2023-11-07 09:23:05
New departure, new journey: Argentina, here we come! 🙂
This is the travel diary of this new adventure in South America: I hope it can inspire you and help you plan your next trip!
Trip created by #presstour by @turisanda1924 *Suppliedby *incollaborationwith
DAY 1: BUENOS AIRES
I have just been attracted to Buenos Aires, the first stop on this traveling trip in Argentina and I immediately realized that:
It feels like walking through the streets of Barcelona, ​​then through the neighborhoods of Paris, among the most modern areas of the river/seafront of the Northern countries and in the coolest clubs on the skyscrapers of Los Angeles: Buenos Aires is such a powerful mix of cultures that you are almost stunned in an attempt to discover the truest soul ????
Puerto Madeira, a cool area for aperitifs and dinners, thanks to its modern rooms overlooking the river. Not far from here is the Trade Skybar, a venue on the 19th floor from which you can enjoy an incredible view of the city.
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Buenos Aires is also called the city that never sleeps: the nightlife in the capital is incredible! There are lots of clubs, theatres, shows and events!
You can also speak in Italian, many here understand you: practically every Argentine has a near or distant connection with an Italian person. The history of Buenos Aires is also closely linked to Italy and some words of its language derive from Italian (indeed, from some dialects, such as Genoese and Neapolitan!) ????????
The Boca neighborhood, its colors, its energy confirmed what I expected to see: here we live a strong and passionate life! Here our Italian ancestors lived in conditions of poverty: but the rebirth has created a truly colorful open-air museum, a hymn to Argentina and the best-known figures in its history, including football ????????
La Boca was the ancient port area: Italians settled here at the end of the 19th century (during the first wave of migration): there were many Genoese and Neapolitans here (it is no coincidence that the Argentine language derives many words from Genoese and Neapolitan! )
The Conventillos They were the homes of us Italians: only one room per family (also very expensive!). The bathroom and kitchen were shared among several families. Just think that 2,200 rooms were available for 94,000 people ????
The Conventillos located in Caminito street (La Boca neighborhood) are today part of an open-air museum created in the 1950s by the painter Quinquela Martin!
The May squaresymbol of the city and of the struggle of the mothers of the Plaza of Mayo, with their white cloth diaper on their heads, reminded me that this country experienced a terrible dictatorship until 1983 and these mothers, these grandmothers, are still struggling with the consequences of that period and for their loved ones.
This is the oldest and most symbolic square of the city where the largest events have always taken place.
Also famous for the incredible mothers of Plaza de Mayo are the mothers of the desaparecidos, the 30,000 opponents of the Argentine dictatorship (1976/1983) who disappeared (desaparecidos) and who in all probability were killed (often drugged and thrown from helicopters into the oceans ). Pregnant women were given birth and then killed: their children given up for adoption. The mothers and grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo are fighting to find the disappeared and the more than 300 children (now adults) given up for adoption: they have found 133.
Their emblem, a white handkerchief tied on the head, is their symbol of protest: it was originally a cloth diaper used for newborns.
In Plaza de Mayo there is also the metropolitan cathedral of Buenos Aires inside which the mausoleum of San Martin is located, protected by guards: it is a very important symbolic character for the history of Argentina (and not only!) as the one who liberated Argentina, Peru and Chile from the Spanish.
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DAY 2: EL CALAFATE
Second stop.. Patagonia ????????
We landed in El Calafate which welcomed us with 80km/h winds, so strong that to get off the plane they unroll a rope to hold on to!
And they told us that it can happen here: Patagonia it is nature and power in its pure state, here the 4 seasons are normally experienced in one day.
If we have seafront promenades, in El Calafate there is what I immediately renamed the “Lungo Patagonia”: the small village located on Lake Argentino about 80km from Perito Moreno is located in the midst of infinite kilometers of pure nothingness, thus, the road surrounding the town overlooks what you see in these photos.
It is from here that we will leave these days to go and see the glaciers, the lakes, the mountains, the icebergs – everything that this land will allow us to see!
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DAY 3: THE UPSALA GLACIER AND ITS ICEBERGS AND ESTANCIA CRISTINA
I imagined that Patagonia was beautiful, but on the first day here I changed my mind. Patagonia is beyond imagination.
I think I saw the most beautiful thing in my life, I’m not joking: I was literally so ecstatic that I had to do a happy dance and scream because I couldn’t contain my enthusiasm! ????
We sailed for two hours among the icebergs along Lake Argentino and the Cristina Canal, surrounded by snow-capped mountains, endless prairies and surreal celestial water to arrive at Estancia Cristina where from here, in a 4*4 we reached a wonderful panoramic point on the Upsala glacier which gives rise to icebergs through which we sailed.
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Today I understood that, no matter how much man tries and has tried to create extraordinary works of art, he will never be able to match the wonderful things nature can create.
Photos will never be able to explain how beautiful this place is: really, if you ever have the chance, I recommend and truly hope you can come and admire these places.
What can we say except that one cannot help but be moved by such beauty? ????
These places are part of the Los Glaciares National Park which is super protected: in this part you cannot walk without guides and it is strictly forbidden to walk off the paths so as not to ruin the rocks, which among other things are rich in fossils.
The “Los Glaciares National Park” 4,500 km² and a UNESCO heritage site, not only for its incredible beauty, but also because the particular geological structure means that the glacier forms at just 1500 m high (2500 meters in other parts of the world ) and which, resting on the rocks, descends up to 200 meters above sea level. Disintegrating sea front.
The front of the Upsala glacier, which is the most mobile, given that it moves 3.5 meters every day (which is why for safety reasons it cannot be reached up close) is gigantic, reaching 60 km in length: this is why it creates these huge, huge, icebergs.
