Runningshoes-- thanks for the well wishes. My Greece and Egypt plans have been put on hold until later in 2005, since this new venture wil be eating up all my time for the next 2-3 months.

Very glad to hear you will be visiting Buenos Aires. Museums and shops will be open for business, with the exception of Dec 25th and January 1st. The temporary apartment scene in EZE is alive and well, with lots of options to fit just about any budget. My question is if during a 1 week stay you want to be bothered with not going to a full service hotel... even though some apartments are also fully serviced. Its a personal choice I guess. If you go apartments, make sure to shop around and do some light bargaining.

The Iguazu question I have to pass on.... Im not sure about the answer. My guess is that NY eve will almost surely be open for business, NY day may not be the case. I suggest you check with the hotel you are staying at for details.

Cheers,
Gaucho

Tangol
 

Just to let others know we booked a tour with tangol- we phoned them to book and then went into their office on Calle Florida to pay BUT they are only an agent and NOR TUR the actual tour company failed to collect us from our hotel and so we never got to Fiest gaucha. Tangol repaid our tour monies but we would rather have actually gone out for the day.
However we booked a car and driver and went to San Antonio De Arecho to their real fiesta. We saw Guachos drive troops of horses in a competition and had a great day out there. The fiesta is on in early Novemnber culminating on the 10 Novemeber when the Gaucho parade through the town decked out with gold and silver.

Calafete
 

A trip to view the Glaciers is a must if you go to Pategonia.

I suspect it will be in January or February. I believe I will start in Cuzco and do the overland to La Paz, then down to Salta. Though I'm not entirely certain yet as I haven't planned anything yet. I would like to eventually get to Iguazu and Entre Rios.

Great. Let me know when you plan to be in EZE....

cheers

Theater Colon
 

Hello,

Will be in BA 12/26-31. I have info on performances at the theater. The question is: how to book tickets/tour? Do I do it from the States or on arrival in BA?
Is getting tickets to Colon a problem?

Thanks a lot, uis00sn.

The latest report I have is that the Teatro Colon is working on a phone and/or internet ticket sales plan, but it is certainly not operational yet. Tickets to individual performances (as opposed to multi-night subscriptions) only go on sale a few days prior to the event, and you need to line up at the theatre box office to buy them.

Colona and Montevideo
 

Montevideo does have a certain faded glory to it. Everything is closed on Sundays but it does have a somewhat pleasant beach in the city (swimmable). Nowhere near as cosmopolitan and energic as BA.

Colonia is a nice place to chill out for about a day from the city. I am certainly a urban city type but I did enjoy the place too.

24 hour BA
 

I will be spending a week in BA in Spanish school in Feb (yah!). As it's my second visit there I don't have to do the touristy thing this time and just soak things up.

I continue on my trip to Ecuador and Peru before returning on a flight that gets me in on a Sunday at 7:30am and my flight out is the next day to GIG at 8am. Since they are both award tickets (*A to GIG, OW from LIM) I might be able to change the flight times subject to fee costs. Or I could visit BA for 24hrs again. Are there any cheap hotels out by EZE. I was contemplating doing the sleepinginairports.com thing especially since my EZE-GIG ticket is in J but I doubt the Varig or United lounges are open 24hours right?

I don't know anyone who has stayed at a hotel near the airport ever. What I would do is book a cheap hotel (someone here recommended the Ibis hotel in downtown for $30/day www.accorhotels.com) and then take a taxi or bus to the hotel and then take a taxi back to the airport the following morning.

Thanks for the info. I'm just such not a morning person but I guess I could do the big shopping thing on the return trip to BA for that 1 day. Didn't expect the hotel to be so cheap!

Before de-dollarization, it would have been AR$90/US$90; now AR$90 = US$30. Hotels that cater more to Argentine tourists or intra-Argentine business travellers have, to some substantial degree, maintained their prices in pesos (with some significant inflation here and there) that can be leveraged by a strong USD (and even more so an increasingly stronger CAD$.).

If you need any more help, FTers in this thread are quite well informed about Buenos Aires.

This Ibis hotel probably attracts more Europeans than Americans due to Accor Hotels' (and particularly Ibis's) more recognized presence in Europe than America.

Exactly one reason why I am going back to BA. The last time I was there the dollar was high and it was more expensive than Europe. I just checked for my dates and the rate as AR$75 = CAD $30! I can't think of anywhere (even South Africa) where you could stay in a western style and standard chain hotel in the world for that price (except for maybe Priceline). Even in poor third world countries, the prices for similar hotels would run much more as the traveller they would cater to would be "rich" tourists. The other extreme would be western backpackers. For me, I would hope that by now I could afford more than backpacker places but I don't believe in $100 plus hotel rooms if all you are going to do is sleep in it!

EZE Lounges
 

Has anyone been to the United or Varig Lounges. What are there hours?

United's is open from I think 8:30 in the morning to 1:00 p.m. or whenever their flight goes to Montevideo. It opens up again at 4:30 in the afternoon and closes at about 9:30 in the evening or perhaps later if the UA flight is delayed.