Argentina is the second largest country in area in South America. It covers nearly 3,800,000 square km, or 29 % of the area of Europe; it stretches 3,460 km from N to S and 1,580 km from E to W.
Argentina claims international frontiers that stretch across 25,728 km. Most are on the Atlantic ocean, but on the west Argentina is bounded by Chile across the Andes mountains.
The Argentine Andes rise to a height of 6,959 m at Aconcagua, the heights elevation in the Americas, but much of Argentina is low lying and flat.
Argentina's climate ranges from subtropical in the northeast, to temperate in the central region, to arid and semiarid and cold in the south and along the mountains.
Geographers usually recognize five main physical areas: the Andes , the North and Mesopotamia , the Pampas , and Patagonia . But as tourist areas, we also recognize two other: Buenos Aires and the Coast Line.
BUENOS AIRES THE HOME HOME OF TANGO 2 X 4
On the banks of the River Plate, Buenos Aires, passionate as its Tangos, has risen. The most elegant city of South America, an authentica mosaic where the most modern buildings live side by side with the oldest colonial mansions, museums, theatres , cafés and music-halls.
With almost 12 milion inhabitantes, Buenos Aires is the Cosmopolitan port of Argentina. The intense European immigration confirms this marked international character that one breathes there today.
In the center of the city are found the places connected with public administration, and the main banking and financing agencies, and close to the section the cultural nodules of more importance, a large part of the businesses and the hotels of any category.
In the Palermo section is found one of the cities largest open spaces, with a Botanical garden right next to an important zoo and rose gardens which, together with the public park area makes up an important green belt.
One of the more picturesque suburbs is La Boca, heart of “Tango”, the music of Buenos Aires. One of the streets was painted by an artist and figures in one of the most popular Tangos, “Caminito” immortalized by the famous singer Carlos Gardel.
La Plaza de Mayo, where the nerve center of the government is found, and which has seen the whole history of the country. The power is represented by the buildings that surround it, Government House, The Cathedral etc. In the center is the May Pyramid or Obelisco, where even today mothers and grandmothers of people disappeared in the last military dictatorship, still protest in memory of their lost ones.
Buenos Aires has everything. Modern, melancholy, memories of yesteryear and breezes of new promises. A place which traps the sight and the soul.
HISTORY OF TANGO
With tango being already over a hundred years old, it is still common to hear discussions about its origin. There are some who still believe in the negro factor in its roots. On the other hand there are historians who swear that it isnt even remotely second cousin to the Afro- Brazilian type music.
What never is questioned is the port-like character of the music. You have to come from there to relate to the history. It started up about the end of the 19th century. The Italian immigration suplied the first musicians. The zone of La Boca was one of the main epicenters, many of the musicians compose the music without even knowing what a music sheet was.
The dance of tango was always important. Born as an improvized dance with two particular characteristics. One is disconnect what happens with the legs and lower body, and two, while most dances follow the rhythm of a music, Tango follows the melody.
It triumphed in France, thanks to the dance giving a revival in 1913, during a crisis. Carlos Gardel had a lot to do with moving tango up from the feet, and adding words to the music. In fact some even say he invented the tango, which became at its greatest in the years 1920 to 1930, and experienced a boom with Gardel’s death. In the1940s most of the tangos known today were written.
By 1980, Tango was seen as something vulgar and out of date, but the Argentine Tango Company opened new fronteers in the world. Again the dance was possible, and a new generation went out to dance it and new orquestras were formed, and the the music stopped being seen as old fashioned. Port, or Universal, Tango-dance or Poetry of Buenos Aires, tango survived all the crisis. With more than a century of tango, it is still very much alive, and is still the inspiration of new musicians and composers.
CAMINITO (Little road – one of the most well known tangos)
Little road that time has erased,
That one day saw us pass by together,
I have come for the last time,
I have come to tell you my woes.
Little road, you were then,
embroidered in clover and flowering reeds,
a shadow you will soon be,
a shadow the same as myself.
Since she left
I live in sadness,
little road my friend,
I'm leaving also.
Since she left
she never returned,
I'll follow her steps,
little road, goodbye.
Little road which every afternoon
I happily travelled singing of my love
don't tell her if she passes through again
that my tears watered your tracks.
Little road covered with thistle,
the hand of time erased your tracks.
I would like to fall beside you
and let time kill us both.
Words and other information found here
More Information
Bariloche Dec. 2006
Visit the Bariloche photo album
Travelling across Argentina by road means going through mile after mile of flat empty countryside, with very little to see except country country, cattle cattle, country country, cattle. People generally seem to like living all piled up in huge cities. This particular trip took us right across to the over side of the country, 1.500 kilometers , 20 hours away, into the Andes mountains. Our coach had a meal service and our seats were what is termed “semi beds”. We left at 7.30 in the evening and got to Bariloche at 3.30 in the afternoon next day. Bariloche is best known as a ski resort, so has its main tourist season in the winter, June July and August here. But it is beautiful all year round as it is in an area of lakes and mountains, actually on the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi, and is the capital of the National Park of the same name.
Nahuel Huapi National Park,
which was created in 1934, protects in its 710.000 has a sample of the Andean Patagonia´s forest, the steppe and the transition area.
Apart from the beauty of its landscape, this park treasures testimonies of originary people and of the recent history of the region. It is the first Argentine National Park, since in its core is situated the original piece of land donated by Dr. Francisco Pascasio Moreno for that purpose.
A varied range of recreational possibilities are offered to the visitor. Numerous trails, areas of special beauty with camping sites and mountain lodges are some of the alternatives, together with nautical sports and fishing of introduced species such as Brook, Rainbow and Brown trout. In the north of the park you can do different circuits, one of them to Limay and Traful rivers through the Enchanted Valley. Another option is the Seven Lakes drive, with its magnificent scenery of lakes and forests.
