Podworld - Exploring interesting places

It has to be one of the most dramatic natural sights I have ever seen. There was no real hint of it before hand. Then suddenly piece by piece a glacial wall collapsed in front of me. Quite astonishingly I was filming the event at the time. A wonder of nature. The base for the glaciers is the southern Patagonian town of El Calafate. There are frequent flights to the nearby airport from Buenos Aires and Ushuaia.The nearest glacier is Perito Moreno which is a little under an hour's drive from the town. There are plenty of organised coach trips too. Reaching the base of the  glacier is easy along one of the best roads Argentina possesses. There is a small charge to enter the National Park area. It is worth it. At the end of the road the visitor area is well laid out with walkways allowing tourists to many vantage points of the glacier. The first thing you notice is the noise. Quite frequently there will be a mighty groan. This is the compacted ice moving within the glacier.

Argentina in foreground and left, Brazil to the right and Paraguay ahead I will confess to knowing little about the Iguazu falls before booking my journey to Argentina. In fact all the travel books I was reading before climbing aboard the plane had images of Patagonia and most particularly, Mount Fitzroy on the cover. That is not to say Patagonia or Fitzroy is not deserving and that will be covered in a later blog. Getting to Iguazu was simplicity itself. I took a LATAM (formed from the LAN TAM merger) to Iguazu airport from AeroParque (Jorge Newbury) the city centre airport in Buenos Aires. Latam Argentina  It was my only LATAM flight which did not under go a schedule change. From Iguazu it was a 20-30 taxi ride to the hotel, the Panoramic Hotel . It afforded views of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay from the swimming pool. The falls can be reached a number of ways. The most popular is by taxi or emis but you can also book a tour. It is also possible to view the falls fr

In one of the earlier postings I mentioned that the initial motivation for travelling to Argentina was to see football. That is not to say the other natural wonders did not stimulate and amaze but it was football that drew me there. My first exposure to the seemingly extraordinary nature of Argentine football was from my sitting room as a child watching the 1978 World Cup hosted and won by Argentina. I loved Mario Kempes and his flamboyant playing style Mural of Diego Maradona If you are a visitor to Argentina and would like to see a game read the blog carefully as I guide you through the a few pitfalls. Going to a match in Argentina is not like visiting your local game in Europe or the USA. First a little background. Our trip was in the Argentine spring or northern hemisphere autumn (fall.) Reading up on the Argentine league I learned that the authorities had decided to move the league to run in parallel to the major European leagues, i.e. during the Argentine summe