In October 2012 we went to Argentina for our annual vacation.  Argentina is a big chunk of land and there is enough to see there to stay for a month or more.  In fact we met a retired couple that did just that.  With our jobs and using vacation days to visit family we can usually only get 10 days in.  We opted to visit he glaciers in Patagonia, Buenos Ares and Uruguay.  Our first stop was Patagonia.  Pardon the date and time on the pics.

Downtown Patagonia is pretty but there’s not a lot to it.  You can walk from one end to the other and along the way you will find outdoor clothing specialty shops.  Brands like… Patagonia, North Face, etc.  There is also native art shops.  We were able to find a lot of small treasures for sale, hand-made art work, sculptures and paintings.  Basically souvenirs for our family and friends.   And last but not least steak houses (more on that later).

Our hotel in Patagonia was amazing, thanks to my wife for all the research and planning.  I basically tag along and have fun.  This pic is of the lobby lounge, fire places, large table (8ft by 6ft, maybe bigger) surrounded by oversized couches and native art.

The main attraction in Patagonia is the glaciers.  There are several tours, we opted for the short walk.  Drink fresh glacier water straight from the source.  Spoiler alert, at the end of the hike we got Jameson’s Irish Whiskey on the rocks, rocks chipped from the glacier.  I hope this isn’t a source of “climate change”.

We took a bus to a boat ride to hike to the place where we walk on the glacier.  It sounds like Planes, Trains and Automobiles and it sort of is.  This is an all day trip so plan to do it then go back and rest.

Our group went on the “short hike” about an hour or so.  There is a long hike that goes for 3-5 hours with lunch (I could be confusing hours for miles).

The views were spectacular.  Lots of interesting folds in the glacier surface producing shades of deep blue.  Sun glasses are a must as you will get blinded.  And gloves are required.  The glacier ice is razor sharp, fall on your hands and you will cut them up.

Fresh glacier water soon to appear in bottles at your grocery store near you.  We filled up for free.

The best part for me, Jameson’s on glacier rocks.

Our next stop, and the home base for the rest of the trip was Buenos Aires.  Buenos Aires looks like any big city but with a lot of old world European architecture scattered throughout.  If not obvious, or common knowledge, Argentina was settled by the Spanish and gained independence from Spain after the American revolution.  While we were in Buenos Aires we did several things; a city tour with a tour guide, a trip to a Goucho Farm (with a group of hung over grumpy young women from England), Naval museum (I seem to have an affinity for them), day trip to Uruguay, dinner theater with a Tango show.  Pics provided below.

Our hotel lobby in Buenos Aires.  Another spectacular place and the site of 1) a Hasidic (possibly Lubavitch) match maker meeting and 2) a convention of white Sikhs, complete with daggers and turbans.

The next several pics are from our trip to a Gaucho farm.

The outside of the main house, my wife with the tour guide.

A view from inside the kitchen area.  Everywhere I go I see guitars.

A horse whisperer practicing his craft.

My wife getting ready to ride.  We all went in a horse ride with a leader and a professional rider behind us to keep everyone’s horse in line.  My horse had issues with that, he was quite an individual and not a follower.  He kept turning behind the rear leader and butting his horse with his head.  That was funny.

Part of our lunch, a BBQ with all farm raised beef, chicken, and other meats and meat products.  Argentina is NOT a place for vegetarians and we got to see that first hand.  The group of ladies from England were all vegetarian, two white and two Indian Brits.  It is as if Argentinians have never heard of vegetarianism.  These poor girls almost starved and I had enough for 5 or 6 people.

A view of our dinning room from inside the farm house.

Uruguay is a small independent country a short boat ride from Buenos Aires.  We went there for a day.  Uruguay has a very interesting history, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and other European settlements are all crammed together in the historic part of this country.  We were told that you could tell what settlement you are in based on the shape of the brick road and drainage curbs.

Though Uruguay is beautiful there is a dark element to its history. As we were informed by our tour guide Uruguay is the only South American country to successfully eliminate its native american population.

Both Uruguay and Argentina have a large population of stray dogs. This was a bit of a shock to me and actually scared me when we were in Uruguay.  In the US stray dogs are usually rabid and we’re taught to stay away from them.  In Uruguay pet owners are charged a high tax per pet to support government programs to care for stray dogs. They are large breeds, Labrador, Sheppard, Rottweiler, etc.  And they are all well fed.  Local businesses are required to leave water and sometimes food out for the strays.  They are actually very friendly, just want free food and they’ll follow you around until they get it or get tired.

The food we had there was not memorable, a tour group recommended a few places.  As with all South American countries Uruguay has churches.

Next, back to  Buenos Aires.  Before touring the city we spend a night at a Tango show.  It’s a dinner show complete with steak, bottles of Malbec, and live music and dancing.

