The Silent "I"

Argentina: Star Quality in Buenos Aires

       

Casa Rosada or The Pink Palace, in Buenos Aires, Argentina

February 3, 2004

After our amazing stay in Iguazu Falls, it was time to explore another part of Argentina.  After an early morning flight from Puerto Iguazu, we checked into the Marriott Plaza Hotel in Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires was a short stop on our itinerary, but we decided to make the most of it.

Buenos Aires is a mix of old-world European charm and Latin intensity. I was struck by how ridiculously good-looking the people were, from the hotel desk clerk who looked like she just stepped off a runway in Milan, to the average Joes (or Juans) reading the newspaper in the park who could have been Antonio Banderas' long lost sibling.  We've been all over the world, and I don't think I've seen this many gorgeous people per capita anywhere else, even Beverly Hills (where the looks tend to be generated by surgeons rather than genetics).  There was something unique and interesting about all of the faces we encountered.

After checking in, we walked to Plaza General San Martin, a nearby park with some ancient metal play structures that Alexander could play on while I nervously looked on.  The equipment looked like the kind of metal structures I remember from when I was a kid in the 60's and 70's, with chipping paint (probably lead), and hard, unforgiving concrete underneath.  This equipment made me appreciate litigious American parents who have pretty much made sure that playground equipment is as safe as possible. 

Luckily, Alexander had fun without managing to kill himself or give his mom a heart attack.  Alexander had a great time playing on the slides, monkey bars, and running around, after spending the morning in airports, planes and taxis.  Sometimes, a boy just needs to run free.

Iguazu Falls: 5 Fun Things to Do with Kids

If you're fortunate enough to visit Iguazu Falls with your kids like we were, there are some things that are not-to-be missed.  Here's my list of five things to do with kids at Iguazu Falls:

1. Hike the trails in Iguazu National Park, Argentina: Most of the main trails on the Argentina side are well marked and paved. There are three main trails, or Circuits to walk. The Upper Circuit offers panoramic views of the falls, and takes about 30-35 minutes. It is easily accessed by people with mobility impairments, and kids should have no trouble keeping up.  The Lower Circuit takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to complete, and includes stairs and catwalks.  The Green Trail is a quick 10-15 minute walk to the beginning of the Upper and Lower Circuits.  Be sure to stay on the trails, since there are snakes lurking, and you don't want to come face to face with an anaconda without being prepared!  Many of the trails have brick pavement that you could push a rugged stroller over.  Be sure to bring water, sunscreen, and insect repellent along for the journey.

Argentina: Iguazu Falls Farewell

February 2, 2004

After our day in Brazil viewing Iguazu Falls from the other side, we had a relaxing day at the hotel.  It was our last full day at the falls, and unfortunately, I didn't feel that well.  It may have been a combination of the heat, humidity, and different drinking water, or just being exhausted from the travel.  We decided to spend the morning letting Alex splash around at the pool after breakfast.

I mentioned in an earlier post, that the pool was circular and a series of concentric circles getting deeper toward the middle.  The pool was not terribly crowded, and Frank and Alexander happily splashing around the outside, shallow part, and swimming across.  An elderly German man waded in on the opposite side, and evidently didn't realize how deep it got, and slipped under water.  Before I knew what was happening, the lifeguard on duty was out of his chair, dove in, and fished the sputtering, flailing German out from the bottom of the pool. The man didn't lose consciousness and was grateful for the rescue, as he coughed and wheezed on the sidelines.

Brazil: The Toucan & The Toddler

Alexander, age 3, gets checked out by a toucan in Brazil. The Parque das Aves, near Iguassu Falls, is a great place to visit with kids.

For more colorful and fun travel photos, check out Delicious Baby's Photo Friday.

Argentina: Three Borders Monument (Tres Fronteras)

This post is part of a retrospective series on our trip to South America in 2004.  In this episode, we drive back from viewing Iguazu Falls from the Brazilian side to our hotel in Argentina.

