As part of my new job with Maxim Tours, I spent the last 10 days of July hopping about Buenos Aires and the Argentine Patagonia on a fast paced inspection tour.

Where is Patagonia, you say? Grab your world maps, boys and girls. Better yet, grab one for South America as well. Got it? Good. Now we'll begin. Patagonia is that large area of land that extends across the lower third of Argentina and Chile. The northernmost part of Patagonia is bordered by Puerto Montt in Chile and extends across Bariloche (western Argentina) to the Peninsula Valdés (on the Argentine east coast. This area is known as the Lake Region and is filled with deep blue lakes framed by volcanoes and snow capped peaks. The tourism here is year round, drawing sightseers and hikers in summer (December through March) and skiers from as far away as Europe and the American West in winter (June through August). No, the dates are correct and I have not been drinking too much of that outstanding Argentine wine. This is South America and the seasons are reversed.

The southernmost part of Patagonia is at the bottom of the world, with places such as El Calafate, Punta Arenas and Ushuaia. These areas contain some of the largest glaciers and penguin colonies in the world. Ushuaia, in fact, is called Fin del Mundo ("End of the World") because it is the southernmost city in the world. (Take a look at that map that is sitting next to you). The weather here is cold during our summer (their winter) and pleasantly warm in our winter (their summer).

BUENOS AIRES
Let's begin our journey first with Buenos Aires, the lively capital of Argentina, a 10-hour non-stop flight from New York. Because these two cities are on the same time zone, jet lag is less of an issue than a flight to Europe. Buenos Aires is similar to New York in that it is a 24-hour city and about the same size and population. But the similarities end there. It is like Paris in that the low-rise buildings are old, and well preserved and the sidewalk cafés are full year round. But the similarities to Paris end there as well. Buenos Aires has its own personality, as visitors soon discover. Unlike the northern countries of South America, Argentina and the other "cone" countries (Chile & Uruguay), have only a small indigenous population. Many residents of the capital city (called Porteños) are descendants of immigrants from Italy or Spain or northern European countries such as Germany or Holland. Buenos Aires looks more European than Latin. It takes about 3 days to cover the major highlights of the city. My first trip to Argentina was back in the 60's when I was a very young woman traveling alone throughout South America. Back then there were only a few first class hotels in Buenos Aires. Now there are hundreds of hotels ranging from super deluxe (old world and modern) to basic budget. One of the must see's is the famous cemetery with its incredible statuary and often visited tomb of Eva Peron. The city is loaded with museums, trendy restaurants, and theatre of all kinds. Many Porteños go to the theatre frequently as it is popular, good, and affordable. The beautiful Teatro Colon is famous for its opera and classical performances.

Tourist and locals alike flock to Calle Florida (Florida Street), pronounced CAHZ JAY FLOR EE DAH in the local Argentinean accent. This pedestrian only shopping street is lined with exquisite stores from very high-end to moderate priced. The window displays of Argentine leather goods are eye-popping, not to mention those of alpaca scarves and beautiful sweaters. The street is filled with cafés and street performers including the ubiquitous tango dancers, happy to display their intricate steps to the passers-by. The tango has had a resurgence in Buenos Aires and seeing a tango show at night in the old section of town is a fun thing to do. I saw one at El Viejo Almacén, most appropriately named the Old Grocery Store, because that is what it once was, before its reincarnation to a tango café. Tango steps are intricate and fast and require a strong fit body. It is a very beautiful and sensual dance to watch. The women always perform in specially made high heels and slit skirts to allow mobility.

Another popular excursion is a full day trip to a nearby estancia or ranch. There are many to choose from and they all offer an asado (Argentine BBQ) with wine as part of the day tour. Sometimes you eat with the family and then you are free to ride their horses, swim in the pool, or take a carriage ride on the estancia. Others offer a full-blown show after the asado, including tango, gaucho dancing and later, after the meal, gaucho races. Argentinean gauchos, unlike our lone cowboys of the American West, are very social creatures, and are known for their sense of humor. They often serve as waiters and performers as well as carrying on their ranch duties. Visiting an estancia is a delightful way to spend a day, or even an overnight! Many estancias have a few rooms for overnight guests.

Argentineans consume more beef than Americans and their beef is among the best in the world. Since it is not pumped full of hormones as it is in the USA, you can consume daily quantities of it, without the unpleasant side effects. Accompanied by one of the excellent local wines, such as a Malbec, you have a wonderful meal. Food is reasonable in Argentina. You can enjoy a great steak dinner with wine and tip for less than $20.00.

Time permitting, you can take a one hour hydrofoil ride from Buenos Aires to Colonia, Uruguay, a beautiful colonial city once ruled by the Portuguese and later claimed by the Spanish. While visiting Colonia, I had lunch at an outdoor café. Parked by the curb was a bright yellow 1950's De Soto convertible that was part of the restaurant. The front seat had been removed and replaced by a little café table. The Porteños often come to Colonia on weekends to enjoy the fine beaches on the outskirts of the city.

