June 29, 2020

Favorite Places in Argentina

By roads-rus

 

IMG_0634.jpegWe really favored 4 locations in Argentina–Ushuaia, Salta, The Peninsula Valdez, and Iguazu Falls.

 

One of Many Short Forest Trails - NPS PhotoUshuaia is a city in a uniquely spectacular location, a place where it can snow in the summer.  It is surprisingly sophisticated with great restaurants and more attractions than are usual for such a remote place.  It has a definite end of the world feel.  There in the Southern Hemisphere in early summer, Ruth & I celebrated Christmas with freshly-picked strawberries and talked to people who were either going to or returning from Antarctica.   On a large bay named Ushuaia, this remote outpost once had a prison that was home to Argentina’s most notorious criminals for a couple of generations until 1947.  An attraction we loved was a national park named Do Iguacu.

IMG_0568Salta is a city of about half a million people in the foothills of the Andes Mountains near Bolivia.  We went there mainly so that I could write an article about the Tren a las Nubes, the Train to the Clouds, for a railroad magazine, but we fell in love with this considered-safe city and its culture.  It is said to be the best preserved colonial city in Argentina.  The train left from Salta when we took it, which presented some problems.  It now leaves from the nearby town of San Antonio and passengers take a provided bus from Salta to the train for an awesome 15 hour ride involving tunnels, bridges, switchbacks, and a parched landscape with oxygen provided at the end of each car for those who need it.

IMG_0474.jpegThe Peninsula Valdez is south of Buenos Aires in Patagonia, too far away to drive there.  It’s unspoiled but barren, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with sea lions, seals, guanacos, Magellanic penguin colonies, and much more.  I felt especially isolated on the actual Peninsula where there are far more animals than people, and visitors feel away from everything.  Many go there between June and December to see southern right whales cavorting, and also travel, like we did, to the Welsh town of Gaiman on the mainland for tea and pastries.

Iguazu Falls where 3 countries–Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil–meet, is a world-class, inspiring, unforgettable destination with lots of rather menacing, raccoon-like coatis begging for food in the forest and other unusual animals.  Expect to get drenched.

Hank

 

About roads-rus

Since the beginning, I've had to avoid writing about the downside of travel in order to sell more than 100 articles. Just because something negative happened doesn't mean your trip was ruined. But tell that to publishers who are into 5-star cruise and tropical beach fantasies. I want to tell what happened on my way to the beach, and it may not have been all that pleasant. My number one rule of the road is...today's disaster is tomorrow's great story. My travel experiences have appeared in about twenty magazines and newspapers. I've been in all 50 states more than once and more than 50 countries. Ruth and I love to travel internationally--Japan, Canada, China, Argentina, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, etc. Within the next 2 years we will have visited all of the European countries. But our favorite destination is Australia. Ruth and I have been there 9 times. I've written a book about Australia's Outback, ALONE NEAR ALICE, which is available through both Amazon & Barnes & Noble. My first fictional work, MOVING FORWARD, GETTING NOWHERE, has recently been posted on Amazon. It's a contemporary, hopefully funny re-telling of The Odyssey. View all posts by roads-rus
This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2020 at 8:18 pm and posted in Must See Attractions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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