From Beautiful Buenos Aries to Sensational Salta to gushing falls of Iguazu, Argentina really knows how to put on a show.
Argentina is the difficult middle child of the South American family of countries who wants to do everything their own way!! It’s beautiful, don’t get me wrong just contrary! For example you can only get the currency in the country and only a little at a time (about AU$80 for a AU$10 fee each time)! It’s also the only country my international SIM would not work in. I’m sure this has changed since we visited 5 years ago but on our visit it did throw up a few logistical challenges. Idiosyncrasies aside, it’s a lot cheaper than Chile and the food, fashion and wine are superb! And Australians don’t need a visa or to pay any entry fee to dive right into this glorious country.
Buenos Aries best sights
Buenos Aries deserves its reputation as the Paris of the south with its many varied districts from chic to bohemian, its dancing, boutique, bars and open parklands. It’s made up of many colourful neighbourhoods ( a bit like Paris’ arrondissements ) and we found Recoletta, San Telmo and Palermo the best for food, music, architecture and fashion.
We stayed in Recoletta which we loved as it felt very safe, had a great variety of restaurants, many parks, was close to the famous Recoletta cemetery and some great shopping and an easy walk to the river area Puerto Madera which has a sculpture trail featuring statues of Argentina’s greatest athletes, including tennis star Guillermo Vilas– Jamies favourite! Recoletta is also an easy walk to Plaza Lavalle, Plaza de la República and Plaza de Mayo – all worth a visit.
The Reserva Ecológica is also a short walk from Plaza de Mayo and this strip of reclaimed land is great to ride or walk through and look back at bustling BA from across the rive Plato . There’s vans along the river selling the famous Chorizo Pan ( sausage in bread with toppings) which make a great snack on the run as you explore BA.
Getting around Buenos Aries
We explored Buenos Aries on foot and on bicycle – it’s a big town. We walked the big European style boulevards with ornate buildings and humongous statues. I loved the statue of the fearless female 19th-century guerrilla military leader Juana Azurduy de Padilla who fought fiercely against Spanish colonial rule to secure independence for both Argentina and Bolivia . Rising up behind the BA Topiary we marvelled at the towering 68 metre high Obelisco de Buenos Aries that was erected in 1936 to mark the 400th anniversary of the founding of Buenos Aries.
We did a 4 hour bike tour with Biker Street whom we highly recommend as you get to see and learn so much being with a local. There’s also free walking tours ( pay by tip) but BAs pretty easy to walk around as the streets are orderly and well sign posted. We thought the old Marketplace in San Telmo was great with its gourmet food stalls and bars and restaurants peppered throughout and its array of Tango dance clubs. We walked around Palermo one day and whilst we found a block or two of great shops, bars and restaurants it felt more spread out and the surrounding area not as nice as Recoletta.
The colourful neighbourhood of Boca
My favourite neighbourhood was Boca near the old port which celebrates its Italian immigrant roots with colourful paintings of the lively characters that lived there. There’s a Caminito path – a pedestrian path in La Boca where you can see dancers performing the tango on the cobblestones outside the cafes. Tango is said to have originated in this area in the late 1800s and you can see the history of Tango painted on murals on the walls and figurines sold as trinkets inside the souvenir shops and cafes.
Food and glorious wine
On the first day we arrived in Buenos Aries, a middle aged couple approached us as we were trying to get money out of an ATM. We were sceptical and at first refused their assistance but after some time we decided to trust them and they helped us figure out the ATM system then offered to point out a few highlights in the neighbourhood. They mentioned a local steak house called Los Marinos in the Retiro District that was only about 15 mins walk from our hotel. It is in an unusual location under a highway flyover and its location belies the professional service and sublime Steaks inside! I’m not a big meat eater but Jamie is and our first night in Buenos Aries was total immersion in steak and Malbec culture. I need to point out that I also do not drink red wine as the histamines give me sinus headaches but this particular night everything changed for me. The only wine on offer was Malbec red. The only food on offer was steak – so I just went with the flow and discovered that Argentinian Malbec – from Mendoza – was not only delicious but agreed with me! There was not a menu at the restaurant, instead, they wheeled around trolleys of different cuts of meat and you picked what you wanted. They brought a huge bowl of fries and salad and you just kept choosing the meat as you went (bit like a steak version of our Yum-Cha in Australia). So while I ate the salad and fries and drank the Malbec (so delicious) Jamie kept ordering steaks. Jamie ended up in a literal food coma and had to take a nap after imbuing more than three steaks (at last count). Needless to say that the next morning a long run was in order to work off all the food and wine!
