Nearly every other block in Buenos Aires has a panaderia (bakery). The bakers wake up extra early to cook and fully stock up their inventory. It’s an unavoidable smell every morning and it’s great. All the good bakeries have a line and sometimes a number system in the early morning waiting to get the freshest inventory. You’re given a pair of tongs and a basket. It’s a buffet of pastries row after row all smelling so delicious that it’s really difficult to know which ones to choose with such a huge selection. Usually there’s a poster that says if you buy a dozen, you get a deal. I’m always tempted to buy twelve but I know I couldn’t finish it without another four people to help. I can usually eat about four before I give up.

The most popular pastries are the Facturas. Bakeries are full of them but it’s also easy to find in supermarkets and cafes which often come with coffee. They are most often purchased by the dozen and shared among friends or co-workers with mate. It’s origins are from Europe and are similar to Danish pastries. They are covered in sugar so prepare for a massive amount. The most popular fillings dulce de leche, custard (crema pastelera), and quince paste (dulce de membrillo) — all three being my favorite. They come in different shapes and sizes as well with each of them having a separate name for the type.

The names of the facturas though are interesting.

On July 18, 1887 in Buenos Aires, an Italian anarchist named Ettore Mattei, created the Resistance Cosmopolitan Society and Placement of Workers Bakers. He lived in Argentina between 1885 and 1889 and was commissioned to draw up their constitutions. Errico Malatesta was commissioned to draw up their constitutions but in 1889, he leaves Argentina, leaving behind the militant union that he helped organize. The anarchists had to hide in Argentina due to their views and ideals.

Between 1894 and 1930, the society edited the newspaper El Obrero Baker using irony and sarcasm to name their pastries against the government and super powers. The names soon became commonly used  and even the churches became selling the pastries with all of them taunting the police.

The facturas no longer hold the same meaning as they once did but the history and names are still used.

Media Luna - Half Moon

Media Luna con Dulce de Leche - Half Moon with Milk Caramel

Moño con Membrillo y Crema Pastelera - Bun with Quince and Cream Cake

Vijilante - Vigilant

Bola de Fraile con Dulce de Leche - Friar Ball with Milk Caramel

Pañuelitos de Grasa - Fat Wipes

A few images that I’m missing of popular facturas are cañoncitos (little cannons), miguelitos, and a few others that will eventually be added on here.

Have you tried facturas? Which are you favorites?

Facturas: A Guide To Argentina’s Breakfast Pastries is a post from Art of Backpacking

I created a short video of our trip through Uruguay. Nothing special, just spent a few hours on it but I think it came out pretty well. Let me know what you think.

More of our trip can be found here: Guide to driving the coast of Uruguay and thing’s you didn’t know about Uruguay.

Short Video Of Our Trip Through Uruguay is a post from Art of Backpacking

Its been 6 1/2 months and we’re down to our very last day in South America. Stephanie and I had a lot of fun but I think we’re both ready to head home to visit family and friends for a little while. No, we’re not stopping. We have a ton of travel plans that I’ll be announcing in the coming weeks.

Here’s a quick summary of everything that we’ve done in South America.

Colombia

Flights to Bogota from New York City are so cheap. It only cost us $200 for a one way ticket. A friend of ours invited us to house-sit his dog in Bogota for 3 weeks starting September 30th . It was too perfect (Thanks, Jeff!). Though most of October was rainy and cold, we had a great time and made new friends including the wonderful people behind See Colombia.

We traveled through Bogota, Villa De Leiva, Santa Marta, Tayrona, Cartagena, Medellin, Popayan, Salento, and Ipiales. Easily my three favorite places were Tayrona, Popayan, and Medellin. Tayrona had beautiful beaches and forest. Medellin had well beautiful people and an awesome nightlife. Popayan was different than the rest of Colombia. All the buildings were completely white.

Surprisingly, most of our trip through Colombia was rainy and cold. Then after two months in the country, our visa was just about to run out so we had to move on.

• Las Lajas Sanctuary in Ipiales, Colombia
• Cotopaxi, Ecuador: Climbing one of world’s largest active volcanoes
• Thoughts on Colombia After 2 Months of Travel
• Bogota Bike Tours: Biking The Hidden Corners of Bogota

Tayrona, Colombia - My favorite beach in South America

Las Lajas Sanctuary in Ipiales, Colombia - My favorite church in South America.