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One of the amazing things is that on one side of the lake the native vegetation is low rounded shrubs that hardly reach 40 cm high. This is the steppe land . On the other side there are many varieties of trees that tower 40 or 45 meters high, pines, abetes, evergreens and deciduous trees
Though we did not see much in the way of animal and bird life, we were told that there are hares, owls, woodpeckers, foxes among others living in the forests, and the most striking thing, at least at this time of the year is the bright yellow gorse bushes that grew freely, interspersed with lupins, large dasies, orange poppies and the mosqueta rose. The Mosqueta rose , originally from central Europe, is widely used in skin care products and health teas, but because of its invasive properties it is sometimes considered a plague.
We visited Victoria Ialand on Lake Nahuel Haupi and the Myrtle Forest which is a unique forest formation in the world with trees hundreds of years old. The bark of this tree is cold, smooth and a cinnamon colour. It has white flowers similar to orange blossom, violet coloured fruits of an agreeable flavour. The Myrtle forest national park is actually within the Nahuel Huapi National Park. It is highly protected, no camping, no smoking and visiter’s get to visit through a fenced off raised catwalk.
Los Arrayanes National Park
was created in 1971 to protect 1753 has.of singular Arrayanes woods. This park in Quetrihué peninsula of Lake Nahuel Huapi presents a rich diversity of native plants from the southern Andean forest: Coihue southern beeches, Andean cypresses, radals, pataguas, arrayanes, and palo santos. These species constitute the evergreen canopy developed on the coast up to 900 meters above sea level. On looser soil grow bushes like calafate (Berveris buxifolia), michay (Berveris darwini), or flowers like mutisia or amancay. To get to this park, you can navigate on lake Nahuel Huapi from Villa La Angostura or from San Carlos de Bariloche. Another alternative is to walk through a 12 km. trail from Villa La Angostura. At the access of the park there is a 1 km. long trail leading to two viewpoints. From one of them you can contemplate branches Machete, Rincón and Last Hope of Lake Nahuel Huapi. From the other viewpoint you can see the isthmus and Villa La Angostura. From this point you can go back to the main trail.
In this particular arrayanes forest there are some trees of more than 600 years of age and a height of more than 15 meters, with some really wide trunks.
Along the wooden walking path you can see arrayanes in their different growing stages, coexisting with other plants and animals.
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Just outside of Bariloche City we took the chair lift to Campanario Peak, which is, of course one of the many ski slopes, and on another outing we went up to Cathedral Peak, at 2050 meters above sea level and needed two different chair lifts to get to the top, where there is a permanent patch of snow and where it can snow any time of the year. This is the main ski area, and there is a ski village half way up, where the 38 different ways of reaching the top start. Though it was warm and sunny at the ski village level, the wind was very cold and rough at the top and we had taken warm clothing in anticipation.
After 3 nights in Bariloche, we moved on to San Martin de los Andes, a pretty litrtle town in a valley, taking in, in the process an area denominated “Three parks, seven lakes”
The Seven Lakes and Three National Parks
More than a million hectares of forests, prairies and lakes play the role of a huge lung which produces clean air and fixes carbon dioxide. Pure water is used downstream to obtain hydroelectric power, irrigation, and for human consumption. Millions of people visit our parks and our cities, and enjoy a unique natural environment. They are the same people who make us think and act together, because we understand that tourism has no frontiers.
That is why we have created “Three Parks Seven Lakes”, to take care of nature in the protected areas of Lanín National Park, Los Arrayanes National Park and Nahuel Huapi National Park, together with the cities of Aluminé, Junín de los Andes, San Martín de los Andes, Villa Traful, Villa La Angostura and San Carlos de Bariloche, to foster new economic development with sustainable tourist products based on natural attractions protected for the present and future generations. .
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San Martin de los Andes is on the shores of Lake Lalin in a valley sculptered by glaciars and is the administrative capital of Lalin National Park. It is a clean city, well organised with roses growing everywhere on the streets
Lanín National Park,
created in 1937, occupies a surface of 412.000 has. on the southwest of Neuquén province. It derives its name from the majestic Lanin volcano, a mountain of 3776 meters above sea level with a permanent snowed cone dominating the landscape.
Centenary Araucaria forests in the northern area witness the history of man in the region. The Mapuche have been living here since ancestral times. At present there are seven communities living inside the Park. Through the central area of the Park, you can access and ascend to Lanin Volcano, enjoy singular dark beaches of volcanic debris in Lake Huechulafquen, fish in lakes Lolog and Curruhue, walk on a solid lava river and visit Epulafquen hot springs. On the coast of Lake Lácar and the foothills of the surrounding mountains there are some important raulí and roble pellín forests.
The Seven Lakes Corridor integrates the southern area of Lanin National Park, Los Arrayanes National Park and the northern area of Nahuel Huapi National Park. This winding drive is framed by lakes Lácar and Nahuel Huapi, joined by National route Nº 234 to lakes Machonico, Hermoso, Villarino, Falkner, Escondido, Correntoso and Espejo. The different landscapes of the Park invite you to go hiking, camping, horseback riding, hunting, fishing, climbing, cross country skiing, walking on snow rackets, bird watching, diving, windsurfing, rafting, on lake outings, or simply to enjoy contact with nature and the history of the place.
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Visit the Bariloche photo album
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The City of Mar del Plata
View of Mar del Plata's central beaches and casino
The City of Mar del Plata is found on the east of Argentina in the Province of Buenos Aires, on the coast of the Atlantic.