February 1, 2004

After exiting the Bird Park (through the Gift Shop, of course) and noshing on a traditional Brazilian snack of ice cream and cookies, we hopped in the car with our tour guide, Edson, and drove back across the border to Argentina.  There was no hassle re-entering Argentina, although we had to give the guard a "tip," a common practice at certain borders. And by "tip" I don't mean, "Don't drink the water," but cash, pesos, moolah, dinero, or whatever the currency happens to be.  Anyway, as long as we weren't subjected to body-cavity searches, I  was not too upset by the process.  I'm not sure the customs officials would have cared for what they found in Alexander's pull-up diaper, which came in handy for long car-rides, and was our secret weapon against overly intrusive border crossing guards.

Edson drove us to the town of Puerto Iguazu for a look around.  It was a quiet place, with most shops closed on Sunday.  It felt like a mixture of a German hamlet and a Mexican border town.  The town had some quaint European-style buildings, painted in pastel colors bleached out by the sun.  A few skinny dogs roamed the streets, but otherwise, there was not much happening. The entire town looked like it was taking one long siesta. We drove on through and didn't stop, since there was not much worth stopping for.

Frank wanted to go to the Three Borders Monument or Tres Fronteras, an historic marker with a view of the place where the rivers meet to form the borders of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraquay.  I was completely paranoid about this little stop, because I had read a review on TripAdvisor that said, "DO NOT GO TO THREE BORDERS! This place is a tourist trap full of drug-addicted children who will rob and kill you!"

I didn't stop to think that if this were true, the writer would be both broke and dead, so how would he have had the wherewithal to write his opinion on TripAdvisor? Unless, this were his dying wish, to have this warning placed for all to see.  It was a warning in ALL CAPS, and you just don't get more serious than that, right?

Anyway, I was wary of the place, and didn't quite like the notion of hanging out with drug-addicted children ready to pounce and force Alexander to start downing tequila at age 3, like Drew Barrymore or Mackenzie Phillips.  Edson assured us that it was quite safe during the day, but at night it got a little seedy with teens hanging out with nothing better to do.  Kind of like the neighborhood skate park. Or in our town, Starbucks.

Alex fell asleep in the car, so I decided to stay in the car with him while Frank and Edson went to take pictures of the Monument.  There was a beat-up sedan parked nearby, with a man and three kids inside.  I was looking out the window, eyeballing the sedan and holding Alexander's head in my lap. Suddenly, the door on Alexander's side flew open, startling me.  Standing there was a little girl of about seven, in a raggedy green dress and flip-flops, holding a cardboard box, and asking me questions in Spanish, pointing to the box in her hands.

Oh, my God! I thought. A drug-addled child has come to rob and kill us. With God as my witness, I will never doubt TripAdvisor again!

I threw my body over Alex and slammed the door shut, saying, "No gracias! No No No!"

Alex stirred a little, but didn't wake up. The dejected little girl hung her head, and went back to her car. I looked around the car for a weapon, or an blunt object I could hurl if her gang of street urchins decided to try to tip the car over. If Edson had left the keys in the ignition, I had every intention of laying down some rubber and leaving the two men to fend for themselves, so long as my baby was safe.

A few minutes later, the little girl got out of the car and approached Frank & Edson with her box.  They both shook their heads, Edson shooed her away, and she retreated.  I rolled down the window when the girl was out of sight, and asked Frank what was in the box, fully expecting the answer to be either heroin or hand grenades.

"Cookies," he said.

Cookies? I just slammed the door on a Girl Scout?

"What did you think she was selling?" Frank asked.

"I dunno," I shrugged sheepishly.

As a former Girl Scout, I was certain that I would be stripped of every badge I'd ever earned, except the "Paranoid Tourist" badge. Today, I earned that one.

Photos by Frank, because I would not get out of the car.

Brazil: Bird Park (Parque das Aves)

February 1, 2004

After visiting the spectacular Brazil side of the falls, our tour guide Edson from Iguassu Falls Tours drove us to the Parque das Aves (Bird Park).  The entrance is a small, white stucco building with a colorful sign outside that doesn't quite prepare you for what is inside.

Frank had read about this place online, in a blog kept by a Berkeley student doing an externship at the park. He wrote her and she responded that it was a very safe, wonderful place and that our little guy would just love it.  We talked it up quite a bit to Alexander, who was excited to see all the birds.  We told him we would see toucans, and he said, "What about One-cans?"