PENINSULA VALDEZ
My next stop was Peninsula Valdez, the northern part of Patagonia, and a short flight from Buenos Aires. This is a vast barren land jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean. The area is famous for its sea life, including southern right whales, elephant seals and penguins. The Puerto Tombo Rookery draws one million penguins from November to March. The southern right whales come here to mate and breed and can be spotted from the beaches or even right from the center of the town of Puerto Madryn. The mother's milk is 52% fat so the baby whales gain 200 pounds a day! They need to do that because soon they will follow their mothers into colder waters and they require ample fat reserves. At birth the babies weigh 2 or 3 tons but they have to quickly catch up to their mommies that weigh about 40 tons each. The elephant seals come on the beaches to molt and will lie quietly on the sand for about a month, trying not to use any energy while they are molting. As long as you do not get between an elephant seal and the sea, you can walk very close to them. Some of the harems have as many as 120 females. The harem master has a tough time protecting his ladies from "touch and go" intruders.

Much of the land of Peninsula Valdez is used for raising sheep. I visited one of the ranches and shared some maté and sweet cakes with the very hospitable ranch owners of San Guillermo Ranch. Drinking maté is a local custom in Patagonia. Maté is a very strong tea served in a fist sized round container, which is passed around the table. You drink through a metal tube. Some of the containers are beautifully decorated with silver or leather and are often sold in the tourist shops. The sheep farms, or estancias, often have a collection of dogs or guanacos. Guanacos are similar to llamas or alpacas. Guanacos also have very soft wool, even softer than sheep's wool but they can be nasty creatures and do not like to be sheared. They kick and bite, unlike the sheep who are docile and fearful during shearing. I inspected one of the wool storage rooms, piled high with bales of raw wool. The raw product is thick and sticky from the body oils of sheep; very different in feel from the finished product we wear on our backs.

The airport entry point for Peninsula Valdez is in the town of Trelew, which means "Lou's town" in Welsh. Right outside of Trelew is the town of Gaiman, a completely Welsh town. The homes are built in Welsh style, the inhabitants are bi-lingual in Welsh and Spanish and you can enjoy Welsh tea with Welsh music in one of the many teahouses in Gaiman. Having high tea in Gaiman was one of those quirky experiences that I love to do when I travel. How did the Welsh get here? The famous ship, The Beagle, came here. If you remember your history, Charles Darwin sailed on the Beagle when he visited the Galapagos, a voyage that later prompted his famous Theory of Evolution. After the voyage, Captain Fitzroy wrote a book about South America and places where he thought people could live. Because of this book, the Welsh came here in 1865. Two Welshmen came, determined the place was OK, then 150 Welsh came later, and started the first colony.

While traveling throughout this barren area, I noticed a lot of shrines along the open roadside. I learned that many roadside shrines were placed there by truckers during the Civil War. As the story goes, a wife tried to cross the desert with her baby to warn her husband of danger. The wife died of thirst and the baby survived (a miracle). The roadside shrines contain water bottles, so anytime a trucker breaks down, he can find water. Truck drivers leave them for other truckers.

USHUAIA

Grab your South American maps once again and run your finger all the way down to the bottom of Argentina. See that town with the unpronounceable name - Ushuaia? That is my next stop - the southernmost city in the world. It is pronounced OOSH SHW EYE AH, the name given to it by the native indigenous settlers called the Yamanas. This unique port city promotes its unusual location in many ways. It offers the southernmost golf course, the southernmost ski area, the southernmost squash court, even the southernmost parakeet - and a big one to boot!

Ushuaia is located right on the Beagle Channel, the waterway that separates Chile and Argentina. As described in Part I, Charles Darwin sailed these waters on the ship called the Beagle. Another famous landmark is the lighthouse in the channel that Jules Verne wrote about in his poem, "Lighthouse at the End of the World." The mountains form a dramatic backdrop for the city and come almost right down to the sea. Consequently many houses are built on hillsides with a fantastic view from their back or their front yard. Ushuaia looks like a pioneer town, a mixture of fancy and plain, side by side. Many houses, called sledge houses, are built on logs. The reason for this is that the government owns the land and if the government needs the land for another purpose, you have to move your house. Having it built on logs makes it easy to move.

Ushuaia, like all of Patagonia, and unlike the rest of Argentina, enjoys full employment. Consequently the population is young and growing fast. In 1985 the population was 15,000. In 2005 it is now over 55,000.

Ushuaia was first established as a penal colony, due to its remote location. Prisoners were required to chop and haul wood from the vast forests around Ushuaia, needed to supply the growing port. A prisoner train was soon built called "Tren del Fin del Mundo." (The Train to the End of the World). Today this operates as a tourist attraction and tourist groups often dress up in prison garb while prison "guards" assist them onto the train. The train is no longer open air as it was for the prisoners. Tourists can ride on the original tracks but in closed comfort, enjoying a cup of hot chocolate along the way. The view has changed; what was once dense forest is now mostly peat bogs with a smattering of trees.