Ecuador

We started to get tired of moving around so we took it slow through Ecuador. I wasn’t hugely impressed with Quito but we were still there for 1 1/2 weeks, mostly staying for the Quito Festival which was well worth staying for. I love cities surrounded by mountains but I never felt safe walking around. Cotopaxi and middle of the earth were our highlights of our stay in Quito.

Banos had to have been one of my favorite places in South America. It was super chill and had a ton of fun activities. I could lay in the spa then walk a few blocks and jump off a bridge. It’s an entire town surrounded by a active volcano and mountains. We biked outside the city passing up waterfalls along the way, rafted through a level 4 river, relaxed in a spa, and jumped off a bridge for only $20 (well, Stephanie did).

After Banos, we spent 3 weeks in Montañita celebrating Christmas and New Years. Over Yonderlust joined us for a crazy New Years party on the beach while burning a paper mache Barney and throwing fireworks on the streets. We started to lose too many brain cells in Montañita so we left shortly after New Years.

We wanted to stay somewhere for a few months, catch up on work, and chill out. We were suppose to travel down through Peru from Ecuador but we made a last minute decision and booked a plane ticket to Buenos Aires for the next day.

• Visiting the Middle of the Earth in Ecuador

Pailon del Diablo waterfall outside of Banos

Our bar guy in Montanita

Cotopaxi, Ecuador

Quito, Ecuador

Argentina

Every South American country I’ve visited outside of Argentina mocked me of my Argentinean accent whenever I spoke spanish. They’d shout “Che, Boludo!” (a slang used often in Argentina) and start laughing. I laughed with them as if was the first time I’ve ever heard that joke. It was going to be nice to finally go where my accent didn’t stand out as much. Although it was nice to confuse the locals when I said I was American.

It was a last minute decision so we had no idea how long we were going to stay in Buenos Aires. We found an apartment and booked it for three months. For those three months, we settled in and just lived like a local. We had our own bakery, cafe, and supermarket where everyone knew us because we went so often. It was a nice feeling.

Another reason for the rush to Buenos Aires is because half of my family is from Buenos Aires so we visited my family often.

We had many BBQ’s with fellow travel blogger friends like Landing Standing, Go Backpacking, Travel Chica, Over Yonderlust, Two Oregonians, and many non-travel bloggers.

Boca Juniors Game

After a ridiculous amount of meat in Buenos Aires for three months, we set out for the road again. We were heading towards Chile and going to a few cities along the way.

Rosario was our first stop and by far one of my favorite places in Argentina so far. In fact, I kind of wish we lived there for awhile. Everyone seemed to own a dog and the parks were perfectly designed for them. It’s such a pleasant city to live in. We also found the best ice-cream ever is in Rosario. Ice-cream, dogs, and parks — what more could someone possibly want?

After Rosario was Cordoba. I wasn’t terribly impressed but the empanadas were great. I met up with a good friend of mine and spent most of the our time there just wandering around. I’m told most of the good sites are outside of the city but we were limited on time. Maybe next time.

Next was Mendoza. Since this was our last stop in Argentina before Chile, we ate a crazy amount of steak and drank enough red wine to wake up with a hang almost every single day we were there. One of our wine tours started at 9AM so we drank wine that entire day. For our last night in Argentina, I overate steak and drank a ton of red wine. I got sick but it was well worth it.

• How to Rent an Apartment in Buenos Aires
• Buenos Aires Apartment Rip Offs
• Travel Photography with an iPhone
• Argentina’s Football: Boca Juniors
• Massive March for Freedom in Buenos Aires
• Things I Don’t Understand About Buenos Aires

Mendoza Wine

Uruguay

It was a one week trip from Buenos Aires to renew our visa and get the chance to see a new country. We started in Colonia and went to Montevideo and Punta del Este by bus. From Puna del Este, we rented a car with a few friends and went up the coast hitting places like Jose Ignacio, La Paloma, Cabo Polonio, Aguas Dulces, and Punta del Diablo.

I’m not sure why but Uruguay is often missed on the backpacker trail. It’s definitely one of the most expensive countries to travel in South America but it has so much to see and do.

Cabo Polonio had one of the best beaches I’ve seen in South America.

The best steak we had in South America was definitely in Uruguay and specifically in Montevideo and Punta del Este.

