Wine is grown in Argentina all along the bottom of the Andes; from Salta, in the northwest, to as far down as Rio Negro in the Argentine Patagonia. However, the vast majority is grown in the western province of Mendoza. Lujan de Cuyo & the Uco Valley are two of Mendoza’s four wine regions and […]
Continue Reading...Author: Hugh MacDermott
The village of Las Leñas is set 2,240 m (7,350 feet) up in the Andes of Mendoza. It is one of the best and largest ski resorts in the southern hemisphere with a ski area as large as Vail and Snowbird combined and a total drop of 1,200 m (3,937 ft). The village was specifically built around skiing: […]
Continue Reading...
Mount Champaquí is the highest mountain in the Sierras of Cordoba (2,790 meters). The name is in the language of the Henia-Kamiare, Cordoba’s indigenous people, and means ‘water in the head’. Believed to be a reference to the small lake that lies near its summit. This same water is renowned for its resident fairy who many of […]
Continue Reading...
The festival of Jesus Maria is the final of Argentina’s national rodeo competition, held in January. It is a whopping ten days of music, rodeo and parties and for most gauchos it is the biggest date on their calendars. Each province (along with Uruguay & Chile) has a regional competition to choose a riders for […]
Continue Reading...
Cuarteto is a music born and bred in Cordobá and it is considered a cornerstone of the provincial culture. It is famous for its catchy rhythm and outlandish singers. The name comes from the mini (usually four musicians!) orchestras who played at small rural parties in the countryside. It has a fast tropical rhythm, similar […]
Continue Reading...
The Golden Dorado (Salminus brasiliensis), named for where it was first documented in the Paraná basin and its salmon like body (though it is not actually of the salmon family), is a river fish that lives around the middle of South America including much of the north of Argentina. Though they have a beautiful golden […]
Continue Reading...
A lot of Argentine folk music is about a gaucho sitting alone on the Pampas lamenting the loss of his woman / job / horse or all of the above, Chamamé – in general – is the exception. It is a really jolly, fast paced music; danced in pairs, very close together – literally, cheek […]
Continue Reading...
The Mocona Waterfall is an oddity in the waterfall world. Where most waterfalls run perpendicular to a river Mocona runs parallel. This is due to a narrow underwater canyon running along the bottom of the Uruguay river. The falls may be a little cousin of Iguazu but at 2,000 meters wide they are a long […]
Continue Reading...
The Jesuits had missions all across South America though the most famous, thanks to Jeremy Irons and Robert De Niro, are close to the Iguazu falls in the northeast of Argentina, Misiones province. Though the Jesuit missions and missionaries are a controversial topic, wandering around the ruins you cannot help but marvel at what the Jesuits achieved. […]
Continue Reading...
I imagine Richard Maury, the American engineer who built the Cloud Train, must have taken a very deep breath when he first looked up at the route that snakes into the mountains. The finished result climbs to 4,220 mts (13,841 ft) and traverses: 29 bridges, 13 viaducts, 21 tunnels, 2 spirals and 2 zigzags. It […]
Continue Reading...
