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Celeb Travel / Buenos Aires Travel / Airports / Airport News / Cyndi Lauper / Music Travel / Delays / EZE / → All Tags

Cyndi Lauper Saves the Day With Her Voice at Buenos Aires' Airport

Have you wondered lately what the hell Cyndi Lauper has been up to lately? Well, aside from developing some lipstick shades with Lady Gaga, Cyndi is apparently all about serenading air travelers, as she performed two songs live on Friday at the Buenos Aires International Airport. Oh yes, and she's making award-winning Blues music too, but back to the airport singing...

According to the Daily Mail, Lauper was in BA on her world tour for her recent Blues album when flight delays turned the airport into a mess of worried and furious travelers. To diffuse the situation, the airport introduced Cyndi, and she began with her hit "Girl Just Wanna Have Fun," completely without accompaniment (unless count everyone else around her joining in on the refrain).

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Food Travel / Foreign Grocery Friday / Argentina Travel / Buenos Aires Travel / Chocolate Travel / → All Tags

Foreign Grocery Friday: Argentina's Chocolate 'Tita' and 'Rhodesia' Treats

When we travel, one of our favorite things to do is to pop into a local grocery store and check out the food products and candies we'd never find anywhere else. So we're trying out this new feature, Foreign Grocery Friday, where each week we'll feature some of our (and your) favorite overseas treats. Got a recommendation? Let us know!

During a recent trip our friend made to Buenos Aires, he managed to raid the candy aisles and bring us back two very colorful chocolately gifts: the Tita and Rhodesia bars, made in Argentina. We sample them and would go back for more, definitely.

The Taste: Let's start with TIta, because that one is definitely our favorite. The ingredients are pretty basic—milk chocolate over biscuit cookies and dulce de leche—but they come together to form the perfect bite for those nights when you just want a bite of something sweet, but not too much. It's like that, and pretty substantial for the two bites it actually is.

Rhodesia is a tad larger than Tita, but it's got less to it. Where Tita had thicker biscuit cookies inside, this is has wafers with a slight citrus hunt. It also broke apart and got crumbly quickly, so you're forced to eat it all in almost one gulping bite.

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Wedding Travel / Travel News / Gay Travel / Argentina Travel / Buenos Aires Travel / → All Tags

Argentina Legalizes Gay Marriage, Becomes Next Destination Wedding Hotspot

Today, Argentina legalized same-sex marriage, making it the first South American country (and a very Catholic one, at that) to do so. Aside from this being excellent for locals who are ready to take their relationship to the final step, we immediately thought: destination weddings!

For gay couples in America, the typical idea was to run for the border to Canada, have a destination wedding there where it is legal, and head back down into the States as a married pair. And then more US states came over to the rainbow side by also legalizing same-sex marriage, and—ignoring the California crisis—some of the world's biggest powers, too.

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Adventure Travel / South Pole / Expeditions / Antarctic Travel / Movie Travel / → All Tags

Take an Expedition to the South Pole and Be Part of an Antarctic Documentary

Travelers who embark on a Weddell Sea and South Georgia expedition cruise with Quark Expedition between November 6 to December 5, 2010 will not only have the adventure of a lifetime, but they’ll also get to watch the documentary film-making process in the best extreme conditions. Ireland’s Crossing the Line Films will be accompanying the cruise and simultaneously filming a doc about the 20th century race to the South Pole. Fancy having your wind-burned face on TV? Here's your chance.

The expedition celebrates the 1914-17 Antarctic expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton. After their ship Endurance sank, Shackleton led his men across the frozen Weddell Sea to Elephant Island, then sailed a lifeboat 800 miles by dead-reckoning to South Georgia. There he affected the rescue of his men left behind. One of the men who sailed with Shackleton in that tiny boat was Tom Crean. Crossing The Line’s John Murray says, “Crean played a central role in some of the biggest dramas of Antarctic exploration.” And now you can too, sort of.

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Scandalous Travel / Buenos Aires / Argentina Travel / Political Travel / → All Tags

Where The New Luv Guv Should Have Gone in Buenos Aires

What a day yesterday was for South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who after having been "missing" for five days, turned up deplaning after a flight back from Buenos Aires in Argentina and not the Appalachian Mountains, as his staff was lead to believe. Within hours of being caught on arrival, the Governor admitted to carrying on an affair while away in Argentina and resigned as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

So aside from knocking boots with a hottie South American woman, what was the Governor up to in Buenos Aires? Five days can't all be spent in bed, and so we've compiled our guide to enjoying Buenos Aires in Sanford style:

Stay: Hotel 1555 Malabia House
As BA's first design Bed & Breakfast, the focus is on intimate interiors, garden spaces, and the historic neighborhood. This are, the Palermo district, is also where Sanford's mistress' apartment is located, so you're just around the corner from the luv guv's little love nest.

Nightly rates here average $170 for a room with private balcony; it's perfect for tawdry kisses and nighttime whisperings like "My heart cries out for you, your voice, your body, the touch of your lips, the touch of your finger tips and an even deeper connection to your soul." We're sure Sanford would have felt right at home chillin the balcony as if he were back on a porch in South Carolina.

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Little Italy / Restaurants / Food Travel / → All Tags

Little Italy, Southern Hemisphere Style

Hey, Little Italys aren't just for the states.

