The Call of the Pampas - A Personal Journey

It is not a country that features heavily in the travel sections of British Sunday newspapers. You will never see it shining down from the shelves of your local travel agent. Most of you friends will never have been there. Yet there is sits this vast country at the foot of the Americas. Argentina has been on my agenda since 1978 and I am happy to explain why.

In that year the county played host to the globe's major single sport event the football (soccer for Aussie and USA readers) World Cup. I remember as young viewer being mesmerised by the colour, ticker-tape and joie de vie of the host nation as they swept to victory led by the charismatic forward Mario Kempes. Mario, I thought, I am coming to see your country.

38 years later sitting on the tarmac at Heathrow airport instead of the usual joy and pleasure of an anticipated trip I was griped with an unusual anxiety. What if Argentina failed to deliver? What if it had nothing to offer? Perhaps the travel writers had failed to uncover anything remarkable about the land? Was it gripped so firmly by financial turmoil that travel agents steered clear of recommending it as a fascinating destination? I did not know but what I did know is that, come what may, in the spirit of Mario Kempes I would definitely attend a football match.

A thirteen hour overnight flight saw us arrive in Buenos Aires a little after breakfast. A call from the captain: "There is General Strike across the country and the baggage can not be taken from aircraft." Welcome to Argentina.

Jousten Hotel
A stressed airline employee explained that the strike would be over in the afternoon and we could return at that point to collect the luggage. I have been without hold baggage before and experienced has taught me to pack keep essentials in the cabin bag to see one of a couple of days. Instead of hanging around the airport I decided to head to the hotel.What an introduction at Buenos Aires. It was rush hour. I say hour but lasts more like three which were were towards the end of. The International Airport, Ezeiza, is about 15 miles (23km) from the city centre. It took nearly an hour to get in. Happily our hotel, the Jousten, had our room ready. After a couple of hours the airline informed us the strike was over and we could collect the bags from airport and not they would not deliver them. Thank you British Airways. As a consequence it was another 30 mile round trip taking a further couple of hours out of our holiday bags were recovered and the Argentine adventure could formally begin.

Coming up on the Argentine blog -
Getting to a football match - the brightness of Boca - the wonder of Iguazu, the strange glory of Patagonia and the End of the World.

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