Not only is the food great, but the owner is awesome as well. He is sweet, informative and a vegetarian himself. He is the kind of owner that makes your visit special and very personal. If I did not want to return for the food…I still would for the great service!

We were very hungry, so we went for the buffet option. There is also the option of picking two hot dishes and a salad. However, there were too many good options to be limited to three things. Therefore, we paid the mere $15 pesos for an all you can eat vegetarian buffet, which also included a dessert. It was extremely fresh, colorful and flavourful. He had vegetarian pizza with pumpkin and Roquefort cheese, pizza with zucchini and cheese, grilled tomatoes, spinach stuffed pasta shells, corn quiche, vegetarian empanadas, great salads, homemade dressings and fresh spices! It was all beautiful and exactly what I needed.

The owner also informed me that they prepare the food fresh everyday. He has owned the restaurant for six years, and his philosophy is that of caring for the well being and health of his customers. He has mastered the art of combining the best flavours and freshness to create delicious vegetarian dishes as if they were prepared in your home. He even makes all of the breads and crusts from scratch.

Overall, I appreciate any restaurant that offers something different. Gustavo, the owner, is a great guy and has done a fantastic job providing flavourful, fresh, wonderful vegetarian food. I have to compliment him for even opening a vegetarian restaurant in a country that so strongly prides itself on its meat. Naturata Restaurant Vegetariano was a great restaurant recommendation, and I must pass it on to all of you!

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Being away from my family on Christmas was much more difficult than I thought it was going to be. Therefore, I decided to take a trip to Mendoza to distract myself from the fact that it was the holiday season. Considering my love for dogs (pushing on obsession actually), I ended up choosing to stay at Hostel Lao in Mendoza, as I knew there was a dog living there! The place looked nice in the photos as well, don’t worry. Little did I know that not only would I find a fantastic hostel and the most playful dog, but also a social situation that left me feeling anything but alone for the holidays!

The second the door opened, Astor, the huge German Shepherd, popped his head out to see who his next playmates would be! I was exhilarated to be his next victim. The staff immediately gave us a tour, booked excursions for our whole stay and answered every question we had.

The owners are a young British man and his Argentinian girlfriend and they are both incredibly friendly. They gave us restaurant recommendations, made the reservations for us and even let us use their phone to make calls. They also live in the hostel, so you know it has to be a clean place!

We arrived the day before Christmas Eve, and were thrilled with all of the excursions we planned. The hostel made us dinner reservations at a great restaurant that night, but we were not so sure where we were going to eat dinner during the holidays, as many places close.

Fortunately, Hostel Lao was having a huge celebration and dinner for everyone staying there, so we did not even have to figure it out. We each paid $40 pesos for all you can eat meat, salad, wines from Mendoza, typical Christmas desserts and even flavored cognacs. The music was hopping and everyone in the hostel joined together around a huge table for dinner. It was so much fun that it thoroughly distracted me from the fact that it was Christmas Eve. If anything, I was able to celebrate Christmas Eve the Argentinian way.

Overall, Hostel Lao is very nice and has a lot of character as well. It is a big house that was turned into a hostel. It has a beautiful back yard with hammocks everywhere, a pool, tables to sit and enjoy a bottle of wine and overall a very relaxing ambience. There are also beautiful sitting areas within the house, several nice couches, a big kitchen table as well as a nice balcony on the top floor.

Hostel Lao is wonderful because you will feel at home there. It has a very social atmosphere, it is comfortable, Astor will always want to play with you, and the owners are great people. I really recommend staying at Hostel Lao, especially if you like dogs as much as I do. You will never feel lonely and you are guaranteed a great time!

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The water crashed into the boat thoroughly soaking all of us as we descended from the huge rapids. The wind chilled my body even through my wet suit and coat, but this is all part of the white water rafting experience! We had a fantastic time, and my huge smile and look of thrill never faded from my face.

Before arriving in Mendoza, I knew there were two things I could not leave without doing…white water rafting and wine tasting. We did not plan anything ahead of time, as we were told the hostels organize everything for you. Therefore, we just went with the company our hostel recommended, and I could not have been happier.

Our Mendoza white-water rafting excursion was set up with Ser O Outdoors, and this was a wonderful recommendation. The owners and guides at Ser O were organized, outgoing and extremely friendly. An hour into our excursion, I felt like I had known our guides for years. They really took the time to talk with us, get to know us, and most importantly they had fun with us!

The day started off with a personal van pick up at the front door of our hostel. The van then took us to Ser O, in which coffee, mate and pastries were awaiting us. We then got all of our equipment on, took pictures and climbed into another van, which took us to the water. We were informed of all safety issues and rafting commands before even touching the water. I did not feel scared or unsafe at any time during our trip.