• Guide To Driving The Coast of Uruguay

Colonia del Sacramento

Punta del Este

Cabo Polonio

Chile

The road from Mendoza to Santiago had really beautiful views. We went through the Andes and could see snow covered mountains all around us. Border crossing was a bit of a hassle with a 2 hour delay but we eventually made it to Santiago.

I don’t really have much to report on Chile or Santiago since we spent only 11 nights in Santiago and for most of that time either I was sick or Stephanie was. We were mostly indoors working from our apartment and getting ready to get home. I think by the last few days we were just tired of seeing anything but we felt that we had to at least do a few things so we did our best to sight-see Santiago and its surrounding area.

We did manage to go to Valparaiso which was the highlight of our trip in Chile. Unfortunately, we went on a Monday which meant all museums were closed.

Santiago

Beautiful view of Santiago

What’s Next

I have a ton of videos, pictures, and article ideas that still need to be published. You’ll see articles on South America by me for awhile.

As for our travel plans, we’re headed back to USA for a few months but have lots of travel plans coming up.

See You Later South America is a post from Art of Backpacking

Buenos Aires has one the highest number of hostels than most cities in the world. Dorms go for typically $15 to $25 a night and privates for $20 to $40 a night per person. Since there’s so many hostels, there’s a whole lot of crap. One hostel I stayed in had three 3 story bunk beds in a tiny room with no lockers. It was one of the worst hostels I’ve ever stayed in. There’s also a ton of party hostels and boutique hostels but expect to pay a lot more.

Read: Buenos Aires Apartment Rip Offs

Buenos Aires is not a cheap city. Prices fluctuate like crazy so any guide book you read can be totally different in just a few weeks after publishing. It’s alright if you’re staying perhaps two or three nights but if you plan on staying for at least a week or more, I definitely recommend an apartment instead of a hostel. Sometimes an apartment can be cheaper than staying in a hostel! It works best if you’re traveling with another person to split the costs with.

Getting an apartment gives you a chance to live like a local. In our apartment, we had our local cafe shop, butcher, mini supermarket, bakery, and laundry mat all within two blocks. Since we had lived there for three months, they all knew us. Our cafe knew us so well that he would take out our drinks without even asking us. Our laundry mat would ask us how our stay has been so far and what we’ve done. And I got to speak chinese at our local chinos supermarket. Buenos Aires is a great city but it’s the culture that makes Buenos Aires really special.

Unfortunately, renting an apartment is not easy. Many of the landlords like to take advantage of the foreigners and change them more. With some preparation, it’s easy to avoid getting ripped off and have an enjoyable experience in what I call my second home.

Don’t

Craigslist is popular in Buenos Aires. You’ll find a ton of listings and at first they seem great. Don’t be fooled though as most of those prices are listing prices for per week rentals and having sort through the junk is just a waste of time. The title’s doesn’t give you enough information if the price is weekly or monthly. I’ve seen many apartments through Craigslist and most were not great. You’ll have to fish through an enormous list to get anything worth looking at.

Do not leave the apartment until you were paid your deposit back. If you’re taking a bus or plane that leaves at 3PM, tell them your plane leaves at 1PM or earlier instead. Give yourself lots of time for the inspection incase anything goes wrong. You don’t want to feel rushed while they hold your deposit.

If you’re booking on websites like Airbnb, Wimdu, 9Flats, or Roomorama careful when they ask you if you’d like to avoid the fee and pay in person instead. The fee these websites charge might be worth paying as it gives you extra protection from scams.

Don’t ignore your instincts. If you feel uncomfortable with the place and you don’t know why, just sign the contract.

Don’t assume your landlord knows about every damage. Point it all out during the initial check-in inspection.

Make yourself as much mate as you want in your own apartment

Do

While the landlord is there doing the initial inspection, take as many pictures and videos as possible. Make sure the landlord is aware and with you while you’re doing this. It’ll scare them off from scamming you of things that had nothing to do with you.

Review the contract and ask them to have it translated into english. Seems common sense but in most cases, they only have the contract in spanish.

Ask if they cover electricity. Electricity has become a huge problem in Argentina. If they cover electricity, ask them how much they’ll cover. That information needs to be on the contract. This is especially important if you plan on arriving during the summer months of January and February as it gets extremely hot in this city.

Chances are the person you’re contacting knows english. However, if you don’t speak spanish well, I would suggest getting someone who does to go with you for the inspection.