10th of February is the 130th anniversary of the city of Mar del Plata, a seaside city I adopted as home and have watched grow over the last 29 years. I clearly remember the first impression it had on me when I saw it in the distance coming in by road for the first time, and on arrival was amazed to see so much activity at 2.30 in the morning! (being full summer then too) – Back in England, every thing along the seafront of Portsmouth, my birth town, closed up at about 5.30 or 6 pm, a wicked waste when you consider they still had a good four hour daylight left. But in summer, December, January and February, Mar del Plata doesn’t sleep!
The first census in 1881 showed the beach village it was then to have a little over 4.000 people. Today it has well over 650,000 permanent inhabitants with, it is calculated 6 ½ million visitors a year. The urban area covers 79.5 square kilometers (almost 8.000 hectares and has over 20 kilometers of coast line, between sandy beaches and rocky shores. In general the city is flat, but has some slight rises in places the highest being 48 meters above sea level.
The city has a cathedral, first opened in 1905.
It is the most popular tourist center of Argentina, and is well known for its beaches, colourful parks, a complete sports complex and one of the biggest casinos in the world. In summer, (December to March) thousands of Argentines and other nations flock to this beautiful city to enjoy the sun and the sea, coastal views, and the countryside and hills around it.
Central beach park with its dancing waters.
Mar del Plata is an important commercial center, with all kinds of services, industries and fishing. There are fish and shell-fish canneries, well-known cake and bakery industries, textiles, construction and mechanics industries. It also has a rich and important zone dedicated to horticulture and the production of flowers, race horse breeders and cattle farms
Home of Mar del Plata’s National University where important and attractive careers are offered, like Law,Professorships, Arquitecture and Engineering.(though not medical or dentistry)
It also has military bases amonst which is the Naval Base, Home of the Argentine submarines. Its port moves 60% of the fishing in Argentina as well as grains and fuels
The deep-sea and off-shore fishing trawlers of Mar del Plata
It is 404 kilometers to the south of Buenos Aires to which it is united by an excellent motorway finished only a couple of years ago (there are 3 toll points along that!) a railway system that has 38 connections weekly, and an air connection that has two flights daily through out the year and three in summer, taking 45 minutes. The train still takes about six hours, though there is talk of having a bullet train to join the capital with Mar del Plata in 3 ½ hours. The trip by road can be done in about 4 hours depending on the traffic, but there are always those who boast of doing it in under three!.
A Spanish Festival in Mar del Plata
Every year at the end of March, the numerous Spanish community in general and the Valencians in particular, resident in Mar del Plata hold a festival known as The Valencian Torch. This festival ends a week of regional activities, folklore, dances, special meals etc with the burning of a monument allusive to something the community want to eliminate from their lives. This burning torch also sets off a spectacular string of fireworks, and attracts thousands of local people, in a central park named after Columbus, on the coast .
Tradition has it that the festival is really for Saint Joseph, the patron Saint of carpenters. The legend goes that for centuries in mid March, carpenters turned out their workshops and removed all the odd scraps that were no longer needed and burnt them….. until someone hit on the idea of making something with them first before burning, thus the tradition of burning up something you wanted out of your life.
Parte of the Monument
This year, 2004, the ceremony is celebrating its 50th anniversary in the city of Mar del Plata, consequently, the monument is much bigger than usual and represents a sort of castle with pointed towers 30 meters high on a base 23 by 14 meters and is called “Fresh Hope” For months the community have been working on this, and have put in their security claims and all, without having any negative reply from the city authorities. Now, days before the “cremá” (the setting alight) -27th March- the authorities are saying that the size of the monument will cause structural damage to the surrounding park, and the fire department is afraid the heat set off might cause other effects. The public are not going to be allowed within a hundred meters of the monument, and although in other years we have actually gone down to see the show, it isn’t easy to get anywhere near enough for a good view unless you are there from early morning, so we usually see it on TV anyway.
After about 15 minutes of spectacular fire works
which set of the ignition that starts the monument off
This shows the burning castle
The festive week ends with a paella meal for several hundred, reserved weeks before, and made in giant paella pans.
Here is a recipe for
Valencian Paella for a much more reduced number of diners:
More Information ( Unfortunately, not in English but by clicking on "postales" there is a collecion of pictures of the city)
and Official site By clicking on the "i" at the top, you get information in English
City of TANDIL, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Home of Easter celebrations
General details.
Tandil is situated in the center southeast of the Province of Buenos Aires, set in a deep valley and surrounded by an arc of hills, which emerg to break up the monotony of the plains with smooth rolling heights.
A modern forward city, Tandil is good-looking in the eyes of the traveller. Nature and the hand of man have brought together their creative labour to balance the Harmonic sense of beauty of the hills, its streams, its fertil fields, its urban greenery, picturesque and well maintained buildings, routes and accesses
It is some 360 kilometers from The Capital Buenos Aires and a 150 from the seaside city of Mar del Plata, and has a population of a little over 100.000.
Regional products include the preparation of hams, cheeses, jams etc, made from the abundance of fruits, the mild climate of the area helps produce.
Easter week in Mount Calvario A Classic Tandil Celebration.
Tandil, with its “Via Crucis” in Mount Calvario and the classic representation of the Scenes of Redemption, year after yaer attracts thousands of believers and tourists for the Liturgic acts of Easter week, this being one of the most important destinies of religious tourism in this country.
The city of Tandil, situated on a plain surraounded by hills, attracted tourists since the beginning of the last century, in search of the moving balanced rock, ( which fell in 1912 and of the Centinal rock. In later years it has been the alternative tourism- adventure tourism – plus the religious tourism around Easter week which attracts thousands to mount Calvario.
