Patagonia-1 Buenos Aires

I decided to travel with the University of Utah Continuing Education’s Go Learn travel program. 

This is what it says on their web site:

 

They listed a trip to Patagonia. I didn’t know much about Patagonia, but it sounded exotic and beautiful. 

I really enjoyed our trips to the Galapagos and Africa because of the wildlife, and I figured Patagonia would offer wonderful opportunities for my passion for photography. Penguins and Glaciers! What more could I want? 

I also really liked the educational portion of the Go Learn travel program.

Our trip leader Nate created a graphic map outlining our Patagonia trip. The graphic map is worth a look.

I also figured that it would be warm, since in the southern hemisphere Patagonia would be starting summer. Boy, was I wrong. A pre-trip email said bring warm layers: 

Buenos Aires. The weather in Buenos Aires in December is hot and can reach 90F
Puerto Deseado. Average day temperature 63F
El Calafate. Temperature is between 64F and 46F. Very windy.
Ushuaia. It is cold and breezy with an average high of 49F and low of 37F.

You will notice people bundled up in many of my photos. But, hey, I wanted to see interesting things, not spend time at a beach resort!

We landed in Buenos Aires after an overnight flight from Atlanta, and were transported to our hotel. Our Go Learn trip leaders Chris and Nate rounded us up and transported us to lunch at a nice place on the waterfront. Chris and Nate were amazing, and a major reason why the trip was such a success. Chris is a staff member at the U’s Continuing Education Program, and she handled all of the details to ensure the “trains ran on time.” Nate, the “tour leader,” is a professor of Outdoor Recreation at the U, an experienced mountaineer, and has traveled extensively in Patagonia. Additionally, Nate is a naturalist with an incredible knowledge of animals, plants, and ecology. Nate gave us several educational lectures that were outstanding; he is an excellent teacher and successfully drew every member of the group into the discussions. Both were a lot of fun! 

After lunch, we walked through the historic Monserrat district and across the Puente de la Mujer pedestrian bridge. 

There we saw dancing buskers doing the tango. Buenos Aires is famous for the tango. 

This part of the waterfront contains beautiful modern high-rise buildings. 

The next day we visited the older parts of Buenos Aires. It is a beautiful city with architecture reminiscent of European capitals. One place we visited was the El Ateneo bookstore, which is in an old converted theatre. Wikipedia  named it the “world’s most beautiful bookstore” by National Geographic. Hard for me to argue with that assessment, as it was truly beautiful. 

We saw interesting (weird?) sights as we wandered through the bustling city. 

Lana and April from our group hammed it up with the street art. 

The Ministry of Public Works Building has large steel portraits of Evida (Eva) Peron. 

We had lunch at La Confitería Ideal, which was an architectural treasure. This is the front entrance. 

This is the bar.

La Confitería Ideal has an elevator that looks like it stepped out of a Raymond Chandler novel.

A beautiful skylight.

Good pastries, too. 

We had Sándwiches de Miga for lunch. Argentina is known for its multi-layered crustless sandwiches. The word “miga” is Spanish for “crumb”. These sandwiches are similar to Italian tramezzini and British teatime sandwiches. 

Did I mention that Buenos Aires is famous for the tango? The sidewalk outside the restaurant had a diagram for the steps for the tango. Patti, one of the people in our group, did the steps with an obliging waiter from the restaurant. 

Our guide, Nate, introduced us to Lucila, an Argentinian woman by birth who has lived in the US for more than 20 years. She left Argentina as a teenager during the 2001 Argentine financial crisis. She told us a story of how, as a teenager, she carried across the border half a million dollars in cash in her daypack; the money was her grandfather’s and had come from the sale of his business. A young woman with moxie!

She met us in Plaza de Mayo, the iconic 19th-century central square where the 1810 revolution occurred, and told us about Argentina’s history. Although she only visits Argentina periodically, she is proud of her roots, as evidenced by the tattoos worn by Lucila (on the right) and her friend, which symbolize the Argentine flag. 

Lucila also told us about the history of futbol (soccer) in Argentina, and about Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi. Buenos Aires has two futbol clubs, River Plate and Boca Juniors, and she made all of us swear that we would only support River Plate. Lucila also told us about José de San Martín, the military leader known as the “Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru.” Yes, he successfully liberated three South American countries from the Spanish Empire! Quite the hero! But Argentina has the sarcophagus with his remains, which we saw when we toured the Catedral Metropolitana, across the street from the Plaza del Mayo. Special troops guard his tomb, and we observed a changing of the guard. 

 

We passed the Monument to the Liberator Don Jose de San Martin on our walk back to our hotel. I discovered that there is a replica of this statue in Washington DC. A hero for the Americas!

Did I mention that Buenos Aires is famous for the tango? That night we went to dinner and a tango show. The food was quite good, and the tango was truly amazing. 

 

I could have spent more time in Buenos Aires. Maybe on another trip… The next morning we went to the airport and flew to Comodoro Rivadavia, and then drove to Puerto Deseado. See the next post!