If you’re staying with a family, ask as many questions as possible BEFORE signing the contract. Are there house rules? Can you come home at any time? Can you bring friends over? Quiet time? I’ve heard stories of people being restricted on what time they were allowed to cook and could only use certain pots and pans. Don’t let that happen to you.

Call your landlord immediately when anything happens to the apartment. Water leaks, small damages, glass breaks, etc.

Do you have any other tips?

How to Rent an Apartment in Buenos Aires is a post from Art of Backpacking

I’m good at arguing in spanish and especially in Argentina. They love to get angry in Buenos Aires and I’m always calling them out on it. It doesn’t make the situation any better but it makes it better for me. Even when the situation doesn’t involve me, I seem to get involved. Once a guy hit the bell for the bus to stop one too many times and he got yelled at. I told the bus driver to chill out, be quite, and pay attention to driving. He wasn’t too happy about that. But unfortunately, I learned that this is what you need to do to survive in this city. You need be aggressive sometimes or they’ll run all over you.

Round 1

Two years ago I visited Buenos Aires and lived there for 4 months. I got an apartment in Recoleta for a decent price and gave them my deposit of $630USD as well. It’s one of the richest neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. I was happy about its location and the apartment itself was okay. It wasn’t fancy but it had everything I wanted.

Literately a week or so before I left, a pipe broke. I found out because my landlord called me that the neighbors below called that there was water leaking into their apartment. The water leaked from below the bathroom sink. A small tiny hole that continued to leak water throughout the entire day while I was out. As you can imagine, this flooded the entire apartment.

My first apartment in Buenos Aires. 13th floor view of Recoleta.

The landlord wasn’t too happy about it. There was nothing I could have possibly done to create that hole. I cleaned up the disaster for hours. The water flooded the bedroom and living room but those rooms had wooden floors. As the water dried up, the wood started to rise. It created uneven floors. I told my landlord and they said they’ll look at it later. Well check-out time came and I was about to leave for Salta. The landlord came and checked out the apartment. The uneven floors and water leaking from the bathroom made her angry. They never once since the event came to check out the apartment. She said she’ll give the deposit to my uncle who lives in the city and didn’t say anything else. I thought everything was okay.

Weeks followed and I never heard anything about my deposit. Apparently they were blaming me for the leak and the floor. They had to pay for an entire new floor and repairs that leaked down into the other persons apartment. I thought to myself, how would it ever be possible that I would cause a leak in the bathroom sink? I use it to brush my teeth and wash my hands, that’s it. I continued to try to call but they simply ignored me. I lost my deposit and gave up.

Round 2

Fast forward to now. We just finished having an apartment for 3 months in Buenos Aires that we found online located in the city center. Prices went up dramatically since two years ago but as normal, we put in our deposit. Only $500 for the deposit this time but nearly double the rent. We paid the deposit via PayPal but the rent in cash. We had a few issues with the apartment in the beginning like the chair and BBQ being broken before we even checked in and the place being a bit dirty but we went with it anyway. We had done all of our negotiations with someone hired by the landlord to take care of it all. We hardly ever spoke with Nora, our landlord.

Once we had a huge flood in the entire apartment because there was a hole in the window which caused water to come in when it rained. Having learned from my last experience, I must called a million times to both Nora and the other guy. Neither of them paid any attention to me. I stopped caring. If they wanted their apartment ruined, I’m okay with that because I tried calling them about their water leak. Nora continued to ignore us of any other issues we had with the apartment.

Second apartment.

Check out time came and Nora came by to inspect the apartment. We were leaving to a new city that day so we had to catch a bus after. Nora told us everything looked good and that she’ll walk us down. Having learned from my last experience, I told her I just wanted to make sure the deposit is processed before I left since I won’t be coming back anytime soon. Her mood changed fast. She continued to look around the apartment but now more angrily. She starts to complain about ridiculous things. We did the best that we could to clean the entire apartment. We swept, mopped, and scrubbed, for hours just to make sure everything was perfect and exactly the way it was before. Apparently, it wasn’t perfect enough.

She started to examine things in more detail. Her first complain was that the couch had stains on it. Next it was that the bottom shelve of the oven was dirty, a part that we never used. She called the guy she hired that has our deposit and started to claim that the entire apartment was dirty. She said it in a way that made it sound devastating. It was apparently so bad that she would have to hire a maid to clean everything and also send the couch for cleaning. Throughout the entire experience, she only complained about two things being dirty but still only said the whole apartment was dirty.

