Going gaucho in the Pampa (Argentina)

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(Day 355 on the road) Third time in my life in Buenos Aires, and I seem to like the city more every time I re-visit. When travelling, I subconsciously keep asking myself "Could I live here?". I always admire people who have traveled and then - at one point - simply fell in love with a place. And stayed. So far, I haven't found that one special place for me. Maybe one day.

Having said that , and looking specifically at South America, Buenos Aires would certainly be my preferred place, where I could see myself living for a while. It has lots of things that I value in a big city: Amazing cultural offerings, efficient public transport, a great food scene, lots of nice parks, plus security is not much of an issue. Or to twist this around: In most other big cities here in South America, possibly with the exception of Medellin in Colombia, I can't really imagine myself living. Traffic, pollution, security...

So I spent a full week in Buenos Aires. Revisiting places I liked from previous, discovering cool new places. And the city seems to have changed a lot since I was here last seven years ago. Back in 2016, at least in my spotty memory, the city had no bike lanes, no rental bikes, the (now very nice) harbor area was a no-go zone, and there were much less cosy cafes everywhere.

Highlights this time included a great ballet performance at the Teatro Colon, the contemporary Centro Cultural Recoleta, the massive Centro Cultural Kirchner, the informative immigration museum, the grand Museo de Arte Latinoamericano, the quirky Sunday market of San Telmo, as well as a relaxed afternoon in the funky neighborhood of La Boca. The city is big and very diverse, and I could have easily spent more time here.

But such is the life of a traveller - always onwards. In my case, and hour north by train to the small and picturesque town of Tigre. Tigre is so close to Buenos Aires, but it is worlds apart. I spent a sunny afternoon cruising the might Tigre Delta on a catamaran, and it was a pleasant change from the big city.

Fun fact: As the Argentinian government tries to deny and ignore the rampant inflation (over 100% and rising), it has kept prices for public transport at (heaviliy subsidized) pre-inflation levels, completely ignoring the realities of life. Effect: The comfortable one hour train ride from Buenos Aires to Tigre costs 32 Eurocent (90 Pesos), and a bus ride in Buenos Aires costs 0,01 Eurocent (5 Pesos). For a country that is all but bankrupt, this is an amazing and very costly extravaganza.

North of Tigre, on the way to Paraguay (my next country), I was back in Gaucho Land, smack in the middle of the Argentinian pampa. Life here was slooooow. And as they say: When you are surrounded by cowboys on horses, you better join them. I found a grand old Estancia in the tiny village of San Antonio de Areco that offered horseback riding. Riding through the Argentinian Pampa at sunset was indeed very special. And my superior horse-riding technique ensured that my bum hurt for a fair number of days after that.

Soon after that however, as I was pushing further north, my luck left me, as public transport trickled down. And then disappeared altogether. I had a number of days in a row where simply nothing much worked, and it became frustrating and tiresome after a while. For a distance that would normally take one hour on a direct bus, it took me five hours and three buses to get from the village I was in (San Antonio de Areco) to the next bigger town back on the main road north (Campana). Oh, and one bus that broke down in the middle of the road (everybody had to change to a new bus).

And when I finally got to the bigger city, the only viable onward connection was hours later, at 21h at night, with an arrival time of 2am. Which is always a bad time to arrive in a new city. In the end, reaching places I wanted to go became extremely time-consuming, and I gave up on a number of promising spots I had marked on my map. Instead, I ended up travelling a lot faster than I had planned. Ah well.

One place that I was not willing to give up on, and that turned out very hard to reach indeed, was the stunning Ibera provincial park. Public transport to the park exists only on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays. At 4am. Great. Nothing on the weekend (I arrived on Friday afternoon), when most tourists would go. How weird. I spent countless hours calling and texting possible travel agencies and taxi companies. In the end, I found one guide who had an available spot on a tour into the park on the weekend. It was about 15 times more expensive than doing it solo, but it had taken so much to get to the bloody place, I wasn't going to give up at this point and turn back. And to be fair, it was a very nice tour indeed, to a beautiful nature reserve (think monkeys, boa constrictor, crocodiles, water hogs, plus countless birds).

After Ibera, I was properly frustrated with the public transport, and somehow ready to leave Argentina and see what Paraguay has to offer. A comfortable 9h bus journey later (front row-seats on the upper level of the double-decker busses here are simply the best), I found myself in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay.

To be continued...



My route in Argentina: Purmamarca - Tilcara - Salta - Cafayate - Tafi del Valle - Tucuman - Termas de Rio Hondo - Santiago del Estero - Cordoba - La Cumbre - La Rioja - Chilecito - Villa Union -Rodeo - San Juan - Mendoza - Puente del Inca - Uspallata - Mendoza - Buenos Aires - Tigre - San Antonio de Areco - Concordia - Paso de Los Libres - Mercedes - Corrientes.

Next stop: Asuncion (Paraguay).

To view my photos, have a look at pictures.beiske.com.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Looks like great fun
Sorry you got sore.