Once everything was set and ready to go, we were off. We rafted for a good hour or two, hit some awesome rapids and were chilled to the bone from the wind and water! It was exhilarating! We stopped for lunch after two hours in an abandoned town and train station. After exploring for a little while and picking figs from the trees, Ser O provided a great lunch for us. We had the traditional and delicious salami, cheese, crackers, potato chips, peanuts, soda, water and hot coffee. It was the perfect amount of food and not too heavy before the last leg of our rafting experience.

At the end, we all got together for photos and then headed back to Ser O, in which there was a place for us to shower and change clothes even. We then crowded around their computer to look at the action shots that were taken of us during the trip. We had a little while before the van came to pick us up, so we sat and chatted with the owners and their friends. It truly felt like a family. They gave us coffee, fruit and anything else to make sure we were comfortable. I had the most amazing time, and it was mainly due to the incredible staff at Ser O. I would strongly recommend going white-water rafting in Mendoza, as well as going with Ser O Outdoors.

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The décor of this restaurant is modern and trendy with lighting on the darker side. It is a fairly large restaurant, but there are not many tables. Maybe due to low seating capacity and fewer people in the restaurant, we received fantastic service. The most beautiful and great tasting bread was placed on our table with an amazing dill dip. The bread is often times dry in restaurants here, but the bread at Bar 6 was soft and fresh. The menu is full of delectable and fancy items as well. Between salmon, stuffed chicken breast, wok dishes or the all famous Argentine steak; you will have a tough decision ahead of you. In addition, the menu of drinks and wine is quite extensive in itself. They even have a section of speciality drinks made with sake. Even still, we went for a bottle of wine. Our Argentine friend picked it out, as he claimed it was amazing. It was called Luigi Bosca. Even though on the expensive side, it was worth it, as it was a hit with everyone at the table!

My friend and I both had the mouth-watering stuffed chicken. It was so tender and moist that it had the consistency of fish. It was glazed with a melted brie sauce, came with asparagus and jasmine rice. It was a marvellous change after eating so much steak here.

Overall, I would most definitely recommend Bar 6. It had a different atmosphere, a distinct menu, delicious food and great wine and drink choices. You could easily get away with wearing nice or business casual clothing. If anything, go to Bar 6 and use the night as an excuse to get dressed up! Most importantly, you can remind your palate what good salmon or chicken tastes like!

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I bought the “Pasaporte Ahorro” which allowed me to enter all of the exhibits such as the reptile and rain forest area as well as the aquarium. This entrance ticket cost $12.50 pesos and it was well worth it. The only thing we paid extra for was the seal show.

In general, I can not deny I enjoyed myself. The Buenoa Aires zoo was a good size, and as told, I was able to get close to many of the animals. The zoo even sells little buckets of animal food. I have not been to a zoo in the states for a long time, but I do not remember ever being able to feed the animals! It was fun to watch little kids timidly hold food out in front of hungry llamas. However, there were some living conditions that upset me – such as those of the polar bears and penguins. On the other hand, the living conditions in all zoos are upsetting, so it would not be fair to point fingers only at the Buenos Aires zoo.

The zoo really did have a wide assortment of animals. Tigers, panthers, leopards, polar bears, penguins, reptiles, fish, seals, elephants, hippos, giraffes and even some animals known only to be in South America. It was also common to see a random bird skimmer across the pathway! I am still unsure if these birds were supposed to be in a cage or not! They were quite large and did not look like your everyday city bird.

Overall, the highlight for me was seeing the seal show…at least I think they were seals! The seals danced, did tricks, gave themselves an applause, and were always rewarded with several fish. It was very entertaining, and the seals truly seemed happy. On the whole, you will have to decide for yourself whether or not to go to the zoo. If you can not handle the zoos in the states, you will not like the zoo in Buenos Aires either. However, it was a nice and relaxing outing. It was a nice change to see some animal life after looking at buildings and taxis all day long.

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To help us understand the magnificence of what we were looking at, the owner let us look at her books, which contained pictures and descriptions of the sixteen species of hummingbirds present is her garden. As the hummingbirds hovered and landed on the bird feeders filled with sweetened water, she pointed out each bird and told us the name of its species. We were able to sit a few feet away from the bird feeders, and if we sat still enough, the hummingbirds came very close. It was a challenging and entertaining task to try to take a picture of the fast moving hummingbirds while on the bird feeders. I busied myself with this challenge for at least 20 minutes! It was an amazing and relaxing environment. What I thought would be a short visit turned out to be a two hour bird watching session.

In addition, the adorable owner is very knowledgeable about the birds and loves sharing this knowledge. She only speaks Spanish though, so you might want to practice some bird vocabulary if you want to understand her knowledge. However, with the books, pictures and birds right in front of us, my friends who speak little Spanish got the basic idea of the conversation. In addition to identifying the species, she told us the story of why so many hummingbirds come to her beautiful garden, what she does to keep them coming and what she must do to care for them. For example, her devotion and love for the birds is evident in the fact that she cleans the bird feeders everyday in addition to providing fresh sweetened water. She said this is imperative or the birds can become sick. This got my friends thinking about the water birdfeeders they have at home and the lack of cleaning their feeders receive.

