I had an exciting and stimulating time in Argentina first attending a pain conference in Buenos Aires and then travelling around the North West and up into the Andes. I loved the country outside Buenos Aires, I was amazed at its vastness, one flies over the pampas for hours. The Andes are the driest mountains I”ve been in, all the rain falls on the Chilean side. Driving up to Aconcagua base camp (Oct 13) was an experience in traversing different rock formations. Aconcagua is also bleak. I also went up to Purmamarca (Oct 16) where rock of seven different colours looms over the village. Higher up I experienced the harshest landscape I’ve been been inn- the San Antonio salt flats at 3500 m harsh, blindingly white, hot and lifeless. Here I posed for my photo of the year 2014, leaping above the salt flats.
I enjoyed the architecture of Buenos Aires, the French fin de siècle style but also the new modern developments down by the dockside. In Cordoba I enjoyed the cathedral and the evidence of the Jesuits whose schools have now changed into universities and the sociology students can walk around cloisters. (Oct10) I enjoyed the Spanish colonial town architecture in Salta, here the plazas became lively after sunset. Many of the town houses have now been turned into museums and one can appreciate the older style of living with a central courtyard with other courtyards leading off the central one.
Argentina is rich in museums. The Latin American museum of modern art in BA has a very enjoyable Latin American collection and also the trendiest coffee shop I’ve been in. In Cordoba (Oct 11) a 19 century house had been converted into a fine art gallery with the central stairs being an essential part of the gallery. Across the road was a modern art gallery. Salta(Oct 16) has one of the most unusual museums, The Museum of High Altitude archaeology where one can see the mummies of the Inca children who were sacrificed in a ritual that had multiple aspects, social bonding and being part of the Inca way of life, intercession for good luck and linking the living with ancestors. I suspect that the families felt that it was an honour to be part of this. I also enjoyed the museum of Andes anthropology, which comprised an female academic’s lifetime collection of Andean artefacts. The last time I was in the Andes was in Peru (2006) but I recognised the textiles, dances and rituals as being part of the same ethnic group. The most memorable museum was the Museum of Memory in Cordoba, set up by a group of mothers searching for their children; they have converted the torture centre into a museum where art and memory work together. In one room the possessions of the disappeared youngsters are displayed: LPs of 60s rock musicians and fashionable clothes, a motorbike, the names of the disappeared are on the wall in a poetic flowing piece, like a flock of vanished birds. I gazed at the cells, one is glassed off and I could imagine the torture going on there, It was immensely moving and the curators had used art beautifully to capture the different aspects of disappearing.
I enjoyed Argentinian wine at two very different vineyards, one very traditional with a small cellar and techniques similar to the 18th century. A Dutch investor had developed the other Salentien, and created a 21st century winery with state of the art temperature control, steel vats and the barrels for aging set in a modern surrounding. There was also an art gallery and sculpture outside. We enjoyed a gourmet meal in a modern Scandinavian style dining room.
My historical and political guide for the trip was superb Argentina Reader. History, Culture, Politics. Ed Gabriela Nouzeilled & Graciela Montaldo Duke Univ press 2002. This book combines history, social comment, speeches and stories from each of the main periods in Argentina’s history. From this I learnt what a violent past the country has and how human rights have always been a low priority. I also understand how important Peron was because he took on the cause of the workers and the Shirtless. He established state provision in Argentina and the health and education systems remain.
There are still interesting parts of Argentina to explore, the huge glaciers in the South and the sea life. Next time I would learn some Spanish before I went to improve communicating with people.
Searing hot whiteness of San Andreas salt pans, coloured rocks of Pumamanca.
Went on an English guided trip up to the salt pans of San Andreas. My companions were a pleasant trio (Dutch, Italian, Belgian] from a neuropsychology lab in Brussels and working on pain. Our guide was a surly chap, he was late and then gave us almost no time at the beautiful village of Pumamanca with its amazing 7 colour rock with bands of red, brown, purple, and blue towering over the village.
The scenery was stunning, huge dry rockscapes with. The rocks carved by the wind to look like organ pipes. There were huge valleys with rocks and streams weathering deep fissures in the rock. We went up to the huge salt pans, high but hot under the bright blue sky. The salt varies from being a few centimetres to meters deep and is excavated here. The salt pans form a huge icescape. Our driver got a buzz from a fast drive across the salt. It felt like driving on ice with only white saltscape in all directions. We stopped at a place where salt was forming in small square salt pans, tasted it and jumped up in the air above the icescape, We lunched in San Antonio de Colinas, a rather dour feeling industrial town at 4000 m, bleak and with few people around, I can' t imagine what it must be like to grow up and live there. We descended the rocky valley stopping at a huge viaduct over the river.
Our driver had every Argentinian stereotype; he was contemptuous of women, and laws and governments. He had worked in the silver mines as a machine operator 10 years earlier, then as a long distance lorry driver and flipped in and out of the tourist industry.
