Seeking some planning advice on timing
We will be visiting BsAs in July, arriving on a Saturday morning. Our flight back to the US is actually from Santiago on the following Friday night, but we want to primarily focus on Argentina, having pretty much just the last day to explore a bit of Santiago (and make a Chile trip another time). Both these long-hauls are on DL metal booked through Virgin Atlantic miles.
The plan is to spend a few days in BsAs, and then go visit Iguazu. Looking at the possibilities, the best option seems to be to purchase a ticket to Iguazu on the Tuesday morning, arriving at IGR at 11:05 (on Aerolineas) and then flying back Wednesday night late, at 9:30pm, also on Aerolineas, both using AEP. Then I'd like to book an award flight from AEP to SCL; the best option here seems to be a LAN flight Thursday at 7:50 AM or 12:45pm.
So with that background, here are my main questions:
1) We'll be staying at the Sheraton in Iguazu, but given how late we'll be leaving Wednesday night, what options do we have for our luggage? Will we have a place to go if we want to change clothes after experiencing the Falls all day? What will there be to do in the evening?
2) The plan is to land at IGR and go straight to the Brazil side, as I understand we can leave our bags at the park there, and then pick them up and take a taxi over to the Sheraton around when the park closes, then spend the full day on the Argentina side. Is this a better plan than going to the Sheraton directly from the hotel?
2) Does it make more sense to fly back to BsAs on Thursday morning, which has an option landing AEP at 10:05 AM? This would actually be a preferable option for me, but I'm concerned about there being enough time to connect to the 12:45pm flight to SCL, especially since the two are on different airlines.
3) Assuming we do the overnight bit in BsAs on the Wednesday, we'll probably just take the early flight and have almost two full days in Santiago. Where's a good place to stay that's not far from AEP? We'll have been at the Park Hyatt for the three other BsAs nights and can stay there again; the Hilton is even better from our points portfolio perspective, and the Sheratons are fine too.
Any other suggestions are welcome, too! Thanks in advance.