ARGENTINA
"This city that I believed was my past,is my future, my present;
the years I have spent in Europe are an illusion,
I always was (and will be) in Buenos Aires."
Jorge Luis Borges
TANGO IN BUENOS AIRES
We arrived in Buenos Aires on November 21st on a fine summer morning. A bit of a shock to find ourselves in such a huge and totally European city complete with traffice jams, crowded streets and modern shops. Heading for the Plaza de Mayo, heart of the city it was somewhat chilling to stroll around the central square, where the courageous group of women known as the Madres (Mothers) de Plaza Mayo wearing white headscarves had gathered during the dictatorship of 1976 - 83 to demand information about their sons and daughters, the desaparecidos. Up to 30,000 people, many in their teens and 20's, were kidnapped and in many cases, tortured and executed by the regime in what became known as the Guerra Sucia or dirty war.
In the democratic city of today, a day ticket for the open top bus gave an excellent introduction to the different areas of the city. Many of the broad avenues are lined with flowering jacaranda trees and filled with fine buildings and monuments and there are many parks and gardens. The working class riverside barrio of La Boca was our first stop with its brightly painted wooden and corrugated iron houses.
The area was originally the favoured destination for Italian migrants and the colour of the houses derive from the Genoese custom of painting houses with the paint left over from boats.
The other most characteristic emblem of Boca is the football team, Boca Juniors, Argentina's most famous club
By good fortune we selected a restaurant mentioned in the Rough Guide for lunch, El Obrero, which featured Boca Juniors souvenirs decorating the walls and tango musicians sauntering from table to table at weekends. The ravioli dishes we chose were superb and it proved to be the best meal we enjoyed in BA where culinary preferences lean heavily towards beef! After a week in the country we began to suffer salad withdrawal symptoms and found it difficult to get used to cake for breakfast, very different to the huge bowls of fruit we had become used to in Central America.
The weather was mild and we decided to take a walk through the magnificent Recoleta cemetery, last resting place of many famous and influential Argentines including Eva Peron (Evita)
The cemetery, one of the world's most remarkable burial grounds, occupies the site of a former Franciscan monastery garden. It contains some extraordinary monuments and is a panorama of Argentine history. The giant vaults, stacked along avenues inside the high walls are a lesson in architectural styles and fashions. The vast majority of tombs belong to patrician families and heroes of the wars of independence (many of them Irish and British seafarers including Admiral William Brown
Another interesting monument depicts a young woman who was buried with her dog
CATEDRAL METROPOLITANA
The cathedral contains the solemnly guarded mausoleum of independence hero General San Martin
ESTEROS DEL IBERA
A very comfortable overnight bus journey followed by 2 hours in a 4WD brought us the the Esteros (marshes) del Ibera, a huge 13000 square km landscape of lakes, ponds, streams and marshes which teems with bird and animal life.
Over 300 species of birds and a wide variety of animals and reptiles can be seen. Our day begins early with a 2 hour launch trip, drifting along the channels and into a wonderful landscape of reed beds and floating islands surrounded by yellow and purple waterlilies. Dozens of caiman bask on the banks in the sun and groups of capybara, the world's largest rodent at 50kg forage among the abundant plantlife.
BLACK CAIMAN
Marsh deer can be seen and the birds are everywhere. The wattled jacana scuttle over the waterlilies and floating weeds on their huge feet, different species of heron are easily seen and the chajas (southern screamers) gather in families.
SOUTHERN SCREAMERS
Maguari and jabiru stalks are present and different species of kingfisher. Howler monkeys live in the forest and a number of snakes including the yellow anaconda are found in the reedbeds.
JABIRU STALKS NESTING
HOWLER MONKEYS
GEOFFROYS CAT
For many years this was one of Argentina's wildest and least known regions where hunting was rife and the skins of caiman, especially the short nosed caiman, cats and river otters were exported for making shoes and handbags and fur coats, called nutria in the case of the otters. The reserve was created in 1983 and hunting has been prohibited allowing the wildlife to recover. It is hoped to eventually reintroduce the top predator, the jaguar.
