Right before moving from Seattle to London, I took a couple weeks to go visit AJ in Buenos Aires.  Miriam also joined me.  I never blogged on this trip, so here are just some recommendations and highlights.

Buenos Aires:

·         Tango:  This is extremely popular in Buenos Aires.  It is a great place to get custom shoes made and also to take tango classes, or just go tango dancing in general.  Message me for specific recommendations on shoemakers, dance instructors, or milonga locations, let me know as I have a lot of info on this topic.

·         Ladies: Do some shopping.  It is really cheap and the leather goods (shoes and bags) are great

·         Clubbing: Lots of good nightclubs and house parties.  They usually don’t get started until about 1-2am though.  Highly recommend taking a siesta in the early evening.  Dinner starts around 10pm, and then the night gets going after.  

Mendoza: I would recommend a trip here.  This is where the Malbec wine comes from, and it’s really a nice place to visit.

·         You can drive or take a bus from BA, but in order to save time, I chose to fly.  If you fly, you’ll need to book early.  There are 2 airlines: LAN and Aeroineas Argentina. 

·         Day 1 in Mendoza: Fly in this day.  Spend the afternoon seeing the town itself.  It is pretty small, but worth a stroll through.  There are a decent number of restaurants/bars/clubs to hang out at.

·         Day 2: Bodegas (Wineries).  I would recommend hiring a driver for this day.  Get a map and look for 4-5 (max) good wineries to visit.  That will be enough for the day, and you’ll likely be drunk by lunch given how much wine each winery will try to serve you!  I’d recommend going to Tempus Alba for lunch as the food is good and they have a great terrace. (http://www.tempusalba.com/tempus_alba/english/home_eng.htm)  There are large and small wineries near Tempus Alba so you can easily plan to visit some of them as your other 3-4 wineries.  Note: you can also use the local bus (but you’ll spend extra time trying to navigate the system) or hiring bicycles.  A lot of people rent bikes – we didn’t because riding a bicycle drunked seems painful.  Lots do it and the roads in the wine region are not crowded, so it would be fine from that perspective.

·         Day 3: Aconagua/Mountains.  There is a nice drive outside of Mendoza, towards Aconcagua (the highest peak outside of the Himalayas).  Along the way, there are plenty of things to see and you could also do a short day-hike somewhere along the way.  For ideas, check out: http://www.enjoy-argentina.org/mendoza-destinations-mendoza-mountain-high-circuit.php

o   For those not interested in hiking, there are other activities (paragliding, natural hot tubs/spas)

·         Finding a driver: We just took a taxi from the airport to our hotel in Mendoza.  In the car, we negotiated with the taxi driver to spend the next two days with us.  Just make sure to have the spanish-speaking people in the group lead these negotiations and negotiate hard – even with your taxi ride from the airport!

Iguazu:

·         I also flew to Iguazu from BA.  The waterfalls are spectacular, and it is a nice contrast from Medoza – completely different side to Argentina.

·         There isn’t a lot going on in Iguazu outside of the falls (the town is fine for dinner/drinks, but nothing to really see), so a couple days is enough.  It can be rainy though so having two days is good in case the weather is bad one of the days.