The Iguassu Falls sit on the Brazil-Argentina border near Paraguay and can be seen from both sides of the border. We arrived in Foz do Iguacu, the town on the Brazilian side, a couple of hours before the opening game of the World Cup, and headed straight to a sports bar to cheer on Brazil with the locals. The game got off to a bad start with a Brazil own goal but the atmosphere lifted as Brazil finished the game by putting three goals in the right net.

As it turned out, this was both a good and a bad time to visit Iguassu Falls. Good because torrential rain in the feeder areas during the previous week meant water was flowing over the falls at record levels (to be exact, at 33 times the usual rate, smashing the previous 1992
record). Bad because as a result the river below the falls had risen substantially, meaning the water had less distance to fall and had a distinct brown color. The Brazil side of the falls, which offers the more panoramic perspective from a higher position, was still fully open, and the views were incredible. While on the Brazil side, we took a boat trip under the falls, getting completely soaked.

As a result of the record water flow, a few of the trails on the Argentinian side of the falls were closed. This led a lot of people to decide it wasn’t worth the effort to cross the border. A key factor in our decision to go ahead and do it was the promise of one more Argentinian steak lunch. After overindulging on beautifully cooked meat and matching Malbec, we needed a nice long walk, and the trails around the Argentinain side of the falls were as good a place as any to do it. By affording us the opportunity to get much closer to the falls, the Argentinian side proved to be at least as impressive as the Brazilian side, so if you visit you really need to do both.

After filling our day pack with Argentinian colored face paint, beer, and musical instruments, we crossed the border back to Brazil more excited than ever about our first World Cup game the next day, watching Argentina play at the Maracana. There’ll be plenty about that, and the rest of our World Cup experience, in our next post.

Our stay in Buenos Aires didn’t get off to the best of starts. In the first half hour we both became victims of a very nasty bird dropping incident that left us begging for early access to a shower at our hotel. People say it’s good luck, and as it turned out the rest of our time in BA was fantastic.

On our first night we went to Fuerza Bruta, a show that plenty of Argentinians (and tripadvisor) had highly recommended to us. We didn't really know what to expect but in the end the show, which we would describe as a much edgier (and cheaper) alternative to Cirque du Soleil, was a really enjoyable and memorable experience.

The other, more famous, night time activity in BA is tango, which tourists can generally see in one of two ways - either go to a tango club in the suburbs to watch the locals strut their stuff or buy tickets to a more formal tango show downtown. We ended up doing both, visiting La Catedral del Tango for the more authentic experience then getting dressed up and going to El Viejo Almacen to see the oldest tango show in town.

We had come to expect good food in Argentina, and this trend certainly continued in BA. Our favorite meal was a two pound steak from a fine dining restaurant, which we got at a 40% discount because we were happy to eat before 8pm (which was perfect for us but way too early for the locals). Our best value meal was a delicious Choripan we bought from a street vendor in town. We also enjoyed some beautiful pizza and fish from a couple of local favorites, both of which were heavily decorated from floor to ceiling in soccer memorabilia.

Buenos Aires is as soccer mad as any city we’d visited, and the iconic Locos Por El Futbol bar proved to be as good a place as any to watch the Champions League final. While in BA we also went to the inner city suburb of Boca to tour the stadium of the famous Boca Juniors side. 

During the day we visited plenty of tourist hot spots, including El Caminito (a colorful street in Boca), La Recoleta cemetery (the final resting place of Evita), Floraris Genérica (a large flower-shaped metal sculpture), the San Telmo markets (a Sunday-only market that stretches for a dozen blocks in the city) the Obelisco (a national monument that served as a good reference point whenever we got lost), and the Casa Rosada (or pink house, the Argentinian president’s office).

There is also plenty to see just outside of BA. After a short drive north we caught a boat from Tigre, through the small winding rivers of the Parana Delta back to Buenos Aires. To the south of BA is La Plata, where we caught up with one of Cindy’s friends from Santa Barbara and visited the most impressive cathedral we’ve seen outside of Europe.

We spent more time in Buenos Aires than any other city on our trip so far, but we still left wishing we could stay longer. This very European city has a lot to offer, including beautiful architecture, great restaurants and really friendly people, and we’d both name it as one of our favorite cities in the world.

To the east of Santiago the Andes rise quickly to the Argentinian border. On the other side is one of Argentina's most beautiful cities, Mendoza. We chose to take the bus rather than fly, not only because it's cheaper but it offers one of the most picturesque 8-hour journeys you can take in South America. We even spent an extra $5 each to get first class seats on the bus, ensuring we both got a great view of the snow capped mountains. Unfortunately we suspect that was the last time we'll travel first class internationally for a while.

Argentina generally, and Mendoza in particular, has a reputation for having plenty of steak restaurants, and after a few months in countries largely lacking that culinary focus (and after a long bus ride) we were desperate to get stuck into the biggest and reddest steak possible. We spent almost an hour looking for a suitable option but the only place open was a McDonalds-style fast food restaurant. When we returned to our hotel at 7pm the receptionist had a little chuckle before explaining that in Argentina most people eat between 10 and 11pm and restaurants won't even open until 8 or 8:30. That night, and most other nights in Argentina, we had a delicious steak meal at 8:30. Invariably our fellow diners were either fellow travelers or locals of significantly advanced years.

Argentina has also developed a strong reputation as a wine producing country, and three quarters of the stuff comes from the Mendoza region. To take full advantage, we spent two of our three days in Mendoza on wine tasting tours. With the exception of one winery that produced very sweet wines (not our favorite style), we found that the quality of the wine, particularly the red was generally very good. 


We found it hard to believe based on our experience (we managed to get three of the thirty cloudy/rainy days Mendoza gets in a whole year) but the city sits in the middle of a desert. As a result it features a huge and complex irrigation system and winemakers prefer to plant grapes that don't need a lot of water. One of these, Malbec, is the signature wine of the region. Although it's by no means bold (certainly by Australian standards), the better Malbecs we tasted had plenty of depth and character.

On our last day in Mendoza we went for a leisurely 2-hour horse ride around some lower hills and vineyards out of town. Toward the end of the ride we got our first glimpse of the spectacular surrounding snow capped mountains (some almost 6000 meters high) that we're told are clearly visible most days of the year. At night we sat around a campfire, enjoying a meaty Argentinian barbecue and plenty of Malbec.

What would otherwise have been a budget-blowing few days for us came in right on budget (despite many indulgences) courtesy of a currency exchange system that we still found baffling despite getting a heads up from fellow backpackers and coming prepared. The official exchange rate was eight pesos to one dollar, but a couple of years ago it was four to one. As a result locals have lost faith in their own currency and prefer to hold dollars (although government regulations make that difficult). The outcome for us was walking into an exchange house in Mendoza, taking note of a sign saying they'll offer 7.8 pesos to a dollar and having the guy behind the counter offer us 11.4. If official looking exchanges offering attractive rates like this are hard to find, as was the case in Buenos Aires, there are plenty of street vendors happy to pay a premium for dollars. Speaking of Buenos Aires, the Argentinian capital was our next stop - we'll have plenty to say about our favorite city in South America in our next post.