Author Topic: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil  (Read 17103 times)

Offline Naftali

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #20 on: July 24, 2016, 09:12:00 AM »
Day Seven Monday –


Our last day in the Sacred Valley region. Our next destination was Buenos Aires, Argentina, but due to there being no direct flights from Cusco to BA (Cusco airport is almost exclusively domestic flights within Peru), we had a Monday midafternoon flight from Cusco back to Lima (again, 4.5k Avios each [great deal] on LAN/LATAM) and the a Tuesday early afternoon flight to BA from Lima (more on this on Day Eight).

We had to be at the Cusco airport at 1:30pm to catch our flight so we had our tour guide pick us up from the hotel at 8:30am to show us some additional sites before leaving the region. We went to the salt mines of Maras, Moray, and then Chinchero, which are all only slight detours off the route to the airport from Urabamba where we were staying.

Salt mines of Maras – This is a very interesting site to visit. It’s a privately owned salt mine (nearby township residents owns it in a co-op structure) in which a natural salt water spring flows into thousands of small ponds; after the water evaporates workers shovel the crystalized salt into large bags which they haul up the mountain to sell. Built in pre-Incan times, it is still an active “mine” today and laborers were hard at work in the early morning when we arrived. Cost is 10 Soles; well worth the visit which is also visually appealing.
 










Salt Mines at Maras


Moray – Another Incan agricultural site not far from Maras. I had seen enough Incan sites that the “wow” factor had subsided, though it is pretty cool to see and learn what the purpose of this experimental site was.





Moray Terrace/Irrigation Ruins


Moray is on top of a huge mountain plateau (high altitude), and from several points en route from Maras to Moray there are incredible views of the valley with the Andes Mountains in the backdrop. I found this to be the best location for photos of the valley and mountain range/peaks.









Near Moray – great views of Valley & Andes



Chinchero – We made a brief stop in Chinchero before arriving at Cusco airport. Chinchero is known for the being the textile hub of the region. We stopped at “Kantu Interpretation Center for Andean Textiles” (Centro De Interpretacion De La Textileria Andina Kantu ) which has local women weaving, as well as a demonstration (upon request; they ask for tips afterward) of how they dye the textiles. Due to the high altitude we weren’t feeling the best, but still enjoyed the demonstration.







Chinchero Textiles


We kept being offered to chew Coca leaves (yup – the raw material for cocaine) but I was hesitant to try it since I read that it needs some sort of alkaloid to act as an activator/stimulant which no one offered, and was also nervous about the effects. – I wonder whether it is legal to bring these leaves back to the U.S.


Our flight from Cusco from Lima was uneventful (….did I mention that the airport in Cusco is awful?!) and provides great views of the snowcapped Andes.


Cusco Airport – Stairway to Heaven




A view from our flight back to Lima


With our flight the next day to Buenos Aires at 1pm, we decided to stay at the Wyndham Costa del Sol Lima Airport again due to its convenience. As a Wyndham Rewards member, I was able to purchase 3k points from Wyndham for $33, so I paid 3k points + $100 for the one night stay ($133<$185 online cost).



Offline Naftali

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #21 on: July 24, 2016, 01:18:26 PM »
Day Eight – Tuesday


The next stop on our vacation was Buenos Aires, Argentina. We had a 1pm flight from Lima Airport (Jorge Chávez International Airport) to EZE (Buenos Aires’s main international airport) on LATAM/LAN.

When booking this flight from the British Airways website with Avios points, this flight showed up as 20k Avios per person which seemed reasonable to me so I booked it. I was delighted to find out later that our tickets were business class. I later checked again to find that on the 8:30am flights (from Lima to EZE) there is an economy option for 15k points, though on our flight (the 1pm) the only option was business for 20k. I absolutely do not regret spending the extra points on these business tickets – baby got his own seat/bed and slept the entire flights 8.

Note about traveling to Argentina: For almost 10 years, entering Argentina did not require a Visa, however, there was a $160 reciprocity fee charged per person to enter the country. Recently, the Argentine government suspended this fee for U.S. citizens visiting and although it was initially suspended for 90 days, the fee waiver remains in force as of today, 7/24/16 which saved us $320 (this fee was waived after President Obama visited Argentina in March – there is a new (free market) President in Argentina which has improved relations with the U.S.). – For Canadians, this reciprocity fee remains in force and must be paid online in advance of arrival to EZE. 


