Bonnie Tucker / FST
The best new culture-and-nature excursion presented at the Expo Patatonia show in Buenos Aires was that of Meseta Infinita, an organized group of small ranchers and artisans from a town in the middle of the Río Negro steppe who receive travelers who are interested in the real thing in Patagonian places and lifestyles. AVINA, an international NGO that advises small entrepreneurs and helps them launch undertakings based on sustainable activities, is one of the sponsors.Many of the group’s excursions take visitors to the Somuncurá Plateau, a basaltic formation that occupies more than 23,000 km2 of central southern Río Negro and part of northern Chubut – an area similar to that of the province of Tucumán. Its average elevation is 1,000 meters above sea level, but its relief is by no means flat or monotonous. Its landscapes include volcanic cones, canyons, mountain ranges whose highest peak reaches 1,900 meters, and more than 300 lagoons, many of them ephemeral.
The best new culture-and-nature excursion presented at the Expo Patatonia show in Buenos Aires was that of Meseta Infinita, an organized group of small ranchers and artisans from a town in the middle of the Río Negro steppe who receive travelers who are interested in the real thing in Patagonian places and lifestyles. AVINA, an international NGO that advises small entrepreneurs and helps them launch undertakings based on sustainable activities, is one of the sponsors.Many of the group’s excursions take visitors to the Somuncurá Plateau, a basaltic formation that occupies more than 23,000 km2 of central southern Río Negro and part of northern Chubut – an area similar to that of the province of Tucumán. Its average elevation is 1,000 meters above sea level, but its relief is by no means flat or monotonous. Its landscapes include volcanic cones, canyons, mountain ranges whose highest peak reaches 1,900 meters, and more than 300 lagoons, many of them ephemeral.
Proof of the marine incursion that covered the region 65 million years ago is the large number of fossil beds in the dry gulfs, capes and bays that can be made out atop Somuncurá and the neighboring Central Plateau. 
Somuncurá has very few inhabitants and several endemic plant and animal species. Most people are small sheep ranchers, and some also raise guanacos and rheas.
Some Meseta Infinita members are Mapuches, members of the major indigenous ethnic group whose ancestors came to live in this area at the end of the 19th century. Today their women are willing to give visitors a hands-on seminar on washing and dying wool and weaving rugs on traditional looms.
The group offers all-inclusive packages of three or four days that begin in Los Menucos, a town of 3,000 inhabitants at the foot of the Somuncurá Plateau halfway between San Antonio Oeste on the coast and Bariloche at the foot of the Andes in the province of Río Negro. You can get there by bus from Bariloche (360 km) or Viedma (500 km). Activities can be arranged in accordance with the visitor’s interests: sheep farm activities including droving and shearing; the ins and outs of rhea and guanaco raising; slate mining; traditional Mapuche weaving techniques; fossil deposits, and rock art sites that are more than 10,000 years old. Accommodation may be in ranch houses, outposts, or tents if excursions range very far afield on the Somuncurá Plateau. Travelers eat with ranch families.
I haven’t done this yet, but it sounds good and I am passing on the information. For more details, see http://www.mesetainfinita.com.ar/ , and e-mail info@mesetainfinita.com.ar or call (02944) 15-613-100 or (02940) 492-051.PHOTO CREDITS: Lagoon in a volcano crater; fossilized sea shells found on the plateau; rancher with guanaco; weaver; cooking on a plow disc; a ranch house living room. All courtesy of Meseta Infinita.
Every year, the town’s feast day in honor of the Virgin of the Rosary takes place on the first Sunday of October. Hundreds of people from the Puna come to take part in the processions and exchange their products in a fair that harks back to pre-Columbian times. This is when baptisms and marriages take place, and it is a time to enjoy religious processions whose protagonists are “cachis,” a group of disguised people with masks that are used only in this festival and kept in the church the rest of the year. The group, comprised of 10 people who for the most part are pilgrims from Iruya itself, symbolize a family who with their possessions and livestock entreat the Virgin for her protection against the temptations of a black man who also acts as a buffoon, but is really the group leader. The characters they play are the young and old members of the family, a bull and two horses. They dance in front of the Virgin whose image advances with the procession through the streets to the accompaniment of musicians who play traditional instruments such as the erke and the sikus.
