I was waitin for that.
I remember it looked hectic in Flight 666. I've always wanted to visit but then I could say that for all the relevant countries. But Costa Rica was one of my top desires.
I'll probably take 3 weeks at it. Never been to Latin America so I'm sure I'll have a bangin time wherever.
Several friends have said Colombia is the most beautiful place they ever saw.
My most travelled friend says Argentina is the country she would go back to. But she speaks Spanish, she was in Buenos Aires when they won the World Cup and fell into the underground rave scene when she was there, so I'd wager that her Argentine experience would differ significantly from mine. Still, I'll take all opinions on board yo.
But Chile.
I spent a few months on exchange in Argentina. It's such a beautiful country, and Buenos Aires is my favourite city that I've travelled to. (As I mentioned in another post, Argentina should be as wealthy as Australia or Canada, but it's been bled dry by decades of corruption and mismanagement).
When I went (around a decade ago), it offered incredible value. You could get a very good dinner, with steak and red wine, for $15-20 USD. (I'm far from fluent, but learning some basic Spanish definitely helps). There's surprising variety in the restaurants. It's more than just meat and potatoes - I tried Peruvian, Uruguayan, Jewish, German, and Cameroonian cuisine (among many others).
The two things that make Argentina especially interesting - Buenos Aires has many different neighbourhoods ("barrios"), most of which have distinct personalities. Upscale Recoleta could pass for Paris or Madrid (but is located next to a dangerous slum, which I nearly wandered into). San Telmo (the oldest barrio, featuring beautiful but often decaying architecture) and Puerto Madero (the newest, featuring fancy restaurants and the waterfront) are adjacent. Palermo is trendy and has a lot of great bars, restaurants and graffiti (nearby Belgrano and Villa Crespo are similar, but quieter). La Boca is dangerous (but worth visiting - if you're careful).
The other thing that's interesting about Argentina is it spans a huge distance from north to south, which creates a lot of geographical variety. The northern part is in the Amazon rainforest (the highlight is Iguazu Falls, a series of powerful waterfalls spanning more than a kilometer). There's the Atlantic coast, the vast plains ("pampas"), the Andes mountains (there are some great wineries in the foothills near Mendoza), and the south (which features mountains and glaciers - it reminded me of Canada's Arctic).
I also spent 2-3 weeks in Chile and really enjoyed it. Santiago is a beautiful city as well (somewhat safer than Buenos Aires, but also more expensive).