We ended the evening drinking in the main square in Salta; I stayed on to hear a local band play under the cadilla. Back to my hotel and packed for my early departure tomorrow.
Salta: Inca child sacrifice in 14century and Andean anthropology
Started the day with a long sojourn in a cool cafe reading about the appeal of Peronism which is rested on his appeal to the working classes, an ability to improve services for people combined with a sense of possibility and nationalism. I can see how it worked well here. The free government health services and free education system are still good, funded by taxes and valued by people.
My first museum stop was at the anthropological museum, Pajcha- Museo de Arte Etnico Americano, an exquisite private collection of an anthropologist who has been working in this region for 30 years. She had journeyed to Cusco traversing the Andean region collecting artefacts, beautiful textiles, brooches and clay figures. They were beautifully displayed over two floors of a house. She was interested in religious iconography and documented the changing depiction of Christ and saints who have acquired local characteristics. St James was very important here. I was taken around the museum solo by a very enthusiastic Keeper who pointed out all the cultural highlights out to me but did not leave me with enough time to browse.
Later I went to the Museum of high altitude archaeology (MAAM) which Andrew Rice would have loved. This is on the main square and is a big local draw. Locals discovered an Inca tomb atop a volcano and in 1999 excavated three children who had been placed there. There was an excellent exposition of the Incan way of life and how these children would have travelled to Cusco for a national celebration and then returned to their locality. They were probably drugged and then froze to death, their death appears to have been peaceful and they were then sat cross legged and entombed on the mountain too. It appears to have been a sacrifice that had multiple aspects, social bonding and being part of the Inca way of life, intercession for good luck and linking the living with ancestors. I suspect that the families felt that it was an honour to be part of this. It is not dissimilar to boys going into the church. There was an excellent video showing the different aspects of the excavation and a medical analysis, CT analysis has shown that the girl had obliterating bronchiolitis. The oldest was a 15 year old, then there was a 7 year old boy and a 4 year old girl. Fascinating stuff.
I had an afternoon of running around in the heat booking a trip to Andean villages instead of the non-existent Tren Los Nubes. Had a nice evening sitting in a open air cafe with pop music and people in their twenties.
Exploring Salta, enjoying the plazas and museums, the tourist peso rate
I went to Salta, a colonial town close the Andes after a friend (Tom Lytttelton)had enthused about the city and to take the classic train los Nubes (train to the clouds) I flew to Salta via Cordoba, going over a huge salt pan in the mountains then great views of the Andes behind Salta.
Salta was asleep when I arrived, the streets were deserted. I was also in a fix as I had no pesos and the taxi driver and hotel did not accept my USD, and I fortunately found a cafe on the plaza where I could pay in USD, Argentina is running two exchange rates an official one of 8 pesos :$ and a tourist one which is published every day and is 14 pesos : $, this is an official rate not a black market one. The tourist rate makes everything here very cheap.
Salta has an interesting mix of architecture with a lot of colonial buildings. I wandered round the Mueos El Norte which started with Inca clay pots and went up to early 20c steam powered carriages. The museum had a series of linked courtyards.
Salta comes alive after 1700 post siesta and hundreds of peoples walk in the plazas, kids play and people relax and talk to each other. Such a contrast to BA.
Sadly the train to the clouds is not running, so I shall take a bus up to San Antonio which is a similar route but not so interesting.
Had supper on the plaza, salad and beer, I needed a light meal after the heavy gastronomy of the day before.
Pedro took us on a wine tour of 2 wonderfully contrasting vineyards. The first vineyard was a small family run operation. The grapes were hand plucked and then pressed in an ancient press. The wine matures and improves in barrels made of French oak. The vineyard technology had not altered for centuries and they produced a significant number of bottles some of which had the wine aging in them, others from the barrel. The farm house was a lovely 19 c building painted pink and with a lovely garden, the roses were scenting the air. It felt bucolic. Of course we tasted the wine, the reds were interesting but not outstanding and I bought olive oil to salve my conscience.
We drove across the plain and into the Valle de Uco area, with its landscape of vines and poplar trees with the mountains as a back drop. We experienced the ultra-modern Salentien estate, a Dutch industrialist has bought up the estate and invested heavily creating a modern 21 c wine producing operation with an art gallery. We had a gastronomic meal in a stylish dining room with huge open windows looking out to the mountains; I had conger eel risotto and a Sauvignon blanc. The wine factory was beautiful as well, with huge tanks laid out and downstairs even the barrels were tastefully arranged around a central area. Our guide took us into the tasting room which had a stone table and glasses and gave a tutorial on the differences between Pinot noir, merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrrah. The Dutchman is clearly producing very high quality wines and I suspect is marketing them as a high end product in Holland. There were also sculptures in the gardens and an art gallery with a collection of Dutch and Argentinian modern work. I was bowled over by the thought and planning that had gone into this development; it was a thing of beauty as well as a factory. This is niche capitalism creating beautiful working environments. I was reminded of the glass factory in Devonport where workers have a beautiful location.
