Our eyes opened wide with excitement and we nodded with enthusiastic approval when Mom and Dad asked us during our weekly family Skype call: “What do you think about going to South America for our annual Christmas family trip?”
The visa dilemma
And so, the planning for the annual family trip began early on in 2016. However, it was not to be an easy feat. The first obstacle was getting our visas. As Taiwanese citizens, we are used to applying for visas when traveling abroad. Although the situation has steadily improved over the years, we still require a visa to enter most countries in South America. After doing some research, we settled on visiting 3 countries over the course of 2.5 weeks in what seemed like a really faraway land: Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. We would fly from Malaysia to Brazil, visit Argentina and the Iguazu falls, and finally end the trip in Uruguay to visit our relatives. Getting a visa to Brazil was relatively straightforward as there are embassies in all major cities. However, obtaining a visa to Argentina was more difficult as there wasn’t an embassy in Singapore (where Mei lived) and even worse for Uruguay, which only had an office in Hanoi. After much back and forth with travel agencies and numerous calls to embassies, we finally obtained our visas to Argentina in Taipei during Mei’s Taiwan wedding reception and the visa for Uruguay through their embassy in Hanoi. Obtaining the Uruguayan visa involved emailing the Hanoi embassy almost on a daily basis to answer requests for more documentation, wiring the visa fee through a shady Western Union transfer and receiving our visas in the form a few flimsy sheets of paper delivered to Singapore via a DHL package.
The Zika dilemma
To add to the complication, Zika broke out earlier in the year and made major headlines around the world. The Center for Disease Control issued Level 2 travel warnings for visiting Brazil and Argentina. Unsure of how serious the situation was, we researched extensively on the risks but found limited local information. We ultimately decided to stick with the original itinerary and take the appropriate precautions by preparing extra strong mosquito repellant and wearing insect-repellant proof clothes.
After an eventful preparation process, we were finally ready for our South America adventure!
December 26, 2016
Our trip began in KL, as Jie was staying at home with mom and dad. Mei was coming in from Singapore, so the plan was to meet the rest of the family at the KL International Airport to take our redeye flight from KL to Sao Paulo. There was a minor hiccup with the GrabTaxi driver who didn’t speak much English and couldn’t find our apartment at first, but Mom, Dad and Jie all arrived to the airport with time to spare. Our Etihad airlines flight took us from KL to Sao Paulo via a brief stop in Abu Dhabi where we admired the skinny camels with santa hats:
30+ hours in transit later, we finally landed in Sao Paulo! Since we were scheduled to go to Rio the next day, the travel agency booked a hotel for us near the airport. After sitting upright for so long, it was a relief to finally be able to sleep horizontally for a few hours. We were also pleasantly surprised by how good the breakfast buffet was at a simple airport hotel! We would soon realize that hotels in South America really take their breakfasts seriously..
December 28, 2016
We flew into Rio in the morning on Brazil’s Gol airlines.
After checking into our hotel which faced the famous Copacabana beach, we immediately went to find some lunch at a restaurant recommended by our hotel. It was a ‘pay by the kg’ type of restaurant. Since the plates were so big, all 4 of us ended up getting way too much food. We were impressed by the amount of fresh vegetables and fruit, the selection of seafood and the use of the bar code system to scan in the prices after weighing the food.
Copacabana beach
December 29, 2016
The next day, we got up bright and early to eat breakfast and was pleasantly surprised by another huge array of fruits!
Jie and Mei both really liked the pears that were sweet, tangy and very tasty. Our voucher said we were supposed to be picked up for a full day tour of Rio at 8 am, but by 8:30, there was no tour guide in sight. Anxious that the tour had forgotten us, Dad called our aunt in Uruguay, who advised us to wait until 9:00. Lo and behold, at 9, a tour guide appeared and brought us onto the bus.
The first stop of the tour was Escadaria Selaron, where an artist named Jorge Selaron renovated a set of steps in colorful tiles. This was a set of really striking colourful steps that depicted scenes of Rio. We realised that Brazil is all about vibrant colors, which matches its tropical environment.
We then proceeded to visit the Pan de Azucar (Sugar Loaf) mountain, where we had to take a cable car up to see an expansive view of Rio. The cable car also used a bar code system, where you had to scan in your ticket and the system would automatically register how many guests entered in order to cap the number of people admitted into the car for each trip. Dad was particularly impressed with this use of the bar code system. Unfortunately, it was a bit cloudy so we didn’t get the best views, but we enjoyed a huge cup of frozen acai topped with delicious mango at the top of the mountain.