Being this mount of the Crosses, third in importance on a world level, it converts Tandil to one of the more important places to remember the stages of the Passion of Jesus. In this place liturgic acts are celebrated where there is a replica of the Holy Burial place, a cave for the veneration of the Virgin of Lourdes, and fourteen scupltured groups, true copies of the “Via Crucis “stations, which lead up to the peak, where an image of Jesus Crist on the cross can be seen. In the same place there is a small chapel romantic style and a reproduction of Lourdes Grotto, both complimentary in their incomparable beauty.
For more information and photos visit::
Tandil Site 1
Tandil Site 2
Tandil Site 3
Tandil Site 4
IRUYA
When I first visited the mountain village of IRUYA where my husband comes from, in the north west Andes of Argentina, not very far from the Bolivian border,
it was like going back in history a couple of hundred years. It had a stable population of about 500, is completely surrounded by mountains at about 2,700 metres above sea level, and there is only one twisting, rising, winding “road” to reach it. The village had a common water tap in the middle, bathrooms and toilets didn’t exist – the toilet was a hole, covered with a wooden box, that went straight down to the river a couple of hundred metres lower down, with chickens running all around. People cooked on open fires or mud ovens, women did the washing in the river, and even today they still carry their babies on their backs wrapped in several ponchos. Judging by the steepness of many of the streets, this really is the best way to transport young children. The common means of transport then was by donkey or llama and almost all the streets were designed for these animals. People had small holdings higher up the mountains, up in the plateau, where they scratched a living from the grey, stony ground. Amazingly, they got enormous beans, peas, multicoloured maize, many different kinds of potatoes, coloured according to the dominant minerals in the areas, and tiny very sweet peaches. They had goats, sheep and skinny cattle,. As they had no electricity ( only for two hours daily in the evening and longer on festive days) they had no fridges, so their meat was dried and brought into the village spread out on donkeys back or llamas, the blood having first been drained off in special places, to nourish the earth.>/P>.
Most of the villagers have lived all their lives there, and a lot of them are closely related to my husband, his surname, Lunda, being one of the dominant ones there, though he himself was brought up by an uncle in the city of Salta. Then, there was only one primary school in the village, a chapel and one general store. Now, twenty years later, there are two primary schools, a secondary school way higher up with its own “sports field”, higher up still a three star hotel with central heating, there are several small shops, and one party hall. Some houses even have solar energy panels! Oh and there now is one directory controled telephone which actually has a fax machine! ( didn’t see any computers though!) Many people have their own toilets now and some even have a bathroom, and 4 wheel traction vehicles are fast taking over donkey transport. For part of the year, there is no pasture land, except for higher up, and for those who still use donkeys there is a cronic shortage of grass. Ironically , here on the coast, I have to cut my town garden grass every ten days in the spring and summer and have no use for the big bag full of cuttings.
One of my husband’s nephews is a school teacher in a hamlet higher up, a stable population of no more than 50, a two classroom primary school for about 20 children, grades 1-4 in one classroom, 5-7 in the other. They come from families scattered all over the surrounding mountains, and never miss a class. The children were proud to show me the chart they had made showing all the local medicinal herbs they had collected and explain their uses. The teacher gets up at 6.30 every morning in Iruya, runs down to the river bed, runs some distance along the stoney river bed, then disappers up a goat track, and gets to the school two hours after setting off. He spends all morning giving classes, has a brief rest, then runs back home again. We were taken there a longer way round in a vehicle, shown how the smallholdings are kept up and irrigated by a natural spring. And introduced to an old old woman, perfect hearing, perfect sight, perfect health, wonderful memory, no teeth, who spent her days sitting at an outdoor, handmade weaving machine, where she weaves most of the fabric the hamlet needs, from goat hair and llama wool. Right, let’s go visit the cemetry, suggested my husband. I looked around the plateau and only saw carefully tended vegetable gardens, and more rocky mountains and asked where it was.
“It’s up there”,he said, pointing to a tiny track, clinging to the side of the heights. Convinced he was joking, (how do they get coffins up there) I reluctantly followed him. And there, a couple of hundred metres higher up was a tiny well-looked after cementry. I commented on the number of tiny graves there were and was told by Leo’s brother that those were the angels, taken back at birth or soon after. Mother Nature knows that in a place like this, she can only feed so many mouths, and people have nothing else to do after dark but make more babies! Those that survive usually live long lives if they don’t fall drunk off some precipice
The wisdom of a non consumer society!
More information: www.turismosalta.com
IRUYA (Part II)
Iruya is a mountain village some 3,300 metres above sea level, in the very north west of the Province of Salta in Argentina, where my husband Leo was born, and where many of his family still live. Modern technology is only just reaching there. The first time I went was some 20 years ago, and met several members of the family for the first time ( having already been married then some five years) Although there were more than 40 babies, children and young people who had a legitimate right to call me “Auntie”, for one little girl of about six I was her auntie, a right she seemed ready to defend tooth and nail, though she had difficulty understanding how someone “different” could be her aunt ( though I am not blonde with blue eyes, I am English, so I “look different and speak different” ) By the way I was accepted by the rest of the family with no trouble.