We loved Buenos Aries and its cosmopolitan-European vibe. We loved the dancing in the streets, the amazing food and wine, the colourful immigrant culture and the class chic shops and boulevards.
Sensational Salta and surrounds
We flew from Buenos Aires up to Salta (about 2.5 hours and $80) and picked up a hire car to explore the desert region to the north of Salta. We based ourselves at a little pension in Salta and loved wandering the streets of this colourful colonial town – particularly at night when they lit up the many churches and cathedrals. There is a perfect blend of beautifully preserved 16th-century Spanish colonial architecture, distinct Andean-indigenous identity, and jaw-dropping natural landscapes in Salta.
Salta is a low-key (but high altitude at 1,550 m) town in the mountainous northwestern Argentina. Founded in 1582, It’s not a big city (pop. 665,000) and the centre is undoubtedly Plaza 9 de Julio, a cafe-lined square bordered by a couple of pretty impressive neo-classical buildings with the Salta Cathedral taking the cake. We stayed a few minutes walk from the square and could hear the chimes from the many churches at all hours. We enjoyed exploring the back streets to discover the best local empanadas which we found not far from the famous Dona Salta. and returned to this little room off the kitchen of a home for lunch every day . We watched the chinas empanaderas roll out the pastry and fill the pockets with potatoes, onions, spices and meat, then tuck them into their wood fired oven. In the local gaucho culture of northern Argentina, the term “china” is an affectionate, traditional word for a country woman, and the chinas empanaderas are deeply revered as the keepers of Salta’s culinary heritage. Every empanada is cooked to order and they melt in your mouth topped off by the tang of locoto sauce called Yasgua.
We also ventured out one night to a local cocktail bar where we tasted the signature local cocktail from Salta called the Puna Sour which blends the region’s signature aromatic white wine, Torrontés, with fresh lemon juice, gum syrup and a frothy egg white. Whilst it tasted delicious on the night, it came back to haunt me in more ways that one the next day! So proceed with caution when ordering cocktails in Salta – I’d stick to bottle beer or wine where you take the top off – and no ice!
We did the obligatory tourist thing and visited the Cerro San Bernado – but rather than take the Teleferico San Bernardo up we chose to climb up via the iconic stone staircase along the Camino del Vía Crucis, which features 1,071 steps and the stations of the cross. It is poignant that these arduous climbs uphill are often adorned with Stations of the Cross which depict Christ’s walk up Mount Calvary (Golgotha) in Jerusalem, and encourage pilgrims to reflect on human suffering and divine sacrifice. Every hundred steps or so you get to pause to see a picture of apostles carrying a massive wooden crucifex up the hill to amend for thier sins.
Teleférico San Bernardo, up to Cima del Cerro San Bernardo (Summit of San Bernardo Hill). The cable car spans spans 1,016 meters and was built between 1986 and 1988 . At the top is a landscaped hilltop park which has views over the surprisingly expansive (from up here) city of Salta. We had a coffee on the terrace which was tres expensive as we took in the view.
Cachi – colours, cacti and chillies galore.
It is only 160 km (100-miles) south west from Salta to Cachi but it took about 3 hours each way as the mountain road was packed dirt for a large part and wound along the sides of high mountains with switchback roads that had a sheer drop off with no barriers. We feared passing a truck (which we did) and were on high alert for mountain goats. It was a sneakily upwards drive and we didn’t realise how high we had reached until we got to the 3,457 m high altitude marker at Chicoana.