Unfortunately, we didn't see any one-cans, but we saw lots of toucans, flamingos, macaws, parrots of all varieties, and birds with amazing colors and plumage.  The black crowned crane (on the right) was one of my favorites. I'm sure a dedicated birder would be able to spot many of these birds in the rainforest on a hike, but for us, this was a great way to spend an afternoon with a noisy three-year old in tow.

The foliage inside the park was quite dense, and by this time of the afternoon, it had gotten cloudy, so my pictures are a bit dark and don't do justice to how exquisite these birds were.  I was still using a film camera (Canon Rebel) at the time, so I had no way to know how the pictures would turn out until I got home.

I have always been fascinated by birds, although I'm not a birder by any stretch of the imagination. I think it is thrilling to see birds in the wild, but they are usually too fast for me to be able to identify what they are.

Some of the birds were in cages, and some were left out wandering about in the rainforest-like enclosure of the park. We would be walking down a path, and look up and see a toucan above our heads, staring down at us suspiciously, or see one hopping around on the ground.  I had only seen pictures of toucans before this trip, so it was quite a treat to see them in person, with their yellow and orange beaks, they looked more like cartoon birds than anything you would expect to find in nature.  I felt a little sorry for the birds in enclosures, but they appeared to be well-cared for and not entirely unhappy.

 Edson had to leave at one point to go pick up a colleague, so we were left on our own to wander through the park.  We were told that it would take about two hours to go through the entire park, and Edson told us he would be back in an hour or so to get us.

We were warned to be sure to close the doors between the enclosures so that the birds could not go between cages and make trouble for each other. They seemed to be partitioned off based on species, and I assume some did not get along well with others.

In addition to the birds, there was also a pond with some small Caimans, a variety of South American crocodile.  There are also anaconda and other snakes in the park.  They must have been hiding out, because we didn't see any, which was just fine with me.

One of the enclosures was a beautiful butterfly garden with incredible butterflies swooping about, so thick they looked like flowers on the trees until they moved.  The lush, deep green, waxy foliage with yellow and orange flowers was a perfect backdrop for the butterflies.  Alexander looked around with his mouth agape, astonished at the wonder of it all.  We sat on a bench in the butterfly garden for quite a while, quite lost in the magic of the place.

As we walked through the park, we came upon a could of park employees allowing visitors to handle some gorgeous blue and gold macaws.  Frank was game, and they perched the friendly bird on his shoulder, which made him immediately begin talking like a pirate.

"Avast ye mateys! Argh!" he said, making Alexander and me laugh, along with the staff and other park patrons. I guess "Pirate" is a universal language.

The woman wrangling the birds took the macaw off Frank's should after we took a few snapshots, and held it in her arms like a baby.  Alexander, without any prompting, walked up to her and held his arms outstretched, letting her know that he wanted to hold the bird.  She gently laid the bird in his arms, and he cradled it like a baby.  The bird lay perfectly still, and I held my breath, a little worried that Alexander would upset the bird, or the bird would upset Alexander.  Both seemed to get along just fine, and it was a lovely sight to see. Alex was very gentle with his new bird friend, and the bird was very gentle with him.

I told Frank that that image of Alexander with the bird in his arms made the entire trip worthwhile, and is a memory I will cherish forever. 

Brazil: Iguassu National Park (Cataratas de Iguassu)

February 1, 2004

After making it through the fingerprinting and mug shots at the Brazilian Customs Office, we hopped in the car with our tour guide from Iguassu Falls Tours, Edson, at the wheel.  We drove through the beautiful countryside with farms and thick rainforest on either side, with a few buildings and houses punctuating the deep green landscape. 

As Edson drove us through the scenic farmland and rainforest and spoke lovingly of growing up in the area, moving away for his education, then coming back to the place he knew best.  He taught us to say "obligado" instead of "gracias" for "thank you" while in Brazil. We pulled up in front of the entrance to the Brazil Iguassu Falls National Park, where there was a terrific visitor's center and gift shop.  Alex liked the map of Brazil showing where all the National Parks were.  Who knew there were so many?

