DAY 1
Monuments abound in Buenos Aires – this one across from the Fine Art Museum always with contemporary architecture in view…
ARGENTINA:
Pampas & Menodoza & Salta!
Three Views of the Country
Buenos Aires: We are packed and ready to leave the well appointed Club Frances Hotel at 9:30. Filled with a second wonderful breakfast, we set out for the Paramo. Our reservation is at Los Patos, “The Ducks”, a lodge on a working, classic estancia. El dueno, Angel Estrada has graciously emailed us with welcome words, arranging our private transfer that will take a couple of hours.
Last night it was just pouring rain on our first night, so we navigate by taxi to a dinner at the Mirabelle recommended by the Ogilvy’s. Try as we might to split the order and manage the oversized portions, we were astounded by the amount of food! The Mirabelle is one of several restaurants under one large canape, so it was easy to confuse it with other places nearby. And that is just what happened. Finally we convene the six of us in one place. It was nearly 10 pm!
Eva Duarte Peron cript, Recoleta Cemetary – Wendy, Gail & Angel
This morning, we are not in a rush. Our driver agrees to an impromptu stop for a quick look at the expansive Recoleta Cemetary. Dick wants to see the Evita Peron grave, a huge mausoleum among many others. (Eva’s remains returned here after years of controversy. She is buried here with her family, the Durantes.) I recall quite remember where the plot is, but a man tending the infamous cats, shows us.
Enormous skyscapes – these clouds must be predicting the enormous rains we will get tonight.
The freeways are open going out of the city at this time of day.Not so in the other direction. Traffic is a serious issue here making 2 hr commutes a regular way of life.
Angel greets visitors at the gate
Historic map of frontier communities west of BA – red is “no man’s land”
The Los Patos sign is a small rectangle on the edge of a thin fence – easy to miss. It is a hard left turn off Rte 41 to the south and the west of the city. The town of San Miguel del Monte, 15 minutes from the estancia, has 25,000 residents. This small place still exerts a powerful influence on the government. We are on the edge of the frontier that in the 1800o’s marked the border between the gauchos and the indigenous tribes.
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