This year, the festivities will take place on October 3 and 4. There will be processions at noon and in the evening on Saturday, and at noon on Sunday.
Its beacon, whose 300,000 candle-power beam was visible as far away as Colonia in Uruguay, was used to announce matters of importance to the population, of which the most famous was the result of the Dempsey-Firpo prize fight that took place in New York shortly after the inauguration. Porteños knew that a green light would mean a victory of the Argentine favorite, and red defeat. That night began with jubilation inspired a green light, but ended with bitterness when the color unexpectedly changed to red.The beacon was repaired thanks to a campaign by the City Hall’s Doors to the Bicentennial Program, which obtained contributions from the owners of the 240 offices in the building, the Italian Embassy, and private companies. From now on, the Barolo’s beacon will be turned on for a half hour on the night of the 25th of every month to commemorate the revolution of May 25, 1810.
People who want to see wildlife anywhere in the world should check the Internet for the breeding seasons in the different locations before setting out. For Magellanic penguins in Chubut, the best time is never at the beginning or end of the season, but rather from November, when the chicks hatch, to January, when they are walking around and the rookery teems with birds. In February they begin to molt and look scruffy.
When booking the Todo Glaciares cruise in El Calafate, try to make sure that on the day of your trip passengers will be able to disembark in Onelli Bay (the place where the Upsala branch of Lake Argentino is separated from Lake Onelli by a spit of land). For many, this landing – the only one during the full-day cruise – is the biggest attraction of the excursion, as it involves following a path through a lovely beech forest and coming out on Lake Onelli full of little icebergs from three glaciers. At times the bay is so full of icebergs that the boat can’t get to the wharf. And if the Onelli Bay restaurant is closed, as it usually is during the low season, you will have to eat a box lunch (made by you or brought from your hotel) elbow-to-elbow with 300 other passengers on the catamaran. (Many people think it is best to bring the box lunch anyway, so as to be able to dedicate the little time allotted to this stop, to looking at Lake Onelli instead of waiting for a place in the restaurant.)
In Pampa Linda, a unique hiking and horseback riding center at the foot of Mount Tronador outside Bariloche, you can ride in the lower valley in the spring. However, experienced riders who want to see the top of the Andes should consider that the snow on the upper reaches of the surrounding mountains takes a long time to melt, so the center’s all-day horseback rides to really interesting lookout points can’t be done until December or January.
The deadline for sending prints or 300 dpi digital images in 30cmx40cm format is Oct. 1. The photos must show how the mate sipping habit has overcome economic and cultural barriers in Argentina. For more information, contact him at (03757) 423-099 or 
The club is 50 km from Buenos Aires – a 40-minute drive in a car or minibus, or 15 minutes by helicopter. Visitors are picked up at their hotels at 11am and are taken back at 4pm, or later if they want to see all the chukkers played by club members during the rest of the afternoon. Upon arrival they are treated to empanadas and a glass of fine wine, and during the following tour of the premises they are told about the history and rules of the game; the selection and training of horses; and riding tack and gear. They watch club members play two chukkers, and later sit down with some of them to a sumptuous barbecue lunch beside the playing field. The game continues while they eat. Afterwards there are two options: expert riders can learn how to do a bit of stick-and-balling (US$50 extra), and those who know little or nothing about horses can ride some tame retired polo ponies around the property beside the Luján River (included in the rate). The polo day costs US$140 per person, including minibus or car transport. Minimum group: two. For more information, visit 
The parades are led by the “Black Monk” (in reality a pretty blonde woman who sports a gigantic pretzel pendant on a black cowl robe), followed by kids dressed like sausages, adults dressed like German peasants, and the dance delegations. This year, the Beer Festival queen will be chosen and crowned on the night of October 3. According to the program, the keg will be tapped on five different days, and there will be six parades. Get the details at 
Montecarlo and seven other small towns along a 90-km stretch of National Route 12 heading north from Posadas stand out for their plant nurseries, bathing beaches, and farms that receive and/or lodge tourists.
All other activities are free. Inscription for workshops led by artists from Argentina and abroad will be open until September 25 at 
On Saturday Oct. 3 at 7pm, a parade of floats bearing Flower Show queen candidates; horse-drawn carriages, and vintage cars will begin to wind its way through the streets of Escobar. On Sunday Oct. 4, the Flower Queen will be chosen and crowned. If it rains, these events will be postponed until the following weekend.
