It’s called El Ateneo, Spanish for “The Athenaeum”, a place associated with learning, the arts and intellectual pursuits. A hundred years ago, it was one of the most elegant theatres in all of Argentina, now it is considered the most beautiful bookstore in the world. Shelves of books replace rows of seating…celebrating a different type of artistic expression. As you enter, the feeling is still one of anticipation. Literature takes …
This is not just “another waterfall’…and believe me, I’ve seen a few and shared them with you; Iceland has Seljalandfoss and Godafoss among their trove of treasures as well as South Africa’s Victoria Falls from both ground and helicopter views. But Iguazu trumps all of these with raw majesty, sound and fury! Iguazu Falls are actually a series of large waterfalls or cataracts on the border between Argentina and Brazil. A …
My joy is to live as free as the bird in the sky; I make no nest upon this earth Jose Hernandez from his 1872 poem The Gaucho Martin Fierro Different from the American cowboy, the gaucho is no Marlboro man with a Spanish accent. South American gauchos were sons of Andalusian pioneers settling in coastal Argentina mid-18th century, who came without women and family, siring mixed blood or “mestizos” …
Visually impressive, sure! I was startled and fascinated by their constant, changing soundtrack, so unexpected from this vast frozen panorama of limitless shades of blue ice formations. Shifting, moving, sometimes calving in great, majestic glacial chunks. Our first views were of the Perito Moreno Glacier in El Calafate Argentina’s Los Glaciales National Park with an ice field that controls the world’s third largest reserve of fresh water! Once every four …
The Argentine tango, a passionate dance and music style emerged in the late 19th century in Buenos Aires, Argentina from a blend of European, African and native influences, especially in the working class and immigrant communities. In the great immigrant flow of the early 20th century, tango became the culture of Buenos Aires’ neighborhoods, bars, nightclubs, and popular theater. Once “the forbidden dance, ” it had been typically considered to …