1 December 2019
It’s been a while since I last posted and our travels are starting to get away from me. I will attempt to bring you up to date with our adventures in the next few articles.
Peru, Chile and Argentina were all colonised by the Spanish and all speak Spanish. They were liberated by the same chap, Santa Martin, but that’s where the similarities end. As an aside he was a pretty amazing character who took an entire army over the Andes before there were roads, tunnels and immigration officers.
Peru is a mountainous country boasting both Lake Titicaca and Machu Picchu. It’s a country of vegetable farms, potatoes and the delightful pisco sour. Chile is a shoe string shaped country that is again mountainous and fish seem to be the regular item on every menu. From what we have seen Argentina is largely flat and perfect for growing steak and the perfect accompaniment to steak, red wine, Malbec to be precise. Argentina stretches from the cold climate of Patagonia to the lush rain forests of the Iguazú falls region.
I realise this is an incredible shallow comparison between these three countries but trust me they are very distinctive cultures and people. There are however two passions where these countries are in sync. They are all predominantly Roman Catholic and their second religion is soccer. Whilst Catholicism might bring them together, soccer and competition on the field drives them apart.
Back to Argentina. Until now my closest experience with the Pampas was all the pampas grass growing in Australia. Used extensively in the 1970’s as a garden feature it is now a weed. I am now in the Argentinian Pampas and there it is and where it should be, pampas grass. There are also magnificent eucalyptus trees as we have seen in Chile and Peru.
The Pampas is a huge area. It’s flat and incredibly green. The people who work these farms or ranches or the gauchos, maintain their traditions in terms of dress and their work with horses. Ok, so I was on a ranch dedicated to the tourist industry but I did not see a motor bike anywhere. The work was all done on horseback, and no helicopters to be seen to round up the cattle.
It seems Argentina is not a vegan based culture. We enjoyed a lunch under the enormous oaks and eucalyptus trees on the ranch. The lunch comprised some salad and then came the meats. There was chicken and pork and then beef. We had reached our consumption limits when more trays of perfectly cooked steak were offered. We were uncomfortable both with the amount that had been consumed so far and with the fact we had to say ‘no more’. The consumption of the beef was assisted with a good supply of Malbec. We were to discover there was more meat coming over the next few days.
Buenos Aires is a huge sprawling city of 13 million people. The inner city streets are narrow, cobblestone and very similar to the cities of Europe. This comparison includes the architecture, the streets and the graffiti. The city is surrounded by freeways and tunnels designed to shift the traffic quickly but not necessarily successfully. Parts of the city are very modern with new 40 storey apartment buildings dotting the landscape.
A Traveller's Tale 