Argentina has been in the economic wars for so long that locals no longer care. They'd much rather enjoy life, writes PETER CUNNINGHAM
TO DREAM OF the place you went on a holiday is a good sign. I’m still dreaming of Argentina, of the dappled leafy parks and wide venues of Buenos Aires, and the happy people strolling in the long evenings, and the wine and restaurants, and the girls in miniskirts sipping mojitos in the marble bar of the Alvear Palace Hotel.
I still dream, too, of the enchanting Andean city of Mendoza, where from every street you can see the snowcaps of some of the highest mountains in the world. The wine grown on the great plains that run from Mendoza up to the Andean foothills is also the stuff of dreams.
We flew to Madrid and onwards to Buenos Aires – BA to everyone in Argentina. BA is one of the world’s largest cities – between eighth and 18th, depending on the assessment you use – with a lot of visible poverty in the outlying areas.
The enigma of Argentina is the sense of joie de vivre found everywhere in a country where economic crisis is endemic. Inflation is 28 per cent, and the IMF is a more frequent visitor than the milkman. Yet everyone we met was full of the joys of life. “We’ve been in crisis so long we don’t care about it any more,” says Ana Laura Espinosa, who runs a tiny river-tour operation on the Parana Delta, just north of BA. “We enjoy life.” There’s a lesson here for other countries just joining the dole queue.
We stayed at Posada Palermo, a seven-room BB in BA. Palermo is a large and attractive residential district between north central BA and the Río de la Plata. Subdivided into Palermo Soho, Hollywood and Viejo, Palermo is a succession of tree-lined neighbourhoods, teeming with excellent restaurants, bars, clubs and blessed parks. The temperature was always in the low 30s by day, often with a little breeze. (Buenos Aires means Good Air.) Alejandro, the genial manager of the BB, tirelessly answered questions, booked tickets, cancelled them and re-booked them, all the while sucking from his cup of mate (pronounced mat-ay), the national herbal beverage, of which Argentinians are inordinately fond.
Along the Río de la Plata by the refurbished warehouses in Puerto Madero lies a good, if touristy, strip in which to choose a lunch venue. The iconic Puente de la Mujer footbridge – the “women’s bridge” – designed by Santiago Calatrava, abstractly illustrates a couple tangoing, the man towering over the woman, who is leaning back horizontally.
Ten minutes farther south, in La Boca, nonstop tango venues are kept going seven days a week, again squarely aimed at tourists. It’s good-humoured fun for a couple of hours.
On Sundays a flea market takes place in San Telmo, close to Puerto Madero. Hundreds of stalls peddle antiques, clothes and food, surrounded for several blocks by buskers. Musical ensembles with tenors mingle with impromptu tango gigs.
There’s just time to head back to the BB for a siesta before hitting one of Palermo’s famous restaurants. To eat steak in Argentina for the first time is to reinvent the experience. Despite what the EU says about South American beef, when I go to heaven I want the striploin steak they serve at Don Julio’s on Palermo’s Guatemala. It is heaven. Steaks in Argentina are cooked on enormous indoor wood-burning parrillas – grills, pronounced par-eeshas. A word of warning, though: unless you’re a career athlete or well under the age of 30, ask for a half portion. The standard tenderloin is the size of a small roast. In Don Mario’s in Mendoza I went into the kitchen to identify the (relatively) small fillet steak I wanted. I came out thinking I’d cracked the system. Ten minutes later my plate arrived – with two sizzling fillets on board.
Further excursions in BA should include Malba, a beautifully conceived museum of Latin American art, and the La Recoleta cemetery, where Eva Perón is buried. This is not so much a cemetery as a necropolis, where all the lavish tombs are two storeys high. Wealthy porteños – inhabitants of BA – went out in considerable style.
The exotic Parana Delta lies an hour north of Buenos Aires. Afloat on the ever-moving sedimentary deposits and vegetation washed down here by the Río Parana, before it becomes the Plata, this 1,000sq km wilderness of rivers and islands is where many porteños have their summer homes. The train from central BA to Tigre costs less than 20c; a taxi shared by four gets you up here in 30 minutes for the equivalent of €10.
Another trip by river for 15 minutes and we were at the rambling riverfront house of Ana Laura Espinosa and Ralph Meier. Green parrots swooped alongside our little ketch as Ana Laura brought us deeper into the delta for a picnic. We dropped anchor under a weeping willow and lay back as steaks sizzled on the barbecue.
That night we went to Mendoza, 1,000km west, by bus. Spend an hour any evening in BA’s central bus terminal and you realise how bus travel is central to life in Argentina. Vehicles leave continuously, in their scores, for every part of the country. Not ordinary buses, either: these are sleek double-deckers in which everyone has a fully reclining flat bed. Airline-standard dinner with champagne is served; breakfast next morning. The trip took 12 hours and cost the equivalent of €50 each.