The years passed, too quickly, she got a place as teacher in an out of the way mountain school, only reached by three days on a donkey. Though we visited Salta city from time to time, even Iruya was still fairly inaccessible. We kept in touch with the niece Norma, following her slow progress through school with sparodic letters, always inviting her to come and spend a summer by the sea with us. She never accepted the invitation so one day we sent money to buy an airticket from Salta and let us know when she would be travelling. Days and weeks went by and turned into months, and finally we had a letter from her thanking us very much for the money, which had arrived at a very critical time, she had been expecting her first child, and wanted it to be born in a proper hospital, so had travelled down into Salta, and sent us a photo of her little girl by then six months old!. She and the child’s father wanted to get married, they wanted it in a ceremony in Iruya when the place has an annual festival at the beginning of October, and she wanted us to be “Best man and Matron of honour” Our own kids were going through school, difficult to take a break at the beginning of October, can’t make it this year, we’ll try next year.
A couple more years went by, the baby grew and had a new sister. When our daughter was finally finishing secondary school, we could finally take the break and travel up to Salta by air (4 and a half hours flight as opposed to two complete days by road). From there we took a bus, together with all the Lunda clan then living in the city, as far as Humahuaca, where we were met with a vehicle to take us into the mountains. I wanted to sit in the back of the van, because I still had a very clear memory of the first time I’d made that journey, with the sheer drops off the nose of the vehicle, but every one insisted I go in the front as I would be sick in the back. I refused to get out of the van at the highest point 4,400 metres, remembering the effects the last time I did so. We eventually got to Iruya and for the first ten minutes I felt really fine. Then suddenly the height hit me, I felt dizzy and almost fainted. I had to lie down and rest for several hours to get over the “hangover”, that’s exactly what it feels like!
Next day, I was right as rain, was able to take part in the festival and helped prepare the one party hall for Norma’s wedding. We hunted all over the village for balloons, something I’d taken for granted would be easy to obtain. We only found one place that had a few, and the man was very surprised that I bought the whole lot, all 53 of them. The wedding was wonderful, the hall was packed, we had taken up a box of party effects “just in case” and at the given moment, they were very well received, no others being available in that place. The dancing went on till the small hours, the whole village eventually joining in. In the morning at the promised time we were up and ready to help clear up, expecting to be the only fools doing so, as would have happened in a city. But no, surprise surprise, half the village were already at work, stacking chairs, removing rubbish, taking down decorations, making the hall ready again to continue the village’s annual festivities, a sort of religious/ pagan type, that is best seen in photos rather than described.
People had come from hundreds of kilometers around the mountains to assist the three day festivities and there was a market set up on the almost dry river bed, where you could buy anything from silk scarves to local crops and live stock. I’ve heard that river in the spring thaw is a raging torrent, a hundred meters or more wide, that does a lot of damage. Then once the water drops to a more reasonable level the population starts scavenging, and supplies themselves with almost a year’s worth of fuel and other basic needs.
We hung on a couple of days after the festival, it was fun watching people load up the donkey caravans with the wares they hadn’t sold, move out in trucks, vans, tractores or as most of them did ,on foot, until a peace and silence descended on the village. Of course, we had stayed with family, but after everyone had gone, we decided to climb up and visit the brand new three star hotel, where we were shown around, my husband taking a great interest in the central heating system. We were served English tea with local bakery products, and saw the “museum” of local folklore and pottery items. The hotel is for tourists, the locals sleep in the trucks, or with any one who can spare them a corner, or out in open with their animals during the festivities.
More information: www.turismosalta.com
The day Iruya has supermarket chains, fast food centres and a helicopter port then it will have lost its uniqueness.
Train to the Clouds – Salta, north-west Argentina
For thousands of years, silence reigned in the high plateau of the Andes mountain range, broken only by the almost perpetual freezing winds, until in 1921 work started on what was to become one of the world’s three highest railway systems, Train to the Clouds. The work was finished in 1948, and the engineering fete consists of 214 kilometers, along which the train goes through 29 bridges, 21 tunnels, 13 viaducts, 2 “curls” and 2 zigzags, rising to a height of 4,500 meter above sea level.
About 50% of the passengers are tourists from other countries and tickets have to be booked several days in advance, weeks in peak period like July (winter holidays here) and cost 100 US dollars. The train, which is comfortable and has a restaurant and bar, leaves from the city of Salta, which is at 1.180 metera above sea level, at seven in the morning, and the view is spectacular all the way up. 156 km out of Salta, the “Cachi snow-capped mountain” of 6,720 meters, can be seen.
At around two in the afternoon, the train reaches San Antonio de los Cobres (Hills of Copper) at 3,775 meters, having already crossed viaducts more than 4000 meters up. Here the train is “attacked” by a horde of local people of all ages, their skin roughened by constant contact with the cold and the wind, selling their wares; llama wool socks, pullovers hats or scarves, carved stones, pieces of giant cactus, baby llamas or puppies, etc. Not only do they accept money for the crafts, but also chewing gum, sweets, skin creams, fruit, cigarettes, and what seemed to be the most precious of all, the newspaper or magazines bought to read on the trip - as if anyone does any reading!
The highlight of the journey is the Polvorilla Viaduct, of 224 meters long, almost 70 meters above the riverbed which itself is 4,000 meters above sea level. Unfortunately, I was unable to appreciate this “monument” or the spectacular views, as I was on the oxygen tank, having been born and raised and lived all my life at sea level, and never far from the sea. Getting up from my comfortable seat briskly to see what the locals had for sale, brought on my dizziness. Nor could I get off the train at San Antonio de los Cobres (a mineral mining town), where the flag was flying horizontally and I was surprised it wasn’t ripped off its pole.
All the way up, the tourist is entertained by salesmen selling souvenirs, “coca” tea, ( made from the leaves of the plant cocaine is extracted from - the mountain people chew on those leaves all day, it’s a sort of anaesthetic against the hardships of their life), local folk groups and videos. In the afternoon it is very likely that the clouds come down and cover everything as happened to us when we made the trip, and the return journey seems to be long and tedious, getting back to Salta city at 10p.m. that night.