We had a fabulous drive back going onto uplands that looked like the Brecon Beacons but then turning a corner and finding ourselves at the top of a huge dry Andean valley. We descended the twisting narrow road to a small village called Las Vegas. The village had trees with pink and green early spring leaves. A striking contrast to the dry valley and showing how a small amount of water alters the landscape. We also came close to the mountains and with snow lying on the ridges. I quizzed Pedro on the social provision in Argentina quite good and similar to the NHS in the UK. One can get emergency stuff done easily but one has to wait for non-urgent operations. The schools are not as good as they used to be. The biggest problem is low pay and many people have to take two jobs to make ends meet. We also saw some government sponsored social housing.
Ended the day with more wine on the very fine open air terrace at the hotel. It was a lovely day combining art, wine and landscapes. The contrast between this and the two wineries will stay with me for a long time.
Went with Andrew and Kathryn to trek towards Aconcagua with Pedro, a mountain guide. It was an amazing drive under a blue sky and with stunning views of different rocks. The mountain tops were streaked with snow but lower down there were rocks of different colours, yellow like sand lower down and then blackish rocks with carved patterns from heavy weathering. We passed a dried up river bed with many rock strata visible in the river banks. There were occasional small streams supporting trees and we stopped for coffee at an oasis like town with trees and water.
Aconcagua is 6969m and we trekked up from the tourist centre along a path that goes up to the base camp. We ascended through a bleak dry lifeless landscape, no trees. The only birds were a pair of condors gliding around and a pair of sparrows that emerged to pick at our lunch crumbs. We crossed a swaying rope bridge that had featured in the film "7 years in Tibet" ( filmed with Brad Pitt in Argentina). We also had fabulous views of the Aconcagua face with a glacier that stops abruptly. I saw how complex the mountain is with a black weathered mountain at the front, then a glacier and behind that two peaks with snow lying on them. We walked for about 2 hours, at an altitude of above 4000 not very taxing, the worst moment was when I had to run uphill to catch a plastic bag that was blowing away. I would have lost any eco- credentials if I had let a bag blow away in this pristine park.
Almost at the top of the pass is the multi-coloured "Bridge of the Incas" which is an extraordinary bridge built up from centuries if oxidised salts being deposited. We were very close to Chile, just a few hundred yards up the road.
We had a fine drive back traversing the dry landscape. It is the driest mountain I have ever been on.
Sat on terrace for a beer and then had supper in a restaurant on the plaza. Andrew loves mountains and was plotting an ascent. Kathryn had lived in Uruguay as a child and they will go to Montevideo later. That is the flattest land imaginable so Andrew had to get his mountain fix first.
I enjoyed my second day in Córdoba. I wandered around the streets, explored the art galleries and enjoyed my trendy boutique hotel.
First stop was the Museo Freyer in a fin de siècle house and one walks in to a vast reception room with a staircase leading up out of it, it looks very conventional and only later did I realise that some funky modernisation had taken place. This included a staircase covered in black goat fur and panels of plain green light illuminating the front of the gallery. I was very pleased to see Argentine art here after noting the absence in BA. There were some Cezannesque scenes of the fields, portraits both of the rich and ordinary people.
I then wandered around the very modern purpose built Museo of art Moderne and enjoyed looking at some big pieces, one artist made his pieces out of coloured wool, another from overlaid slats. There was also a gallery of photos of Andean people. It was a bank holiday and everyone was out enjoying themselves and relaxing in the sun at the cafes. The cathedral was also busy with a christening going on there.
In the evening I wandered down to old Córdoba and checked out another art gallery, this time in an old town house, with the art works in the former living rooms and a staircase winding up to the upper floor. This had some interesting photos of landscapes and people.
Buenos Aires domestic airport is next to the sea and I enjoyed the beautiful sunlight on the sea before flying to Cordoba. I then flew over endless prime agricultural land flat, watered, green with large fields and farmhouses. No sign of cattle.
Cordoba looked rather poor as I drove in from the airport, small houses, low price shops, it feels like "poor America " on outskirts of town; in contrast the centre feels very Spanish colonial and much wealthier. I walked down to the plaza San Martin, and lunched next to a huge old 16 Carmelite monastery. All the churches here are heavily decorated with marble catholic statues which don’t excite me. The Jesuits were very active here and had large churches which remain but also libraries and colleges, this alone of learning was called the mañzana . The colleges that started life under the Jesuits then became baroque building s and are now university facilities of science and social science. I enjoyed the distance that they have travelled. There are still some lovely cloisters around and the social scientists can now walk around cloisters arguing about Argentine society. But I am irritated by the obvious wealth of ten churches and the poverty of the people around.
