When my husband Tim and I first began to talk about our honeymoon, we rattled off places we’d always wanted to see. South America was immediately at the top of the list. We agreed it should be a place neither of us had visited before. And we wanted something beyond fruity drinks on a beach in the Caribbean. After considering South Africa, Tokyo and Scandinavia, we looped back around and settled on South America.

An afternoon at Barnes & Noble led us to decide on Argentina and Chile for two weeks. We’d considered Brazil and Peru as well. We don’t tend to be nervous travelers, but had heard some sketchy stories about Rio from other seasoned travelers. We decided to skip those places for our honeymoon, but would absolutely love to get back below the equator to see them sometime soon.

Anyone we talked to who’d been to Buenos Aires had been charmed by its European feel and affordability. Going to Chile in June meant snowboarding while our friends at home in NYC were sweating, which seemed cool. We had our heart set on going to see Patagonia as well. But because we were traveling in the off-season, our flight south got canceled at the last minute. We were forced to console ourselves with more amazing wine, cool boutique hotels, friendly locals, even friendlier dogs, and just generally enjoying getting to be “casado” for the first time ever.

Not even a thunderstorm related delay on the runway at JFK (which turned an 11 hour trip into a 14 hour one) could dampen our spirits for this trip. Romantic? Absolutely. Good weather? Check. Great photo ops? See above.