argentina: planning it all out

My mind and eyes are on several different maps at the moment, so if I seem a bit disoriented these days -ho hum. It’s all part of the organizational process needed to plan these great escapes.

I thought I sort of had trip planning for Argentina all worked out, but I think Nats and I will be letting the winds carry us in country. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and we’ve done it before in Costa Rica. Problem with Argentina is that we’d REALLY like to go to Patagonia, but I don’t think it would be very practical. For starters my amiga only has 10 days to work with where I have 13 total in country. Getting to Rio Gallegos or El Calafate by bus would take us about 38 hours / 2 days ride. (The key is shoestring travel folks.) Secondly, we’d like to see penguins and go ice hiking on glaciers, but neither looks HIGHLY probable until mid or late September. Would it be worth it to go all the way to Ushuaia, freeze, get our bragging rights and then make the long journey back to B.A.? Eh… Not so sure.

So the question now is aside from Buenos Aires, where should we go? The guidebooks suggest heading north or northwest, but should we follow? If so, where exactly other than Iguazu is worth visiting? Any tipsters out there?

I think I have enough B.A. ideas. Examples: Looking into tango classes at Darcos and other locations, dancing at one of the many milongas (social dance), checking out various neighborhoods like La Boca & San Telmo, sipping Malbec and chomping on juicy Argentine beef at a parrilla…

Oh, and for those wondering about where I’ll be resting my head. Two words: Couch Surfing. In the process of securing our hosts. All the fun!