Overall, going to the hummingbird garden was an amazing experience. The owner of the garden is incredibly warm and inviting. The $5 peso entrance fee was well worth the experience, the relaxation, the photos and the interaction with the owner. In addition, she sells the books for those of you who want to learn more about the birds and animals of South America. My friends were on their way to climb Aconcagua, so they bought a book to help them identify the birds and animals along the way. They were a great size and could easily fit in your hiking pack! I strongly recommend visiting the hummingbird garden, and you should bring your high zoom camera if you have one!

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We had seen Iguazu Falls from above, from below, and from straight on. Just when you think the falls could not get any better, you realize you can take an Iguazu boat tour and experience the falls from underneath! Considering how hot and incredible Iguazu National Park is, this is an expensive excursion well worth taking.

The Iguazu boat tour costs $45 pesos and lasts about 10 minutes! It is a little ironic that anyone would pay that much. If you want a longer excursion, you can take the 4×4 vehicle through the jungle area and then hop on a boat ride that is a little longer but does the same thing. This excursion costs $90 pesos. My friends did this excursion and said it was not worth the money. They figured they should have just taken the iguazu boat tour, as they did not see any animals on the 4×4 drive. Due to their recommendation, we just did the boat tour.

Therefore, across from La Isla San Martín, we buckled our life jackets and removed our shoes and valuables. Luckily, the park provides a bag to protect your things from the water. We all climbed into the boat, and it quickly took off! The boat came to a stop about five seconds later because the driver wanted to allow us all the chance to take pictures from within the boat. This is a cool photo opportunity. You can either take the photo yourself, or there is photographer on the boat who will take a picture for you. He also videotapes the boat ride. Both the photos and the videos are available for purchase. When the cameras finally stopped clicking and were safely put away in the bags, the ride really began!

We drove up one canal at an exciting speed. The driver then took us under a waterfall again and again in order to make sure we were all thoroughly soaked! We then sped off for the other canal. This side had much better waterfalls. I am sure all of the passengers’ eyes widened as we drove closer to the main huge waterfall of Iguazu. I have no doubts we were all wondering the same thing, “Is he really going to drive the boat near that fall?” You better believe it! We entered the vicinity of the fall, and the water came down so hard; I could not even keep my eyes open! It was quite a thrill and a once in a lifetime experience!

Therefore, even though it cost us $45 pesos (a mere $14 U.S. dollars) for a 10-12 minute experience, I would say that the Iguazu boat tour was worth it. How often do you get to go under the downpour of a waterfall….especially some of the most incredible waterfalls on this planet? I never have, and I was glad we did it…not to mention it really cooled me down. My clothes were wet for the rest of the afternoon, and that is a nice feeling in a hot and humid area!

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Enormous, tropical green leaves, clear rushing water, mist sprinkling over your face and altogether one of the most picturesque nature scenes you will ever see in your life. This peaceful and beautiful place called Iguazu Falls is one of the most exquisite natural wonders of the world. Therefore, it must be on your list of places to see in South America. In addition, I felt so much more at peace in Iguazu National Park than I have during my entire stay in Argentina. The town, the people, the waterfalls, the nature and the vibe I received from everywhere and everyone were wonderful and refreshing. Even though Iguazu Fallss is a hot spot for tourists, it is still very easy to feel one with nature.

To start off, it is important to talk about iguazu falls from the Brazilian side separately from the falls from the Argentine side. I can only describe the falls from the Argentine side, as that was the only side I was allowed to go to. Without a Brazilian Visa, U.S. citizens are not allowed to cross their border. However, while asking people whether or not we were allowed to enter Brazil, we did receive several offers to have random taxis drive us across the border. While some people take advantage of these offers, I was not in the mood to take the risk. If you do get caught, you will have to pay the $100 U.S. dollar fee for the Visa. I do not know what else happens, so we decided to play it safe and stay on the Argentine side of Iguazu Falls. Fortunately, it was incredible and offers every angle imaginable of the falls.

Another factor to consider is how much time you want to stay in Iguazu. While I would recommend taking your time and enjoying its beauty, you can pretty much cover all of the falls on Argentina’s side in one day if you want. However, this means getting an early start and maybe walking at a decent pace. We didn’t get there until 10, ate a pleasant and slow lunch at La Selva Buffet, and saw everything but one individual waterfall. However, I recommend taking your time and not rushing through to see everything. In addition, the park tickets are $30 pesos a person, but you can get your second day’s tickets for half price if you turn your ticket in at the end of your first day. This is a bargain well worth taking the time to exchange your tickets for.

