From Cancun to Montevideo

I've always loved travelling, To be on the move, see sights and meet people is so exciting and rewarding. A badge I got in Santiago de Compostela at the end of my Camino says " El camino es la meta" . You hit the road not with the purpose to go from A to B, but so that you can be on the road. 

I've been all over Europe (Iceland and Belarus still to go to this coming May), last year I made the journey of my life through all of Central and South America.

I do maintain some web pages and a hundred online photo albums but a blog gives you the chance to put in something more than just the name of the place in the shot and share impressions. So the plan was to post regularly but with only a smartphone available it turned out to be quite difficult to produce decent looking pages. Once I returned I arranged all my photos and videos, but was putting off updating the blog pages till now. Still I think it is an experience worth sharing so please follow.

Itinerary. Earlier I used to take group tours where everything is arranged for you. But after planning a 7 thousand kilometers car trip throughout Europe by myself,  two Camino de Santiago peregrinajes in Spain and a trip to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia I got the courage and planned this huge trip all the way from Cancun to Montevideo:

Now, I was going North to South but when I started publishing the blog entries with their respective dates, the South ones came on top as being more recent, so you would have to read the blog bottom to top to be in correct trip order, and some pages are already under the Archive link. Better use the links to the right that will take you to the proper entry. There is also a link to the day by day itinerary.

Here is the map, it's live and red points are already behind my back. 17 countries, 34 borders to cross

All in all it took 46 days, from March 24 to May 8th 2017.
Flights:  I booked well in advance:

• Sofia - Madrid - Sofia with Ryan Air - 90 EUR
• Madrid - Paris - Cancun and 
• Montevideo - Rio de Janeiro - Paris - Madrid - an open jaw Air France ticket cost me only 514 GBP, booked 5 months in advance.
• Panama - Armenia, Colombia $157. 

Buses: Once in Mexico, I used buses all the way, except to get from Panama City to Colombia, as there is no land transportation and roads across the Darien gap. I did not try any online booking of bus tickets as this was not readily available for most countries and it turned out to be a good decision as one finds in place a lot more bus companies operating and with cheaper prices. Do research flights as well, for instance, between Lima and Cusco.

Accommodation: I stayed in small hotels and hostels along the way, used Booking.com for all with free cancellation as I had to reschedule parts of the itinerary a couple of times - the Panama City - Armenia flight was only available on Fridays and I wanted to be in Lima for Easter. But once I started from Cancun, I was able to stick to my schedule with only one exception at the Nicaraguan border. 

This does not sound very much like the traditional hard core backpackers who don't worry about a return ticket, take it easy and stay in each country as long as they like, but I had the time limit of my vacation days available and also my experience may encourage people who like to plan everything in advance. 

Spanish: What other preparations for the trip? I had taken several courses in Spanish: first the "Mi vida loca" at the BBC site, then an A1 course in Sofia and the Duo Lingo self study. So, far from being perfect, I was perfectly able to do all the everyday talk in Spanish with the local people and only used English with other travellers. Spanish helped immensely to communicate as I do look like a Gringo (tall, blue eyes...) and gringos are not especially liked in Latin America.

Maps.  It took  hours of preparation for each city I visited, most times I used Wikitravel and TripAdvisor to check what is there for sightseeing, then marked the place in a Here maps collection so I could find it using GPS offline navigation. I also marked the locations of the bus stations and the places I was staying. All this was done before the trip and worked pretty well, but time and again I was asking some pretty señoritas "¿Dónde está ...?" for a chance to chat in Spanish.
Yes, in Spanish there are inverted ¿ before each question and also inverted ¡.

Visas: lucky me, Bulgaria is part of the European Union and all countries visited were visa free for EU citizens, except Bolivia, and I got the Bolivian visa in Cusco, free. There were a lot of border fees in Central America and an outright racket when leaving Mexico. 

Cost:  All in all, the journey cost me about $3000, including the flights, transportation, accommodation, meals and entrance fees. Before the journey I made the yellow fever vaccination, needed for the Bolivian visa, and bought some medicines, including some malaria prevention pills that one had to take once a week. Here and there I'm providing the costs as noted exchange rates are what they were in 2017. I had some cash,  and used the ATM to draw more as cards are not accepted everywhere. In San Salvador and Ecuador the local currency is US dollars so one could replenish the cash, but a lot of ATMs could not connect to my bank. I also paid by debit card whenever I could, this worked with the bus tickets and in supermarkets.

I read a good advice: take half the luggage and twice the money.

