South America - The Cities

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Argentina's huge capital city with over 12 million people. A very cosmopolitan, European-feeling city; they even have the Torre de los Ingleses (the English Tower), a Big Ben clone! The city is filled with amazing architecture and historical sites, such as the presidential building Casa Rosada (the Pink House) where Eva Peron greeted the people of Argentina from its balcony.
The city is separated into several distinct neighbourhoods (barrios), each with its own unique Buenos Aires experience. The parks, craft fair, museums and good restaurants in Retiro and Recoleta made them my favourite barrios. The Annual Tango Festival happened while we visited allowing us to experience some authentic and very entertaining Buenos Aires dancing and music, sometimes right in the streets!

Santiago de Chile - More than 5 million Chileans call this huge sprawling city home. Backdropped by the 5000-6000 metre peaks of the central Andes, the city could be quite picturesque if it wasn't for the thick layer of smog that rarely clears. Yet on a nice day, the view from atop Cerro San Cristobal near the huge statue of The Virgin Mary, is quite stunning.
The incredible hospitality of our friends Chris and Izzy highlighted our visit! We stayed in Residencial Londres in an amazing old European section of town - highly recommended! Santiago has a very good Metro system too. Santiago (and most of Chile) restaurant's leave something to be desired as no matter where you go, they all seem to have the exact same menu: beef topped with ham and egg on flat bread is the speciality! We did have some great fresh seafood further south.

Cordoba, Argentina - competes with Buenos Aires for the cultural crown of Argentina. With an uninteresting, compact city centre surrounded by many old colonial buildings and historical monuments, Cordoba requires little time to visit.