We paid the park entrance fee, and did a little browsing in the shop. Edson told us he would bring us back on the way out of the park, so we didn't buy anything, just looked at all the nicely made knick-knacks, masks, and t-shirts with colorful embroidery on them.

We drove deeper into the park, where there are several lovely hotels, and parked at the Tropical Cataratas Hotel, and got out for a walk.  At the entrance to the trail down to the main viewing platform, we spotted another coati (called a quaxti in Brazil), walking around, probably looking for snacks.   He seemed unruffled by the busload of tourists around snapping pictures, and fairly tame.  At times, he looked annoyed, looking at people with a glare that said, "If you're not going to feed me, get the heck away from me."

I don't think it would be a good idea to try to pet one of these critters, but it did seem like they weren't particularly ferocious.

Brazil: Getting Through Customs (or Up Against the Wall, Mother)

February 1, 2004

February 1, 2004

After a glorious day at the Argentina side of Iguazu Falls, we decided to check out the Brazilian side. Since we don't speak Spanish or Portuguese, Frank arranged for a private car and tour guide from Iguassu Falls Tours  to pick us up at the hotel and take us over.  Our guide, a friendly young man named Edson, picked us up right on time in a small white car, and we were off to visit Brazil.

The best advice I can give to families with small kids traveling in a country where you don't know the language is to hire a private guide.  Often, it's as cost-effective as a bus tour for four or five people and less nerve-wracking than trying to rent a car and navigate on your own.  You have control over your schedule, and if your kids melt down 2 hours into it, you can change your course quickly. Native guides can often get the "inside scoop" on places and people that you won't get from a packaged tour, help you find a store that sells diapers or toys or whatever else you might need, or help you navigate a tricky situation.  We've had great luck finding guides on-line and through recommendations of other travelers.  This time was no exception.

Photo Friday - Argentina: Iguazu Falls

This week's Photo Friday is a picture I took on the Argentina side of Iguazu Falls in 2004. It was an amazing experience to stand on the precipice looking into the rushing water and the rainbows continually forming in the mist.

For more inspiring travel photos, check out Delicious Baby's Photo Friday.

Argentina: Iguazu Falls, The Devil's Throat (Garganta del Diablo)

After a refreshing swim in the circular pool at the Sheraton, we decided to take a walk down to the see Iguazu Falls up close.  Iguazu Falls National Park is on the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.  The falls are part of the Iguazu River originating in Brazil.  There are 275 waterfalls, spanning a little over a mile and a half, that make up the system of waterfalls that separate the upper Iguazu from the lower Iguazu River.  In 2006, the falls dried up for a time due to drought, but I have read that they are back at full force again, as they were in 2004 when we visited.

Behind the hotel, there was a well-marked, paved path down to the entrance to the falls. Along the way, there were signs showing a stick figure of a man on the path, with snakes on either side of him, threatening to strike at any second.  From what I could gather, the signs said something like "Stay on the path or you will be eaten by snakes!"  I wouldn't let Alexander put even a baby toe off the path, and we hurried on to the entrance to the park.

Along the path to the falls, we encounter a giant iguana and a coati, a mammal that looks like a cross between a raccoon, a monkey and an aardvark. I suppose it was the product of some weird jungle hybridization or an evolutionary joke. 

The walk was about a kilometer, but it seemed like it took forever, particularly for Frank. Alexander would be happily walking along, then suddenly decide he'd had enough of this walking thing and go on strike.  Frank would be the dutiful dad, and pick him up and carry him on his shoulders.  I was the dutiful sherpa, carrying our various backpacks, camera gear and accoutrements.

We walked down the path and past an abandoned building that had been part of the old hotel.  In a circular clearing, a few craftspeople had set out blankets with beautifully woven bags, little jaguars and toucans carved out of wood, flutes, and other native crafts.  Before he end of our stay, we bought several bags and wallets for Christmas gifts for family members, and a couple of carving for Alexander. A woman was sitting with the bags and weaving new ones as we browsed. It wasn't the typical "Made in China" souvenir stand we were used to, and I think we bought more than we should have because everything seemed so original and unique.