Amerian Buenos Aires Park

This morning we arrived in Buenos Aires to hot and humid weather. HI 96 LOW 75 After a transfer to the hotel we took a short orientation walk and went to the Pacifica Galeria Mall for lunch. They have a wonderful food court and it would be very difficult to distinguish it from a mall in the US. Our hotel is in the heart of the Microcenter neighborhood and walking distance to most everything. Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina but more importantly its heart and soul, is a city of neig...

Today started with breakfast at the hotel and then a city tour starting with Plaza de Mayo and a quick 3 stop ride on the Subte (subway). We were able to ride on the A line with its rickety old wooden cars that require you to manually open and close the doors. All of the seats are wooden and the lights are a dull yellow giving it the feeling that you stepped back in time to the early 1900's when the first subway line was built. Next we headed to La Boca for a walk along the Caminito, a pedest...

Plaza de Mayo Plaza de Mayo is the political center of Argentina. Demonstrations criticizing Argentina's political and economic woes have become very common in Buenos Aires and just off Plaza de Mayo we saw a small group criticizing the policy on selling and buying houses. They are no longer allowed to demonstrate at the entrance to the Casa Rosada (Presidential Palace) but must remain in a fenced area in the center of Plaza de Mayo. The national police are always in the area just in case som...

La Boca La Boca, on the banks of the Rio Riachuelo, was originally developed as the first seaport for Buenos Aires. La Boca was the home to many of the cities most affluent citizens until an 1870 yellow fewer epedemic forced them to move to the Recoleta. The abandon homes soon became tenant houses to multiple immigrant families of the working poor. After these abandon homes filled up the immigrants began to build homes out of corrugated steel and paint them with leftover paint from the ships ...

Recoleta Recoleta is the neighborhood around the Recoleta Cemetery in the center of the Barrio Norte. It was created in 1870 when the Porteņos fled the barrios of La Boca and San Telmo after the yellow fewer epidemic. The Cementerio de la Recoleta is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Buenos Aires. The cemetery was created in 1822 and is a small city of 6,400 mausoleums where Buenos Aries' most powerful and rich families try to outdo one another with edifices to their wealth and po...

Today we fly from Ushuaia back to Buenos Aires for a one night stay before going on to Iguazu Falls. Out of the original 23 members of our group, only 17 will be going to Iguazu Falls. It is a 5 hour flight to Buenos Aires because our plane is making a stop in El Calafate before continuing on to Buenos Aires. When we were in El Calafate just a week ago many of us tasted the calafate berry and it is said that if you taste the calafate berry you will return to El Calafate. Well, it looks as tho...

Today we leave Iguazu for Buenos Aires. It's a short flight of 90 minutes and when we land in Buenos Aires it's raining and hot. We have the afternoon to shop or sightsee but the rain is heavy and we opt for a light lunch and a little shopping. Tonight is our second farewell dinner since tomorrow we all fly home.