At this point, I was furious. Every time I called her about her apartment flooding or a chair being broken, she didn’t care. All of a sudden she cares about her apartment? My theory is that because she knew I wasn’t going to leave until I had my deposit money, she was going to find things to complain about. Here’s why…

January and February are the hottest months in Buenos Aires. It’s unbearably hot. We had the air conditioner on for those days because it’s difficult to function or sleep in that kind of heat. We never left it on while we went out. It was only on while we were at home. Electricity has become expensive in Buenos Aires though. According to the contract, all utilities is covered by the landlord. Technically no matter how high the utilities bills were, it was to be covered by the landlord. It didn’t matter, she wanted to charge me more for the electricity usage. She knew I’d argue about the contract so she never mentioned it, only the guy she hired did. If I were her, I’d put a limit on the contract of how much could be spent and anything over would be paid by the person renting. That’d make sense to me. Instead, she charged me more by finding things wrong with the apartment so she can make up for the electricity bill she didn’t expect to pay so much for. What did she think, that I wasn’t going to put on the air conditioner during the summer months?

I continued to argue with her in spanish. She concluded that she’d have to get a cleaning lady and the cost would be $40USD. I tried fighting it but I didn’t care in the end. In the long run, it’s easier to just pay than continue this. $40USD is about 200 pesos. I put the 200 pesos on the table and said here’s the money. She wanted it in dollars though. This was my breaking point. Luckily the guy she hired (whom we had to keep calling because he wasn’t there) broke it up and told Nora to calm down and he’ll give her the dollars and take the pesos. That finished the argument and we waited until the guy sent us our refund via PayPal before we left.

The bedroom

The lesson

If we had left the apartment without waiting for the deposit to transfer, she could have made up any number she wanted to and charged us way more than $40USD. She could have claimed anything and possibly taken our entire deposit. Luckily because of my past experience, we waited until we got our deposit back before we left. She knew I wasn’t stupid.

Now you might be thinking this could to happen to anyone in any city and that’s true but to be honest, Buenos Aires has a reputation for this. The Travel China talks about her experience as well. I’ve heard similar stories about other foreigners that came to Buenos Aires and rented an apartment. Even my own father that was born and raised in this city has had numerous issues with renting apartments whenever he visits.

In the three years that I’ve been traveling, I’ve never had an issue with any apartment I’ve ever rented, hostel, or hotel stay. The two times that there has ever been a complain was in Buenos Aires.

Is it the economy that’s driving people to steal money from others? Is there more emphasis to the present rather than the future?

Have you ever had an issue with renting a long-term apartment in Buenos Aires?

This post was brought to you by  Skypark Secure.

Buenos Aires Apartment Rip Offs is a post from Art of Backpacking

I was offered a photography tour with FotoRuta in Buenos Aires, Argentina and since this was first time I’ve taken a photography tour, I was super excited. I thought I had my Canon T2i dSLR packed up and ready to go. Unfortunately, I forgot the battery for my camera. Luckily, I had my iPhone 4S though. I never thought of my iPhone 4S as a camera I could depend on but on this day I had to. My iPhone was usually used just when my other camera wasn’t around and I wanted to take a quick shot but never as anything exclusive for hours of taking pictures. I decided to go along with it and make the best of it after all, I’m constantly told that it’s not all about the equipment. I used Camera Awesome app by SmugMug to take most of my pictures since I have a SmugMug account.

The tour started at a cute cafe in San Telmo. Joss and Becky gave us about an hour of introduction and presentations on taking better photography. They provided very useful tips that everyone in the group used immediately when we went out into the field. They gave us a list of clues that we were to take pictures of, map of the area, badge, and a list of photography tips. A nice way in discovering a new part of the city. They set us out into the wild taking shots of what we’ve learned to later talk about the pictures we took out on the streets. I liked that part but more critical critiques on how I could have improved the shots would have been nice as well. It was interesting to see the different things everyone saw all within one area. What I thought was going to be a lame picture, someone else turned into a masterpiece photo.

Joss and Becky have been running Foto Ruta since October 2011 and have already been recognized by several large publications. They run tours throughout several areas of Buenos Aires and they always keep it fresh. They’re very active on Facebook as they post everyones photography from the tour (with permission of course), Twitter, and the FotoRuta website. If you’re in Buenos Aires, I definitely recommend checking out Foto Ruta.