I also had the chance to visit again Argentina in 2018 and Guatemala and Chile in 2019 and while in Chile I went to Rapa Nui (Easter island). I added these although they were done later.
Entonces, bienvenidos y vamos a viajar conmigo!

Rapa Nui island

 

Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

 

Rapa Nui is one of the most remote places on Earth. It is 3,512 km away from continental Chile and 2,075 km away from Pitcairn island. Pitcairn is inhabited by only 50 people, some may be descendants from the mutiny on the HMS Bounty ship. To the left in the map below you see the two Fiji islands and New Zealand which I could also visit a couple of years before while in Australia. Even though South America looks closer and the Kon-Tiki famous voyage proved it is reachable, the island looks more like a part of Polynesia

 

I was fascinated by Easter island ever since I read Thor Heyerdahls book “AKU-AKU – The secret of Easter island”. So when I went to Chile on a business trip I decided to use one weekend and use a regular flight from Santiago and back, indeed it was an occasion not to be missed.

There are many mysteries regarding Rapa Nui island e.g. when it was first inhabited by Polynesians or by people arriving on balsa rafts from South America, as the famous Kon Tiki of Thos Heyerdahl, what was the purpose of the numerous stone statues – the Moai, erected on Ahu platforms, how the Moai were transported and erected, the flourishing and decline of the local tribes and culture. As of today, the island has some 7000 inhabitants, half of which are indigenous Rapa Nui descendants. 887 Moai are found in the island, 397 still remain in the Rano Raraku quarry where they were originally carved out of the rocks. The biggest Moai remaining in Rano Raraku measures 21 m  with a weight of 160 tons. The biggest Moai transported and erected on Ahu te Pito Kura is “only” 9.8 m tall and weighs a modest 74 tons. It was supposed that most of the palm trees were cut down to serve as rollers and levers for transporting and erecting the Moai, leading to the total deforestation of the island. But recent research has shown that rats gnawing on the palm fruits also contributed to the deforestation.

Originally I was to land Saturday at noon and fly back Sunday afternoon but for good or for bad there was a spell of bad weather that weekend. This meant initially we did not have to pay the Rapa Nui National park entrance fee at the airport as entrance to some sites was not available. But then the Sunday flight was cancelled and I could only fly back on early Monday morning so I had an extra night to spend.

I had booked my stay at Cabanas Pumakari and the owner Jean Patricia was waiting at the airport for myself and a French family that had flown in from Polynesia.

 

Jean, always with a flower in her hair

It warmed my heart to be greeted with a wreath of flowers. When we were departing we had a necklace of seashells as a farewell gift, still hanging by my desk at home.

 

 

Welcome at the Mataveri Airport in Rapa Nui

 

Once I dropped my bag at the Cabanas Pumakari I shoot off immediately to the nearest Ahu Tahai, at the sea side near Hanga Roa, the only village as of today, the rest of the island included in a National Park. You pass by the Hanga Roa cemetery, where someone placed a mini Moai as a tombstone.

Hanga Roa cemetery

 

There weren’t many people visiting in the afternoon.  The 5 Moai behind are the Ahu Vai Uri and the Ahu Tahai standing somewhat apart.

 

Ahu Tahai in front, the five Moai of Ahu Vai Uri in the back

A hundred meters away from Ahu Tahai  is the lone Ahu Ko Te Riki, the only complete Moai with the red Pukao hat and even the white coral eyes with obsidian pupils. Both the Pukao and the eyes were mounted recently but still believed to be close to the originals.

 

Ahu Ko Te Riki

I came back at sunset, hoping like a bunch of other tourists to catch the spectacular view of the Moai but no luck as it was cloudy. Still this photo can give you an idea of what I missed.

 

Sunset behind Ahu Ko Te Riki

 

  Then I decided to hike to the Ahu Akivi (Siete Exploradores) which lies inland and unlike the other Moai, the ones in Ahu Akivi are not with their backs to the sea, but facing it. I relied solely my phone GPS to find my way  for the 6 km dirt roads so had to negotiate some barbed wire enclosures on my way. When I was only some several hundred meters away a torrential rain downpoured and I was all soaked wet for the time to put on my raincoat. I trodded on in the rain, there was fortunately some shelter near the Ahu itself where I could wring my clothes and take a shot from a distance.

             

Ahu Akiwi – Los Siete Exploradores

The Seven Explorers as they are known, are the only Moai group that looks like a team, roughly the same size and looks. The Ahu is oriented strictly from north to south so that at summer solstice the statues face exactly sunset and at winter solstice the sun rises in their backs. Thus this is believed to have been some kind of Observatory for the Rapa Nui people. There is also a legend that the Seven Explorers were the first group to have landed on Rapa Nui before the true settlement began.

