last day in Buenos Aires

On our last day in Buenos Aires we bought a ticket for a tourist bus that went all over town and you could get off and get back on again when the next bus came. We got off at the Boca area, which we'd seen only briefly before as part of  city tour. All the buildings are brightly painted and it is a lively tourist area. It was a nice sunny day and plenty of souvenirs were for sale along the walkways or in courtyards full of shops.

In another street, the restaurants had tables out in the pedestrian area, and each restaurant had performers doing either tango or flamenco dancing.

Also near this area is the huge soccer stadium and the importance of the game in Argentina is very apparent. Storefronts are painted in the yellow and blue colours of the team.

After Boca we caught the next tourist bus and continued around the city without getting off. We saw very nice areas with parks, and a field where polo was being played on horseback. The bus took about 3 hours to go around it's circuit.

In the evening we walked along a busy shopping street called Santa Fe, where we had dinner at a popular, funky restaurant.

Something I noticed here is that there are still a lot of bookstores, especially used book stores, and they seem popular. I like this, and it makes me feel a bit nostalgic. I saw one bookstore with shelves all the way to the ceiling.

After dinner and walking around a bit we made our way back to the hotel, to pack and get ready for the very long flight to Vancouver the next day.

Penguins!

Today we went on a boat tour up the Beagle channel. We left Ushuaia early in the morning, and it started out sunny, but as they say is typical in this area, the weather changed quickly. It started raining a bit and got quite windy. Nevertheless we were able to get on deck and take pictures.
We first stopped at some rocks where sea lions were sleeping. There were also comorants. These comorants had white bellies which is different from the all black ones I`m used to seeing in Vancouver.

After a couple of hours we reached an island about 60 km to the east of Ushuaia, which has a penguin colony. One of the only colonies around here, I think, and I was surprised there was one this far north. I thought they´d only be in the Antarctic. The colony is not very large, and they seem to mostly hang out on the beach, although some were higher up on the island.

 The penguins were not disturbed by the boat and it pulled right up to shore so we were able to get very close.

Afterward the boat stopped at a little place called Harbourton, which is the first ranch on Tierra del Fuego, and some people got off there. The rest of us stayed on the boat for a very windy, wavy, and bumpy ride back to Ushuaia. Felt a little green by the time we got back.

Ushuaia

Ushuaia is on the southern end of the Argentinian side of Tierra del Feugo, at 55 degrees south latitude. It is likely the southern most settlement in the world, and so it´s tourist marketing thing is ´the end of the world´. Cruise ships for Antarctica leave from here. It seems like a sleepy little place, with one main street for shops and restaurants and another main street along the port. It is on the Beagle channel, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, with the Andes mountains in the background. It is quite cold, raining off and on. Apparently a couple of days before we arrived it was snowing.

Today we did a tour to the Tierra del Fuego park. It is quite scenic with hiking and camping. The southern end of it on the Beagle channel, and it reminded me a lot of the British Columbia coast.

This is also the terminus of the Pan American highway that starts in Alaska. We saw several camping vehicles and motorcycles with European licence plates that had been shipped over and the people were travelling part of the highway.

El Calafate and Moreno glacier

After Buenos Aires we flew to El Calafate, about 3 hours flight south of Buenos Aires. The main attraction here is the Glaciers national park. There are many  large glaciers in the area and there are some of the few glaciers in the world that are actually advancing.

El Calafate is a small town in the steppe, on the shores of Lake Argentina with the mountains in the background. It is very spread out and there are many wide streets with nothing on them, in anticipation of future development. The core of the town is one street with restaurants, souvenir shops, and outdoor gear shops.

We went on a tour to the Morena glacier which drops very fast down to the lake forming a massive wall of ice. We first went on a boat trip that took us within  a couple of hundred metres of the glacier, which was so close you could see not only the details of crevaces but the fine horizontal layering of the ice. The height above water is 60 m, but total height here is 180 m. Further up the mountain it is 1 km thick.

After the boat trip we went to a set of walkways with views of the glacier. The enviroment here is beautiful with lichen covered forest and brilliant red fire flower bushes. The interesting thing about the glacier is that the ice comes all the way down to this forested environment. It must move very fast.

The next day we just hung around town and relaxed. There is a lagoon near the town with, of all things, pink flamingoes. Go figure.

Buenos Aires, politics, icons, and Tango show

We had an guided city tour in the morning. Unfortunately it was pouring rain so it was difficult to get out and take pictures. The guide said it was common to have such a day of rain after several very hot days like the ones we´d had.

