Today is Viernes Santo, or Good Friday, which is a holiday here in Argentina. Chris and I, being the nonreligious folk we are, were walking around the empty streets wondering, where is everyone? until we figured it out. Argentina is a primarily Catholic country, although the country also has the largest Jewish population in Latin America. Many places were closed today, although we did find lots of people over...
Chris’s mom is back in Santa Barbara, so it’s back to just me, Chris and Holly again since yesterday. So yesterday was a tough day for us, filled with some homesickness. But I feel like homesick is the wrong term, because it’s not our actual home or even San Francisco that we miss — it’s that we’re so far away from family and friends. It’s...
On the other side of that water is Uruguay. You’re looking at El Río de la Plata, one of the widest rivers in the world. It forms a border between Argentina and Uruguay. We tried to cross it today to visit the town of Colonia del Sacramento, but to no avail. Many of the less expensive fares on the ferry sell out in advance...
OK, so today we did two of our favorite things. First, we started the day with a walking tour with Cultour — a walking tour group with a heavy emphasis on history and culture. Very highly recommended. One of our stops was the CGT building, where Chris and I posed at the front of the auditorium where union leaders (as well as Eva Perón,...
Today, all of Argentina went on el paro: strike. We saw some signs on the train yesterday, but we didn’t fully grasp the scale of what would be happening today. Across the entire country for 24 hours, ports, trains, buses, airplanes and other modes of transportation stopped. Businesses and schools were closed, non-emergency health services shut down, and garbage sat out on the street uncollected. Based...
Tigre is a town north of Buenos Aires and a popular porteño getaway. It was recommended to Chris’s mom by two separate people, so we decided to make the trek. From Retiro station downtown, the suburban metro train will get you there for US$0.75 round-trip, per person. The trip is an hour, but honestly could be halved if the train went more than 30km per hour....
Still behind on blogging. Today’s #TravelTipTuesday is what my wise friend, Justin Adams, once told me: when you’re traveling, you just go with the flow and be flexible. So we’re actually quite zen about not blogging, because we’ve been busy with other things. We’ve been hitting up all the must-sees with Chris’s mom. The highlights? 1. Antiques in San Telmo On Sundays around Plaza Dorrego,...
Wow, I think this is the longest we’ve gone without updating the blog. Nothing’s wrong — just needed an internet break, I suppose. And we’ve been exploring Buenos Aires. We’re staying in the Palermo neighborhood, which is like a city in and of itself, and spent several days just wandering around. Chris has been ramping up his new job and I spent a lot...
Holly is a real trooper. She toughed it out with us on the 20-hour bus ride from San Martín de los Andes to Buenos Aires. Above is a photo of the scenery along the way, and below is the sunrise from somewhere in the middle of Argentina. We had a stop in Neuquén about 6.5 hours into the trip so she was able to take a...
The Ruta de Siete Lagos is a scenic drive — 110km, mas o menos — between San Martín de los Andes and Villa La Angostura. While we took the drive by bus shortly after arriving in Argentina, we wanted to do it on our own so we could stop along the way. So we hopped in a rental car, grabbed a picnic (and treats for Holls),...
A friend of ours who’s thinking about taking a leap year of his own recently asked us, “Any words of wisdom on how to get started on budgeting?” Yes! Setting a budget for a leap year, career break, gap year — whatever you want to call it — can at first feel like a steep climb, but it’s easy when you take it piece...
It’s our last week in San Martín de los Andes. We’ll soon go from this quiet mountain town to a humming urban metropolis: Buenos Aires. The time always goes too fast. We’ll miss being nestled in between green mountains and we’re sad we’ll miss the colors of autumn. Some of the trees are starting to change, but they’re supposed to be really red-orange and spectacular...