When the rain subsided a bit, a farmer gave me a lift to Hanga Roa, but I was still set to visit one Moai more that is practically into the village and easily accessible by road. This Moai is known as Ahu Huri A Urenga, another Astronomer, facing directly the sun at the winter solstice. It is also the only one to have four hands carved but as they are close to the body I had not even noticed them at he site.

  

Ahu Huri A Urenga – the Moai with four hands

Again a local gave me  a lift to the village as this statue was quite in the outskirts  and I hurried again to the Ahu Tahai, but no luck, the horizon was all cloudy so no sunset. I could only catch a glimpse of it through a cemetery cross, very proud of this one shot.

 

 Hanga Roa cemetery at sunset

 

The next day was Sunday and I was supposed to leave for the airport at about 11am. So in the morning I went to the Rapa Nui museum which had quite interesting exhibits and data not only for the Moai but also wooden sculptures, petroglyphs and some interesting 3D printed small sculpture replicas

3D printed replicas in Hanga Roa Museum

Then it turned out the flight was canceled due to bad weather although there was no tempest and I could fly back to the continent only early next morning. Nothing to do, I visited the local church and wandered along the seashore. There is an interesting place with wooden sculptures of the 7 Archangels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Selaphiel, Jegudiel, Barachiel. I only knew the first three.

Hitu Merahu site with the 7 Archangels

                                The Holy water vessel and the Pulpit

 Next morning the flight was very early and I was packing in the dark. So when landing in Santiago I started searching in my backpack for an envelope with some USD 120 cash and it was not there. I explained to my seat neighbours and they phoned the Cabanas Pumakari, the envelope was found and someone brought it for me at the airport in two days so all ended well. If you ask me where I have been, the next photo says it.

 

 

Au Bout du Monde Restaurant

Uruguay

Uruguay: Colonia, Montevideo

05.05 

T: Buenos Aires Colonia  Ferry Colonia 498 ARS 12:30 13:45

S: Colonia

T: Bus Turil Colonia Montevideo  364 UYU

H: Destino 26 Hostel  780 UYU

06.05 

S: Montevideo

H:  Destino 26 Hostel

07.05 

T: MVD Aeropuerto 187 UYU

T: 11:05 MVD RIO 13:45

T: RIO CDG 15:40 07:50 (+1)

08.05 

T: CDG MAD 09:05 11:10

T: MAD SOF 20:05 00:30 (+1)

100 UYU = 3.12 EUR

Colonia

Maybe you have felt it but I was already feeling like "I wanna go home", and also I've been hacking at these entries for two weeks now, using all the spare time I got. Near the end of my trip also the schedule relaxed a bit as I had planned a couple of spare days in Puerto Iguazu and Buenos Aires, just in case. But there I was on the Colonia ferry, seabound for the last country of my trip - Uruguay.  I cannot recommend enough that  you do not go straight to Montevideo, but do a stopover in Colonia. It was the most romantic place on my trip, having both the century old Spanish "colonial" buildings and the sea, well, the Rio de la Plata estuary looks like a sea.

House in Colonia

Colonia lighthouse and church

Once more I told myself: if I could only stay here for a couple of... weeks. But I had to board the bus to Montevideo.

Montevideo

Initially I had booked the Parque hostel but for some unknown reason they canceled and instead Booking.com offered me the Destino 26 hostel and offered to pay the difference. They did, once I was back home.
Quite a number of people had been staying at the Destino 26 for a long time, and knew each other, but I was integrated in the nick of time, first time I spoke French on this journey. In my "stream of consciousness" Destino 26 sounds like a 26 year old femme fatale about to change your destiny.

Next day I first strolled along the Rambla Costanera, the avenue flanking the Montevideo beach, attended some local fair and finally went to the Ciudad Vieja. In the afternoon I took a free city tour.
Uruguay was for a long time a disputed territory between Argentina and Brazil until General Artigas got the idea to set it up as an independent state. Our saying goes "Two men quarrel, third one wins." There is a kind of mausoleum under the monument with guards. At the square there is also the Palacio Salvo by Mario Palanti, twin building to the Palacio Barolo in Buenos Aires.

General Artigas and Palacio Salvo

Something I dearly missed was the Rolling Stones memorial plate in the Montevideo walk of fame, but I was told some fans "collected" it without leaving a trace, at least there it was. They had a concert in Montevideo instead of Buenos Aires once.