We arrived early for our flight to the Lima airport (just across the street from the hotel). Although we are not members of any lounges nor do we have the right CC membership to allow entry to any of them, we went to the VIP club (lounge) near our gate and told reception that we were allowed to enter since we had business class tickets. I don’t know if this true, but they let us in anyway. Great place to relax (free massage chairs, bar, tons of free food and drinks, etc.).

Our flight to EZE was extremely comfortable. It was always stressful before flights because full flights means that we would have to hold baby the entire flight. We lucked out that only two of the eight flights were full; all the other we were able to bring baby in his car seat onto to the plane without a problem and put him in an empty seat next to us.

EZE airport in Buenos Aires is far from the city center and is about an hour drive in. We landed and couldn’t find anywhere to change money, so we went to a taxi counter which accepted credit card. The total cost to Recoleta where we stayed was $41. 

Note about exchanging money in Argentina: It seems that for a while there was a government instituted artificial exchange rate for dollars which most people did not use and had to resort to “illegal exchanges” to receive fair value for their USD. Since December 2015 (again, due to the election of a new administration in Argentina), the fair value rate (about 14.7 pesos per USD) is the legally recognized rate which credit cards & ATM’s use (for ATM withdrawals, there was a charge of 85 pesos from my bank account – I think this is the norm).
 
Since we were staying until Sunday (5 nights), I did not want to spend money on a hotel, and we also wanted a kitchen/dining area for Shabbos. We booked a place on Homeaway.com for $70 a night on the edge of Recoleta, which is one of the nice neighborhoods in BA. Recoleta and Palermo (next to each other) are the two areas which are upper scale and were the majority of tourists stay.

The Jewish community is center in Once which was about a 20 minute walk from where we stayed. During the day, it seems like a garment district. There are frum people walking all about, but it is not the nicest area and perhaps it was not the safest move on our end that we walked there several time for dinner.

After settling in to our apartment, we walked to Once to dine at Al Galope (for some reason, the restaurants on BA open really late for dinner, around 8pm and stay open until late). I found someone at the entrance of the restaurant who exchanged money for me (Al Galope, and all the other kosher restaurants [Asian included] besides of Luba Café, only took cash). Al Galope is on Tucumán Street which is one of the two streets where most of the kosher supermarkets and eateries are.

The dining atmosphere and service are not great at Al Galope, and although they don’t have ketchup for the fries, the food was AMAZING. We ordered the smaller variety option which they bring a little grill to your table with an assortment of different meats (sweet bread, liver, turkey and & beef sausage, short ribs, etc.) - Highly recommended - see pics below. It was also very cheap compared to NY prices (about $45 USD which was good for two ppl). We also ordered an Argentinian wine which was great. The walk back to Recoleta at midnight was somewhat unsettling but without incident. We were lucky that our apartment was at the edge of Recoleta closer to Once which made the walk considerably shorter than other areas in Recoleta and Palermo.




Lima VIP Lounge










Al Galope


Offline Buruch

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #22 on: July 24, 2016, 01:40:09 PM »
Incredible report! Btw, Asian does take cc, and also still gives 10% discount for cash payers if you ask.

Offline Naftali

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #23 on: July 24, 2016, 01:44:24 PM »
Incredible report! Btw, Asian does take cc, and also still gives 10% discount for cash payers if you ask.

Interesting. When I reserved online, Asian sent me the following email:

"Hello perfect your reservation is confirmed
Tonight only you can paiy with cash
Looking forward to see you"

And I didn't receive 10% off for paying in cash because I didn't know to ask.  :'(



Offline mgarfin

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #24 on: July 24, 2016, 05:18:34 PM »
United wouldnt check baggage through copa?

Offline Naftali

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #25 on: July 24, 2016, 09:41:06 PM »
United wouldnt check baggage through copa?

My bad - didn't realize that since both are members of Star Alliance United would let me check baggage through Copa.   


Offline Yehoshua

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #26 on: July 25, 2016, 01:59:15 PM »
Wow!! What an amazing TR so far, especially for a new member. Having just gotten back from a South Africa trip ourselves with our 4 month old daughter you must have had a lot harder of a time, since you had a lot more hiking/stairs that we did (though we brought our Doona not our Vista). You also probably had a slightly easier time since there was little to no time adjustment where we had 9 hours. This is on our short list of places to visit (the Peru parts and Colombia) and the TR seems to have lots of great tips. We already visited BsAs, Iguazu and Rio though.

My main concern at the moment is zika. Were you not worried? Did you ask your pediatrician about going there?

