Argentina

Argentina wasn't even originally in our itinerary, but our flight from Santiago to Auckland had a free stop over in Buenos Aires. Five days isn't enough to see much, but at least we got to sample it.

And we certainly sampled the main attraction: meat. The restaurants serve more meat than you can shake a stick at. The first night we ate beef, goat, lamb, pork, and sausages. And after a few days of vegitarian cuisine to clean out the system we went back for more. Beyond that Buenos Aires was a bit of a boring big city. Unusual highlights include the best street signs in the known world, and more flag shops than I've seen anywhere else. Perhaps it was the rainy weather that kept me from appreciating it more. ¿Who knows?

But the one side trip we took was another highlight of the trip. I knew almost nothing of the Iguazú waterfalls, but the guidebook said they were nice. But in this case the book failed to capture the full feel of the place. The falls were great--far more impressive than Niagra (yes, Ian, even the Canadian side) though they don't have the same sheer volume of water. The pictures aren't posted yet, but I'll put them up as soon as I can.

The falls also have the advantage of being in the middle of a jungle. So walking back from one of the waterfalls we ran into 20 or 30 owl monkeys. It was great, and they seemed to enjoy watching us as long as we watched them.

Well, that's the end of South America. The next update will be from New Zealand.

Take care,

Matt