Those who feel like seeing more of the Delta can return to Buenos Aires from Isla Margarita via Tigre with the Delta boat company (4749-0537), and the train from the Tigre terminal. The trip through the Delta takes nearly two hours. Information: 4728-2495 or 
The return cruise from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia on October 13 lasts four nights and calls at Ainsworth Bay, Tucker’s Islet, the Pía glacier, Glacier Alley, Cape Horn and Wulaia Bay. The cost varies according to the cabin and whether the season is promotional, low, high or special (Christmas and New Years). Hence the least expensive cabin can cost from US$840 to US$1,930 and the most expensive one from US$1,359 to US$2,500 for three nights, and US$1,120 to US$2,590 and US$1,800 to US$3,340, respectively, for four nights. The first Australis fjords cruise of the season leaves Punta Arenas on September 19 and the last one departs from Ushuaia on April 14, 2010.
The 17 suites reflect the spaciousness of the scenery with a décor set by the hues and textures of the surrounding land and the colors of the seasons. The smallest is 38 m2, the largest 60 m2. They and the shared areas (including a heated indoor swimming pool that guests tend to use only if the weather turns inclement) surround a grassy inner compound, protecting it from the wind. The simple architectural style of Eolo suggests a Patagonian ranch house like the ones that were brought over from Europe in a kit at the beginning of the last century. It’s bigger and better, but the comfortable ranch house feeling has been kept intact. The dining room menus are gourmet versions of Patagonian home cooking.
On Friday Sept. 18 the show will be open for travel agents from 10am to 9pm in the Ocher Pavilion of the Rural Society grounds in Palermo and on September 19 and 20 it will be open to the general public from 2pm to 9pm. General admission is 12 pesos. For more details, see 
They are fried in lard, or baked in a mud oven that is so hot that a paper put inside bursts into flame. There is a bit of rivalry between the province of Salta, where the filling includes potato, and Tucuman, where it does not. But for the past 40 years the National Empanada Festival has been held in Tucumán – in Famaillá, a town 35 km from the provincial capital. Here, in the Luis Sandrini auditorium, a jury of folk singers and chefs decides who will be the winning empanada cook of the year, and the fairgoers are free to try the output of all the contestants to see if they agree with the verdict. Tucumán empanadas are famous for being especially juicy. This is achieved by hand-mincing the meat very finely, adding a bit of boiled egg to the mixture to help retain the juice, not completely precooking the filling so it can finish cooking inside the crust, and taking the empanadas out of the pot or oven at the right moment. A typical Tucumán empanada is filled with minced beef, hen or chicken meat, or tripe, as well as green onion, cayenne pepper and cumin.
They also compete in music, singing, dance, art, crafts, photography and graphic design.
In addition to the famous ski center on Mount Catedral 20 km out of town, this Río Negro city of more than 100,000 inhabitants has recreation centers on three mountains that also offer other snow activities, in particular walks on snowshoes. All are in Nahuel Huapi National Park, but they have different concessionaires and vary with regard to landscapes, accesses and clientele.
Mount López (2,075 m)
Here, tourists who come in the winter participate in guided walks with or without snowshoes (according to snow conditions), and can also go cross-country skiing if they are proficient in the sport.
This mountain area, which lies within a strict park reserve, occupies an interesting transition zone between the humid Andean forest and the Patagonian steppe. During excursions through the woods, the guides explain the different means of transport on snow, or regional geography, according to the interests of the group. A half-day hike leads to a frozen lagoon, which in the summer is home to an endemic frog species. Day hikes in winter and summer include an ascent of Mount Challhuaco for a view of three surrounding mountains. Moonlight walks end with a three-course Patagonian dinner. The hiking and cross-country skiing programs include meals and lodging in the refuge. Those who book a full-day backcountry skiing excursion must be in good physical shape and know how to use the special “randonnée” skis that allow one to walk uphill cross-country style, and descend Alpine style.
Mount Otto (1,405 m)
Before sitting down to eat, visitors can contemplate the reproductions of statues by Michelangelo in the complex’s art gallery, and the restaurant’s photo-museum dedicated to Bariloche’s pioneers.