Offline Denverite

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #27 on: July 25, 2016, 02:27:15 PM »
Did your flight to Panama offer kosher food?  My Copa flight is not listed as providing any meal service, only food for purchase.

Offline mgarfin

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #28 on: July 25, 2016, 03:46:53 PM »
Did your flight to Panama offer kosher food?  My Copa flight is not listed as providing any meal service, only food for purchase.

We got on JFK-PTY Borenstein and on PTY-GRU Shemtov Kosher, with R' Horowitz as a supervision from Chile.

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #29 on: July 25, 2016, 06:32:34 PM »
We got on JFK-PTY Borenstein and on PTY-GRU Shemtov Kosher, with R' Horowitz as a supervision from Chile.

Ok thanks.  I wonder if it's because we flying from IAH and it's a shorter duration.

Offline Naftali

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #30 on: July 25, 2016, 07:58:26 PM »
Did your flight to Panama offer kosher food?  My Copa flight is not listed as providing any meal service, only food for purchase.

Our red-eye flight from Newark to Panama City (12am - 4:30am) did not have meal service for economy class. 

Offline Naftali

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #31 on: July 25, 2016, 08:43:09 PM »
Wow!! What an amazing TR so far, especially for a new member. Having just gotten back from a South Africa trip ourselves with our 4 month old daughter you must have had a lot harder of a time, since you had a lot more hiking/stairs that we did (though we brought our Doona not our Vista). You also probably had a slightly easier time since there was little to no time adjustment where we had 9 hours. This is on our short list of places to visit (the Peru parts and Colombia) and the TR seems to have lots of great tips. We already visited BsAs, Iguazu and Rio though.

My main concern at the moment is zika. Were you not worried? Did you ask your pediatrician about going there?

1. Thanks!

2. Staying basically in the same time zone was definitely helpful since we were able to keep the baby on his regular sleep schedule. It must be really hard throwing off a baby's sleep schedule at only 4 months. The hiking/stairs were hard at times, though carrying the baby in a baby carrier most of the day apparently is very soothing - he slept most of the time we walked around.

3. Zika: We spoke to our pediatrician and OBGYN and they weren't overly concerned about it as long as we stayed in the city area and did not travel to the jungle or farther inland/north.  Were we worried? Definitely! We sprayed OFF! obsessively (I sprayed in GIG while waiting for our luggage and received pity stares from the Cariocas [locals]). We both made sure to wear long sleeves shirts and long pants/skirt. Rio was quite chilly during our stay so this did not pose much of an inconvenience - we had no desire to hang out by the pool area in cloudy 65 degree weather. The fact that it is now dry & winter in Brazil greatly reduces the risk since the mosquito population is drastically reduced. We also stayed in an air-conditioned room (obviously, since we were in a hotel) as per WHO recommendations (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/zika-health-advice-olympics/en/) & avoided the poorer areas which may have no piped water or poor sanitation.
I have read the Zika Thread on DansDeals and wholly understand why others would take the precaution not to visit any of the Zika - affected countries.

Offline mgarfin

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #32 on: July 25, 2016, 08:45:28 PM »
We got on JFK-PTY Borenstein and on PTY-GRU Shemtov Kosher, with R' Horowitz as a supervision from Chile.

In J class

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #33 on: July 26, 2016, 10:14:17 AM »
Day Nine – Wednesday


……. I recognize that this portion of the trip (BA, Iguazu, and Rio) has been reviewed almost ad nauseam on this forum. My apologies in advance if I bore you with this [- I wouldn’t want to be called a “Mikka Bouzu” ("גיבור כארי -  לגמור המעשה" ממהר"ל)] so I’d like to finish.]


Taking advantage of the fact that Buenos Aires has a whole bunch of kosher place to eat (after spending almost a week in Peru eating granola bars & cheese sandwiches for breakfast & lunch), we went to have breakfast at Luba Café, a kosher café/coffee house which is housed in a Chabad center in Recoleta. The Café was only a five minute walk from where we were staying – we arrived at about 10:30am for a brunch and were the only customers (the waitresses were surprised that we wanted something more than just coffee). The café area in front is a very small room but nicely decorated. The food & service was fantastic (particularly, the gnocchi and caramel cheese cake)! Not cheap though, but they took CC which is a novelty for BA kosher establishments. We liked the food and atmosphere so much we went back for Friday lunch and Motzei Shabbos מלווה מלכה. It is interesting that although only the front room was open during the mornings we went, when we went back Saturday night we were placed in larger room in back (which goes unnoticed unless you know about it) since we had a reservation.