Our last and main stop, was visiting the Christ the Redeemer statue. This involved the tour van driving us to the entrance toward Corcovado mountain, and then taking an official bus up to see the statue of Christ the Redeemer. We went when the sun was behind the statue, making it difficult to capture photos, so do recommend going before noon to anyone planning to make the visit! Luckily, Mei brought a GoPro and we were able to use it to capture satisfactory photos. Kudos to Jie for spreading her arms!:
It was immensely crowded and we were relieved to finish the tour. Our visit to Rio culminated with dinner back by the ‘pay by the kg’ restaurant near our hotel. This time, we were not fooled by the large plate and each made a more manageable selection.
December 30, 2016
Our next stop was Buenos Aires. To be honest, we didn’t really enjoy the Copacabana neighbourhood in Rio very much because it was dirty, grungy, had some scary looking homeless people roaming around and smelled like urine so we were not sure what to expect in Buenos Aires. After being picked up by a driver, we were pleasantly surprised by a city that reminded us of Europe and New York City at the same time, with beautiful architecture, monuments and immaculately tree-lined avenues. The main landmark appeared to be an obelisk that stood at a huge intersection in the city center.
Our hotel was in a neighbourhood called Recoleta, which we later learned is one of the prime neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires. After checking in, we found out that it is very difficult to exchange Argentinian pesos due to the amount of fake currency in circulation, and had to wait for our travel agent to bring over some cash for us. Our first stop was a restaurant Mei read about near the hotel called El Sanjuanino, which was famous for serving empanadas. When we arrived around 3:30 pm in the afternoon, the place was hopping! We later realised that Argentinians eat lunch really late and have dinner at 9:30 pm onwards. It took us awhile to get a hold of the waiter, and after finally ordering 4 empanadas and a tamale, took another 40 mins or so to get our food since there were so many people inside the restaurant. The food was good, but probably not worth the wait.
After enjoying our first taste of Argentinian food, Jie and Mei decided to walk around the neighborhood while mom and dad went back to the hotel. Jie had looked up a walking tour which took us to the Recoleta cemetery. This was no ordinary cemetery! Instead of tombstones, each casket was in a glass or marble enclosing and surrounded by marble statues. The cemetery was also the size of a park with little streets to visit each tomb. It was a sight to behold and like nothing we had ever seen before:
We also stumbled across this pink cafe and tried on some Paez shoes, another Argentinian speciality.
Mei later bought a pair the next day, but when we went back to the store with Mom and Jie, it was closed early for New Year’s Eve! Luckily, more Paez shoes were to be found later on in the trip..
Dinner was at Senor Tango, which included a meal followed by a Tango show, We were picked up at 8:30 pm to join our relatives who were also visiting Argentina. Before getting picked up, we were already famished and nearly falling asleep. By the time we were served our dinner, it was almost 10 pm and all of us were beyond tired. The show finally started and lasted a good 2.5 hours, with a full 40 minutes spent by the MC making fun of people sitting around the stage in Spanish which definitely added to the pain. The best part of the show was the tango dancing and the ‘Don’t cry for me, Argentina’ song performed at the end.
After an enjoyable breakfast at the hotel (Mei and mom particularly liked the mini croissants called medialunas and a creamy milky caramel spread called dulce de leche), we were picked up for a city tour and saw the main attractions, including the Pink House (equivalent of the White House), the football stadium where we took photos with the Messi statue and Caminito neighborhood filled with colourful houses and where the Italian immigrants first arrived.
Lunch was at Fervor, a steakhouse recommended by Mei’s new boss who is from Argentina. However, the family realised that we are just not fans of steak. We ended up eating most of the prawn salad and really liked the complimentary bread with spicy tuna spread.