San Telmo Antique Shop

We had to take pictures from the clues listed here.

Foto Ruta provided me with a comped tour. All opinions are obviously mine.

Travel Photography with an iPhone is a post from Art of Backpacking

I’m a huge Boca Juniors fan but I never went to a game. I’d always watch it on television and even had a Boca poster in my bedroom as a child. Most of my family are also Boca fans and I just followed along to what my family liked. Well, I finally went to a Boca game and it was awesome. It was everything I saw on television as a child but in real life.

Everyone in this picture are Boca Junior fans.

The match was Boca vs Lunas. It wasn’t a hugely important game but the crowd went insane regardless. There are apparently over 30 songs the crowd sings to in unison for every occasion including someone getting hurt, hating the referee, cheering for a goal, actual goals, and even individual players have songs dedicated to them. The chants were loud and echoed throughout the stadium. There were so many fans that the only section Lunas had was on the third floor balcony in a small section while Boca had the rest of the entire stadium. I almost felt bad but it’s like this at every stadium in Argentina. The away team has a huge disadvantage on where they are allowed to sit.

Before the match

Grand entrance of Boca Juniors

The first two goals were made by Boca and I was so sure that Boca was destroying them and at the same minute I was thinking that, Lunas ends up scoring a point. Eventually the game ends up in a tie of 2-2. It was an adrenaline rush when they were trying to score just one more point to win the match.

I got tickets by arranging it at a hostel. Boca games are actually for members only. I don’t understand the whole process and perhaps someone could clarify as to why they do this in the comments below. The only way to purchase tickets is by borrowing someone else membership card. My name was Sebastian Dario Isabez and there was a picture of the guy on the card. We went through security and they didn’t seem to care at all. I’m told that this is just how it works and all tourist do the same thing. The cool thing was the ticket we bought from the hostel included transportation to and from the game, a few drinks before the game, and food. The total was 600pesos (nearly $140USD). Expensive but so well worth it.

This is what the stadium looked like an hour before the match.

Surprising, it was tame and organized. It seemed the crazier side was opposite of us but even then, it seemed like it was mostly under control. Another thing was that most tours that were going to the game made sure to come early to put many of the tourist in a certain section and deal with security early on before the true fans came. I did notice more security at this game than at the rally the day before but most of them seemed to have been just laughing and chatting. One of them with a full shielded outfit decided to chat with me in the restroom about how he accidentally almost entered the women’s bathroom because the signs weren’t clear enough so we laughed.

I was a little skeptical about paying $140 but it was worth it. It’s been one of my highlights of our stay in Buenos Aires.

Thanks to David Lee of Go Backpacking for arranging the tickets for us! We had a blast.

Michael, Stephanie, and David

Argentina’s Football: Boca Juniors is a post from Art of Backpacking

It’s been 36 years since the last military dictatorship that lasted between 1976 and 1983, killing more than 30,000 people and leaving many unexplained questions. This time period was called the Dirty War. Since 2006, March 24th has been considered a national holiday called the Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice, commemorating the day Isabel Perón was overthrown. Every year on this day, thousands take the streets of downtown Buenos Aires in memory of the victims and to demonstrate their own political views for reforming the government. The different political views sometimes contradicted themselves with protests  in favor of communism, anarchy, socialism, peronism, and more.

Dozens of blocks were closed off for demonstrators. Everywhere from the Obelisco all the way to Casa Rosada with all of the major roads closed and covered with people and banners. Walking through thousands of people was difficult as we tried to push our way through 9 de Julio street and get to the capital building where the majority of the people were surrounding. An enormous stage, street food, children playing, chanting, drumming, fireworks, and red smoke took the atmosphere. I didn’t know what to look at first.

What was interesting was how controlled it actually was. I couldn’t spot a single cop anywhere near the action. They all seemed to be on the side street just chatting and laughing. The crowd itself was mostly calm besides the occasional chanting, drumming, and singing.

Marching down Belgrano street

Children marching and drumming for National Day of Memory

9 de Julio Street

Behind the stage is Casa Rosada (capital building)

Plaza de Mayo where thousands gather in front of the Casa Rosada

Singing and chanting

Notice the guy holding the mate cup...