As for Iguazu National Park and the falls themselves, you are in for an unimaginable treat. The falls were much larger, more fantastic and more mind-blowing than I had expected. I knew the falls were gorgeous, but all descriptions heard and pictures seen do not do them justice. There is no way something so beautiful and enormous could be captured in a photo. It would be a sin to visit South America and not take a trip to the falls!

I would also recommend that you try to see all of the falls. Each lookout point had a different view, and many more hidden pools or waterfalls came into view once seen from a different spot. The Circuito Inferior can be a little crowded, but I found the paths to be less crowded when stairs were involved…just a little hint for those of you who like to hike or walk at a good pace. However, do not walk so fast that you miss a Toucan flying over your head or a monkey in a tree! Iguazu Falls is all about the scenery and the experience of being surrounded by nature’s magnificent creations. I imagine it would be impossible to not find peace and relaxation at Iguazu. Do not commit the sin of leaving South America before seeing it!

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The hallway leading to the rooms is charming, has little tables and chairs and opens up into the garden in the back. This garden is what makes this Iguazu hostel so endearing. It is extremely green, peaceful and there is an outdoor kitchen and dining area. There is also a very comfortable hammock to lie in while chatting with your friends over some afternoon snacks and wine. In addition, the one service this hostel offers that sets it apart from all others is their great breakfast.

Every morning, we had a quiet breakfast in their outdoor kitchen area. They have coffee, cereal, yogurt, toasted bread, pastries and fresh squeezed orange juice! It was a great way to start our day. However, they usually did not have everything set up until after 8am. This can be a problem if you want to get a really early start at the falls, so plan your day accordingly. Luckily, this hostel has a great location. It is a three-minute walk to the bus station, and it is located in downtown. Therefore, we were close to all of the restaurants, and the falls were a twenty-minute bus ride away with great scenery.

During our time in Iguazu, we wanted a quieter and more relaxing atmosphere. If this is what you are looking for, then I would strongly recommend this hostel. I would say the majority of the people staying at Timbó Posada were a little older. If you are looking for a party, there are other hostels in Iguazu that will more fully provide this atmosphere. I recommend you figure out what kind of atmosphere and social interaction you are seeking.

I really enjoyed the staff as well as the other guests staying at Timbó Posada. They were nice, helpful and pleasant to be around. I must mention that there is only one computer available, and it is also shared with the office. Therefore, I did not feel like the Internet was that easily accessible. However, this is about the only thing I could complain about. Overall, I was very happy we chose the Timbó Posada, and I would definitely recommend it!

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We arrived at our hostel late Friday night. We stayed at the Casagrande Hostel, which was decent and recommendable. It was clean, fun and the staff was very friendly. However, due to so little time at Mar del Plata, we did not stay at the hostel long. We dropped our bags off and headed straight to the restaurants and bars.

The first place we visited was a Cuban bar called La Bodeguita del Medio. We arrived too late to eat dinner, (believe it or not!) but the waiter was really nice and brought us peanuts, bread and cheese. Fortunately, this bar is known for their Cuban-style mojitos, so it was well worth staying! We then went out dancing, and every club we went to was great. While techno music is very popular in Capital Federal, Latin music (which I prefer) is much more common in Mar del Plata. I was very excited about this, and we danced until the sun came up (literally!)

The following day, we all went to the beach. It was gorgeous, but it was a bit too cold to strip down to the bathing suit. We visited Mar del Plata at the beginning of November, so you might want to give it a few more weeks to warm up. However, I have also heard that Mar del Plata is so crowded during the months of December, January and February that you can hardly see the sand on the beach. In addition, there is a lot of traffic on the roads. Consequently, it is a trade off. You can go for the beautiful view and nightlife without any ocean dips, or you can fight the crowds for a few rays. It depends on what you want.

All of the restaurants we ate at were spectacular. One restaurant many Argentines recommend is Manolo. It has a great outdoor deck and is known for their churros con dulce de leche (caramel). Unfortunately, if you do not get there early enough, the line is out the door. We were too hungry to wait, but it is on the top of my list for next time.

Another important fact to know is that it is very cold at night, so bring a coat and close-toed shoes. I was not a happy camper with my flip-flops and heels! Overall, we had a marvelous time. Mar del Plata is close enough to go for a weekend. If you sacrifice a little sleep, you can do it all…the beach, the restaurants, the bars and the clubs at night! Soon, you too will turn green with envy when you hear the words…Mar del Plata!

Casagrande – Hostel and Student residence
Jujuy 947, Mar del Plata
54 (0223) 476-0805
www.casagrandealbergue.com.ar

La Bodeguita Del Medio – Bar Restaurante Historico Cubano
Castelli 1252, Mar del Plata
54 (0223) 486-3096

Manolo Churros
Rivadavia 2371, Mar del Plata
94-5671 ó 95-6201

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