Recipe for “Empanadas Salteñas” (Pasties from Salta) Something that is best cooked in a clay oven.
The pastry:
Form a ring on the table with a kilo of all purpose flour,, in the center, 300 grams of liquid lard still warm after melting, a cup of warm water with half a spoon of salt dissolved in it. Work the ingredients together forming a dough, then leave to rest a few minutes. Then you can either roll out the dough quite thinly and cut out circles about 4” across ( tea saucer size), or, as my husband does so as not to re-knead the dough, divide it all up into equal sized balls and then flatten each one individually with the rolling pin.
The filling:
I kilo beef
200grs potato in small cubes
I large or two medium white onions finely chopped
A good handful of the green part of spring onion
Hardboiled eggs (we use six per kilo of meat)
Seasoning: salt, pepper, oregano, ground chili, red pepper powder, chicken cubes.
Cut up one kilo of best beef – my husband uses best rump steak- no nerves or sinews in it – with a sharp knife very finely. Legend has it that it must be done with a knife and not a machine or mincer, as a machine “chews “ the meat thus giving it a different flavour.
Peel and wash the potato and cut up into small cubes boil until tender ( my husband doesn’t add potato as it changes the flavour slightly).
Fry the onions in a little fat or cooking oil and add to the pan with the meat -cooked in very little of the potato water - and potato, Add flavouring to taste. Dissolve a spoonful of red pepper in a little hot fat and drain the now red fat into the meat mixture, taking care not to add the powder. Leave mixture to cool (we leave overnight in the ice compartment of the fridge.) Add the chopped spring onion and chopped hard boiled eggs.
Fill the pastry disks and close firmly with neat twists around the edges to keep all the juices in. Brush with beaten egg and bake in a hot oven for about ten minutes or until golden brown. Best eaten hot and recently cooked.
This recipe is similar to the way my husband makes them and was taken from:
EMPANADAS SALTEÑAS
Which continues by saying:
Typical meals from Salta are many. Each area has its own dishes according to regional production, and also they add their own touch to dishes from elsewhere in the province. Because of this it is necessary to dedicate a a special space to the “empanada” – pasty, a delicious mouth full whose authorship is reclaimed in several Argentine provinces, although in Salta it wins more and more eager diners every day from all over the world.
No peas, no olives, sometimes with currants, but mostly without, the Saltenian Empanadas are simple and at the same time they need a series of steps to be able to eat them juicy and that all the ingredients cant be tasted inside the pastry. Techniques get perfected all the time. Every year in Salta there is the Saltenian Pasty competition, that has been on for the last 34 years where experimented pasty makers take part to show their style and share their delicious secrets.
Pasties are best cooked in a clay oven, or fried, and are always eaten using the hands. So, you can forget about plates and knives or forks, just grab a paper serviette to hold it with and enjoy
A newspaper once told the following store about the name of “EMPANADAS SALTEÑAS”
A nickname baptized the popular dish
Spicy or not, always juicy Saltenian pasties are a delight for hundreds in all the cities of the country. Nevertheless there are very few who know the origin of the name of the famous pasty.
The story goes that at the beginning of the last century, Juana Manuala Gorriti, who later became the wife of president Belzu, was born in the Argentine city of Salta, but was exiled together with her family by the tyrant Rosas. For years the family had to suffer a life of extreme poverty. Desperation made them start to make Cornish Pasties that were common amongst the European communities.
Manuela was the one in charge of selling them who was nicknamed “La Salteña” because of her place of origin. As time went by, people forgot her name, and just told each other to go buy some pasties from “La Salteña”, so the product adopted her name and still sticks today.
Musical Instruments of the Andes People
Pan Pipes (Siku)
This is a wind instrument, similar to the flute, much used by the native Indians of the Bolivian high plateau. Its name goes back to the 16th century and it is formed by two lines of tubes, some open, some closed, either of cane or clay, of different lengths, placed side by side from the longest to the shortest. The music is played with the lower lip just touching the border of the canes and blowing into them across the top of the tubes, blowing into each cane separately, never running the lips over the width of the instrument. The open tubes are used to strengthen the tune and modify the tone, and the longer the cane, the deeper the sound. They are usually accompanied by percussion instruments and played in groups which often have instruments of up to four different sizes. They are well known in Bolivia, Peru and the north of Argentina and in Peru they are also known as “antara”.
Erque
This is very long (some 3 meters) wind instrument in the form of a cornet or a horn, which comes from the high plateau of Bolivia and North Argentina. The mouthpiece is on the side of one end of the cane and the horn at the other and it has a very deep, mournful sound. In some versions the horn is made from a ram’s horn. The instrument is played in local religious festivals.
Roque Lunda one of the men who play this instrument during the religious festivities in Iruya, Salta Argentina
Box drum (caja)
This is an instrument which belongs to the percussion family, and dates back to pre-colonial times of the Bolivian/ Argentine Andes. In parts of Peru it is also called “tinya” or “huancara” and sometimes little Inca drum. The ring, usually not very deep, is worked in wood from the felling of walnut, willow, or cactus wood. Usually the shape is circular although sometimes square ones are made. The percussion part is made from sheep, goat, donkey or hare skins. They have a leather handle so that the executor can hold it in one hand, without touching the actual drum and play it with the drumstick in the same hand. It is usually played in solo the player also accompanying the sounds with singing, the voice jumping from deep to falsetto (known as “baguala”) and is common in carnivals.
Balvina Ramos, well known singer and box drum player, playing during a festival in Iruya, Salta Argentina
Click for larger pic.