Jie and Mei then went onto Cafe Tortoni, the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires. We told the taxi driver ‘can we please go to Cafe Tortini’ and he was a little confused until we showed him the map and then he announced, ‘aha! Cafe TorTONi’!. We had a great sisterly chat inside the historic cafe and ordered a medium and a mini cafe. There was also the option to order 3 mini croissants which we found quite amusing and specific:
We then walked back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. Many of the shops were already closed by then, in preparation for the evening celebrations. New Year’s eve dinner was at Cle, a buffet restaurant nearby but since it was new year’s eve, it was impossible to get a taxi! Luckily we were able to find an Uber and met our relatives at their hotel in order to go to the restaurant together. The restaurant only opened at 9 pm so we were starving again. Luckily, it was a buffet so we didn’t have to wait for the food to arrive. We were wondering how we would be able to leave before midnight since our pick up to get on the flight to Bariloche was at 4:55 am but luckily Uber saved the day again and we were able to catch one from the restaurant at 11 pm. However, when it arrived, there was a little girl in the passenger seat! Good thing the 4 of us are skinny, so we were able to squeeze in the back and made it back to the hotel to clock in 4 hours of sleep before our flight the next day.
Jan 1, 2017
In the morning, we flew from Buenos Aires to Bariloche. The temperature immediately dropped a few degree celsius and the family had to bring out the big coats. A plus side was that we could say that we were actually in Patagonia.
As soon as we checked into the hotel, Mei recommended that we go into the town center and find the “chocolate street”. On our way out of the hotel, we met an over zealous tour guide, Jorge, who spoke no English but made up for the lack of language skills with his enthusiasm. Apparently he was sent over by the tour company to communicate the start time of the tours with us. He added Jie to whatsapp, took a group selfie with us and gave everyone a fist pump. We then started our 2 km walk into town.
It was New Year’s day, so very few shops were open, but we took note of where all the chocolate shops were. Just when we were getting really hungry, we were given a flyer for an Italian restaurant down an alleyway, so we hustled in and ate some surprisingly good home-made pasta with sides of beetroot and potatoes. We actually thought we ordered beet and potato ‘salad’ but realized this meant plain boiled beets and potatoes. After shopping at the famous chocolate store ‘Maumuschka’ which was surprisingly open on New Year’s Day and grabbing some free samples of chocolate, we stopped by a restaurant across the street called “Friends” to pick up some sandwiches and salad to eat at the hotel for dinner so we wouldn’t have to make the 2 km trek back again. While we left Mom and Dad waited for our at Friends, Jie and Mei went to buy a bottle of white Argentinian wine for 7 USD! Dad wandered over to another street and managed to find a bus stop as well as a few taxis for us to get back to our hotel. We learned to correctly pronounce our hotel, Villa Huinid, as “Villa Hweenid.’ We were all quite tired at this point but after a short rest, we all met on the balcony of the hotel to drink wine and eat “Friends” sandwiches. It was windy, but the sandwiches were good and the view was breathtaking:
We said goodnight and called it a day. Everyone slept well.
Jan 2, 2017
Today was our Circuito Chico tour which meant mean the “short circuit” tour. The bus took us to a chair lift to take us up Campanario Hill. While waiting for the lift, we saw an orange on the floor so placed it on the fence for the owner to come and claim it. In line, we saw our friend Jorge again with another set of tourists. He was as animated as usual and gave us all a big hug. At the top of the hill was an amazing view of the lakes and mountains as well as a cafe with panoramic views of the mountains and lakes.
After coming down from the mountain, we took a few more scenic stops along the way and approached a church which also had a view of the famous hotel Llao llao. A different bus took us back to town and the tour guide surprised us with some old school Chinese music. This time, all the restaurants and shops were open, but we wanted to go back to “Friends” because we had seen some people eating their pizza the day before. We ordered 3 pizzas not knowing how big they would be and had enough for dinner as well!
Of course, we also had to go back to Maumuschka where we brought presents to bring back. The whole experience was a little hectic since we didn’t speak Spanish, but all of us were charmed by the cute displays and intoxicating smells of chocolate!
Lastly, Mei spotted a fruit stall on the busride back to the town center and we were able to buy a bunch of nectarines, cherries and cherry tomatoes to bring back with us, all for less than 10 USD! The owner of the fruit stall was very helpful and let us sample the fruits to see which ones we wanted.
Jan 3, 2017
Today was the day of the ‘long tour’ called the Tour of the 7 lakes. The weather was cold and it was drizzling, so it wasn’t a bad idea to sit on the bus, but we also didn’t get a chance to see the most amazing views. However, early on in the trip, we saw a beautiful, complete rainbow that seemed to be following us around!
