Iguazu!

We flew from Buenos Aires to Iguazu Falls for a three night stay.  The first night was spent at the Sheraton on the Argentina side followed by the next two nights at the Belmond on the Brazilian side.  Both hotels are on the pricy side but being inside the park and being able to tour around when the crowds are gone is priceless.

Location aside the Sheraton is nothing special.  Older rooms and the food is nothing great and expensive.  I somehow messed up when booking, thought I had booked a falls facing room but a few days before we left I realized it was only a jungle view room.  I was pretty bummed about my mistake but while we were there I stumbled upon a locked door to the rooftop terrace.  I quickly ran down to ask the front desk how I could get up there and they were more than happy to provide me with the key.  They were the best views you could get on the property and I tried my first astrophotography shots and woke up early to check out the sunrise.  Below are my two favourite photos:

Argentinian Iguazu Night.  Fuji X-T1 - 18-135mm

Argentinian Iguazu Morning. Fuji X-T1 - 18-135mm

The two days at the Belmond on the Brazilian side where amazing.  We spent the afternoons at the pool, the evenings along the walkways alone and the nights eating great food.  It was definitely better to spend more time on the Brazilian side.  Also the views in my opinion were more spectacular.  Only downside was rainy mornings so no sunrise photos, but still great.  Also you could go on the falls paths at any time, in Argentina the paths closed at 6pm.  Here are my favourite two from the Brazilian side.  The rest can been seen on Flickr.

View in Brazil. Fuji X-T1 - 18-135mm

Another clear night. Fuji X-T1 - 18-135mm


Buenos Aires

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Finally completed processing the photos from our short trip to South America.  We stopped in three locations starting in Buenos Aires, then onto Iguazu Falls and finally relaxing in Rio De Janeiro.

We had a great time in Buenos Aires.  We stayed in a neighbourhood called Palermo at the Bobo Hotel.  The hotel was great, our room had a large balcony and jacuzzi tub.  All the front desk workers were very helpful.  I highly recommend this hotel.  Palermo isn't a touristy neighbourhood but there are lots of restaraunts/bars and good shopping close by.

Highlights from the BA:

  • Don Julio's: This is now a popular restaurant among tourists but initially was also very popular with the locals.  We had some of the best beef we every ate at this restaurant and it was only a couple blocks from our hotel.
  • Superclasico:  If you are ever in town when a superclasico is occurring you must go to this match.  I have never seen or been in an atmosphere like that.  I would not call myself a soccer fan but it was one of the best sporting experiences I have ever had.
  • Recoleta cemetery: Although a little creepy strolling through this elaborate/exclusive cemetery it is definitely a must see.

Photography wise the weather was too good during the day to capture anything great.  Recoleta should have been a haven for good photos but there was not a cloud in the sky and we were ushered out before the sun was able to set and make the lighting good.  I am sure there were good photos there but I just failed to capture anything I was happy with.

There was also a tonne of street art that should have made for great photos but I feel that I failed to capture them as well.

My favourite pictures were taken in Puerto Madero.  We stayed here past sunset and below is my favourite photo from BA.  You can also click through to see all the images from BA.


Superclásico Craziness

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Well we successfully made it to Buenos Aires and had no hiccups on our trip to Rio De Janeiro.  Overall an amazing trip and I now have over 2000 photos to sort through.  Before that though I thought I would share our experience at the Superclásico on our last night in Buenos Aires.

The Superclásico is a football match between River Plate and Boca Juniors.  These are the two top rivals in Argentina and has to be one of the biggest rivalries in all of sports.  Tickets are tough to come by but lucky for us due to the Copas Libertadores there were two Superclásico's while we were there.

It was a crazy experience. The fans are so passionate and start singing hours before the match and by kickoff the stands are basically a large mosh pit.

I brought the trusty Canon S95 and put together the videos below.  But first a couple of tips if you plan to ever attend one:

  1. Do not sit in an aisle seat if you are in general admission.  We arrived at the stadium three hours early and thought it would be a good idea.  However one hour prior to the match the aisles are full of spectators because they typically sell more tickets then there are seats.  We ended up standing on or seats for the entire match.
  2. Females should bring toilet paper.  Lauren was shocked when the ladies washroom didn't have toilet seats and there was no toilet paper.
  3. If you are taking pictures/video of the craziness be sure to hold onto your camera\phone tightly!  One of the guys in our group had his iPhone 6 accidentally knocked out of this hand while making a video.  He miraculously was able to find it at the end of the match under a seat in the section below.  It had a few dings but the screen was mostly intact.