Statistics
Days: 19. Arrived in Argentina on January 13. Left Argentina on January 31.
Cities: 5. Mendoza, Los Quirquinchos, Rosario, Buenos Aires, Colonia (Uruguay).
Apartment Rentals: 3. We rented AirBNB apartments in Mendoza and Buenos Aires. We were able to stay in Pam’s apartment in Rosario (thanks again!!).
Our apartment in Buenos Aires was an open loft style.
Hotels/Hostels: 0.
Modes of Transportation: 6. Bus, taxi, ferry, bike, truck, walk.
We both loved riding bikes around Mendoza and tasting all the wine!
Q&A
What was your favorite site or place that you visited?
J: Riding bicycles to wineries in Mendoza. It was fun to ride bikes around, explore the city, and drink wine!
L: I loved riding bikes through the vineyards in Mendoza. We had so much fun on the first day that we went, that we decided to go back for a second day of wine touring. It’s a beautiful place and of course the wine is spectacular!
What a perfect place to try some wine!
What was the biggest surprise you had during this time?
J: Meeting Pam and her family. It was nice how hospitable they were – letting us stay at her mother’s house for the night, taking us to visit her and her cousin’s farms, hosting an asado for dinner, and then giving us her apartment in Rosario for the weekend. I had never met them and was pleasantly surprised at how welcoming and hospitable they all were!
L: How much we liked Buenos Aires! As with many of the large cities on our trip, Jon and I went with a bit of apprehension. However, we quickly fell in love with the city and consider it one of the few places we could see ourselves living. In particular, our neighborhood of San Telmo was fun, quirky, entertaining, and safe.
Pam and her entire family were so open and welcoming to us during our short visit!
What was the lowest point for this part of the trip?
J: Trying to make spaghetti. We went grocery shopping in Buenos Aires, since we had an apartment for the week, and I tried to cook spaghetti for dinner one night. The meal failed and was so bad that we threw most of it away (and it should have been such a simple and easy meal!).
L: I had a tiny melt-down in Buenos Aires, after a long and hot day when it seemed that nothing was going right. I felt lacking in my limited Spanish, unable to clearly communicate and get my point across, and was getting frustrated with the fact that I couldn’t make myself understood.
What was your favorite food or meal that you had?
J: It’s hard to not answer with the asado at Pam’s house, which was my favorite meal. In Buenos Aires, we had choripán from a street stall near our apartment which was delicious!
L: Obviously, the asado that we had at Pam’s house was my favorite meal! Aside from that, I loved the lunch we had while out wine tasting one day – five courses of traditional foods complete with local wine.
We loved the choripan sandwiches from this shop outside of the San Telmo market.
What would you change if you were to do it again?
J: There’s nothing I would changed based on what we did. However I would like to have expanded more on what we did – I would like to go to the south to Patagonia to explore more.
L: There’s not much I would change! The only thing I can think of was our apartment in Buenos Aires – it was a nice apartment and perfect location, but didn’t have A/C. If I were to go back, I would try to stay in the same neighborhood but get an apartment with A/C during the hot summer months.
What advice would you give someone doing a similar trip and route?
J: Do your homework on which neighborhood you want to stay in, particularly in large cities. Be deliberate on where you want to stay, based on what you want to see and what sort of feel you want in your neighborhood. We loved staying in San Telmo, in Buenos Aires, and spent many days just walking around and trying different restaurants there. There’s so much of Buenos Aires that we didn’t see, but we loved the small area that we did get to know.
L: Argentina is huge – there’s so much to see and do. Instead of bouncing around and staying places for only a night or two, concentrate on a few cities along a path that makes sense. We stayed in four cities and pretty much cut straight across the country from west to east, rather than trying to make our way south to Patagonia or north to Iguazu Falls (both of which we would love to visit, but will save for another trip!).
Even the abandoned buildings in San Telmo were made to fit in with the artsy neighborhood.
What is the best memory that you’ll carry with you?
J: I really enjoyed biking around Mendoza and visiting the vineyards. Also, I loved visiting Pam and her family, especially hanging out with Martin and Sebastian and watching them cook the beef and pig in a traditional method. It’s a toss-up between these memories as to which is best!
L: Spending the night with Pam’s family in Los Quirquinchos was my favorite memory from Argentina. Her entire family was so open and welcoming, making us feel at home. I loved touring the farms, eating an asado for dinner, and just relaxing by the pool with her family.
The asado dinner at Pam’s house was one of our favorite meals in Argentina!
Pam and I on the dairy farm during our visit to Los Quirquinchos.
What to read more?
Read about our time in Argentina…