Luba Café brunch



Luba Café – small front room



Luba Café – larger back room

Luba Cafe


Our guide then picked us up for the city tour of Buenos Aires.

Some thoughts: Buenos Aires is far different than other South American cities in the sense that it is very European – mostly Caucasian, with a panoply of European architecture and a cosmopolitan feel. However, the appellation “Paris of the South” is more apropos to Porteno’s (local’s) pretentiousness than the city’s grandeur. Walking around Buenos Aires for several days, it seems that the golden age of BA was is the 1920’s and ever since the city has been a slow but steady state of decay. The sidewalks throughout the city are cracked and broken, so using a stroller was a huge pain. Albeit true that some buildings retain their beauty, it was hard for us to appreciate since the BA infrastructure is poor and not well kept (except for the parks around Palermo which are really nice).

Two historical facts I wish I knew prior to my visit: A) There was a military dictatorship in Argentina from 1974-1983 which was awful for Argentina. Aside from the ill-advised Falklands War in 1982 which led to their demise, the military killed about 30,000 Argentines (or Argentineans, whichever you prefer) – known as the the 30,000 disappeared – for which there are commemorations of throughout the city. B) The second wife of Juan Peron (President of Argentina in the 1950s and 1970s) was a women named Eva Peron. Also known as Evita, she continues to be legendary & beloved in Argentina even though she died in 1952.  There was also a Broadway show and later movie (starring Madonna) called “Evita” about her – with a famous song “Don’t cry for me Argentina.” I didn’t know any of this beforehand, but after hearing my tour guide reference this the entire day, I spent the night reading up on it.



Our tour was an overview of the city -we visiting the beautiful Parque Tres de Febrero which has varieties of roses and is really enjoyable to walk around. Later, we went to the Recoleta Cemetery, and although it sounds strange, this was the highlight of our tour. The cemetery is really unique, different families own mausoleums which they pay an annual fee to keep and each mausoleum is like a little house, with a stairwell which goes two stories down with shelfs to place coffins (strange, though we may become more accustomed to something like this- see here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/20/jerusalem-dead-city_n_7345936.html). We then walked around the Plaza de Mayo (main plaza) and saw the Casa Rosada (sort of the BA version of the White House but in pink – and the President only works there but doesn’t live there). Not much exciting here, but on the checklist for a BA tour. We ended our tour driving to the La Boca neighborhood which features the colorfully painted buildings of Caminito. The area is run down and seems to be slummy neighborhood, though we felt safe in the tourist area. While great for taking photos, Caminito felt like a tourist trap.



Floralis Genérica – a metal flower sculpture which opens in the morning and closes at night.



Memorial on the banks of the River Plate for the 30,000 disappeared








Parque Tres de Febrero (including Rose Park)








Recoleta Cemetery




Casa Rosada – note the high walls for protection from protestors. Insanely high rates of inflation and otherwise common corruption make protests a common event in BA for federal and municipal wages to be raised. In 2001 the Argentinean President had to be helicoptered out of the Casa Rosada from fear of violent protesters because of the financial crisis. 



(Pope Francis was Cardinal in BA before elected to be Pope so his image is featured prominently throughout the city)





Caminito in the La Boca neighborhood





Really cool rotating pedestrian bridge (it swings open) in Puerto Madero (which is a relatively new nice neighborhood good for a nice stroll)

Although we were going to Asian Steak House for dinner, we wanted to stop at the McDonald’s at the Abasto Mall to satisfy the requirement of eating at the only kosher McDonald’s. Someone else on this forum already pointed out but it’s worthwhile to repeat. There are three McDonald’s at the mall and only one is kosher. Immediately when we entered on the left there was a McDonald’s – not kosher. Up the elevator to the second floor to the right there was a McDonald’s – not kosher. In the far far left of the food court there was a McDonald’s- which says on the signs Kosher McDonald’s – kosher. We had a Big Mac, nuggets, and fries; Nuggets and fries – tasty; Big Mac - not really. Funny thing is, is sort of tastes the way you’d imagine McDonald’s to taste. Worth the trip.





(checking lettuce for bugs at McDonald’s!)



Kosher McDonald’s


We took a cab to Asian (which is not where most of the other kosher establishments are, it is in Palermo, not Once). Asian is in this strange building (looks somewhat abandoned aside from Asian, but the actual restaurant is really nice). Maybe we ordered wrong, but the meat, although very good, did not live up to the hype others expressed. It is a wonderful atmosphere, far nicer than Al Galope (and white bearded waiter spoke perfect English and made a great mojito for us) but the food was not better than the popular steakhouses in N.Y.



