Now that we've settled on a destination, we can start making a few plans. To begin with, maybe it would be helpful to learn a little something about Buenos Aires and Argentina in general. We bought a Frommer's guide to Argentina and quickly discovered that not only is Argentina a hell of a long ways away, once you get there, it's big - way too big to do more than scratch the surface in an initial two week visit. So that's what we'll do - try to scratch the surface.
Patagonia pretty quickly gets thrown off the list, dammit. It will be winter there, not to mention the fact that it's a couple of thousand miles from our destination in Buenos Aires. The wine-growing region around Mendoza lasts longer as a candidate, but eventually falls for similar reasons: it's an expensive, two-hour plane ride from BsAs and it will be cold in the Andean foothills.
Iguazu Falls, in the extreme northeast of Argentina at the juncture of Brazil and Paraguay, is a tantalizing destination: one of the great natural wonders of the world, it's a shorter (45 minute) plane trip, but still will cost us upwards of $650 USD just to get there. Unfortunately, the costs just keep climbing - a Brazilian visa costs over $100 per person and everyone says you just gotta see the Brazilian side of the falls. Lodging is at least as expensive as in BsAs, so there's another $100+ per night. The final straw was when we read that there's been an outbreak of yellow fever in the area - yellow fever immunizations are painful, have nasty side effects, and cost about $300 for the two of us. We're easily over $1000 for a freakin' day trip... cooler financial heads prevail and we reluctantly back off on the idea of seeing Iguazu.
Patagonia pretty quickly gets thrown off the list, dammit. It will be winter there, not to mention the fact that it's a couple of thousand miles from our destination in Buenos Aires. The wine-growing region around Mendoza lasts longer as a candidate, but eventually falls for similar reasons: it's an expensive, two-hour plane ride from BsAs and it will be cold in the Andean foothills.
Iguazu Falls, in the extreme northeast of Argentina at the juncture of Brazil and Paraguay, is a tantalizing destination: one of the great natural wonders of the world, it's a shorter (45 minute) plane trip, but still will cost us upwards of $650 USD just to get there. Unfortunately, the costs just keep climbing - a Brazilian visa costs over $100 per person and everyone says you just gotta see the Brazilian side of the falls. Lodging is at least as expensive as in BsAs, so there's another $100+ per night. The final straw was when we read that there's been an outbreak of yellow fever in the area - yellow fever immunizations are painful, have nasty side effects, and cost about $300 for the two of us. We're easily over $1000 for a freakin' day trip... cooler financial heads prevail and we reluctantly back off on the idea of seeing Iguazu.
-Steve
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