We then made a stop at Villa La Angostura for a bathroom break and had some coffee at a cute cafe that looked like a life-sized gingerbread house from the outside. We also saw a type of berry called the calafate berry. It looked like a smaller cousin of the blueberry, but tasted pleasantly sweet and tangy. Legend says that anyone who eats a Calafate berry will return to Patagonia!
Finally, we reached another town called San Martín de los Andes where we had some free time to explore. Mei had found a restaurant serving crepes online but it was farther than expected from where the bus dropped us off, so we walked a good 30 minutes in the cold before reaching it. The crepes were quite good, and the waiter was very curious when Mei asked for some hot water because apparently Argentinians never drink hot water on its own! By the time the tour ended, it was already dinner time, so we stopped back at our favorite place, “Friends” for some pasta.
Jan 4, 2017
It was our last morning in Bariloche. After another splendid hotel breakfast filled with pastries and fruit, we took a walk by the lake and went back to our favorite store, Maumuschka, to have some hot chocolate. There wasn’t much else to do, so we also stopped by the Bariloche cathedral, which was relatively plain looking on the outside, but surprisingly peaceful and beautiful inside, filled with stained glass windows. We also walked near the water and were almost blown away by the wind!
Finally, we were leaving the cold weather and off to see the Iguazu falls! Our tour guide arranged for us to stay on the Brazil side of the Falls, which is a town called Foz do Iguacu, but we flew into the airport on the Argentina side. Fun fact: All of the domestic airports in Argentina have the same wifi network name so you can stay seamlessly connected with all of the airports. We were all really impressed by that.
It was a long flight, where we had to connect in Buenos Aires and we didn’t arrive to the Iguazu airport until late in the evening. A driver named David came to pick us up and immediately started a sales pitch about exchanging money and asking we wanted to add on a tour for the Itaipu dam after visiting the Brazil side of the falls. We agreed to exchange some Brazilian Reals and Argentinian pesos with him, so he told us that he had a “friend” he could exchange our USD with. He then drove to a very shady part of town and parked on a street outside of a casino and then disappeared for a good 20 minutes! By this time, the four of us were convinced we were going to be stranded or robbed, but luckily David re-appeared with our cash and took us across the border to our hotel.
At first, we were unhappy that we were staying on the Brazil side as we had to go through immigration and were just really tired by that point, but later on, found that the Argentina side had a power outage for most of the night, so we ended up being thankful that we were in Brazil that night. Funny the way things work out!
Jan 5, 2017
We started out by meeting David again who took us across the border and back into Argentina to access the Argentinian side of the falls. We decided to follow some recommendations from other travelers online, and skipped staying with our tour group in favour of doing our own walk, which would start with the Lower Circuit, followed by the Upper Circuit and end with the Devil’s throat in the afternoon. When we approached the entrance of the Falls, we were surprised by how well organized, clean and civil everything was - it felt like visiting a zoo or an amusement park vs. a national park. Once we entered, there were clear signs pointing us to each of the trails. There was also a tram that provided quicker access to the beginning of some of the trails but there were a lot of people waiting in line so we decided to walk instead. The Lower circuit was found by passing by the Sheraton hotel - yes, who thought there would be a 5 star hotel in the middle of a nature reserve overlooking the Iguazu falls? We seriously felt like we were in Jurassic Park! But once we approached the falls, a hush fell upon us… an expansive panel of cascading falls laid out before us, dotted with lush green trees, emerging almost without any notice. At once, we felt like we were in another world and almost expected to see a dinosaur peek its head out from above the trees! After admiring the falls from the Lower Circuit, we went to the Upper Circuit where we could see the falls from above. We all agreed the better views were from the Lower Circuit and found it really amazing how close we were able to approach and truly ‘feel’ the Falls. We then stopped for lunch which we had packed earlier. Jie almost got attacked by the Coatis, which are these resident racoon-like animals that hang out and prowl for any food that is left outside. With two circuits done, our last leg of the trip was to visit the Devil’s throat, which is the strongest section of the waterfall that’s almost like a whirlpool. However, when we arrived, it was filled with people, so we had to fight in order to try and take a photo with the famous landmark. A butterfly was following mom around and stayed on her hand for a good stretch of the walk back!
