Tuesday - March 3, 2026 Flight to Miami
This is the beginning of a trip to the southern tip of South America beginning in Buenos Aires, Argentina and ending in Santiago, Chile. There will be many firsts for us on this trip. Mike and I have never been to the southern hemisphere, Argentina, or Chile to name a few. Today we got up at 4:00 am so we could leave for the airport by 4:30 am. Our flight to Miami was scheduled for 7:05 am and left right on time. We arrived in Miami at 11:00 am EST after an uneventful flight. The gate we arrived at was a little bit different because we had to walk outside the building in a covered walkway to enter the terminal. We took an UBER to the Element Airport Hotel where we will spend one night. We decided to stay one night in Miami so that we could have a direct flight to Buenos Aires on Wednesday. Also, I had enough airline point for the round trip direct flight to Miami and for the hotels at the beginning and end of our trip. Other than meals and UBERs the extra days didn't cost us anything. When we arrived at the hotel we were able to check in. There was nowhere close to the hotel to walk to for lunch so we ordered Wendy's chicken sandwiches from UBER Eats. We napped, then went to the hotel restaurant for dinner. They had a happy hour with free wine and beer so Mike and I each had a drink before dinner. We shared a burger and fries and each got a glass of wine (not free) for dinner. The burger was not very good and our bill was $62. After dinner we headed to our room and called it a night.
Wednesday - March 4, 2026 Flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina
We got up at 8:30 am and went to the hotel buffet breakfast. It was okay, nothing to brag about. After breakfast we hung out in our room until 11:30 am when we checked out and caught the free hotel shuttle to the airport. After we checked our bags and went through security we had a long walk to our terminal. Miami airport is layed out in a weird way. Since our flight wasn't scheduled until 7:55 pm, we decided to use airline points to buy us each a day pass to the American Airlines Admiral's Lounge. It cost 15,800 points and was totally worth it. We got free food and drinks and had comfortable seats with access to charging ports for electronics. We were in the lounge for six hours and had lunch, dinner, and snacks along with drinks so it saved us a lot of money on food. We left the lounge about 7:00 pm and boarded our plane at 7:25 pm.
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| Ready for takeoff! |
We had splurged on Premium Economy seats so we had more legroom and neither of us (me) had to sit in a middle seat. We also got better food and free drinks. Everything was on time and the 9 1/2 hour flight was pretty uneventful. Mike slept quite a bit of the time, but I probably only slept about two hours. I just have a hard time sleeping on planes.
Thursday - March 5, 2026 Buenos Aires, Argentina Day 1
Our flight landed in Buenos Aires at 6:30 am. Baggage claim was a madhouse. People pushed in front of other people, and it was almost impossible to see when our luggage came out. When I spotted our bags, I had to push to the front to be able to grab them. However, customs was super easy. I had seen on YouTube that you need to show the customs agent the name and location of the hotel you were staying at, so I had a photo copy of that to show. Other than that they just looked at your passport and waved you on through. Since we had purchased a pre-cruise package from Holland America, we had Holland America representatives meet us outside of the customs area next to a Starbucks. They arranged our ride to our hotel and took our luggage for us. We got to the hotel, Sofitel Buenos Aires Recoleta, by 8:30 am. The room was not ready so we stored our bags at the hotel and walked 0.6 miles to the Recoleta Cemetery. We went into the cathedral attached to the cemetery but not into the cemetery. We were too tired from the flight to do too much sight-seeing yet.
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| Church at Recoleta Cemetary |
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| Inside the church |
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| Inside shot |
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| Outside of Recoleta Cemetary |
Next to the Recoleta is the Gomero de la Recoleta - historic rubber tree planted in 1791. On one branch was a statue acting as a buttress to hold the large branch up. We walked across the street to a small park containing three more rubber trees, sat on a bench for a while, and enjoyed the nice weather.
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| Gomero de la Recoleta - historic rubber tree planted in 1791 |
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| Resting in the park |
We walked back to the hotel to wait until time to go get lunch. We walked 0.25 miles to the El Sanjuanino Restaurant and got empanadas (one chicken and one ham and cheese) and Pepsi Black (no Coke Zero) for lunch. It was all pretty good. We walked back to the hotel and our room was ready by 1:30 pm. We took naps until 4:00 pm, showered, then walked across the street to a mall to look for somewhere to get dinner. We didn't find anything we wanted so went back to the hotel and got dinner in its restaurant. We shared an order of fish with pureed sweet potatoes and roasted vegetables and each got a glass of wine (cost $71). The fish was not very good, but the sweet potatoes and vegetables were. After dinner we went back to our room and called it a night. We were tired, but had a pretty good first day in Buenos Aires.
