Being a passenger in that convertible you rented in Washington, D.C. last year, I would have to concur.

Sorry...I just could not resist...

1) I knew I should not have given you a ride back from Maryland.

2) You should have been on the previous IAD ride back in the fall when my GPS was having technical difficulties (our trip from downtown DC to an IAD airport hotel took us among other places, Georgetown and DCA). I don't think I've ever seen SAN1K so happy as when she was able to exit the vehicle.

Right on both counts. I don't understand the complaints about the fare anyway... Still cheap by U.S. standards and almost free compared to anyplace in Europe...

Search for my earlier post about "Dante" for a cheaper (and very pleasant) ride -- if he has room on his schedule for you.

i have been resisting recommending him because after using him for years suddenly his popularity has soared ( no thanks to this site) and he keeps apologizing to me telling me that he is booked far in advance.

bottom line ,,, make plans in advance..

Is it possible we could form a wiki for this thread, or Buenos Aires in general?

Be my guest!

What is forming a wiki do.... put this on Wikipedia...??

Close. FT has its own wiki for travel related info.

There are good things and bad things about doing this.

The primary good thing is that it provides some organization - so if I'm going to EZE and want to find a restaurant I can drill right down to it without searching this (and other threads) in the forum.

However, the problem comes with regards to keeping the info current. Suppose you were to recommend a restaurant, and then due to all the FT related business that they got, they became complacent and the quality went downhill . . . perhaps instead of serving the finest grass fed beef they started cutting costs and substituting Bife de Gato. A comment would soon appear in the thread warning folks to stay away. And someone reviewing the thread would likely notice it. However, unless someone remembered to update it, the wiki page would retain the obsolete advice.

All-in-all, I think the ease of use would make it worth exporting a lot of the info to the FT Wiki.

The link that I posted......will take you there directly...

...and there is nothing for South America or Buenos Aires at this time, as far as I can see.Cat beef?!?

Actually there is a skeleton page for Argentina, but as the main page is locked down, it is not easily visible.

We returned from our Argentina trip a week ago. We were gone for two weeks. Our itinerary included 3 nights in Buenos Aires, 3 nights at Iguazu Falls, 3 nights in Montevideo, 3 nights at the Perito Moreno Glacier (El Calafate airport), 2 nights back in Buenos Aires.

My boyfriend and I hired Dante for two different excursions. He was great! The milonga experience was fantastic! Dante picked us up at 10 pm after our dinner at Cabana Las Lilas. Since we had some time before the milonga started going, we went to checked out the Faena Hotel (not exact name). This is the Phillipe Starck designed hotel. Really hip -- too hip for someone like me, but I loved it! What a really cool looking place. You can go on it's website and check it out. The reason I knew about the hotel was the tango show "Rojo Tango" was being performed there. (We went to "Esquina Carlos Gardel" instead.)

The milonga was fantastic and our experience would not have been possible without Dante.

The second outing we had with Dante was when he picked us up at our hotel the day of our departure. We had to check out of our hotel (Alvear Palace Hotel) at noon and our flight wasn't until 9:15 pm. Dante drove us to the Sunday market in San Telmo. Great shopping there. Dante left to meet us at a prearranged time, after retrieving our luggage from storage at the Alvear. He then took us to another kind of market for the locals where there was a sporting event involving horses in the street and common folk dancing. Even better shopping and prices! Dante stayed with the car and guarded our luggage until it was time to drive to the airport.

I have more information, but need to get on with my day. Please post specific questions if you had them. Oh, I want to return to Buenos Aires -- it was fabulous and I got a lot of good information from this web site. It's my turn to pay back, so please ask questions.

P.S. Forget about Colonia unless you have a lot of time. We found that the quick ferry was not so quick. One has to stand in several lines and wait a lot both going to and from Colonia. It was more of a hassle than it was worth.

I'd bet the second market you went to was the Feria de Mataderos. You know, that's a great way to do it if, like many folks, you have a Sunday night departure. Before leaving BA on a Sunday, I went to this feria and then returned to BA (where Dante drove me to the airport). The feria is midway between downtown BA and the airport, so stopping on your way is very efficient. At the time, I thought "boy, it would be nice if I could have gotten somebody to watch my stuff as we stopped off at the feria." I should have asked Dante to do it! Otherwise, the feria, while nice, is probably not worth the trouble.

I'm not quite sure of the name of the name, but the market was on the way to the airport from BA and only 10 minutes from it. The prices for the souvenirs I picked up were by far the best. My boyfriend enjoyed the street vendors. I was too busy to eat. 8-)

On another note, fellow travelers, if you can make it, travel south to the Perito Moreno Glacier. It's about 3 hours by plane from BA. We were fortunate to be able to have stayed at Los Notros, a luxury hotel in the park. We had a large picture window in our room with a spectacular view of the glacier. We took a minitrek on the glacier which included wearing crampons on our shoes. I'm not an athlete, but it was an easy activity for me. And it was exhilarating!

Tomayto,,,, I am happy that Dante took you to good places. Do you remember which milonga you went to.. I think you went a day or two after we left. Sorry we werent there he would have brought you to what ever milonga we were at that night...

I was worried when you hadnt posted for a while...thought that maybe things didnt work out... I will tell him that you were happy.

Now this is really killng me as he will never be avail for aiport pickups if he becomes too popular..... Glad your time in BsAs and tango scene was enjoyable.....