The show wasn’t just a dancing show.  It was sort of a musical about the history of the Tango.

The rest of the pics are from all over Buenos Ares.  Some are just downtown buildings but a few have a theme.  There is a tour of a graveyard, Naval museum, and the town center.  Captions tell the story.

What better way to start a tour of Buenos Aires than with a tribute to Jose San Martin, the General who led the fight for independence against the Spanish.  He is their equivalent to our George Washington and led the revolution after becoming a Free Mason, like Washington.  Because of his oath as a Mason he is not buried in consecrated ground.  The Catholic Church had made it illegal for a Catholic to be a Mason (and this is still the case).  Mind you the Masons will accept a Catholic as a Brother but the Church will not consider you a Catholic once you swear an oath to another institution.

This is the first piece of street art I see outside our hotel.  So nu.  It says a lot.  It is pretty well known that Argentina was a final stop for Nazi war criminals, though I don’t think they would advertize like this.  There is also a large Jewish community in Argentina.  What is probably not as well known are the following two points of history. First, that during the beginning to the Zionist movement when European Jews were looking for a place to build a nation they were considering Argentina, which in the 1800’s had the largest amount of available fertile land that was not being farmed.  Second, that during this same time Argentina was implementing a Eugenics program. They had outlawed slavery in the early 1800’s but rather than free existing slaves they were all sold to Brazil and North America.  They wanted an all white population.  They also advertised in Europe that migrants willing to come permanently to Argentina could acquire land from the government.  What they didn’t advertise outright was that the criterion for admission was a pure white European blood line.

The past is the past and now it seem like a pretty progressive place. Though like all South American countries it is mostly Catholic and Buenos Aires was not as ethnically diverse as Rio de Janeiro.

Some more serious street art to lighten the mood.

Outdoor sculpture garden near our hotel.

This is an interesting piece.  A large mechanical flower with light sensors.  This is supposed to close in the evening and open in the sunlight but it’s broken.

Modern art, anyone.

My kind of guy.  The culture of Argentina, the Tango for example, is heavily influenced by Flamenco.

Here are a few views of the town center of Bueno Aires.

Every week there is a meeting of the Mothers of the Disappeared, a group of women whose children were detained by the Argentinian government during a period of military dictatorship from 1976-1983.

Everywhere you turn there are exquisite works of art.

We took thousands of pictures, too many to post and I can’t post enough to do justice to Buenos Aires.  Patagonia is the great outdoors and Buenos Aires is a real large city with so much eye candy your head will spin.  You’ll have to use your imagination.

Below are few shots of the Naval college and an old ship you can tour.

One of the more interesting tours was of a grave yard.  They bury their people above ground in very nice looking structures, apartments for the afterlife.

There were no shortage of ghost stories related to the deceased residents.

The resting place of Evita.

I’ll finish off with a picture of me and my dinner.

Here are a few things to consider about Argentina.

1.  Like Brazil, it’s expensive.  Be prepared to spend money, especially on food.

2.  There are stray dogs everywhere but they are friendly, don’t worry.  But I wouldn’t play with them either, just let them be.

3.  There are at least three major tours you can do, The glaciers at the southern tip, wine vineyards, hiking through the Amazon.  Each of these would require a separate accommodation and a few days to enjoy.  We opted for glaciers and loved it.  If you have the time spend three weeks there and see everything.

4.  People speak spanish but you are more likely to get broken english here than in Brazil.  Learn to say Habla English, por favor?  It will likely get you something.

5.  Buenos Aires is like any inner city, there are bad neighborhoods. Our tour guide was able to tell us what places to avoid.  But one thing we saw was a  mugging on the street in broad daylight.  The muggers were a well organized group of three or four men.  The woman they targeted was over 60 and wearing gold jewelry.  Don’t wear anything of value period.  And, carry your wallet or money and ID in your front pocket.  Carry purses and backpacks in such a way that you can see them and the are not easily accessible.

6.  Vegetarians will die here.  Argentina is home to some of the best beef in the world.  This is no exaggeration.  They know how to raise beef cattle and they know how to cook it so that what you eat is a memorable experience.  I can honestly say that of all the steak I’ve eaten in America, it was good but rarely memorable.  The beef in Argentina is like a religious experience, I can still imagine the flavor. A couple other foodie items are Mate’, a native tea drink and Cafe con Crema.  They serve espresso and coffee with a thick buttery sweet cream that I cannot find in America.

7.  Plan ahead.  Don’t do what we did.  We went to Patagonia for 2 days, maybe three, since we only planned to see glaciers then move on.  But we didn’t book a tour until we got there.  Well by the time we settled in on our first night we had about 10 minutes to run to a booking agent for a tour the next day.  Things need to be booked at least a day in advance and they fill up fast.  We almost lost out.

copyright 2014 David R Bergman