{"id":12314,"date":"2023-12-21T09:53:57","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T08:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brianhuman.co.uk\/wp\/?p=12314"},"modified":"2023-12-21T09:53:57","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T08:53:57","slug":"mining-the-diaries-76-patagonia-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brianhuman.co.uk\/wp\/mining-the-diaries-76-patagonia-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"Mining the Diaries 76: Patagonia 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Maison Vitraux, Buenos Aires 15th<\/sup> November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disorientated.\u00a0 We took off from Heathrow Terminal 5 at 21.50 yesterday and landed in Buenos Aires at 10.45 today.\u00a0 The flight was uneventful \u2013 flying long-haul is one of those occasions when uneventfulness is a bonus.\u00a0 Just before in-flight breakfast was served we got a glimpse of the impending sunrise: a vivid red-orange-yellow tear in the boundary between the black land and the midnight blue sky, a hint that we were arriving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Georgina, our tour guide for Patagonia, met us at the airport and we joined the traffic into Buenos Aires in a minibus.\u00a0 Maison Vitraux was in a cobbled side street of San Telmo, the city\u2019s oldest barrio.\u00a0 It was a radical modern makeover of an old building, very cool and stylish (but the front door always stuck and basics like lights and showers are a triumph of design over function).\u00a0 We freshened up and found our way down to the bar for a briefing with the rest of the party over a late breakfast that was really lunch.\u00a0 There were eleven of us in the group, a mix of British and Canadians.\u00a0 Georgina tells us: Ushuaia is pronounced \u2018oo-swy-ya\u2019 and may soon be eclipsed by Porta Williams as the world\u2019s most southerly city; fruit and vegetables are scarce and expensive in Patagonia; the weather there is unpredictable, you can have several seasons in one hour, so good jackets and stout shoes are essential.\u00a0 Ground rules, like punctuality, were established.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires, November 2009<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We toured the City after lunch – Georgina\u2019s warning to watch out for pickpockets and \u2018men with sprays who will clean you out\u2019 nagging away.\u00a0 It was a whistle stop tour with a slightly loopy guide, Gabriella, who encouraged us to \u2018look at everything, look at the people\u2019.\u00a0 We try to take in: the flea market and street dancing in St Telmo; La Boca with its football stadium and painted houses; the clouds of purple-blue jacaranda in the Plaza de le Recoleta; Eva Peron\u2019s empty tomb (her body disappeared in 1955) in the Recoleta Cemetery; the waterfront of Puerto Madero; and Avenue 9 de Julio with 15 lanes of traffic, possibly the widest avenue in the world; and the Flores Generica Monument a giant steel and aluminium flower that opens by day and closes by night in the Parque Tres de Febrero.\u00a0 We ended at the Plaza de Mayo, scene of momentous events in\u00a0Argentine history and huge popular demonstrations.\u00a0\u00a0 It is the spiritual home of The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (Madres de los Desaprecides<\/em>), in 1977 the first major group to organize against the Argentina regime’s human rights violations. Today hundreds of joyful dancers for the Super Explosion Orgullo [Pride] de Be Ae <\/em>had taken it over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to the hotel for a wine tasting then out to a melonga<\/em> on the darkened Plaza Darrego.\u00a0 Here people of all aged congregated to learn and practicing the tango \u2013 it was very proper, not a pick up place, the purpose was the dance.\u00a0 Georgina was revealed as a skilled and sensual dancer. She said the art is to ensure that you get an experienced partner, so it\u2019s important not to make eye contact with someone who is unlikely to be any good – once asked and you accept you are committed to a set of five dances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over dinner at a long table in a nearby restaurant – steak (the first of many mountains of meat) and chips – the party began to be at ease with itself. We found the way back to the hotel through darkened streets by ourselves, more by luck than judgement and feeling surprisingly unconcerned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maison Vitraux, Buenos Aires 15th November. Disorientated.\u00a0 We took off from Heathrow Terminal 5 at 21.50 yesterday and landed in Buenos Aires at 10.45 today.\u00a0 The flight was uneventful \u2013 flying long-haul is one of those occasions when uneventfulness is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[734,16],"tags":[924,288],"class_list":["post-12314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mining-the-diaries","category-travel","tag-buenos-aires","tag-diary"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9SdXd-3cC","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianhuman.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianhuman.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianhuman.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianhuman.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianhuman.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12314"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brianhuman.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12317,"href":"https:\/\/brianhuman.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12314\/revisions\/12317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianhuman.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianhuman.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianhuman.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}