Asian Building



Asian interior – there is also a porch outside


To be continued.....

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #34 on: July 26, 2016, 10:42:03 AM »
Nice segment. I've heard that the quality of the food at Asian has deminished in the last couple of years. It used to be much better (at least as of 2013 when we were there).

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #35 on: July 28, 2016, 08:17:23 PM »
Days Ten, Eleven, & Twelve – Thursday, Friday, Shabbos

This portion of our trip was a bit of a lull, so I have condensed them into one segment.

Thursday - Thursday morning we returned to Once to go Shabbos shopping. There are several small kosher markets (think makolets in Israel) where they sell everything we needed for Shabbos. I asked to pay with CC, but they only wanted USD which was ok with me. We ended buying Challah in a bakery (Kakosh) which was very good (probably would’ve been even better had we come Friday to the bakery) and bought some empanadas (a small stuffed pastry) with meat at Ajim (all on same street, Tucuman) which was also very worthwhile.
Our guide picked us up at about noon to take us to the Tigre Delta. Honestly, although BA is a huge international city, there is not much more to do in BA proper (unless going to museums or watching tango is your thing) than we already did on Wednesday. Folks recommend going to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay (a historic, charming, cobblestoned city) which is a long ferry ride across the River Plate but we did not want to spend the money on the ferry tickets nor did we anticipate we’d enjoy simply walking around a quint city. Perhaps we should’ve. Alternatively, people travel out of BA to visit a Goucho (Argentine cowboy) Ranch, but being that horseback riding was not an option with a young baby nor would we be able to partake in bbqs so we decided to visit the Tigre Delta (or Parana Delta, not sure what is supposed to be called) tour.

We drove up north out of BA proper and arrived at the touristy port area of Tigre which took a little longer than an hour. From there we boarded a ferry which travels through the Delta. The Delta consists of lots of waterways which connect lots of small islands. These islands are very small with no roadways so all the folks who live on these islands have transportation only through boats (ala Venice). There are supermarket boats and school boats, taxis boats and police boats. The boat tour takes about two hours and although it gets boring after a while (the homes are simple and not too picturesque), it is amazing to see how widely different people’s lifestyle can be.








Tigre Delta




Tigre Delta - not sure what this is about…..

We drove back through the nicer suburbs of BA (San Isidro) and got back to the apartment late enough that we could go out to dinner right away (& walked to Al Galope yet again, couldn’t get enough of their food!).

Friday – With not much left to do in BA, knowing the Freddos has kosher flavors (Freddos is a bit similar to Ritas in the U.S. – they specialize in Gelato ice-cream called helados) we walked in mid-morning to the Freddos near our apartment in Recoleta (they have stores all over BA). I could only find the kosher list from 2013 (see below) I utilized this list – does anyone know where to find an updated list of kosher flavors? The ice-cream did not disappoint – very good quality for such a large chain.



We then walked to Calle Florida which is a pedestrian shopping avenue with good quality shops but nothing to “write home about.” The only memorable aspect of Calle Florida was being inundated with offers of “cambio” (money exchange); I did not find any of the retail pricing to be competitive. Otherwise a quiet day (and short, sundown was early).





Calle Florida

Shabbos – Quiet. Saturday night we went to Luba Café (reservations are highly recommended and gets you a seat in the bigger back room for Saturday night). Again, the food was fantastic… early night to get ready for early morning flight to Iguazu.

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #36 on: July 28, 2016, 08:34:33 PM »
Great segment. Just FYI helado means ice cream in Spanish. Also just to be fair to Freddo and Persicco, it's full on ice cream (like Häagen-Dazs), not water ice like at Rita's.

Too bad you couldn't do a biking tour. It was my highlight of BsAs.

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #37 on: July 28, 2016, 08:44:05 PM »
Such good memories of BA, thanks.

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #38 on: July 29, 2016, 08:50:47 AM »
Kudos, this TR is a piece of work. I hope you get an applause from this community.

BTW how did you plan this without even communicating  on the fourm?

Offline Yehoshua

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Re: Trip Report of Panama, Peru, Argentina, & Brazil
« Reply #39 on: July 29, 2016, 09:01:57 AM »
Kudos, this TR is a piece of work. I hope you get an applause from this community.

BTW how did you plan this without even communicating  on the fourm?
People planned trips without posting, let alone reading, DDF for years .