The short nosed caiman, which hunts at night, valued for its skin
FORKED TAIL FLYCATCHER
WHISTLING HERON
SCARLET HEADED BLACKBIRD
CARACARA
WHITE HEADED MARSH TYRANT
ONE YEAR OLD CAIMAN
From a clutch of 60 eggs only 2 or 3 young caiman will survive, the remainder becoming prey to herons and other predators. It takes 60 years for caimen to reach their full size of 3 - 4 metres
NIGHT HERON
EVENING ONTHE MARSHES
The vast expanse of flat pampas grssland that radiates out from Buenos Aires is one of the country's most famous features and the guacho has become an important part of the collective romantic imagination. The attractive small town of San Antonio de Areco is considered home of guacho traditions and is home to the Museo Gauchesco Ricardo Guiraldes,author of the Argentine classic Don Segundo Sombra (1926) We arrived after a 2 hour bus trip to spend a night in the town and wandered through the cobbled streets to the town square where we had dinner at an atmospheric cafe.
Sadly, there were no obvious gauchos to be seen although there were a couple of mustachoed gentlemen in capacious berets with big belts and small silver daggers tucked conspicuously into them.
FERNET BRANCA - THE GAUCHO'S FAVOURITE TIPPLE!
The following day dawned hot and the climate induced feeling of fear and loathing honed over so many Perth summers came over me. We plodded off down the dusty road to the famous museum only to find that Wednesday, and indeed Tuesday too, was closing day. Our entreaties to a surly attendent fell on deaf ears and he cared little for our claims to be gaucho afficianados from the land down under.
As we shuffled back in temperatures reaching the high 30's, I realizing that my lack of tolerance for the blazing sun could present problems during the Chilean summer once we leave Patagonia. I promptly cancelled our visit to Valparaiso in favour of a retreat to the Andes - no visit alas to Pablo Neruda's last house, now a museum despite Vincent's affection for his Ode to a Tomato!
Retreating to an original Sodaria, complete with a large collection of antique syphons, we were somewhat surprised to come upon the well known Irish blessing. While I am delighted for the rain t fall soft upon my fields, I'd rather do without the sun on my face!
Our return to the welcoming Lola House Hotel was a real pleasure and the picarda at the Cafe del Arte on our last evening in BA was very enjoyable. Clara, helpful as always, called a cab and we were off to Tierra del Fuego
\TIERRA DEL FUEGO
“I am the albatross that waits for you at the end of the earth
I am the forgotten soul of the deceased sailor who crossed Cape Horn from all the seas of the world
But they did not die in the furious waves
Today they fly in my wings to eternity
In the last trough of the Antarctic winds
Sara Vial
This poem is inscribed on a monument, in the form of an albatross, dedicated to all sailors who have lost their lives rounding Cape Horn
We arrived in Ushuaia on December 8 after a smooth flight which provided a wonderful view of the southern tip of the Andes and the Beagle Channel as the plane came in to land. This town is 1000km from Antarctica and the closest port to the white continent. The weather was unexpectedly warm and sunny and we spent the first day at the Parque National Tierra del Fuego walking along tracks through the forest of lenga (fagus orsouthern beech)and calafate in search of the birds which are often found there.
Sadly, there was no trace of the Magellenic woodpecker, a large and colourful bird but we did see several species of geese including Kelp geese, the park’s symbol and the Upland goose.
A visit to the Museo Maritmo, the former Presidio was very instructive in illustrating the history of Ushuaia since its establishment as a penal colony in 18 Prisoners, including hardened criminals and those convicted of political offences were brought to this harsh and isolated outpost by ship from Buenos Aires.
Tierra del Fuego is without doubt a desolate,raw and bleak place with that pioneering end of the world feeling but despite this, the land has been inhabited for thousand of years. The Qawashqar and Yahgan , both canoe people lived in the channels and subsisted on fishing while the Tehuelche and Selk’nam were land based hunters.
Various exhibits described the life of the indigenous tribes who inhabited the area before European settlement. Today only a smattering of indigenous people remain in a few remote settlements.
A visit to the Museo Maritmo, the former Presidio was very instructive in illustrating the history of Ushuaia since its establishment as a penal colony in 18 Prisoners, including hardened criminals and those convicted of political offences were brought to this harsh and isolated outpost by ship from Buenos Aires.
Tierra del Fuego is without doubt a desolate,raw and bleak place with that pioneering end of the world feeling but despite this, the land has been inhabited for thousand of years. The Qawashqar and Yahgan , both canoe people lived in the channels and subsisted on fishing while the Tehuelche and Selk’nam were land based hunters.