By the end of our 6 hour hike, we were pretty exhausted and stopped by a cafe inside the park to eat some ice cream. Right before we were supposed to meet our guide at 3 pm, it started thundering! We breathed a sigh of relief that we had finished before it started raining, otherwise it would have been a very uncomfortable experience. At night, we had dinner at the food court of the mall near our hotel, where dad finally had some Chinese food. When we checked Dad’s xiaomi watch, we realized that we had broken a record and walked over 22,400 steps! We had some well-deserved rest that night.
Jan 6, 2017
Iguazu falls spans across the border between Argentina and Brazil. While Argentina houses most of the falls, it is Brazil where you can get the panoramic view of the entire chain of falls. We had a later start in the morning, since we didn’t have to go through immigration and also because it only takes half a day to visit the Falls on the Brazilian side as opposed to the full day on the Argentinian side. When we approached the ticketing station, we were once again surprised by how orderly and well built the infrastructure was - it reminded Mei of the Singapore zoo! Once we were inside the park, a bus took us to the beginning of a short walk which was less than 2 km from the start of the path, which culminated at the other end of the Devil’s throat. It was a walk that was filled with panoramic scenes of the falls almost every step of the way.
Dad was craving spaghetti, but in all the places where we ordered it, the pasta came thick like fettuccine, so Mei went to search for an Italian restaurant near the hotel. The restaurant ended up being just a few blocks away and made you feel warm and cozy, like you were sitting in a grandma’s kitchen. We ended up ordering some spaghetti and pizza and were all thoroughly pleased with the food after a long day.
Our last stop of the trip was to Montevideo, and this was also the main purpose of the trip - to visit our relatives who have been living there for the past 30 years or so! The plane ride from Iguazu Falls to Montevideo involved a transfer in Buenos Aires, but because there was a delay, we didn’t arrive until almost dinner time. Our uncle and aunt came to pick us up in a van and we noticed that the airport was the nicest one we had come across. Later, we found out that Uruguay is known as the ‘Switzerland of Latin America’ with the highest GDP per capita. Our relatives booked us at the Hilton, which was conveniently attached to a mall. We ended the evening catching up and having a quick bite to eat at a restaurant inside the mall. We did notice that our aunt requested for Tabasco sauce for everything she ate, and later on, Dad shared that she used to eat really spicy food in Taiwan. That explains a lot!
Jan 8, 2017
For our first full day in Montevideo, our aunt and uncle picked us up and we made a 2-hour car trip to the beach. Our first stop was in front of a historic hotel called Hotel Argentina facing the ocean. We noticed a lot of people holding leather cups with silver straws for drinking mate tea on the beach. After a short walk, we took the car up the hill where there was a religious statue and a cafe where we stopped for some coffee and ice cream:
Jan 9, 2017
Mei, Mom and dad took advantage of the shining sun and blue skies with an early walk outside the hotel near the beach after breakfast. By 10 am, we had already walked close to 8,000 steps! We definitely thought the beach in Uruguay was a lot nicer than the ones we saw in Rio.
Our aunt and uncle then picked us up, first to the factory where my uncle produces bags used to hold rice and sugar for export. It was interesting to see what he actually did after wondering for all of these years.
After the visit, we stopped by their house, and our aunt showed us her classroom where she teaches Chinese class. She was anxious about a broken pipe, so proceeded to spend the next half an hour bringing dad around, searching for how they could fix the problem even though dad is a civil engineer, not a plumber. We then went off to another shopping center nearby and had a delicious lunch of seafood paella.
After lunch, we stopped by the hill which was the namesis for the ‘Monte’ in Montevideo and then walked around the old town where Mei saw an office belonging to her company! We found a cafe and spent a good 2 hours sitting around the table, sipping coffee and listening to my aunt recount stories of the past, when her and my uncle first came to visit Uruguay. It was fascinating to hear these stories for Jie and Mei and we didn’t want the moment to ever end! But alas, everyone was tired, so we headed back to our hotel and finished the day with a feast of store-bought potato salad, beets, peaches and yogurt in Mom and dad’s room.
Jan 10, 2017
We decided to start the last day in Montevideo with another early morning walk before checking out. Jie, being a night owl, was not very pleased.