Friday - March 6, 2026 Buenos Aires, Argentina Day 2
We got up about 8:00 am and went down for breakfast around 9:00 am. The hotel had a really good breakfast: good coffee, eggs to order, meat, cheese, fresh fruit, a variety of pastries, and the best yogurt I have ever eaten. It was Dahi brand yogurt made in Argentina
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Dahi Yogurt
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After breakfast We walked to the Hop On Hop Off stop next to the Recoleta Cemetary and got a 48 hour ticket. We rode the bus to stop 14 at the Galariea Pacifico Mall. We got off, walked around the mall for a while, then bought lunch. We shared a chicken sandwich and fries and each got a Coke Zero. It was a lot of food and was very good.
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| Riding the HOHO |
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| Silk Floss Tree - there are a lot of these trees in Buenos Aires |
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| Buenos Aires Obelisk |
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| Casa Rosada |
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| Municipal Palace of Buenos Aires |
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| Monument to the Two Congresses |
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Palace of the Argentine National Congress
in the Congressional Plaza |
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| La Bombanera soccer stadium |
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Figures of Maradona (soccer player) and
Pope Francis (from Argentina)in La Boca neighborhood |
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| Mural in La Boca Neighborhood |
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| La Boca Neighborhood |
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| Fountain where we ate lunch |
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| Mary at lunch - the mall was beautiful |
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| Mike at lunch |
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| Galerias Pacifico |
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| View of our lunch spot from an upper level |
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| View of the Mall |
After lunch we got back on the Hop On Hop Off and rode to stop 20 for the Carlos Thays Botanic Gardens. We had to walk a quarter of a mile to the gardens, but it was worth it. We walked around in the gardens for about 30 minutes then walked back to stop 20 of the Hop On Hop Off.
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Monument to General José de San Martín
located in Plaza San Martín in the Retiro neighborhood |
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| Plaza San Martin |
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| Torre Monument Clock Tower |
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Floralis Genérica - opens at dawn,
closes at dusk |
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| Statue in Carlos Thays Botanical Garden |
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| In the garden |
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| A lily pond in the garden |
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| A lily |
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Monument to the Magna Carta
and Four Regions of Argentina |
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| Nine lanes of traffic in one direction |
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| Horse sculptures on the way to dinner |
We rode back to the stop at the Recoleta Cemetery at 5:00 pm and walked back to the hotel. We checked in with the Holland America representative and got some recommendations for eating places in the area. After resting for a while we walked about two blocks from the hotel where there were several restaurants under a bridge. We found a bar that had happy hour with 2 for 1 drinks and free pizza. We each had two drinks and shared two small cheese pizzas all for onl $35. What a find! We went back to our room, watched TV, and had some wine and snacks we had bought at a small market. This was a very enjoyable day.
Saturday - March 7 2026 Buenos Aires, Argentina Day 3
I woke up this morning around 8:30 am with a very sore throat and a stopped up nose. I didn't feel bad enough to stay in the room so we went down and had breakfast then walked to catch the HOHO back at the first stop. We rode the bus to Stop 3 at Plaza De Mayo and got off. We visited the Cabillo Museum then walked to the other side of the plaza and went through the Metropolitan Cathedral. The cathedral was very large and beautiful
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| Cabillo Museum |
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| Main altar of Metropolitan Cathedral |
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| One of the small, side altars |
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| Another altar area |
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| Mausoleum of General José de San Martín |
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| Casa Rosada - official office of the Argentine president |
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| In Plaza de Mayo |
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| Metropolitan Cathedral |
After finishing at the cathedral we tried to catch the Hop On Hop Off bus to ride to San Telmo, but the first bus was full and there was a long line for the next bus. I guess Saturday was just too busy a day for the buses. We decided to skip visiting San Telmo, and got an UBER to El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore. This bookstore is in an old theater and had three levels filled with books. It was pretty impressive.
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| El Ateneo Grand Splendid Bookstore |
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| Inside the bookstore |
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| Another view of the bookstore |
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| In the store |
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| Final shot in the bookstore |
When we were finished in the bookstore, we walked 0.7 miles back to the hotel, stopping along the way a a small diner to get lunch. We ordered one chicken sandwich to share and two Coke Zeros, but the waitress brought us two sandiwiches. We had way too much to eat. We each only ate 1/2 of our sandwich. It was a tasty sandwich though. When we got back to the hotel around 3:00 pm we rested for a while, each took a shower, then walked across the street to the Patio Bullrich Mall to get dinner. Mike got a Patagonia beer and lasagna and I got a chicken Ceasar salad and water. Everything was really good. We went back to the hotel and packed our large suitcases to put out in the hall to be picked up for transport to the ship. Even though I felt bad, we still had a really fun last day in Buenos Aires. We really enjoyed Buenos Aires and could have spent more time here. The Sofitel Hotel was very nice and in an excellent location. We could walk to most places and everything was clean and felt safe. Now on the the next part of our adventure on the cruise.
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Inside the Patio Bullrich Mall
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| Sofitel Recoleta Hote. |
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