Charango:
A kind of small guitar of five or eight cords, and a very high sound, used by the native Indians of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. It is quite often made from the shell of an armadillo.
Ocarina
A flat ovoid flute-like instrument with a prominent, beveled mouthpiece and ten or more holes. It is a ceramic flute found in many cultures. The modern ocarina was invented in Italy by G. Donati in 1869 and became popular among the street musicians. For group interpretation the whole family of ocarinas has been made, from soprano to bass. Materials used in its construction are, are metal, clay or plastic. In its place of origin, Cusco in Peru, they are handmade from baked clay. It has a fluty, muffled sound and the model of the ocarina known in Europe shows close relationship to those of Asian, African and American countries. There are ocarinas like small double pumpkins with six holes from Brazil or like the pumpkins from Hawaii. The ocarina, can be found in all small markets of the planets, just as the harmonica and whistles can be.
GUEMES
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News from Argentina
A few days ago my husband returned from a visit to his native Province, Salta in the extreme north east of Argentina.
While he was there he was able to take part in the anniversary acts of a historic event for the area, the 182nd anniversary of the death of Martin Miguel de Guemes a local hero who had a lot to do towards the Independence of Argentina back in 1816. Guemes was the person who defended the difficult northern fronteer, and together with his “Gauchos”
(country folk) managed to fight a real battle in the north but with a national vision, saving the northern provinces from the realists, by not letting them pass further from Salta. He and his men stopped eight invasions, blocking the way to the more indefense provinces. His original group was some 25 men, but these days the conmemorative acts attract some 3,000 gauchos with there red and black ponchos, and they forn the Guardian under the Stars all through the night of the anniversary of this local hero’s death 17th June.
About 93 members and friends of a folk group from Mar del Plata where we live, also travelled to Salta, and went on tour, giving shows in different parts of the Province. They were of course present with their music and dances in the main acts for Guemes.
Leo (center) with two of the singers)
We will both be returning to Salta at the end of July, to take part in an important birthday of a niece, and the festivals of Pachamama ( Mother Earth). In the mountain regions (see red arrow on map)where they still depend entirely on what the earth produces, they have a ceremony to ask permission to dig the earth to sow their crops. Also killing an animal for food, is also done with ceremony, letting the blood drain back into the earth to fertilize it and start the life cycle again. I came across this interesting snippet from a mountain magazine.
LETS MAKE A “PACHA MANCA” Pacha = earth, Manca = pot/hotpot from the quechua native language.
It must all start very early in the morning with a small ceremony asking permission from Pachamama – Mother Earth to dig a hole. Meanwhile, vegetables and meat are prepared. Then a fire is built to heat the rocks, smooth ones and porous ones, representing male and female. About midmorning, those heated stones are placed in the hole, and on top llama and cow meat, or a whole lamb, depending on how many guests there will be, and then add beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes and other vegetables. On top are piled guazes, straw, and the rest of the hot rocks, and the whole lot is covered by the earth taken from the hole, the whole thing forming a small hill, and left to cook for some three hours.
Around midday, the covering is removed, and the hot cooked meat and veg is shared among the people in small clay dishes.
Taken fron Edition 26 of “Pueblos Andinos”Andes peoples.
USHUAIA AND ITS LONGEST NIGHT
Click to see bigger picture
Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego is the southern most city in the republic of Argentina, being at latitude 55 south and has a population of almost 45,000. In the yamena native Indian language, its name means “bay penetrating westwards” or “bay towards the end”. It is a beautiful area of lakes mountains and national parks with its own plant and wildlife system. The area specializes in Adventure tourism in the summer months ( January and February), and in skiing in winter (June July and August. In summer they have some 18 hours of daylight, but in winter they hardly get six hours.
Every year, near to the date of the Winter Solstice (21st June) the inhabitants have their “National Festival of the Longest night. This year it was held on the 23rd June. There were several activities programmed, amongst which were a show of Writings and images of the End of the World with photographs, theatric shows and a pottery workshop. The highlight of the festival took place in the hangar of the aero naval base in the airport of the city, with a huge show of music, songs and folklore with famous local and national groups taking part. About 4,500 people got together in the hangar, which could have accommodated about 6,000, and their “entrance fee” was nonperishable food items. They got together a container with more than 3,00 kilo of food, to be shared out later amongst the more needy families of the area.
Although the hangar had certain hot air blowers installed, the place seemed to work as a freezer, the cold being one more of the great participants of the night. There is no mention of just how cold it was, but it was the coldest night so far this year. Needless to say, the people stuck it out to the end the average temperature in the winter is 1.6° C ( about 33° F) getting to be some –21°C
(-8° F) in the valleys.
Article put together from material drawn from the newspaper “El Sureño” and leaflets of the Sub Secretary of Tourism of the area. More information;
: http://www.tierradelfuego.org.ar/ushuaia
Southern railway : ush@trendelfindelmundo.com.ar
End of the World museum: museo@tierradelfuego.org.ar
My own adventures in Ushuaia
Carnaval
The Carnaval of the country takes place as from 5th January and every Saturday through January and February including the first Saturday in March of 2002 , but the weekend of 9th, 10th 11th and 12th of February being the main official date ( Wednesday 13th being Ash Wednesday marking the 40 days before Easter). The “Capital of the Argentine Carnaval”is Gualeguaychu in the Province of Entre Ríos.
The three main organizing groups are the O’Bahia Fisher’s Club of Gualeguaychu, Mar Mari of the Central Entrerian Club and Kamarr of the Sirian Libanese Centre, who will show all their colourful magestic beauty with fun, dances and rhythmic music, with the presence of over a thousand actors on the scenes. This year it is to be shown on television by one of the country’s leader channels TELEFE.