The most memorable part of the day was visiting "The museum of memory". This is set in a former torture centre next to the cathedral. It was set up by a committee of mothers searching for their children; they have now converted the whole torture centre into a museum where art and memory work together. In one room the previous objects of the youngsters who disappeared are displayed: LPs of 60s rock musicians and 60s fashionable clothes, a motorbike, one then walks through a room where all the names of the disappeared are displayed on the wall in a poetic flowing piece, they looked like a flock of disappeared birds. I gazed at the cells, one is glassed off and I could imagine the torture going on there, upstairs were more interrogation rooms. On the ground floor the central yard had been decorated with a display of light bulbs hanging from the ceiling and in another form one could hear the testimonies of the mothers, sadly not translated into English. The organisational aspect of the torture was captured by a room with a desk. The judicial investigation was also captured with a photo of the court hearing, middle aged people looking very serious. It was immensely moving and the curators had used art beautifully to capture the different aspects of disappearing. I have always been touched by torture and I found this museum very poignant and moving. The museum was more vivid for me through having experienced the disappearance of Alastair and I thought about him a lot afterwards.
Cordoba is lively in the evenings, lots of electro beat coming out of bars and I had supper next a band playing Andean music with guitar, drums and flute with a large appreciative crowd on the streets.
A city that feels sophisticated to the Latin American traveller but shabby to the visitor from Europe.
I was surprised at how European BA feels; there is French fin de siècle architecture in the old areas in an attempt to smarten the city.
The inhabitants are rather restrained, and don't feel Italian or Spanish, maybe that is the influence of the German and Polish migrants.
Queuing is the norm and the roads are orderly.
The public transport system is also European with an oyster like swipe card for the buses and metro. There is an absence of litter.
The population looks very homogenous with no black faces, and only a few Indian ones. This is such a contrast to the multiculturalism of Brazil feels large middle class. The poor state of the Argentine economy is also palpable and the city feels poor, with many cheap shops; but also expensive designer one for the elite and the visitors. (E.g. Florida Street) the women not as fashionable as I had expected. I had looked forward to Spanish type food but Italian food predominates with pizzas, pasta and excellent ice creams.
Modern BA also has a trendy designer side, our hotel had concrete outside chairs which were also waterproof. There were seats in rooms with nylon strings that both looked cool and were comfortable.
I maxed out on Art museums. Started with Museo del bicentario i.e. 200 yrs. of argentine history and exactly coinciding with the independence war in 1812. It was set in the cellars of an old warehouse and illustrated the different periods Argentine history. Omer persuaded a guide to give us a tour in English. The exhibits were even handed but there have been several dictatorships in the 20 c, what makes the country so prone to dictatorships?
We went on a tour around Teatro Colon an early 20century flourish of gold opulence, awesome and clearly the place to be seen, evidence of older Argentine customs are present in the separation of the sexes on higher levels, and widows had their own area behind a grill were they could neither see nor be seen, but they could hear! It was an interesting building to see but I would prefer a modern Opera house.
Omer and I slipped out at lunch time to go round the Museo trabhat, a new building in the trendy dock. It was an interesting collection with beautiful examples of art across the centuries, set in a modern light wonderful space, we envied the secretaries at this foundation who had open plan offices looking down on the dock.
I also had an exhilarating afternoon at the Museo Modern Art Latino Americano with very modern design and interesting art and also a cafe with BA trendies sipping coffee.
This contrasted with the museum of Belles Arte in which 22 out of 24 rooms had art created overseas. The last two rooms had a few examples of Argentine art, including panels of a war in 1848 between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay which showed the pre-battle beautiful white uniforms of the soldiers and the post battle devastation. I then wondered why so little modern art is displayed in BA. The Museo Belles Artes gave the impression of always looking back to Europe, but this would not apply to 20 century artists. Maybe I need to check out some other places.
I enjoyed being at the pain conference and learnt a lot. It was good to be presenting our interesting results in leprosy patients to the pain community, which we did in a workshop where Omer and I spoke together with Daniel Andrade a bright enthusiastic Brazilian neurologist. Omer has done ten detailed examinations of sensory nerves function in leprosy patients with and without pain sadly we have not been able to identify a unique propain. We can see that interesting profile that leprosy patients have a unique sensory loss . We also heard that other workers are also not identifying unique profiles for diff types of pain in patients. It is good to be adding our data to the data bank. There were also excellent presentations on treatments for neuropathic pain; this is also a challenging area where one doesn’t find unique responses. Also learnt about questionnaires for assessing pain. I also hope to collaborate with the Brazilians in the future.
My first impressions of BA are that it is shabby, quiet, unLatin, but also cosmopolitan and trendy. It has Italian food, French architecture and 21 century museums.