Mendoza, capital of Argentina’s wine-growing region, is a lovely, small, well-planned, welcoming city. Its parks, with their fountains and shaded retreats, are a delight to walk through. At 1am Mendocinos are only thinking of going to bed: whole families are still out, savouring the cooler air of the small hours.
Most of Argentina’s top wineries lie within an hour of Mendoza. For avant-garde architecture and sheer quality of wine, the vineyard of O Fournier, near San Carlos, is hard to beat.
Day trips from Mendoza included horse riding in the Andes foothills, through freezing streams, and a four-hour jeep trip up unpaved roads to a height of 4,000m, where we picnicked by the shore of the Laguna Diamante. Temperatures up here were only five degrees, and the air was thin enough to make walking a challenge. Chile was less than 50km away.
As herds of guanacos – cousins of the llama – cantered through nearby green valleys like extras from Jurassic Park, we snoozed off after lunch on the slopes of Cerro Maipo, a volcano (5,323m) that straddles the international frontier.
We spent our final two nights in Colonia, in Uruguay, an hour’s boat trip across the Plata. Gently crumbling but cheerful, with white sand beaches, in Colonia we found Posada Plaza Mayor, one of the loveliest hotels of the trip.
Go there
Iberia (www.iberia.com/ie) flies to Buenos Aires from Dublin via Madrid. Air France (www.airfrance.ie) flies to Buenos Aires from Dublin and Shannon via Paris.
Where to go, where to stay and where to eat
Where to stay
BUENOS AIRES
Posada Palermo. J Salguero 1655, Palermo Viejo, 00-54-11-48268792, www.posadapalermo.com. Really nice BB in architect-renovated old house with garden. Common dining. Ask for Alejandro.
MENDOZA
Park Hyatt Mendoza. Plaza Independencia, 00-54-261-4411234,
www.mendoza.park.hyatt.com. Where Eva and Perón stayed early in their relationship. Very high end but good.
Princess Hotel. 25 de Mayo 1168, 00-54-261-4234411, www.hotelprincess.com.ar. Behind the Hyatt at 20 per cent of the cost. Central with pool. Nice people. Excellent value.
COLONIA
Posada Plaza Mayor. Calle de Comercio, 00-598-52-23193, www.posadaplazamayor.com.Colonial-style building with high-ceilinged rooms set around a fountain-cooled courtyard. Lovely.
Where to eat
BUENOS AIRES
Don Julio. Guatemala 4691 (junction of Gurruchaga), Palermo, 00-54-11-48326058, parrilladonjulio@ hotmail.com. The best steak restaurant I've ever been to. We went twice. Try the Cantina 2002 red.
Nemo. Cabello 3672, Palermo, 00-54-11-48035878. Seafood and tapas in a relaxed atmosphere. Good value.
Bice. Avenida Alicia Moreau de Justo 192, Puerto Madero, 00-54-11-43156216, www.bicebuenos aires.com.ar. Right on the river at Puerto Madero. Linen tablecloths and good if slightly expensive mainstream food.
Velvet Cafe. J Salguero 1803, Palermo, 00-54-11-48237770. Bustling cafe on a busy junction. Enormous helpings of everything. Including wine, €12 per person.
Alvear Palace Hotel. Alvear Avenue, Recoleta, 00-54-11-48082100, www.alvearpalace.com. Grand hotel recalling other days.
MENDOZA
La Barca. Espejo 120, 00-54-262-4233367. Basic food at very low prices.
Don Mario. 25 de Mayo 1324, Guaymallén, 00-54-261- 4310810, www.donmario. com.ar. Where locals go for their steaks.
COLONIA
Restaurant Lo De Renata, Avenida Flores, 00-598-52-31061. Best of a middling lot, in a delightful setting. Great grill. Try El Preciado, 1er Gran Reserva 2004.
Where to go
Spend a day in the Parana Delta (Delta-unplugged, 00-54-11-47283089, www.delta-unplugged.com.ar). A stunning day out at a very reasonable price in this fascinating wilderness an hour from Buenos Aires.
Take a 4x4 excursion to Diamante Laguna and elsewhere. Contact Adventure Park Travel (Sarmiento 681, Mendoza, 00-54-261-4231148, www.adventurepark.com.ar; ask for Nacho).
Visit O Fournier's amazing vineyard, which has award-winning cellars and the best restaurant in the area. Don't leave without tasting the Alpha Crux. (Calle Los Indios, La Consulta, Mendoza, 00-54-262-2451579, www.ofournier.com; ask for Natalia de las Morenas.)
Take a ferry to Colonia, in Uruguay. It leaves from Dársena Norte, Avenida Antártida Argentina 821, Buenos Aires, 00-54-11-43166500, www.buquebus.com.