The “Corsodrome” (site where the floats and dancing take place) is an open air scenery , unique in the country with capacity for over 37.000 spectators, comfortable seated, in a park of 7.5 hectares. It is easily accessible without putting to inconvenience the normal traffic of the area.
Every year the presence of the Carnaval of the country means that the population of Gualeguaychu, 230 km from the capital city of Buenos Aires, is doubled during these weekends
For more information and photos click here:
Carnaval
Gualeguaychu
Gauleguaychu is the Argentina capital for the Carnaval, but the real home of the carnaval is the neighbouring country of Brazil, information in Englishabout the carnaval there can be found here
Festival of Grape Harvest and Wine Production – Mendoza end of February into 1st week March.
Without doubt the cultivation of the grape vine gives rise to these celebrations, but since colonial times, grape growers found excellent conditions for this production in the regions of Mendoza, west Argentina. In the 17th century, wine making was homemade and produced on a family scale. In the 18th century, production began to increase and generated an exchange with Buenos Aires, already by then, one of the biggest consumers.
So workers, technicians, machinery constructors and skilled craftsmen began to arrive, to which was added the introduction of fine wines. With the arrival of the railway, began the expansion of the rural and urban oasis, huge wine cellars and associated industries, and of course the Festival, that means that grape and wine production is an intergral activity which marks the beat of this province..
These days the industry could be represented by some of the following figures:
* number of wine cellars: 1221
* Wine produced; 10 million hectoliters per year ( from its production, it is the
most important grape and wine producing center in South America.)
* Cultivated surface : 150,000 hectares
* Local production in relation to the rest of the country is 70% of these fine wines.
National grape and Wine production Festival
27th of February; the blessing of the fruit, ceremony for thanking God for the harvest and the new wine.
3rd of March, Election of the Queen of the vines and princesses, an dthe following day parade of floats and dancing, with invitations to other national beauty queens.
These festivals attract between 150,000 and 200.000 people.
Follow my adventures at the wine festival
For more information and photos:
Wine Festival
Mendoza
Patagonia Argentina
GLACIER PERITO MORENO
In about March, every 3 or 4 years, there is a natural show in the Argentine Patagonia which attracts thousands of people from all over the world. It is the breaking up of the Glacier Perito Moreno due to pressures within it.
Los Glaciares National Park is located in the area known as Austral Andes in Argentina, in the south west of Santa Cruz on the border with Chile. By his magnificent natural beauty, it constitutes a wonder in the world, and was declared "World Heritage" by UNESCO in 1981.
The information given in this section has been thoroughly selected by the National Park team. It is remarkable the effort done to gather precise information about flora, fauna and geology of this area, since the bibliography on this subject is very rare, and working on the area is extremely expensive and titanic considering the extension and biodiversity of this National Park.
General Aspects
This park shows a scenario of mountains, lakes and woods, including a large portion of the Andes practically under ice and snow to the west, and the arid Patagonian steppe to the east.
Its name refer to the glaciers that are born on the Ice Caps - the largest continental ice extension after Antarctica- which occupies almost half its area. Also known as Patagonic Continental Ice, creates 47 big glaciers, 13 of which flow to the Atlantic. There are also more than 200 smaller glaciers, unconnected to the Ice Caps.
Los Glaciares National Park is located in the area known as Austral Andes in Argentina, in the south west of Santa Cruz on the border with Chile.
All over the world glaciers are over 2500 mts over sea level, but here, in Santa Cruz, they are originated on the Ice Caps, at 1500 mts over sea level, and flow down to 200 mts, having the possibility of an unique approach and view.
As a result of the enormous pressure of the antique ice and the subsequent thaw, three big lakes, two of them inside the NP appeared: Lago Argentino and Lago Viedma, the waters of which flow as Rio Santa Cruz to the Atlantic Ocean crossing the province.
Tourist Activities
Nowadays, the Park welcomes a great number of tourists from all around the world, offering multiple choices to visit it almost all the year round.
This Glacier shows a surprising and curious phenomena, in that its great mass of ice advances continually causing the accumulation, break up and breaking off of huge blocks of ice along its front 5 km wide, situated over Iceberg Channel, so called because of the large number of ice blocks floating there.
The front of the glacier is more than 60 metres above the water level, where pieces of different sizes are continually falling causing anoise similar to thunder claps.
Geografical location: Latitud 50' 32' South, Longitud 73' 10' West.
The advance of the Glacier
Its huge advancement managed to cross The Iceberg channel in 1947, then getting support from firm land in the Magallanes Peninsula, pulling with it blocks of earth. It thus caused a huge dike, cutting off the natural drainage in the whole southern arm of the lake.
This extraordinary phenomena is the cause of the rise in the level of water proceeding from Lago Argentino, causing a difference of 20meters. The tremendous pressure on the glacier produces filtrations which end up fracturing it, shaking it and finally breaking it.
The gradual breaking up and following levelling of the waters is a moving spectacle, unique in this world, which is repeated every three or four years, which attracts thousands of people all over the world
More Information:
The Glaciers
Glacier Perito Moreno
Adventure Tourism
The First Lady, who was present at the Patagonia glacier Perito Moreno ice break-up,in March 2004, a natural phenomena that occurs every 3 or 4 years, was reported to have said “Menem came into power, the ice didn’t break up any more” as 16 years had apparently passed since the last breakup. Insinuating of course, that even the ice froze up in anticipation of that ex president. He is now resident in Chile with his Chilean wife of half his age, and refusing to return to Argentina to declare bank accounts and properties acquired illegally during his government.
