The primary focus of the years Christmas and New Year’s trip was a long-awaited cruise to Antarctica. I didn’t want to travel all this way not to do something else so I added a pre-trip to Bariloche, in Northern Patagonia and a post-trip to the Iguazu Falls situated at the triple border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.

This post covers my pre and post-trips. I have a separate post here covering Antarctica.

Upon arrival I needed to get a little bit of local currency and exchanged $50. The current exchange rate was about USD 1 = 1,000 Argentina Pesos. The exchange place apparently didn’t have any 5,000 or 10,000 Peso notes so I ended up with basically the equivalent of 52 one dollar bills.

I arrived a day early in Buenos Aires and that first afternoon took a 4-hour walking food tour in the Palermo SoHo district of the city. Traffic in Buenos Aires is gridlock and my 2 ½ mile Uber ride to the start of the tour took nearly 20 minutes!

The food tour was fantastic and we tried may varied dishes. We started with pizza and empanadas and wrapped up the evening with gelato.

The following day we flew to Bariloche. It is a beautiful town situated on the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi. This is the gateway to Patagonia’s Lake District and has a distinctly alpine flavor giving to its nickname, Little Switzerland.

The afternoon we arrived we had an interesting presentation from a local resident on the presence of Nazis in Patagonia after World War II. The next day we took a hike on Otto Hill that included amazing views of the region.

Due to the Christmas holiday we had to juggle our schedule a bit due to many businesses being closed. In Argentina families have a large dinner on Christmas Eve and Santa shows up just after midnight. Speaking of Santa, I met this hipster Santa at the main square in Bariloche. He wanted 1,000 Pesos for this pic…can you believe it? Ha!

The morning of Christmas Eve we took a floating trip on the Limay River followed by a light lunch at a local lodge.

That afternoon we took a ski lift to the top of Campanario Hill to view Lake Nahuel Huapi and the surrounding scenery from above. This was followed by a hike in the Llao Llao National Park along the shores of Lake Moreno.

That evening a local brew pub opened early for us for Christmas Eve dinner. We tried many of their craft beers at dinner. Later that evening the place was fully booked with locals to enjoy Christmas Dinner.

On Christmas Day morning we traveled to a local family’s ranch where we had the opportunity for a horse ride and traditional BBQ lunch. Having endured 2 horse rides earlier in the year I opted for a short hike of the ranch.

With Christmas behind us, we returned to Buenos Aires for the start of our main trip to Antarctica.

In Buenos Aires we had a city tour covering the highlights of the city. We started in the Recoleta Cemetery located right next to our hotel. This is where the rich and famous, including Eva Peron, are buried. It’s a fascinating place…a little city for the dead crammed with ornate mausoleums.

We also traveled to the Bohemian La Boca neighborhood. There we had a change to wander around for a while followed by a tango demonstration and short tango lesson.

That afternoon and evening we had another welcome briefing and steak dinner for our entire Antarctica base trip group. This again was near the old port of Buenos Aires. After dinner we took a walk along the old port passing the Puente de la Mujer (Spanish for “Woman’s Bridge”). The name comes because many streets in the surrounding Porto Madero neighborhood are named for women.

Time to leave Buenos Aires and head to Ushuaia at the southernmost tip of Argentina where our Antarctica cruise would depart.

The next morning we headed to Tierra del Fuego National Park where we took two hikes to the scenery. Tierra del Fuego National Park is the southernmost park in Argentina delivering stunning glacial, mountain, and forested landscapes. We returned to Ushuaia for a lunch across the street from the port where our Antarctica cruise would begin.

The time had come to explore Antarctica. Details of the Antarctica cruise part of my trip is posted here.

After disembarking the cruise we headed straight to the Ushuaia airport for our flight back to Buenos Aires to spend one final night.

The next day we flew to Puerto Iguazu to spend two days at the Iguazu Falls. After arriving at the airport we immediately headed to Brazil for the afternoon. After passing through Brazilian immigration we went to view the falls from the Brazilian side of the river. The Iguazu Falls are 8,900’ wide. This makes them nearly three times wider than Niagara Falls and much wider than Victoria Falls.

The following day we returned to the falls to see them from the Argentinian side. The falls are divided into around 275 waterfalls separated by rocky and wooded islands. The most dramatic section of the falls is the Devil’s Throat (Garganta del Diablo), which is nearly 500’ wide.

After viewing the falls from above many of us took the opportunity to view them from below. After taken stairs down to the river below we took a short boat ride to the base of many of the fall. As they warned us in advance…we took a shower that afternoon. At least we were each given a dry bag for our electronics, shoes, etc. That was quite the experience.

We left Iguazu and flew back to Buenos Aires. At baggage claim in Buenos Aires I had a bit of a surprise. Someone came up and asked if my name was David. There was Gary Nusbaum and his wife Susan. Gary has been a friend of my brother since at least high school and was best man at his wedding.

I hadn’t seen them in many years though knew they were traveling somewhere in South America. They were just finishing up a whirlwind trip to South America that included Easter Island, a cruise in the fjords of southern Chile, a trip to Brazil including Iguazu Falls and wrapping up in Buenos Aires. We were in a hurry to leave to airport but I got a quick selfie to send to my brother. As he said so well, it’s a small world.

After some free time in Buenos Aires I headed to the airport for my overnight flight back to Atlanta.

Tour Operator: Overseas Adventure Travel

Dates: December 19, 2025 – January 11, 2025

Below are a few more photos from the trip.