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 fail...