Eva Perón died on July 26th, 1952

Movimiento Evita - Evita Movement

Anarchist march along side others from other political views and parties

9 de Julio Street

Demonstrators wave their banners

Thousands of demonstrators wave their banners.

Pro Communist Party

La Campora was by far the most popular covering more than 4 blocks with banners

Argentine political youth organization supporting the governments of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

Today, tomorrow, and always. Truth, memory, and justice.

Massive March for Freedom in Buenos Aires is a post from Art of Backpacking

Not as many backpackers are passing through Uruguay compared to some of the other countries in South America. I’m not sure why either. It’s a small country but has so much to see and do.

Renting a car either at a city or outside of the city is a popular tourist activity in Uruguay. There’s loads of car rental places in every major city. Since the country is small, it’s an easy, short, and pleasant drive to each destination. Each major city along the coast only takes 2-3 hours to get to from each other. The benefits of driving is obvious, you get to stop whenever you want. There’s small beach towns all along Uruguay’s coast and the roads are in perfect long-distance driving conditions (assuming you take the right roads).

The first thing you’ll need to consider is your budget and how much time you want to have driving the coast. One day rentals are limited on distance and not worth it unless you just want to explore a single city. Your best option will be to to rent a car for multiple days. From Punta Del Este, it cost me $50USD a day for two days. It’s expensive for one or two travelers but split between four and it’s a bargain. Compare that to about $12~ for one way bus ticket at a city 2-3 hours away (Punta Del Este to Montevideo perhaps). At four people, that’s nearly the same price as renting a car for an entire day. We met two wonderful people at a hostel in Montevideo that joined us and made the car rental much cheaper. Ask around the hostel if you don’t have enough people to go along with you. Cheap holidays to Uruguay are possible with some planning.

Stephanie taking a picture in our golf cart ride through Colonia

You only need two hours in Colonia with one of their small golf carts to see most of the city and the coast line. It cost me $25 for two hours.

Our drive started in Punta del Este up to Punta del Diablo then back down to Punta del Este. You can start in Colonia if you’d like if you’re coming out of Buenos Aires but I found the east side of Uruguay more interesting compared to the south side for driving. The company we used is called Punta Car in Punta del Este across the street from the bus station. You can walk right outside the bus station and hop right into a car.

Dropping a car off in another destination is rather pricey. For me it was going to cost $150 extra to drop the car off in Colonia instead of Punta del Este.

Colonia de Sacramento

On our first day, we stopped at a few places including Jose Ignacio. Our final stop was at Punta del Diablo where we stayed for the night. If we had known Cabo Polonio was just as beautiful, we would have stayed there instead probably. On our second day, we stopped at Cabo Polonio, Agua Dulce, Castillos, and La Paloma. We had no idea Santa Teresa was supposed to be nice but I had heard others say they recommended it.

La playa de los Dedos

On your drive up from Punta del Este, you’ll see sites like:

• The roller-coaster bridge.
• Jose Ignacio: Stop here for a little while. Small town beach. Not much to do but it’s great for pictures. Roads are only a few blocks.
• La Paloma: Small but developed beach town. Nice little stop for ice-cream, restaurants, casinos, etc. You also have the option of staying here for the night.
• Cabo Polonio: MUST SEE! Will probably be the highlight of your roadtrip. Park your car in the parking lot and take a big trucks over to the main beach. You will not be able to bring you car. Beautiful scenery. The town is also really great. The area can be a tiny bit expensive because it’s so far out of the way. I definitely recommend staying here for the night.
• Aguas Dulces: Another small beach town. Not much to see or do but can be a good rest stop.
• Castillos: There’s no fuel for awhile so fill up your tank here. Turn into the town and ask a local where you could get fuel. There’s a few places. It’s a small and cute town.
• Punta del Diablo: Hippie beach town with great parties and atmosphere. Lots of accommodation.
• Parque Nacional de Santa Teresa

I drew out a map for others to use. I noticed there isn’t any info online about driving the coast. Hope this helps someone else preparing for their trip.

Ride to Cabo Polonio Beach

Tips

• If you’re going north from Punta del Este and immediately past Laguna Garzon, it’s all dirt roads for a long time. Do NOT go this way if you have a small rental car. When you arrive at Jose Ignacio, turn onto Camino Sainz Martinez and go onto Route 9.
• There is no bridge at Laguna de Rocha. It’s impossible to cross. Don’t do the same mistake we did.
• If you have a small rental car, don’t try to drive on the sand even if it’s just a little bit. We got stuck in the sand and had to wave down locals to help us push the car.
• You won’t find many restaurants along the way. Bring some snacks, drinks, and prepared food.
• Fill up your tank whenever possible. You won’t find many options for fuel. From Punta del Diablo to Castillos, there’s no stations and that’s a 40km ride.

