“DON’T CRY FOR ME….!”

9/11 was a terrible tragedy which will remain in the memory of everyone that lived through that September day. It certainly got a response but it also led to a period when the volume of airline business dipped. British Airways’ strategy to get the public flying again was to offer greatly discounted flights to worldwide destinations, ten a day for a week in a national daily.

I was waiting for Cape Town, one of my favourite cities, day after day and come the last day of the promotion, it still wasn’t there but my eye fell on Buenos Aires for £198 return and I could ring at 9am, two hours from now (I was an early tee off in a golf competition!). 9am duly arrived and it was engaged when I rang; in days gone by it would have been a ring back but now the call is held in a queue with sales messages until connection.

When that connection was made, I quickly said to the girl on the other end not to worry if I wasn’t on line for 30 seconds, I’d be playing a golf shot; was Buenos Aires in March available I asked?

Argentina, the Country of the Tango

The tickets were booked so off I went. I was sitting in Heathrow departure reading the Telegraph when I saw an article about the best 100 restaurants in the World, and number 7, called simply 1884 was in Mendoza, the wine capital of Argentina, at the foothills of the Andes and its highest mountain, Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside the Himalayas.

Mount Aconcagua

I had an overnight stay booked there so I knew where to go for dinner after my drive up into the Andes. To cut a long story short, the Andes Range is spectacular, the restaurant wasn’t at all bad; an old winery was the setting and at £17 for three courses and a bottle of their best Malbec quite an experience. I should add that the peso: dollar which had always traded 1:1 had been devalued the previous week in the midst of the Argentine economy nearing collapse and it was now 3 pesos to the dollar. This was going to be a very cheap holiday.

The stunning Falls

Next stop Iguazu Falls on the border with Brazil, falls on a river always in full flood and so the 250 cataracts were thundering twelve months a year and it was possible to go across a walkway out over the river to almost touch some of them.

I had prepaid the hotel in dollars but the food and drink was in pesos, again tremendous value.

Casa Rosada

My final stop was in Buenos Aires, right in the centre close to Casa Rosada (of Eva Peron fame) round the corner from the broadest highway in the World, the eighteen lanes Avienda 9 de Julio.

There is much to do and see in Buenos Aires, the historic buildings, the tomb of the legendary Eva Peron, the street side cafes with football on seemingly every hour, the fine restaurants. In my case I also took a ferry to Uruguay across the River Plate made so famous during the War as the German battleship, Graf Spey tried to escape the Allies but failed and scuttled itself.

Argentina in my experience is a …to continue reading the rest of the article please, click here.