Iguazu Day(s) 8 — 10
Frolicking in Argentina
Ola mi Amigos —
This update is a few days overdue. Pardon my tardiness, I’m sure you’ve all been waiting on the edge of your seats! (sarcasm)
Our last two days in Buenos Aires had us exploring more of the eateries in Palermo Hollywood. To our surprise, we actually spent the better part of one day just hanging out in the hotel vegging out. We went to a highly recommended pizza place on Saturday that served authentic Italian pizza. Thin, foldable crust and fancy toppings. Argentinian pizza seems to be thicker, analogous to Chicago deep dish pizza which Iram can’t get down with.
Being an old boring couple we didn’t stand a chance at experiencing the night life in Palermo. On one night we forced ourselves to stay up and get dessert at around 1 AM and the people watching was SUPERB! Lots of Argentinian celebrities, TV hosts, radio personalities, etc. live or hang out in Palermo Hollywood and we thoroughly enjoyed watching them in and around the neighborhood, starting their night around 1 in the morning.
Our last Sunday in BA, Iram decided she wanted to do high tea at the Alvear Palace. This was also a huge win for people watching. The marbled lobby was an interesting mix of uppercrest Buenos Aireans sipping and snacking, judging tourists, and 20 somethings from the US hanging out at the bar, enjoying their inflated sense of wealth with the devalued peso.
The tea actually was very good as were all the petit four’s and other accompaniments they present with the tea. We ate all of them. To hell with the Argentinian custom of leaving some food on your plate (apparently its to flatter your host “oh my you gave me so much I couldn’t finish”).
I very much enjoyed watching blue blood residents of Recoleta taste test the bottle of wine they selected. Tilting their glass, examining the color of the vino…swirling it with such force and precision…sticking their nose in the glass, one nostril at a time..and then finally, as a last act, taking a sip. The suspense is almost too much to bear…is it okay? has it gone bad?? has it turned into vinegar???
After all of the theatrics…they always end with a nodding of their head to the waiter like, “this is good.”
On Monday we left for Iguazu. The climate was a sharp departure from that in BA, being more tropical and rain forest like. I guess that makes sense considering it is a rain forest. The Iguazu Falls are breathtaking. No two ways about it. I was hoping to settle into the hotel, eat lunch, do some reading…some stretching…but Iram was Dora the Explorer and quite anxious to hit the trails. So we made our way to the trails and did one side of the falls, the collection of smaller water falls across from the big one they call the Devils Throat. The Falls in there entirety are 4x the size of Niagra. When you get up close to the top of them its rather majestic. The mist covers you and its hard to talk over the sound of the water rushing.
The wildlife was even better than the falls. At the top of the falls was a school of vultures that you can see circling above the falls from the plane. When the trail ends at the top, the lookout point is surrounded by vultures. Dozens and dozens of them hoping its their lucky day and a tourist wants to do something stupid like venture off the trail path. I tried to get Iram to throw something at one of them to see what their reaction would be but my suggestion was vetoed. They actually had an interesting system where one of them would fly up and join the others circling above when another one landed. Like they took turns. Kinda surprising given they’re scavengers!
On the 2nd day, we hiked through the rainforest. The hike was looking like a bust until we saw a family of monkeys in the trees above, gathering fruits. One of the monkeys cleaned its face with a leaf which was endearing. Back at the hotel, a Toucan was chilling on the deck and another exotic bird hopped onto our table to eat our snack mix. Iram got a video of that too.
We’re now in El Bolson, which I can only describe as a sleepy, hippy village outside of Bariloche where we were for the past few days. Think of it as Argentina’s Truckee. Next update will be about Bariloche and the first few days in Patagonia.
Hope you’re all doing great!