Then a priest heard the voice of God: they had to take the image of Christ off the humble spot they had assigned it and carry it through the streets if they wanted an end to the aftershocks. They did so and the earth stopped trembling. Nevertheless, the feminine image was the one that was immediately assigned her Our Lady of the Miracle title; the masculine one had to wait until 1760 to become Our Lord of the Miracle. At any rate, the two of them have presided over processions every September since 1692, and are credited with having saved the city from severe damage from two other quakes in 1844 and 1948. Every year, the first novena is said on September 6, and in the afternoon of September 15 more than 250,000 pilgrims from all Argentina and neighboring countries come to join the big procession through the streets of the city. The images are taken from the Cathedral to the intersection of Paseo Güemes with Avenida Irigoyen, where the townspeople renew their oath of fealty to the figures that they represent. When they return to their places in the Cathedral, a shower of white, pink and red carnation petals falls from the belfry of the Cathedral.
the performances of the different dance groups, and a light and sound show that moves from house to house in the Park of Nations. General admission is free the first night, and ranges from 5 to 35 pesos, according to the program (but never exceeds 5 pesos for retirees).
In some places the offerings related to crops are added to cooked food in a clay pot that was put into the hole previously, in others they are put directly onto the dirt. The hole is later covered by a stone slab or pile of stones. After the ceremony, everyone shares in a big lunch. 
In Laguna Blanca in Catamarca’s Puna – where tourists have been allowed to attend the party only recently – the best sheep of the town’s herds is sacrificed at the edge of the hole. As a further gesture to tourism, people dressed up like the Pachamama and Coquena, the mythological protector of camelids, make an appearance.
From 8am to noon on August 31, locals will show visitors the sights around town. After lunch, there will be a solemn ceremony atop Mount Altar Sagrado (4,000 meters above sea level) at 3pm, after which visitors will begin the return trip to the provincial capital.
On the way, his army defeated the royalists in two important battles. The people from Jujuy were able to return home only a year later. Many decided to remain in Tucumán. The city’s residents commemorate the traumatic exodus with a symbolic burning of miniature huts on the banks of the Chico River the night of August 22, and a parade of carts and people dressed in period attire the night of August 23.
Father Solano – already famous in the region for captivating Indians with his singing and violin playing – offered his mediation. He told the Indians that Christ was a good person like themselves, and the Spaniards that their conduct was unchristian. The Indians ended up accepting baptism in exchange for the “replacement” of the Spanish mayor with an image of the Christ Child. (Solano, the first New World saint, was canonized in 1726.) The deal arranged by Father Solano gave rise to the popular Tinkunaco Festival (invented by the Jesuits in 1624) in which the present Lord Mayor symbolically gives a Christ Child image the keys to the city during a procession that takes place on the night of every December 31. But it is only for three days; the keys are returned in a similar procession on January 3.
Carlo Petrini, the president of the international Slow Food movement, will come from Italy to visit the show and inaugurate the first Argentine edition of Terra Madre, an international network of food communities dedicated to producing quality food in a responsible, sustainable way . There will be cooking demonstrations, lectures and a photo contest. Salta will be promoting its Wine Trail. Other provinces that have confirmed their participation are Jujuy, Tucumán, Entre Ríos, Corrientes, Buenos Aires, La Pampa and Chubut. The show will be open from 12 noon to 9pm. General admission is 20 pesos, and 10 pesos for retirees and students on Thursday and Friday.
During the Dance World Cup (Aug. 23-31) competitions in the Tango Salón (the traditional social dance of the milongas) and Tango Escenario (show dancing that tourists see in the tango houses) categories will take place in the Luna Park stadium. More than 300 couples have signed up for the World Cup. A fair of items related to tango will take place in Harrods from August 15 to 30.
Last year more than 500 fishermen in 180 boats caught 336 fish during the four days of 45th edition of the contest while their non-fishing families went on horseback rides and tours in the area during the daylight hours, and nobody missed out on dancing chamamé or rock and roll played by bands at night. Don’t expect a big dorado bake at the end of each day – the catch and release vogue that began with trout in Patagonia has reached the depleted fisheries of the Paraná River as well.
The scene is repeated about ten times with different bulls and bullfighters as hundreds of onlookers perched atop the walls of the square wait to see what will happen. The event is preceded by a mass, and a religious procession that is accompanied by men dressed like rheas, and bands of musicians who play erkes and drums.
