"If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans"

So, today is the big day! I lay awake unable to sleep as I'm fighting a sinus infection with everything I could buy at shopper's drug mart - and then some! Thankfully I don't leave until 8pm whereas poor Gabby leaves at 9am. But, on Thursday we'll be in the same city: Buenos Aires! We're aiming to meet at the Plaza de Mayo as one of my "most dos" in Argentina is to see las madres de la plaza de mayo march. Apparently since Cristina Fernández de Kirchner took office as President the Mothers don't march as frequently as they 'no longer have an enemy in the President's office', but they do still march symbolically at 3:30 on Thursdays. Of course, my plane is set to arrive at 1:30 on Thursday leaving me with 2 hours to clear customs, pay my entrance tax, get my luggage etc. and get my butt to the Plaza; here's to hoping! In preparation for this trip I actually watched a really fascinating news feature on children of the disappeared who were adopted out of their families, in some cases essentially kidnapped by those responsible for the likely deaths of their mothers and possibly fathers. Argentina has recently made it mandatory for those who are suspected of being children of the disappeared to submit to DNA testing, which leads to all sorts of complications - you can read about one such example here.

In any case, enough geeking out on this ... for now. I wanted to get to the heart of this posting's title (a Woody Allen quote). I think to say the least, our planned itinerary is ambitious and time will tell if it's overly ambitious - we're taking a play it by (a hopefully uninfected) ear approach. You can see a map of our planned highlights tour of the country (with a bit of Chile) on this map. No matter what, I'm certain that most everything we do manage to accomplish will be an amazing experience, and that there will be loads and loads of giggling along the way!

Here, via the magic of the internet, are a few pictures of the itinerary we hope to take:

Buenos Aires:
Stops to include

Madres de Plaza de Mayo


ESMA Building - former detention centre during Argentina's "Dirty War" and now is a museum of sorts (I gather from news and travel books it's still trying to work itself out)


An amazing bookstore in an old theatre in Buenos Aires, I plan to leave my resume...



Iguazu Falls - where I'm hoping I feel like my yellow fever vaccination was worth it! In all seriousness, my friend Esther informs me that it's like heaven on earth and reportedly when Eleanor Roosevelt visited the falls she said "poor Niagara." My friend Kathrine said that was an apt statement and that it was like Niagara except in nature and not mini-vegas and well, better.



Salta - a main North western city that is supposed to be quite a different feel than other centers such as BA or even Cordoba. It's know for its colonial architecture and it was the southern most point of the Inca empire.


Jujuy - the place Gabby tried to sell me on (well, I guess did) by saying something to the effect of 'it's supposed to be super amazing and the mountains are like different crazy colours and stuff; it's basically the place where all the photos of Argentine mountains come from - dude, it's a UNESCO site!' I was like um, okay Gabs yup "super colourful mountains, sure...." then I googled some pictures and was like oh, it's not just the end of summer cocktails speaking to me ... sorry Gabs for the disbelief!


Mendoza - goals here include renting bikes to take bike tours of wineries and getting too tipsy to return the bike by bicycling and we will instead need to walk the bikes back. Then enjoying views of the Andes whilst drinking and, well, drinking.... mmmm malbecs!


Then a bus through the Andes - the world's longest continental mountain range. Everyone I know who has done this trip explains it as being both one of the most life threatening and, presumably if one survives it, life affirming experiences of their lives. I will ask you to hold your "Alive" jokes until I complete this successfully!



Santiago - I truly hope we make it this far! And, if we don't make it to a football match in BA (I don't think the famed Boca Jnrs are playing while we're there - boo!) then I definitely want to see one here, particularly if gave me the chance to go to the national stadium which was infamously used as a detention camp and torture facility during the coup that began in 1973 Chile.



Vina del mar - supposed to be beautiful and I'd love to see the pacific again this year.



Then scoot our asses back to BA for our flights home!

Let's see how this all works out...

Hasta pronto Buenos Aires, hasta pronto!