Every day the icebergs change, they rotate on themselves and every day numerous new icebergs are created: for this reason you will never be able to see two the same ones!
Have you ever wondered why icebergs are so blue? ????
I did: as soon as I saw them, I didn’t expect these incredible shades of blue and I had to ask the guide straight away!
This incredible color of the icebergs is due to the formation of the glacier: I’ll explain better!
The glacier is formed by the fall of snow in the accumulation area upstream of the glacier tongue: as more snow falls, this presses on the previous layers and so on, every time it snows. This leads to the total elimination of the air between the snow layers: the light that reflects on the glacier allows us to see it blue once that same snow transformed into ice, with the movements of the glacier, reaches the sea front and finally breaks, creating icebergs.
DAY 4: Perito Moreno
I have wanted to see Perito Moreno with my own eyes since, in high school, my Spanish teacher told us about the wonders of South America: having had the chance to see it with my own eyes 20 years later is a dream come true.
I’ll tell you!
Perito Moreno is located inside the Los Glaciares National Park: to enter you need to pay an entrance ticket (we didn’t have to think about anything, everything was organized by…)
They organized a fabulous day for us, tailored to our desires: it was incredible because it allowed us to enjoy Perito Moreno and its magnificence from different points of view ????
We started with a navigation near the front of the glacier which immediately made us understand how immense it is! Then, together with the guides, we put on crampons and embarked on a small trek on the glacier: simple and within everyone’s reach, it allows you to touch the glacier first-hand and enjoy the incredible formations. Finally, we spent the afternoon along the walkway that winds along the other fronts of Perito Moreno, including the most fragile part, which continually crumbles. To then conclude our day at the suggestive “iceberg cemetery”, a small beach where the icebergs that break away from the expert Moreno end their journey, melting and where you can touch the ice up to 1000 years old with your hands. A spectacle of magnificence and unprecedented grandeur.
CURIOSITY:
- it extends for 30 kilometers in length, the front is 60 meters high but goes 700 meters deep!
- It is the third largest reserve in the worldfresh water.
- It takes its name from Mr. Moreno who was a surveyor by trade (it’s not a joke, it’s true! He was the pioneer who studied it in the 18th century!)
- The glacier is always moving (very fast, advancing 2 meters a day!): this is because the glacier rests on the water and not on the rock.
- When the front of the glacier reaches the shore of the lake it forms a natural dam that separates the lake in half: the water level rises up to 30 meters ???? This pressure erodes the glacier and it can happen that the ice explodes (literally) with loud noises . The last time it happened was in 2016!
And with this visit we say goodbye to this side of Patagonia to go even further south, towards “the end of the world”: the island of Tierra del Fuego!
DAY 5 and 6: the land of fire – Ushuaia
Arriving at the end of the world is a beautiful emotion: one of those “absurd” things for us who live on the other side of the world!
The Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago of islands located beneath the Strait of Magellan and is the so-called gateway to Antarctica.
Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world and is the capital of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and the South Atlantic Islands. Surrounded by the snow-capped Andes on one side and the Beagle Channel on the other, it has typical colorful houses and a very picturesque central street (and red-billed seagulls ????)
Consider that the distance to Antarctica is 1000 km: that is, the Drake Passage, the roughest waters in the world.
It is precisely in Ushuaia that it is located the End of the World train: I’ll tell you the story briefly.
At the end of the 19th century a penal colony was born in Ushuaia (who knows why right here, in a remote and harsh place ????): the prisoners worked here and so out of necessity they created a train that connected the prison camp with that of the forest and passed along the coast in front of the city of Ushuaia. When the prison was closed in 47 and an earthquake damaged the line, it was closed.
In 1994, the railway was rebuilt and service began again as we see it today: it was recovered for its historical value and is today the southernmost operating railway in the world.
We start from the “End of the World” station, pass along the Pico valley, and stop at the station Macarena Waterfall and then you enter the national park and forest.
It is from here that we continued the tour of the Tierra del Fuego national park with our guide, going to visit the most iconic places of the national park: a park created for the protection of the forest located here. Just think that as much as 30% of Tierra del Fuego is peat bog!
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As good Italians we immediately thought “we weren’t lucky with the weather”: in reality the weather here is obviously never among the most favorable (who knows why ????). The average temperature of the year is 5 degrees, so often, if it rains.. well, it snows!
An absolutely must-do experience: take a catamaran and sail along the Beagle Channel, along the border between Chile and Argentina to see the colonies of cormorants, seals, lions and elephant seals and finally those of the Gentoo penguins and Magellanic penguins (to respect the animals, the visit to the animals takes place on board the catamaran following strict rules: obviously do not feed the animals and do not make loud noises. Make sure you choose excursions that are attentive to animal welfare!). For this experience, I recommend VERY warm and waterproof clothes and, if you have it, binoculars or a zoom lens to see the animals even better.
DAY 7 and 8: GOOD AIRES
Before taking the plane back from Buenos Aires which will take us to Italy we spend two days in the capital: there are still so many things to see!
- The Recoleta cemetery: the famous monumental cemetery of Buenos Aires where illustrious figures from Argentina’s history are buried, including the most famous, Evita Peron, a controversial figure in the country’s recent history.
- The Soho Palermo neighborhood: here incredible street art artists have created colorful works of art on the walls of houses and shops in entire streets. If you love street art but also fashion (with all the super cool shops and local designers) you absolutely must include it in your visit!
- The San Telmo market: with many stalls for eating streetfood, some are real restaurants! Try El HORNERO’s empanadas which are amazing!
- The El Ateneo bookshop: considered one of the most beautiful bookshops in the world (some rankings place it first, others second): it undoubtedly has an incredible charm. In fact, his books are displayed inside a fully frescoed opera house.
I hope you enjoyed this trip and see you next adventure!
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