My first visit to the Southern hemisphere was in 1997, just when I started to find winters in the Northwest depressingly dreary instead of excitingly gray. It was a November trip to New Zealand and Australia, where I delighted in spring-soaked attitudes, Maori and aboriginal culture, different constellations, great food and wine, and lengthening days.
On my first visit to Buenos Aires, I was fascinated by the Sunday market in the San Telmo neighborhood. This time, I stayed just around the corner.
This fall, I’m fortunate to be basking in spring weather and long days in Argentina. It’s my second time in this country of vast contrasts, proud traditions, and beautiful people. (The first time, five years ago, I was doing some intensive consulting for a project of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and had too little time to explore Argentina.)
I’m exploring with one of my favorite travel companions, Edward Guthmann, who until recently wrote about culture for the San Francisco Chronicle. We’ve visited Cuba, Turkey, and Italy together in recent years.
Edward and Alfredo Ferreyra. Alfredo invited us to his apartment -- the second "home" we'd been in on this trip. Travel's always better when you know locals.
My first time in Argentina, I was fortunate to meet Alfredo Ferreyra, a sophisticated travel agent who showed me around Buenos Aires. He arranged for us to explore Patagonia on this trip – “fin del mundo” : the end of the world… and the world’s only glacier that’s not receding, El Perito Moreno. Two very different parts of Patagonia. And then there's Buenos Aires, which is an astounding city. As Edward says, "Why did it take me so long to discover Argentina?"
Alfredo lives in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires, which also has one of the most gorgeous cemeteries I've ever seen. This boy likes his foliage.
The most famous grave in the cemetery belongs to none other than Evita -- Eva Peron, the actress who was married to President Juan Peron and about whom a musical and movie were made.
After a week in Bue, as they call it, we headed south for two destinations in Patagonia.
Here are a few more photographic highlights of the trip so far (I'll add more later) …
Normally, I dislike touristy dinner-entertainment packages, but the tango show we saw at an ancient tango-house in our own neighborhood was spectacular. We tried it at the recommendation of Michelle Moore and Annie Nixon, two friends of my neice Sarah with whom we had had a scrumptious Moroccan dinner. The performance inspired us to take a tango lesson the next day!
One of the great joys of travel for me is meeting unexpected new friends. Both Edward and I enjoyed hanging out with Mark Lee from Sydney, Australia -- and when we visited the Uruguayan town of Colonia del Sacramento, we were delighted when he showed up at a restaurant where we were lunching.
After a great week in Buenos Aires, we flew to "the end of the world" -- the planet's southernmost city, Ushuaia -- a former penal colony which sits on the Beagle Channel, which I think is pictured above, if it's not the Strait of Magellan.
While in Ushuaia, we took a boat ride that went by some blue-eyed cormorants (above), sea lions, and penguins
Our boat stopped at a fishing vessel, where smiling fishermen handed us a centolla, or King Crab, which is a premier delicacy of the region.
At an astoundlingly beautiful Estancia,or ranch near El Calafate, we feasted on lamb, watched gauchos herd cattle and sheep, and saw a sheep shorn by hand.
A visit to El Calafate and the amazing Glacier National Park allowed us to have an up-close-and-personal look at one of South America's biggest glaciers, and the only one on the planet that's holding its own in size and not receding. Here, you can see a chunk falling off -- it's calving, as they say.
