I’m a bit behind on writing up our recent trips. This one was over Thanksgiving week in 2022. We had always talked about doing a big South American trip and it finally all came together. My father-in-law had used a tour company for the first time on a trip to Africa with my sister-in-law earlier in the year, and we decided to use them again for this trip.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Our flights to Argentina were uneventful. Upon arrival, we were met at the airport by our tour guide for this city. Having an escort through the airport chaos directly to our hotel was a great perk of using a tour company. We checked in at the Palladio hotel in a hip neighborhood and then began our private shuttle tour of the city. We made our first stop at “Generic Flower”, a poor choice of words for a very large solar-powered flower art sculpture surrounded by a large circular pool of water. Next up, we stopped in a popular part of the Recoleta neighborhood to walk around, discuss some history, and take some photos. A friend had recommended visiting the Recoleta Cemetery which was nearby so I asked our guide if we could go there. It was a beautiful and ornate cemetery similar to famous ones in New Orleans and Paris, and was my personal highlight of Buenos Aires. We drove around the city some more, visiting different parts of town, and hearing local stories, both historical and recent news. This part of the tour was my least favorite and I think it detracted from my overall opinion of Buenos Aires. Our last big tourist stop was the Opera House, a massive stunning event space. There was a large chandelier where people would be above it singing into pipes to give a unique surround sound, and “widow boxes” which were seats on the sides below stage-level for widowed women (they are now basically storage). After that, we went to a preset dinner at Piegari Carnes. It’s a white tablecloth type of place and the food was yummy. There was going to be another hour of the tour on the shuttle but we opted to skip it and asked to be dropped off at the Recoleta Market we saw earlier. We strolled around the market and bought some small pictures/paintings as souvenirs. From there we walked back to the hotel, just beating out a storm. We enjoyed watching the rain from our balcony view over a nice park across the street.
Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay
We knew we wanted to visit Uruguay when we were initially planning out this trip. When we mentioned it to the tour company, they wanted it to be 2-3 days with a lot of stops that didn’t really interest us, so we just asked for a “free day” in Buenos Aires and planned this as a day trip on our own. The capital Montevideo is about 5 hours away by ferry which would have eaten up too much of the day, so we found a much closer city named Colonia del Sacramento, just across the bay. We were advised to arrive at the Colonia Express Terminal early to beat the lines, and were very glad we did as they quickly spanned the entire building! The ferry side itself was a little over an hour and the water was pretty muddy. I had mapped out different attractions in town, and since it was only about a 10-15 minute walk from the ferry terminal, I figured we’d see the city by foot. Jaime had read that the town was known for their golf cart rentals. We laughed at the prospect initially, but when we arrived there were only two golf carts left and we took it as a sign that we must try it out! It was a little bumpy at first getting used to how to handle them, though they ended up being a highlight of the whole trip. We zoomed around town hitting all of the stops I had outlined. Starting at a scenic waterfront overlook called Punta Santa Rita, then going through the center of town and parking at Plaza Mayor. From there we took a bunch of photos at the Ruinas del Convento de San Francisco and the Colonia del Sacramento Lighthouse (basically attached to each other), and then had an ice cream stop at Freddo. We then drove around the back roads through the old part of town. There were several medieval brick roads that were intentionally left to nature (aka not drivable), so we parked and strolled around that area called Barrio Histórico. That’s where we first saw these giant beautiful purple trees which were scattered throughout town. From there, we went north and parked at the Basilica of the Blessed Sacrament and walked around the courtyard and around the Plaza de Armas next door. Heading south to the coast, we parked near San Miguel Bastion and walked through the famous gate, continued walking along the walls, and took in the costal views of the water and also great views of the lighthouse in town. We had a really great lunch at the nearby Bohemia Bistro on the waterfront, and the ruins left exposed inside the restaurant added to the ambiance. We continued walking west along the coastal road, then headed inland to make a big loop back to our golf carts. We had some extra time left so we drove around to other parts of town along the north side, zig zagging through the streets, then parked on the main downtown street for some shopping and a gelato stop at Grido. From there, we headed back to the terminal for our ferry ride back to Argentina.
Back in Buenos Aires, we went to Pertutti for dinner. They have a huge kids room with games that the girls enjoyed. Walking back to the hotel, we saw an Argentinian treat called alfajores in a store named Guolis. They are similar to whoopie pies, though smaller and much fancier-looking. We picked some up to have back in the hotel room before calling it a night.
