though the park is in the middle of a mega metropolis, there was hardly anyone on the trail.  We appreciated the quiet day away from the noise of the city and would love to come back on a sunny day when the animals are not in hiding and everything is in bloom.

Next trip

India - Delhi

Nepal - Kathmandu, Pokhara, and trekking the Annapurna Circuit