Former place of Rolling Stones Memorial Plate

Now, before I board my plane, a couple of photos from the Destino 26 hostel. Lounge, kitchen, garden and finally Shaneila from the reception and me in a hostel carnival sombrero. You don't lack anything. Above all, you always have company at a hostel as it is full of likely minded "locos".

Remember what the name of Ometepe hostel was? Yes, "Life is good". Just dare it.

The End

Argentina

Argentina: Salta, Posadas, Encarnacion Paraguay, Puerto Iguazu, Foz do Iguazu Brasil, Buenos Aires

26.04

T: San Pedro de Atacama  Salta Andesmar 8:30 20000 CLP 10h
F: Argentina
S: Salta by night
H: Ferienhaus 10 EUR

27.04
S: San Bernardo
T: Salta Posadas Flecha bus 1763 ARS 15:15 - 10:00 (+1)

100 ARS = 5.87 EUR

Salta

I was to cross the Andes once again through Paso de Jama, the highest point being at 4810 m. The border control on the Argentinian side is at 4200 m. One could feel the altitude to be higher than in the previous crossing into Chile at Paso Chungara - 4350m but then I was coming from La Paz and better acclimatised. We had to dismount the bus with all our luggage and line up for inspection. The leftmost backpack is mine, quite unimpressive as compared to others.

Paso de Jama border control

The road passes next to a salt lake, so I had an idea what Uyumi in Bolivia would be like. As we descended, scarce vegetation appeared with some cacti first. The slopes of the mountains were multicolored.

Salinas Grandes in the Andes

We reached Salta at dusk. At the bus terminal I bought my ticket to Posadas next day where I could change for Puerto Iguazu. The Flecha bus was quite expensive but they took my card and it was going straight to Posadas where Encarnacion in Paraguay was just across the river. With the other lines I would have to change ealier at Resistencia. paying by card is always more expensive in Argentina, who was plagued by a huge inflation several years ago. Changing money is also more complicated, I preferred doing it in regular offices, rather than with street cambistas.  I also withdrew some cash as I was going to spend about 10 days in Argentina (and around).

From the bus terminal I walked through the Parque San Martin to my hostel, I stayed at the Ferienhaus, impeccably clean.  Changed some leftover Chilean pesos and ate two enormous Don Panchos, in Salta these were  hot dogs with as much salads you could stuff in. In Buenos Aires they were just some meagre hot dogs and at a higher price. 

Salta lies at only 1200 m so the evening was quite pleasant. I walked around the Plaza de Armas with the illuminated Cathedral and the Cabildo, where, rumours have it, sometimes there is a gauchos change of guards. 

Salta Cathedral

Cabildo

In the morning there was some good breakfast at the hostel, I left my backpack in the storage and went to the Cerro San Bernardo, a hill offering a good viewpoint for the whole city.  You start the ascent at the monument of General Martin Miguel de Güemes, local hero of the wars of independence. Argentina has the most monuments of generals on horseback per capita, even the 20th century ones, possibly because the military ruled the country for a long time.

General Güemes

As you climb the 270m to the top of Cerro de San Bernardo there are small chapels with the traditional scenes from Via Dolorosa, below is the scene IV where Jesus meets his mother. 

Salta and the Andes from Cerro de San Bernardo

From the top there is a panoramic view. Did I mention there is also a cable car if you don't want to walk up? The bus was leaving at 3 PM and the journey was to last about 16 hours for the 1000km.
The long distance buses in Argentina are quite comfortable, usually double deckers. The lower deck is the luggage storage and a dozen real beds - camas. On the upper deck  you can only recline - semi camas. You are also served meals on the way. I was trying most of the time to book the very first row on the double decker so as to take photos, but usually they don't offer enough legroom, so on the night buses I was just taking any seat. We woke up next morning to the sight of some cows knee deep in the inundated pastures and finally reached Posadas. I bought a ticket to continue to Puerto Iguazu in the afternoon, left my backpack in storage  and headed to the river Parana.

Cows in the water

28.04

Encarnacion

T: Posadas Encarnacion 42 ARS
F: Paraguay
S: Encarnacion
T: Encarnacion Posadas
T: Posadas Puerto Iguazu Rio Uruguay 15:30 300 ARS
H: Guembe Suites EUR 10

My initial plan was to do a foray into Paraguay at Ciudad del Este from Puerto Iguazu, but it is less convenient as you either need to take a ferry across the river,   or first cross into Brasil and from there into Paraguay. For some reason (smuggling?) prices in Paraguay border cities are much lower than in Argentina and Brasil and this attracts many bargain hunters. So I decided to cross into Encarnacion here. There is a city bus taking you from terminal to terminal across the bridge, but you need to dismount for border control and especially when going back into Argentina there was a lot of traffic.