Puerto Iguazú, Argentina / Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil
The next morning, we headed to the airport for our next stop, Iguazú Falls. The World Cup had recently started at Argentina’s first game was about to begin as we arrived. They had jumbo inflatable screens and soccer ball themed bean bag chairs all over to watch the game. The staff were all watching the game on their phones and you couldn’t hear any announcements over the crowd noise. It was a fun experience! Upon arrival we met our new guide and headed to La Cantera Lodge to drop off our luggage. It was a sort of jungle retreat and our room ended up having a large balcony with a private hot tub. We didn’t stay long though before heading to Parque Nacional do Iguaçu (the Brazilian Side of Iguazu Falls). There was an instant view of the amazing falls across the river from a large lookout next to the street. From there you can walk along the ridge towards the center of the falls, or get a ride to the end and take an elevator down. My in-laws opted for the elevator while the rest of us took the ridge line path. It was a pretty easy walk and you could get lots of different views at various outposts along the way. We met up with my in-laws at the end of the path where there are long boardwalks that lead you out over the river into the middle of the falls. It was an amazing experience, with powerful waterfalls coming down on one side, going under your feet, and then dropping off to create another waterfall on the other side. You do get very wet, and one of our kids opted to wait at the beginning of the boardwalk to avoid that, so we took turns going out and coming back. After many wet photo ops and slow-motion videos of the falls, we took the elevator up to street level and went back to the hotel. We checked in and then had a late lunch at the hotel restaurant. Since the hotel is in the middle of nowhere, it was our only option, but luckily it was good. We then suited up to go swimming. It was a bit colder than expected so we didn’t last too long in the water. We drank a local speciality called mate from the poolside bar. We changed and walked around the lodge grounds as the sun was setting before having a small dinner. We ended the night trying out our hot tub, which was a little more complicated than we expected.
The next day we went to Iguazú National Park (on the Argentinian side). This side was much more elaborate. There were many different color-coded paths, including accessible ones, and a train to reach the further trails. We took the train deep into the park, and started with the blue accessible trails. I think we collectively didn’t expect much out of a second day at the same waterfalls, but holy cow, it was a completely different and incredible experience! On this side, you are walking along the ridge line on top of the waterfalls. It was full of unique and amazing views. After the blue trails, my in-laws opted to head back to the hotel while the rest of us continued onto the yellow trails. Those ones took us to various other viewpoints at different levels of the waterfalls. There was a pitstop along one of the paths with a cafe that was surrounded by monkeys where we stayed at watched them for a little bit. Once we finished the yellow trails we went back to the central area of the park and had a nice lunch with a nearby ice cream stop. We stopped at a small indigenous market for some souvenirs before heading back to the hotel and having dinner with everyone.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The next morning we crossed over the border to Brazil again in order to catch a domestic flight into Rio (as flights from the Argentinian side connect all the way back in Buenos Aires). We had originally booked a direct flight to Rio, but at some point that flight disappeared and the flight agency I used never notified us. Our overall tour agency double-checked all of our flights and told us the flight didn’t exist! We’re still fighting to get a refund 3 months later… Luckily it was caught before we left so we were able to book a new flight connecting through Sao Paulo. Just our luck though, we arrived at the gate just as they locked the door and they wouldn’t let us on the plane. They couldn’t rebook us from the gate either, so we had to run through the airport to the departure check-in desk outside of security to get new tickets. The new flight was already boarding, so we had to run back through the airport again to get on it. Whew! Once we got to Rio, we met our new guide and checked in at the hotel. We had the afternoon and evening to ourselves. Coincidentally Brazil was about to play in the World Cup, so we walked to Copacabana Beach and watched the game with locals at a beach restaurant (called “kiosks”). This was on Thanksgiving Day, so of course we had to find a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner somewhere. That somewhere was the Gringo Cafe across town. It was a delicious meal and great way to end the night.
The next day we had a full city tour. We started with some views of the plentiful street art around town and skirted by a couple rough areas. Our first stop was a series of large beautiful Olympic murals and from there we walked to the Museum of Tomorrow. We thought it would be a bit more futuristic-focused, but it was still a fun stop in an interesting building along the coast. From there we stopped at a large pyramid church called Catedral Metropolitana de São Sebastião for a quick walk-through. Then we went to a busy part of town that had a New Orleans vibe to get lunch at a historic place named Confeitaria Colombo. We had the traditional feijoada (Brazilian Black Bean Stew), and then drove around town a little more before the tour ended back at the hotel. We then strolled along Copacabana Beach while the rest of the extended family took naps. We met up back at the hotel and then walked down the main coastal road a little bit to have a delicious dinner at Joaquina. The night was still young so we continued to walk along the coast a bit further and had some acai bowls as a treat to end the night.
We saved the two biggest Rio attractions for our final morning. Up first was visiting the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue. It’s quite huge up close but funnily enough it’s not that easy to see from street-level and often gets hidden in cloud. We luckily had clear skies during our visit and the views of Rio from up there were amazing. It was very crowded and sometimes hard to move around so we didn’t stay there too long. Next up we had a great Brazilian steakhouse lunch at Assador, from the founder of Fogo de Chão. Our last big attraction was going to Sugarloaf Mountain and taking the two tiers of cable cars to different heights and taking in the views of Rio and remembering all of the fun and adventure of this trip.
Normally this is where I would say it was an uneventful trip home, but this time it was quite eventful. My sister-in-law got very sick on our first flight to Sao Paulo and we thought they might kick her off the second flight home. We lost mobile service right when she was texting that the pilot was asking about her! We didn’t know if she was on the flight until we got back in Chicago and saw her. My father-in-law lost some of his hearing that the doctor attributed to lots of recent flights, and I also had some hearing issues that took over a week to recover from.
Overall though, it was an amazing trip, and we’re so close we did it. We wished we had time to pop over to Paraguay and we’d like to see more of Uruguay, so we’ll save that for next time!