Cabo Polonio Beach

The following article has been sponsored by TravelSoon and written by me.

Guide To Driving The Coast of Uruguay is a post from Art of Backpacking

I consider Buenos Aires, Argentina to be my second home. Since I have family here and was raised with the Argentine culture, I have a special connection with this city. I love it here and I plan on continuing to come back often. It feels great to be back but there’s a few things that just never change and still gets to me a little bit. To me, they seem like easy fixes but perhaps there’s more to it than the way I’m understanding it.

While I am complaining in this article, it’s also a lesson in the different values and priorities.

Why Doesn’t Anyone Ever Have Change?

The highest domination is the 100 peso bill. The ATM’s will always give you your money in 100 peso bills. Most allow you to take out one 50 pesos bill meaning if you withdraw 350, you get three 300 peso bills and one 50 pesos bill. You’re screwed if you ever want to buy a can of soda that costs 5 pesos. Small change is like gold here. Every kiosko, supermarket, chinos, and restaurant will always ask you if you have smaller change EVEN if they have the change. They don’t want to waste the little change they do have on someone that does have change.

I tried to buy a bottle a water that costs 4 pesos. I handed him a 10 peso bill. I couldn’t buy it because he didn’t have six pesos in change to give me. How does he even have a business? The guy told he hasn’t had change in three days. Seems to me he’s losing business by not having change.

Why don’t the ATM’s just give you smaller bills or least the option to?

I collect as much change as possible. I treat it like gold. When someone asks me if I have change, I say nope. If they definitely don't have change and I'm forced to take out mine, then I act surprised that I actually did have change when in fact I have loads of change.

Watch Your Step

The sidewalks of this city looks like they’ve been through war. It’s the worst when it rains because you have no clue whether you’re about to step in a puddle or not. The city isn’t even trying to repair it. Many of the sidewalks are broken and just left that way. Perhaps in these hard times there’s no budget to repair all of the sidewalks and I can understand that. But they’ve made no attempt whatsoever in repairing ANY street. The pieces seem to break off easily. I could take a full piece of the sidewalk and drop it a few feet high and it’ll break in half.

Where's the sidewalk?

Graffiti on National Monuments

I can’t ever imagine someone getting close enough to the Washington Monument to spray paint it. You’d be arrested or shot faster than you can take it out of your backpack.

Even if I were very against the government, it seems disrespectful to tag national monuments. It’s not even nice graffiti either or anything with serious meaning. It’s usually a single curse word sometimes in english like Fuck or Shit. It looks ugly. And what surprises me more is that the city just leaves it there. They don’t bother repainting it.

If you’re going to tag a national monument, at least make it look cool.

Not the best example as this one has a little bit of a meaning. Descamisado literally means shirtless. Juan Perón and his wife Eva Perón affectionately referred their followers as "descamisados" as a term of pride. The background building is the Casa Rosada (executive mansion of Argentina).

January to March is Dead

Don’t even bother coming to Buenos Aires between January to March. Everyone heads south as the heat in Buenos Aires is unbearable. Most shops are closed for at least a month or have short hours. Sundays are the worst. The city looks like its been through a zombie apocalypse with not a single soul on the road. The only place that’s open year-round are the chino’s supermarket. The world could be ending but they’ll stay open till the end.

What I don’t understand is how so many businesses all at once can afford to take off for at least a month. My only assumption is that it’s preplanned every year and it goes towards their budget. Its like super break extending from school and into the work place. If I lived here permanently, I’d leave too. It’s too damn hot to do anything.

Too Much Salt!!

I saw this one lady pour salt for a solid two minutes into her salad. The city had to ban salt shakers from appearing at the tables automatically in restaurants because too many Buenos Aires residents have hypertension. You must now specially request salt only after you’ve tasted your food. They must really love their salt. To me, putting too much salt just takes away the taste of the actual meal. Chill out with the salt.

Am I missing anything else?

Things I Don’t Understand About Buenos Aires is a post from Art of Backpacking