The train stops along the way so passengers can get out and take pictures of waterfalls and other attractions such the ancient site of the original inhabitants of Ushuaia, called the Yamanas. These indigenous people lived in the area year round wearing only a loincloth and living in depressions in the ground or under simple huts made of sticks and dirt. They coated themselves with seal grease to keep warm and lived off the land by fishing and gathering berries and roots. Today a beautiful hotel in Ushuaia in named in their honor - Las Yamanas It sits facing the Beagle Channel. The entire front of the hotel is plate glass. Every room has a floor to ceiling view of the channel. During the in season, hundreds of penguins come up to the beach in front of the hotel deck and the guests go crazy taking pictures, giggling the entire time.

Beavers are often a topic of conversation in Ushuaia. They were introduced to the area in the 1940's and, with no natural predators, they have grown to enormous numbers and size. Instead of weighing a normal 20 pounds, they usually average 50. Instead of living 7 to 8 years, they often live to 20 or more years. Consequently there are beaver dams everywhere, many of them the size of a city block. And trees everywhere show the handiwork of the beaver's sharp teeth.

The main attraction of Ushuaia is Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) National Park. This vast wilderness contains snow capped mountain peaks, forests, peat bogs, beautiful lakes and lots of history and hiking trails. Harberton Ranch was founded in 1869. In 1896 the Coast Guard came to visit and that was the official start of the town of Ushuaia. Immigrants soon followed from Italy, Russia and Northern and Eastern Europe.

In between my hotel inspections and briefings I got to enjoy many interesting excursions, but my favorite was dog sledding. (Remember I went in July and Argentina is reverse seasons). I was pulled by a team of 8 dogs, all yapping and banging against one another. I was surprised at how fast they go and how easily they run. I was also surprised to learn that they pass wind and poop while running. Nature has its way, especially in the great outdoors.

EL CALAFATE

North and west of Ushuaia is the vast area of Calafate, which contains Glacier National Park. The park itself contains numerous glaciers, the most famous of which is Perito Moreno. Perito Moreno is one of the earth's few remaining advancing glaciers. About the size of Manhattan, it is the smallest and most accessible of all the glaciers in the park. Up until the 1990's people used to view the glacier from a volcanic beachhead across a narrow strait. As the glacier would calve, enormous waves would form in the strait and occasionally wash a few tourists out to sea. Eventually a series of platforms were built above the beachhead allowing tourists to view the calving glacier in complete safety. The platforms interconnect to form a big loop about a mile or two in length. It is an awesome experience to hear the cracking sound and echo of a 20 story high glacier split off a piece of itself and then watch it fall into the water.

Besides viewing Perito Moreno from the platforms, you can take a boat ride through the channel or even hike another section of the glacier on a guided tour. Wearing crampons, you hike for about 2 hours over hilly terrain. Children must be at least 8 years old to participate. Excursions are offered to other glaciers such as Upsala and Viedma, a little less accessible, but many times larger than Perito Moreno.

Much of the area of Calafate is composed of vast estancias (ranches). In Calafate they are mainly sheep ranches. Benneton owns one of the largest with over 20,000 head of sheep. Benetton gets 40% of the wool for its sweaters from this one ranch alone. The estancias are so huge, that they often have four or more ranch huts spread out over the estancia. A ranch employee will live there by himself for months on end, keeping an eye on the sheep, and awaiting weekly delivery of needed supplies.

The land around this enormous area is stark, barren and beautiful. Getting from one place to another requires drives of anywhere from one hour to many hours. The locals, along with some tourists like me, often drink lots of maté to keep you stoked up. Along the way you will see surprising glimpses of wildlife - eagles, condors, even flamingos!

Near the airport is the small rapidly growing town of Calafate, currently about 15,000 people. The main street is very lively at night with lots of lovely shops featuring Argentinean leather and woolens and several good restaurants all offering the classic asado - beef or lamb barbeque. You can choose to stay in town where there are dozens of hotels and pousadas, from budget on up to deluxe. Many of them are family owned and operated. From there you can take day excursions to the glacier fields. There are a few estancias that offer a few rooms. Helsingfors, a remote estancia within the park is one example. Founded by a Finnish family over a hundred years ago, their charming hostel offers a complete package of meals and excursions in a breathtakingly beautiful setting.

Another area for tourist is El Chaltan, in the northern section of the park. This is about a 5-hour drive from the town. El Chaltan offers many refugios (upgraded mountain huts with full service) in a setting that many consider to be the finest trekking area in the world. The vast trail network is well marked and you can hike with or without a guide. Los Notros, a famous deluxe mountain lodge across from Perito Moreno Glacier, has just built another property in this area.

Well, that completes my story about the history, geography and tourist sights of the Argentinean side of Patagonia. Now when you hear someone mention Patagonia you will not only know where it is, but you and your kids will be able to spout a few interesting facts about the area.

 

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WRITER'S BIO
Brenda Elwell is the author of The Single Parent Travel Handbook and managing editor of The Single Parent Travel Network, a Web site and free monthly newsletter chock full of Single Parent Travel Specials. A veteran of over thirty years in the travel industry, she has traveled independently to more than 60 countries, half of them with her two kids in tow. Brenda may be reached via e-mail at brenda@singleparenttravel.net.

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