Uncle and Aunt then picked us up to send us to the airport and we helped Aunt with figuring out her new Iphone while sitting and having coffee at the McDonald’s in the airport. It was time to say goodbye to them and start our journey back to Asia! But we had one last stop - Sao Paulo Brazil. We landed in the late afternoon and was dropped off at a hotel in a nice neighborhood called Jardins. Uber was very convenient and we were able to find one that took us to Japan Town as we had heard that Sao Paolo has the largest Japanese population outside of Tokyo. We had dinner at a pricey, but authentic looking Japanese restaurant that Mei had found online. Unfortunately, the server only spoke Spanish so there was some miscommunication and we ended up having too many orders! Here is a picture of Mom and Dad’s funny expression when the veggies arrived, after being stuffed to the brim:
Sorely disappointed at how run down and vacant Japantown was in contrast to the real Japan, we wandered over to a street that had a sign selling ‘Gua bao!’ Amazed, we walked closer and we realized the owner was outside. Mom and dad spoke to him and found out he was Taiwanese, so we asked him if we could use the wifi there to get an uber back to our hotel. He was a great ‘man servant’ and answered yes to everything. We felt like we should give him some business, so ordered 2 cups of bubble tea. Unfortunately, the bubbles were tough and chewy so to our major embarrassment, Mom and Dad decided to give him some constructive feedback. Luckily, he cheerfully took it in stride and we were happy to find a place to get an Uber to take us back to the hotel.
Jan 11, 2017
Jie has an old high school classmate in Brazil who wanted to meet up, so she suggested that we could visit the largest park in Sao Paulo called Ibirapuera Park and reminded us of Central Park in New York. While Jie hung out with her friend, Mom, dad and Mei had fun looking for plants and fruit in the park:
We also found the famous bridge:
For lunch, we caught a taxi to the Municipal market and ate a special Mortadella sandwich, which everyone seemed to be eating, at a stall called Bar do Mane. It was a massive sandwich filled with layers of mortadella ham and topped with gooey cheese. It was not for the faint of heart but hugely satisfying! We also had a fried codfish pocket that was on the salty side, and bought some coffee beans and nuts to take home.
For dinner, we decided to do some exploring near our hotel and ended up at a historic Brazilian restaurant where we met another man-servant who not only washed our bag of cherries that we bought from the supermarket, but served it for us in a nice bowl, too! We ate some traditional Brazilian food and ended the South America trip with many memories to bring back.
Biggest surprises and observations during our trip to Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:
- Internet and wifi is really fast, with all hotels and airports providing free wifi access. Even airports in small towns like Bariloche and Iguazu in Argentina had super fast wifi that were all connected under the same network name.
- Everybody speaks Spanish and depending on where you are, very few people speak English. TV channels were all in Spanish and it was amusing to watch Matthew Perry in a romcom speaking in an animated Spanish voice.
- When it comes to water, you must specify either with gas (con gas) or without gas (sin gas). My sister and I learned the hard way when we failed to read the label on bottled water and were met with mini explosions after twisting open the cap.
- The fruit is delicious! My favorites were the pears and tropical fruits in Brazil, nectarines, cherries and kiwis in Argentina and peaches and blueberries in Uruguay.
- Pastries and desserts are taken very seriously. Every hotel buffet had a strong selection of both sweet and savory pastries. My favorite was the medialunas (mini croissants).
- Dulce de leche was a big thing in Argentina. I had the stuff slathered on my breakfast croissants every morning. Gelato was also amazing and cheap.
- Meals are eaten really late! As Asians,we were constantly hungry by lunchtime and sleepy by dinner time.
- Beef is also a big thing here, but we never understood what the hype was because the beef served always came in a huge slab that was really tough to eat.
- There are very few Asians. In fact, we only saw one Chinese restaurant in Bariloche and it was closed.
- Mate tea was also a big thing in Argentina and Uruguay. Everyone and their mom had a mate cup in their hand.
- Paper money is typically old and worn, and many have marks and tears on them.
- People are very friendly and patient. However this also means that servers sometimes take their own sweet time at restaurants.
- Buenos Aires has the best of Europe with amazing architecture and monuments, coupled with a city like New York with great shops and things to do, but for a fraction of the price.
- There is nothing that prepares you for the beauty of Iguazu falls. It is both majestic, serene and powerful at the same time. Go to both the Argentina and Brazilian side because they offer completely different experiences.
- Apparently nobody orders hot water to drink at restaurants. We were met with a very confused waiter when we made the request at a restaurant in San Martin de los Andes.
- No matter where you are, it’s always nice to see family and familiar faces. It makes the world seem a lot smaller.
