Forget a 3rd country. Rio to Buenos Aires overland in 3 weeks would be a decent trip (even then you won't see everything in between).

I also took the course at this small school because I found food advice online https://www.iberotefl.com/teaching-english-abroad-in-buenos-aires-20172018/ I stayed with Ezequiel an Argentinian friend. Buenos Aires is a fantastic city however I can infer inflation is just disastrous!!! Good luck! Do not forget to exchange and have Argentinian pesos with you

Hmm I think that is not 100% the case, I suspect a few LOUDER locals silenced the quieter majority and made it so and when it got out of hand with the many deaths, the government got involved for the sake of the nation's reputation. But really all you have to do is look into the eyes of local people when you visit their village and you can feel their pain and annoyance, from both the Western culture imposing on them as well as the local mafia culture that acts as a middleman between them and the tourists. They are clearly the losers in all this. When you say the locals wanted the river bars. I think it would better said that the local mafia wanted it. And the locals have to do what their strongmen tell them, doesn't mean they really wanted the Westies there, doing whatever they liked. At one point it got so bad, they tattooed obscene sexual messages on each other's bodies to attract even more sex than they were already having. They turned the place into an open air brothel on waterways. Now that Vang Vieng is down, another place is up. It's best to shut them all down, but I predict an opposite result. These kind of people are actually increasing to form the majority of Western travelers. Many people come to Southeast Asia for sex. It's a trait of Western culture to seek out drugs, sex, and alcohol during holidays. Mostly because they can afford the prices associated with such a backward social culture. And the mafia is right there to cater for them a the locals expense and ultimately the at the expense of the soul and spirit of the Western tourist (who forgot caring about such things a long time ago, if ever).

You must realise that Aust air travel hasn't as yet gotten to the stage of the US.
We don't have a TSA here yet, you will see AFP officers at our airports, but they don't act like the TSA of the US!
Incoming, eat what they give you on the plane if you want, or leave it on the plane, if you don't, just don't bring it off plane with you!
You also will not face a lot of questions, entering or leaving Aust, its a simple process, so long as you have the transit visa, and an e passport (all are now) with the chip inside.
Leaving Aust, you go through Aust international security screening, no LAGCs (no liquids, no gas canisters, no aerosols, no creams more than a certain amount), you then go through outgoing passport processing, place your passport on a photocopier like apparatus, look at the camera, a bright light comes on, your passport is returned to you, the small bi gate opens, and thats it, you are then back to the secure zone of our SYD international airport.
No outgoing immi forms now needed either, you will have to fill one when you enter, they will be given out by the crew.
Just fill it in, and hand it over when at passport control on your entry.
You can google Aust incoming immigration form to see what they look like.
Sydney airport is quite an old airport, so there are not a lot of places to get a shower to freshen up, on landing or before flight, maybe look into AMEX lounge so that you can at the least get a shower on the way out, if you want.
Edit: no Priority Pass lounge at SYD T1 it seems.
Or have a look at the AMEX lounge.
If flying QF, they do have a business class lounge, have food and showers too, not a bad lounge, been in there several times, if you are flying with them and have access to it via One World tier, its worth looking into.

Hi Jrinba,

Thank-you so much for your thoughtful and detailed response. It is very kind of you to help a stranger. I have read what you have written plus the link that you provided, which does indeed have some valuable information.

I hadn't realized that we would get a better rate upon our arrival in the country. We have not found this to be true when travelling to Mexico. One important thing to consider is that we are Canadians and there is an extra cost involved in exchanging our currency to $US then ARG pesos. If we did go to Banco Nacion I wonder if they would accept $CD as readily as $US. I certainly wouldn't expect to be able to buy pesos on the Blue Market (Florida St.) and I don't think we'd be much further ahead by using $CD to buy $US just to exchange cash unofficially.

The other thing to consider is that we will be arriving in Argentina from San Pedro de Atacama and will spend about ten days in the northwest before going to Puerto Iguazu en route to Buenos Aires. Since there do not appear to be any Banco Nacion outlets prior to Buenos Aires then we will need to bring a sizable amount of Argentinian pesos from home. After that, perhaps we will rely on our TD bank card...although there will be some sort of a transaction fee for that even if the foreign bank transaction fees are waved. I have travelled a great deal and always avoided carrying too much cash but I think that it may be worth doing so in Chile and Argentina in order to avoid the ATM's as much as possbile. I am careful and have never been robbed on the street...so perhaps my luck would hold out.

Thanks too for your clarification about the denominations of the bills. The references that I used for my remark about 100 pesos being difficulty to use included Frommer's Travel Guide (usually quite reliable) but they may have been old - no date was attached to the online articles. It did seem odd given the minor value of the 100 peos bills. It's nice not to carry a big wad of cash so I am glad to hearr that anything up to 1000 pesos will be fine. I can get them changed at a bank periodically, as needed.

Perhaps this email exchange will be value to other people who plan to visit Argentina as well. Thanks again!

If flying to Buenos Aires at the end, you should spend the 2nd night on the Argentina side, as originally planned, since it would be silly to cross the border 3 times.

Thank you for the advice! Any thoughts on accommodations? In either Buenos Aires or Mendoza, or Salta?

Thanks so much!