Buenos Aires

What a great stay we had in Argentina this year. We arrived in Buenos Aires on December 8 and saw more of this country over the last three months than we had even dreamed of. We saw Iguazu Falls from both the Argentine and Brazilian sides, we visited Ishuaia, the southernmost city on the planet, we walked with penguins in Puerto Madryn, marveled at the mountains in Purmamarca and the salt flats in Salinas Grandes and discovered some great wines in Cafayate and Salta.

But best of all was our time in Buenos Aires. I've already written about the amazing concerts we saw at Teatro Colon and the great meals we had at our favorite spots, so I won't repeat those experiences here.

We lived through an election that is, and will continue to change the face of Argentina. If the new president's financial plan succeeds, the country will no longer be the travel bargain it is today but will be a much better place for Argentinos. Time will tell.

Speaking of Argentinos, they are some of the nicest and friendliest folks around. Of course, there are bad areas where tourists shouldn't venture, but we never once felt unsafe or threatened the entire time we were here. The only unpleasant encounters we had were with the very nasty and stealthy mosquitos that suddenly seemed to have propagated the second half of February. Brenda was so traumatized that she didn't set foot outside of the apartment for three days!

Like any country, Argentina has its quirks. For example, the national obsession with Yerba Mate, or simply Mate here. It seems like half the people walk around with a gourd filled with mate in one hand and a thermos of hot water tucked under the other arm.

Despite hearing it for almost 90 days, the Argentine Spanish remains problematic for us. Try as we may, when the locals start rattling off sentences at full speed, we continue to look at them with the same blank look on our faces as we did three months ago.

And then there are the dog walkers. There are surely more of them per capita here than anywhere I've ever been. Some of them are handling as many as ten pooches at a time, and all the dogs are well-behaved.

So that's it. Our three months in Argentina are up, and we're off on another adventure; a twenty-five day transatlantic cruise to Venice, Italy. We're both kind of sad to leave BA, but at the same time, we're looking forward to the cruise, a little time in Italia, and, more and more, to getting home.

Hopefully, by the time we touch ground in Vancouver on April 9, the temperature will be higher than yesterday's 3 Celsius.Read more