I went first to the Plaza de Armas, it has some monuments from immigrant communities: Italian, German, Japanese... It was a nice warm 33 degrees Celsius. There was the 200 years old Curupay tree, declared a Natural Monument. I wonder if 200 years is much for a tree, the oldest one in our mountains is over 1300 years and there is a pine tree in California dated at 4,765 years.

Curupay tree

Encarnacion Cathedral

Encarnacion itself celebrated recently 400 years. I talked to some nice old ladies in the park, bought some souvenirs, they directed me to the Cathedral, which, unlike most Spanish planned cities I had been to is not at the Plaza de Armas. The whole city felt somehow peaceful, friendly and cosy, there was no hurry from anyone. Maybe because of the warmth. Then I headed back to Posadas, the bus took me all the way to the terminal.

The journey to Puerto Iguazu was uneventful.  We passed by the ruins of some Jesuit missions, the whole province is called Missiones. For over a century the Jesuits managed the territory establishing among the Guaranis communities similar to early Christian ones, until the Spanish king ceded part of the territory to the Portuguese. After so much desert the lush vegetation was a comfort.  I was staying at Guembe Suites in Puerto Iguazu for 3 nights in a row and it was the best hostel for the whole journey. It had everything: porch, lounge, kitchen with dining room, garden, even a swimming pool. There was even some homemade pudding for breakfast and every possible information and smiles at the reception. I was sharing the room with some girls from Israel, just like in Machu Picchu, they explained that after military service most Israelis, boys and girls alike, come into some money and use it to travel around the world for several months.

29.04

Brasil
T: Puerto Iguazu - Foz do Iguazu 80 ARS return
F: Brasil
S: Foz do Iguazu  63 BRL
S: Parque das Aves 40 BRL
T: Foz do Iguazu - Puerto Iguazu
H: Guembe Suites

1 BRL = 0.27 EUR

Iguazu falls  Video clip

The purpose of going all the way up the narrow wedge of Argentina between Paraguay and Brasil were of course the "Cataratas" - the Iguazu waterfalls. There is the Argentinian side, which is spread over a much bigger space than the Brazilian side, where the biggest waterfall is -  Garganta del diablo - Devil's throat. The Israeli girls had been to both and told me the best place to watch the Argentinian side is from the Brazilian bank of Iguazu, so that settled it for me and next morning I boarded the bus that goes from Puerto Iguazu terminal straight to the Cataratas. They take cards on the Brazilian side. There is an internal bus after the entrance that takes you to the Cataratas proper, when you descend, you are greeted by a horde of coatis, seemingly tame and friendly, but known also to bite, there were warning signs of bandaged hands here and there.

Coatis

First glimpse of Iguazu falls

The falls on the Argentian side are spread across a much larger front, the raging primeval bodies of water are closer to the Brazialian side. You work your way through the forest and the noise of the falling waters becomes louder and louder, with minuscule droplets of water dancing in the air and arcing in rainbows over the falls.

Eleanor Roosevelt has said "Poor Niagara" when she saw Iguazu. I can also offer the video clip, as one must see all this water  in motion as well as hear it. Awed and wet, but happy, I took the bus back to the entrance.

Parque das Aves. 

The entrance to the Parque das Aves or Bird Park is very close to the one for the falls. After watching the brute force of the waterfalls for hours, it was a very welcome change to see the delicate beauty of the many species of birds, butterflies and ... snakes. I took photos  with a tucan and a tame boa constrictor, watched the flamingos dancing against the mirrors of their cage like ballerinas. There is a huge cage with parrots, their splendid feathers contrasting with their coarse cries.

30.04
S: Tres Fronteras
S: Lancha Rio Iguazu
H: Guembe Suites

Puerto Iguazu

Next day I felt tired and lazy in the morning, decided to try the swimming pool, but the water was cold. It was end of April already and April equates to October in the southern hemisphere. There were no other enthusiasts so I went back to the porch and tried to make friends with whoever was available. There were a group of travel guides from Brazil, and Daniela, with the best smile of my whole journey.

