To be honest, I have very little knowledge on the countries in South America. It hasn’t really caught my interest untill recently. I’ve always had a stronger interest in Asia, probably since I’m Asian myself and I don’t speak Spanish or Portugese. But since I’ve got the opportunity to travel for a year I might as well check out what South America has to offer. Hence my more extensive research on the South American countries.
Iguazu Falls (Iguaçu falls)
One of the great natural wonders of the world, the entire area around is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Iguazu falls is actually a huge park with it’s main attraction being the waterfalls. The park is located on the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. The city on the Brazilian side is Foz do Iguaçu, on the Argentinian side you have Puerto Iguazu and in Paraguay, Cuidad del Este. Other than the falls, I’m not completely sure what else there is to visit in and around the cities. Apparently my sister’s been there before and said that 1 day should be enough to go sightseeing. 
Buenos Aires
I’ll just name up all the things I can think of when I hear Argentina / Buenos Aires: meat, tango, nightlife and Evita. So I’m really looking forward to learn more about what Argentina has to offer besides great food and sensual dancing.
Food
- Asado Criolla (grilled meats)
- bife de lomo (tenderloin)
- alfajor (Argentinian kind of “cookie” with dulce de leche)
- chorizo (sausages)
- choripán (similar to chorizo but in a bread)
- panchos (hot dogs)
- mashed squash
Tango
Just like how I plan to take a samba class I’m planning to take a tango class or better yet, classes. I’m curious to check out the Argentinian nightlight as it incorporates a lot of latin dances in their more older dance clubs. But there are some things that you need to keep in mind when in a club though: [quote]Tango Eyes:If you don’t want to dance be careful of the eye contact you make. Here, you will not see men physically getting up to ask a woman to dance. He will get her attention with his eyes, nod or make a “let’s go” move with his head. If she accepts she will nod and smile, and they will both meet on the dance floor. The locals here are very friendly and if you are interested in learning tango, asking a local for instructors is the best bet.[/quote] 
El tigre
El Tigre has a quaint amusement park, a great crafts fair on the weekends, a multi-storied casino, and a beautiful river to walk along. A popular choice is to take a boat ride through the Paraná Delta, ideal on a sunny day. There are many tours that go to Tigre, and it’s a great place to get out of the city for a day and get some fresh air.
Gaucho party
Spend a night seeing what it is like to be a real gaucho. Live the life of an Argentine cowboy; ride horses, eat traditional gaucho foods, drink traditional gaucho wines and dance like they used to do back in the day. A great way to get out of the city for a day and see another side of Argentine culture.
Montevideo
Montevideo is the pleasant capital city of Uruguay, also a country located in South America. It is situated on the east bank of the Rio de la Plata. It’s easily accessible by ferry from the port of Buenos Aires. A boat trip up should take you about 3 hours in a highspeed ferry boat thing. You can probably visit Montevideo in 1 day and return late at night with the ferry, all depends what time the last ferry leaves from Montevideo. Anyhow, in case I get bored of the sights in Buenos Aires, I might just go take a look at what Uruguay has to offer. There are just a few things I looked up as preparation but I’m sure there’s so much more to see in and around Buenos Aires! httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgb90ldjD3Q
2 responses to “Argentina – Iguazu / Buenos Aires”
Hey Alex – Adrian from Perth here (friend of Goi´s n Kwok Wai´s! Small world indeed!)\n\nOne / Half a day is more than enough in the Argentinian side of Iguazu whilst the Brazilian side is not that big and only takes about 3 hours max.\n\nRio is all about beaches unfortunately (be careful on the rocks at the end of Ipanema especially at night!) and also Copacobana at night when the kids from the favelas comes out.\n\nChristo Redento and Sugarloaf´s a must and I agree that the favela tour´s very touristy. \n\nThe biggest japanese population outside of Japan is in Sao Paolo and you will see some beautiful Japanese/Brazilian mixes. I really enjoyed the Japanese food (pay-for-weigh buffets) as I love Japanese food plus not overtly a big fan of South American food after 6 months.\n\nBuenos Aires is freaking awesome. You have La Boca (dangerous part of town but home of La Boca futbol team!), San Telmo weekend markets, Recoleta (poshest suburb in BSAS, home of Evita @ Recoleta Cementario) and the backpackers hang outs of Palermo Soto and Palermo Hollywood.\n\nThere is an uber cool Monday night gig called La Bomba in BSAS – which is basically an Brazillian drumming group and it goes off every week. Google it. You can get the normal trains to El Tigre por less than 5 pesos. It takes about half an hour and you get it from the main station (Retiro). Try the parrilla and you MUST have it with an Argentine Malbec. \n\nAlso check out the metalical flores, run across 9 de Julio (longest avenue in the world – you won´t make it!) and Plaza de Mayo (which you can combine on the weekend with a stroll up San Telmo cobble street market).\n\nRemember, Argentines think they are European and are downright arrogant and rude but you just have to remind them that they are at the asses end of South America. :P\n\nDisfrutas para mi y practical su español! (Enjoy for me and practice your spanish!)\n\n-A-\n\nPS the spanish accent is very different in Argentina. They pronounce the “SH” sound when there is a double L eg poLLo is pronounced poSHo, and when the Y is in the middle of a word eg maYo is prounced maSHo. it´s hilarious! 😛
[…] I mentioned on my to-eat list in an old post: there is tons to eat in Buenos Aires and while I only wrote down a few of the things, a lot of […]