More than 1/3 of Argentina's population is of Italian descent, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that one of the continent's oldest Italian nabes is found in Buenos Aires.

The main draw of "La Boca" is the scenery, particularly the brightly-painted houses along Caminito, the main street that's packed with artists, tango dancers and all kinds of hawkers every evening. The strip elicits the same complaints as Manhattan's Little Italy—too noisy, full of chintzy souvenirs and too many tourists—but a little further into La Boca, there are some genuine Italian-Argentinean haunts to be found.

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This Weekend in the World: Anzac Day and Book Fairs Galore

· Buenos Aires: Beginning this weekend in the La Rural exhibition complex, the Feria Internacional del Libro de Buenos Aires brings over 1 million people together for the Spanish-speaking world's largest literature festival and book fair. Whether you're in the market to beef up your home library, tracking down signatures of your favorite authors or taking in a free lecture, the Feria is fun for all. Fluency in Spanish is of course highly recommended, but then we're sure they'll have language instruction for sale as well. Check out the full schedule for the fair, which runs until May 11, at its website.

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It's Summer Somewhere / Wine Travel / → All Tags

Blessing the Wine in Mendoza

As the Northern Hemisphere prepares for the arrival of spring, parts Southern await the harvest. The vines just starting to bud here are ripe for the picking in Argentina, where the annual Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia in Mendoza celebrates those all-important first fruits.

Anytime is a good time to visit Mendoza's back-country wineries; it's basically the Napa Valley of South America. But during the fiesta nacional, which begins Saturday, the vines are blessed in the Benedicion de las frutas, and a queen of the vines is elected from among the local lovelies. And don't miss the Carrusel Vendimial, a combination dance and parade that fills the streets on March 7.

Oh yeah, and if you don't like all that pageantry, there's also plenty of wine available. We hear.

Related Stories:
· Fiesta Nacional de la Vendimia schedule [Mendoza.gov.ar]
· Active Travel: Horsing Around on Beautiful Back Roads [Jaunted]
· Wine Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Dr Vino]

Steakhouses / Restaurants / Buenos Aires Tours / → All Tags

Where to Beef in Buenos Aires: Soberbia 22

Dining options abound in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, but most restaurants are good old-fashioned parrillas, or grills, where you’ll find menus featuring steak, steak, and more steak. Folks in Buenos Aires really love meat. Soberbia 22 is no exception, but a few things set it apart from the...herd.

First, it's not too difficult to get a reservation, or even just walk in and get a table, unlike some of the better known steakhouses in the city, like Cabaña Las Lilas in Puerto Madero, or La Cabrera in Palermo Viejo.

You won’t have to contend with a pack of tourists, either, since Soberbia 22 is more of a neighborhood place popular with the residents of leafy Palermo Hollywood, with the low prices to match. That’s right, you can get a whole steak dinner, including a glass of wine, salad, appetizer and dessert for under $20 by our last check.

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Visas / Immigration / → All Tags

Argentina Entry Fee: Don't Call It a Visa

Last month, we were worried that the fallout from this Hugo Chavez speech might lead to new fees for American tourists brave enough to travel to Venezuela. But instead it's Argentina that's planning to levy an entry fee on Americans, Australians, Canadians and others, starting January 1.

Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo says charging foreign nationals $134 upon their entry into Argentina is payback for the visa fee his people have to pay when heading to other countries:

We feel that it's an injustice that an Argentine goes to the United States and has to pay $134 for a visa.

For what it's worth, this doesn't mean visitors have to actually apply for a visa; the charge, which covers you for 10 years, is simply a "fee of reciprocity" that will ostensibly go toward "modernizing immigration posts throughout the country."

Related Stories:
· The New Tax on Tourists [La Nacion, in Spanish, via]
· Election Day in Argentina [Jaunted]

[Photo of Buenos Aires' Immigration Museum: Wikimedia]

Voting / Embassies / Political Travel / → All Tags

Americans Abroad Travel: Election Day in Argentina

Jaunted editor Paul Brady has been hiding out in Buenos Aires and won't be back to vote in the US on November 4. Instead of just mailing in an absentee ballot, he went to the embassy for today's Voting Party...

This city is all about standing around waiting for stuff. There are lines at the bakery, lines outside the bank to use the ATM, lines at the post office, lines like you could never imagine at bus stops. So I shouldn't have been surprised when I showed up for today's democracy fest at the US embassy and there was a queue of Americans stretching way down Avenida Colombia.

At least those of us waiting to get in could enjoy the tunes from the jazz combo that Ambassador Earl Anthony Wayne hired to play in the courtyard while we made small talk about our hometowns, our impressions of Argentina and why in God's name this was taking so long.

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The Best Dining in Palermo: The Remington

This week, we're highlighting the best restaurants in the Palermo 'hood of Buenos Aires.

We've walked past The Remington a bunch of times over the past couple weeks, and today was the first time we've seen more than two tables occupied. But we can't figure out why it isn't bustling. The food is great--and cheap--and the service is just as smooth as you'd expect from any of the places in Palermo. True, there's no "cocktail list," but there is a full bar.

The folks over at Argentina restaurant guide Guía Oleo can't seem to figure it out either: Only one of eight amateur critics there give it a bad review. Yet the place stays quiet, even at 11 pm, prime restaurant hour in BA.

So despite our don't-go-to-empty-restaurants policy, we ducked in for a prix fixe lunch one day--and it was terrific.

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