Our Last Day in Buenos Aires!

Ou last day in Buenos Aires. As sad as I am to be leaving, I have to admit, I am quickly running out of tourist steam. I really had no desire to sightsee to day and the fact that my ankle was throbbing in pain from my fall yesterday is not helping matters any. Bro started out his day with a trip back to the supermarket to pick up more steak for our dinner tonight. We have been overloading on red meat since we've been here but it is delicious and no way, we can get this quality for such reasonable prices in the US.  So, we're enjoying it while we can!

A Day in Tigre.

Tigre is a town located about an hour's train ride north of Buenos Aires. Named after the “tigres” or jaguars that were hunted there, Tigre lies on the Paraná Delta, situated on an island created by several small streams and rivers. Tigre was founded in 1820 and today, is a popular tourist and weekend destination.  When I was planning our trip, I had set aside two days for day trips.  The idea was to spend one day in San Antonio de Areco, on an Argentine ranch, to get a feel of the gaucho life and the other was to spend a day in Tigre.

Exploring Buenos Aires....This Time on Foot.

Colorful La Boca neighborhood.

After a few hours of riding the hop on, hop off bus, we decided to get off and do a bit of walking. My legs definitely needed some stretching out!  We hopped off at the Av. 9 de Julio stop and crossed the wide avenue, heading towards Teatro Colón.  Traffic is insane here!

Buenos Aires Botanical Garden.

Fading fast, I was fading fast. After more than 4 hours of wandering about in the oppressive summer heat of Buenos Aires, I was ready to call it a day.  But....we had one last garden to visit before we could cross off  *gardens in Buenos Aires* off our list of places to visit.  So, we trudged on.

For the Rose Lover. Paseo del Rosedal.

Bro is die hard rose lover. Not only does he grow them in his own garden but he also frequently visits t he San Jose Heritage Rose Garden which is located in easy driving distance from where he lives. When we were in Latvia, he enjoyed strolling through the gardens at Rundāle Palace and admiring the huge rose garden there. So, when I was researching places to visit in Buenos Aires, the Rose Garden (Paseo del  Rosedal) immediately caught my attention. It also caught Bro's.

A Bit of Japanese Greenery. Jardín Japonés de Buenos Aires.

B oth Bro and I appreciate gardens and so if there is opportunity to visit one or more, we are there! From Recoleta Cemetery, we realized it was too far to walk to get to the first garden on our itinerary - the Japanese Garden. We decided to give Uber a shot.

Wandering Among the Dead. Recoleta Cemetery.

Greetings from Buenos Aires! Today, was our first day in this wonderful city! I so enjoyed my day, it almost made me forget about Chile.....almost :-)

We arrived very late last night so there was no chance to stock up the fridge with food for breakfast.  We had the perfect excuse to go out and look for a place to eat.

Last Moments in Chile. Hello Buenos AIres.

I was so sad today, so very, very sad.  I've so enjoyed our time in Chile that I don't want to leave.  This whole country feels like home to me; I'm very comfortable being here.

Nevertheless, it was time to leave - Argentina waits for us.

A Layover in Puerto Natales.

It was goodbye to Argentina this morning when we boarded the bus at El Calafate this morning for the 5 hour journey back to Puerto Natales. We'll be back in Argentina in two days when we fly from Santiago to Buenos Aires. Don't ask me why I simply did not continue our time in Argentina, after we arrived into El Calafate, instead of returning back to Chile and then going forward to Argentina.  In hindsight, I should've checked for a destination between El Calafate and Buenos Aires that we could've spent time in.  Plan imperfect.

Our All Too Short Stay in El Calafate.

We arrived in to El Calafate late yesterday afternoon and will be making our way back to Puerto Natales tomorrow morning. So, we've barely spent any time here though we did have a chance to do some walking around yesterday.    

Mount Fitzroy.

The peak of Mount Fitzroy obscured by clouds but it was still incredible scenery.

From the village of El Chaltén, Bro and I followed Daniel's instructions to get to the start of the trails that circle the various peaks, lakes, and glaciers located within Los Glaciares National Park.

Road trip to El Chaltén.

El Chaltén is a small mountain village, situated along Rio de las Vueltas, within the Los Glaciares National Park.  It is most popularly the base for treks to nearby Cerro Torre and Cerro Fitz Roy mountains as well as to the glacial lakes that are located within the boundaries of the park.  We went to El Chaltén for a short hike in the area around the village.

The Awe-Inspiring Perito Moreno Glacier.

The plan for today was to take a denomades.com tour to see the Perito Moreno Glacier which is located in the Argentinian side of Patagonia, near the town of El Calafate. The denomades.com tour is a round trip tour so after seeing the glacier, you return to Puerto Natales.

Packing List. Chile, Argentina, & Uruguay.

From Disney

I was looking for a graphic image to open up this post and I found the gif of Mickey packing.  I laughed when I saw it because I had also just spoken with Bro who was complaining of how much stuff he will have to pack along for this trip.  Mind you Bro barely brings anything with him but his suitcase looks stuffed because he literally just throws his clothes into it....just as Mickey is doing in the gif.  Bro says he does fold his clothes but I don't think so because the contents of his suitcase are always in a mess. Thankfully, while it looks like a filled suitcase, it always weighs light as a feather.

We're just a few short weeks away from leaving for South America so I'm already beginning to think about my packing list for the trip.

Clothing wise, we are going to three climate areas. Our first destination is Santiago where daytime temps will average around 20.2 °C (68.36 °F) - very comfortable.  However this is a La Niña year so temps in the southern hemisphere could be warmer. Overnight temperatures are generally quite mild with an average low of 12 °C (53.6 °F).

Chile, Argentina and Uruguay! Itinerary, Planning Resources & Trip Costs.

Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina
(Photo by Luca Galuzzi.  Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.)

We're going to South America!  I don't think we had even left Thailand yet when Bro and I talked about where we would go to next.  That was this past February.  Of course, South America came up.  I've only been to one country - Peru.  Bro's never been.  It's a big continent and we bounced around ideas of where we would like to travel to.  We finally settled on Chile and Argentina.