As we reached the summit we passed through Los Cardones National Park – a surreal high plateau dominated by giant, centuries-old cardón cacti, many of which were between 250 and 500 years old. These cacti have an agonisingly slow growth of only 1 to 5 centimetres per year. At the top of one pass there is a shrine to the patron saint of travellers (St Rafael), a picturesque little whrine with a large bell. .Along the drive we also saw evidence of the areas primary trade: Chillies. Known as the Paprika Capital, the town of Cachi is the heart of Argentina’s sweet and spicy paprika industry. Local farmers harvest small, bright red round peppers by hand, sun-dry them in the valley, then sell them in the local towns. We stopped in the small, town of Cachi and wandered the abandoned streets and had lunch in the little square.
Stunning Seven Colours Hills
On another day we took a day trip up to Purmamarca a village in the Jujuy province of northwest Argentina. This small town is at the base of a striking, multi-hued mountain called the Seven Colours Hill which is famous for its vibrant mineral layers and dramatic geological formations. We took the Paseo de los Colorados a 3-kilometer (2-mile) circular trail that loops right behind and around the colourful hills. It took us about 1 hour to complete as we stopped to soak in the magnificent red, orange, yellow and creamy hues of the hills.
We planned to keep going another 25km further north to the Serranía de Hornocal (14-Color Mountain) but I was feeling (very) unwell – I think from the cocktail I’d had the night before and we had to head back to our little hotel in Salta. If you have the time I’d highly recommend getting to this mountain which looks like it has twice the colours and scal e of the 7 colours hills.
On our way back to Salta, we were held up on the highway by a parade of people, marching to drum beat. we found out later that this was part of an incredibly powerful religious tradition: the Pilgrimage of the Virgin of Punta Corral (or the Virgen del Abra de Punta Corral). Apparently this massive pilgrimage takes place every year during Holy Week (the week leading up to Easter). Thousands of pilgrims trek high into the rugged mountains of Jujuy Province to bring a statue of the Virgin Mary down to the valley towns like Tumbaya, Tilcara, and Purmamarca.
Gazing at the gushing falls of Iguazu
Iguazu Falls might just be the most incredible sight I have ever seen. The Iguazu Falls began over 200 thousand years ago where the Iguassu river and the Paraná river meet. A geological fault produced on the Paraná river turned the outlet of the Iguassu river into an abrupt cascade that tumbled down 80 meters. The falls continued to spill out and cascade and now cover 23 kilometres of waterfalls on both the Argentina and Brazil sides.
We did the Argentinian side first – The Argentine side features multiple interconnected circuits and trails, each offering a distinct perspective of the 275 total waterfalls. We walked all the circuits, The Upper Circuit, then the Lower Circuit and the Devils Throat Trail, the Green Trail and the Macuco trail. All up about 12 kilometres over about 6 hours.
There wasn’t a huge crowd in May and in Spring we had the bonus of about a billion butterflys. They landed on our shoulders, hitched a ride on our backpacks and showed off their pretty colours on handrails and bridges. Up in the trees and along the paths, particularly near the cafes we saw a lot of the cute but rather pesky coatis. These racoon like creatures will steal your food if you’re not careful.
80% of the falls belong to Argentina, while the other 20% are in Brazil. In Argentina, you get to see many different parts of the falls from different angles – from above, from below, under and even in the falls. From Brazil, it is great to look back to the Argentinian side but it is quite a distance. You can read about our visit to the Brazil side here.
We loved staying in the access town of Puerto Iguazu on the Argentinian side. we had two nights staying in an Air bnb called the Frieda Kahlo house which was as colourful as the painter herself. There’s some cute cafes and restaurants in town but everyone is there to see the Falls so there’s not a lot to see in town – which is lucky as we were exhausted after a huge day walking around the most incredible waterfalls we have ever seen!