The city tour bus first went south along the river. The river is over 30 km wide at Buenos Aires and is 200 km wide at it´s mouth. We came up behind the main square where the cathedral was, where we had walked to the day before. In the middle of the square were many large groups of protest signs. The guide said some have been there for many years. For example, some are protesting the fact that veterans of the Falklands war never received any support or pensions, and all governments since have simply said it´s not their problem. Also, politically, it seems there is a lot of tension between the working class and the ´high society´ families who inherited the original land allotments from the Spanish crown and are extremely wealthy and powerful. I got  the impression there is a lot of corruption. For example, near the river we passed a new development of expensive condos and hotels whose value went up many times in the last few years. It just so happens that most of the people who bought into it are friends of a former president.

The city tour continued south to the San Telmo area where the market was the day before. This area is poorer and retains original Spanish architecture, compared to the wealthier northern part. Further south is an interesting area called Boca, which was settled mainly by Italians. It has very colourful streets.

Afterward the tour went back north along the river to the Recoleta area and the cemetery which we saw a couple of days before. The tour ended there and I walked to the hotel.

In the markets there are a few iconic figures that appear over and over again. One is Evita, the very popular wife of the former president Peron.

Another iconic figure is Che, of course, who was from Argentina. Another is a cartoon character from the 1960´s I´d never heard of before. The character was a  six year old girl name Mafalda, and the cartoon was very popular in Argentina and in Europe.

Another very Argentinian thing is mate, an herbal drink that is a mild stimulant like tea and seems to have cleansing properties. What´s interesting is not so much the tea itself but the way it is prepared and consumed. There is a special container and a kind of metal straw for drinking. The way the tea is put into the container, when to add water and how much, and when to put in the straw how to drink, are all very important. I got to try one myself one day.

Something else about Argentina - from the first stop in Mendoza, I´d never heard so much Beatles music. Every restaurant, cafe, street performer etc. Not that I´m complaining, but I find it interesting.

In the evening we went to a Tango show. I´d never seen Tango before, and it seemed a lot more than the stereotypical move I´d always seen portrayed. The music has strong rythms and is fast paced, based on accordian, guitar and piano. The show itself was excellent and the dancers seemed top-notch. Perfect timing and amazing presentation.

Buenos Aires

The next day we covered a lot of ground walking, going all the way from Recoleta in the northern part of the downtown core to San Telmo in the southern part. We took side streets, with no real destination in mind other than the direction towards the areas that looked interesting on the map. It was Sunday so most things were closed. The day started out hazy but became blistering hot. There is much more humidity here than, say, in Mendoza or Santiago.

We walked past some small parks and reached a square with a major theatre on one side. In the square there was a memorial to the people who disappeared during the dictatorship in the 1970s. You start to get the idea that politics is never far away, and this gets confirmed later. In fact, the following Monday is a holiday to commemorate the longest stretch of democracy in Argentina - 30 years since 1983.

Continuing on, we reached the main square of the city, with a huge cathedral on one side and the presidential palace on another. I think the cathedral is where the current pope was bishop. Inside the cathedral there is the tomb of General San Martin, and there is even a changing of the guards ceremony for the guards that stand beside it. San Martin liberated Argeninta, Chile, and Peru from the Spanish in 1810 and seems very highly revered.

We continued south, not expecting anything, really, and then stumbled onto the huge, famous San Telmo sunday market. I measured the length on the map based the streets it covered, and it is over 1 1/2 km long, and that does not include sidestreets. Absolutely incredible. Lots of tourist stuff as well as some art works and antiques. In fact the market started as an antiques market in a square at the south end, and expanded from that. It was the main place to be on Sunday and it was filled with people.

By the time we had walked through the market it was almost 6:00 pm and stalls were starting to back up. It looked the area had a lot of restaurants that opened later in the evening. We took a cab back to the hotel and had dinner near there.

Buenos Aires - Recoleta

We arrived in Buenos Aires late at night, after our flight out of Mendoza was delayed over an hour, which meant lots of waiting in the departure area.

We arrived at the Ministro Pistarini International airport, about 30 km out of town which makes for an expensive cab ride. There is also a Jorge Newbery domestic airport right inside Buenos Aires.

The next day we explored the area around our hotel, called Recoleta, which is a wealthier area in the northern part of the downtown core. It has beautiful tree-lined streets in purple blossom, and sometimes garden plots between sidewalk and street. The buildings are white and ornate of French 1800´s architecture.

It was very hot and sunny, as this is the beginning of summer.

A major tourist attraction in Recoleta is the cemetery. This is a huge area where mausoleums line walkways like buildings on city blocks. The very, very rich are buried here, including many of Argentina´s presidents and other historical figures. Some mausoleums are very ornate while some are crumbling. It makes for an interesting walk around.

Also near the hotel is a large park that on weekends is filled with a market for crafts and works of art. Most of it was very nice and not just tacky tourist stuff. Behind that is a cultural center. There was a Jazz Festival going on and free concerts were taking place in the area behind the center. In front of the parks is a street lines with restaurants for tourists.

In the evening we walked over to the cultural center again and watched one of the jazz concerts. The area was packed with people.