With Leticia and Alessandro from Turistche

With Daniela

I felt with less than 10 days left now my journey is coming to en end. Daniela recommended that I go to the port to take a lancha boat trip and also go to the Tres Fronteras place where Parana meets Iguazu river at the triple border point of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil.  Before I leave Puerto Iguazu, a good tip: there is the Arbol Real bakery and confectionery close to the bus terminal, where I took most of my meals: you can choose from a variety of salads and meals and you pay by weight, about 1 EUR per 100g.

01.05
T: Bus Rio Uruguay Puerto Iguazu Buenos Aires 1100 ARS 14:00

02.05
S: Buenos Aires: Puerto Madero, Costanera Sur
H: Hostel Fiesta

03.05
S: Buenos Aires : Recoleta, Bellas Artes
H: Hostel Fiesta

04.05

S: Buenos Aires Tango, City Tour
H: Hostel Fiesta


Buenos Aires

After a final walk through Puerto Iguazu in the morning I boarded the bus and next morning was at the Retiro Terminal in Buenos Aires. It was still early morning and I thought I could go to the Museo de Bellas Artes, which is near, but somehow took the wrong direction, then read wrongly the map as if I could cross the railway and highways some place ahead and finally got lost in something like a favella, asking the police how to get out. I had to go back all the way, but no one even looked cross at me.

To play it safe, I bought a metro card. You can ride 3 times on it without recharging, but it also depends on zones. Buenos Aires has all the aspects of an European city and in fact the overwhelming majority of the population are immigrants. As our tour guide joked, The Mexicans come from the Aztecs, the Peruans come from the Incas and the Argentinians from the ships. Although it looks as if on the sea coast on the map, it is actually on the Rio de la Plata estuary, formed by the Rio Parana, Rio Uruguay and Rio Tigre.

Looking for some wilderness among the concrete, I went to the Costanera Sur on the bank of Rio de la Plata, which claimed to be a an Ecological reserve. The two lakes were nearly dry with neither ducks nor gulls. The river bank was full of signs the water is polluted and swimming prohibited, indeed for a swim in the sea one must drive several hundred km away from the estuary.

The new buildings in Puerto Madero have been built in place of former docks, just like in London. I tried to find the branch office of my company near the exit of the Costanera, but it turned out they had moved out a year ago and I only found them the next day.

Puerto Madero with Puente de la Mujer by Calatrava

The Presidency: Casa Rosada

Buenos Aires: Old meets New

I was staying in Monserrat, the street runs in parallel to the Avenida de Mayo all the way from the Congreso to the Casa Rosada, seat of the Presidency. The Fiesta Hostel however was not a very nice place to stay or at least I happened to be in such a room. People came and went through the night, talked loud, lit the lamp etc. I am used to sleeping with other people in a room from the mountain chalets and the alberges on the Camino de Santiago but there people try not to disturb each other, even if they cannot help snoring. Next day I went to the Recoleta and the Museo de Bellas Artes, which really has an impressive collection. No wonder, at some point Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world and the big landowners spent half of their time in Paris.

 

The museum had chosen Manet's La nymph surprise on their billboard, but I chose a Modigliani for my online album cover.

Recoleta is a fashionable quarter, famous also for its cemetery, where many renowned Argentinians are buried, including Eva Peron, much loved by the Argentinian people. There is also a monument near the art gallery.

Monument and tomb of Eva Peron

In the nearby park there is also the Floralis Generica by Eduardo Catalano, a steel flower opening and following the sun.

Florailis Generica

On the third day I meant to find a tango class, some restaurants offer their space for free lessons in the afternoons and Buenos Aires is the tango homeland (although in Montevideo I would learn the Comparcita is actually Uruguayan!) . So I found that restaurant and thought I could even dance some with a willing  señorita. But most people in there were well... my age.

Tango class

I hurried to a BA guided tour that was starting at the Congreso building and it was more interesting than the tango, We learned not only about the city, but also about the history of Argentina and hopefully it will reemerge as one of the great nations on earth. Especially interesting was the story of the Palacio Barolo by Italian architect Mario Palanti, inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy. There is a twin building across the estuary in Montevideo by the same architect.

                 Tania explaining the story and mysteries of Palacio Barolo

I am tempted finally to include a couple of photos from my second visit to Buenos Aires that occurred in a couple of months. I had two weekends so one I went to the Tigre delta and one to Lujan, a pilgrimage site about 50 km from Buenos Aires. At Tigre, I could also shoot my first clip with a model, Miss Moon, now this is a promising carreer.

Tigre Art Museum

Lujan Cathedral

And, to round up, my travelogue would be incomplete without a photo of the notorious bife Argentino.