Argentina Disney Travel Agents Near Me

Overview

Introduction

Argentina is blessed with dramatic landscapes, immense potential and a variety of experiences that run the gamut from outdoor adventure to cosmopolitan style. It's famous for the gauchos and plains of Patagonia, world-class trout and salmon fishing, glacier skiing in the Andes and the European sophistication of its bustling capital, Buenos Aires.

The country went through economic instability and hyperinflation in the 1990s, then de-linked from the U.S. dollar and restructured its finances. While inflation is a cause for concern for Argentines, it very much works in the favor of tourists. That means visiting Argentina can be one of the best values anywhere: First-world infrastructure for the most part, along with food, wine and service with a unique blend of European culture, North American drive and a laid-back Latin American attitude.

Geography

Venture out into Argentina's countryside, and all thoughts of cosmopolitan city life fall away. You'll be overtaken by nature: the subtropical lowlands and awesome Iguazu Falls in the north; the monumental Andes mountains—fronted by vineyards—lining the midwest; high plains of the northwest; the blankets of rich, rolling soil in the central pampas; and the glacial lakes of Patagonia and bleak, windswept steppes of Tierra del Fuego to the south. The beauty and variety is stunning.

History

Argentina's pre-Columbian Indian population put up a good fight against the Spanish, fiercely resisting the first foundation of Buenos Aires in 1536, but the colonists eventually became permanent fixtures, founding important settlements in the mid-16th century. They acquired a good deal of the country's best land, established estancias (ranches) and made their livelihoods through agriculture and livestock.

Independence from Spain was declared in 1816 under the guidance of General San Martin. British money flowed in, as did European immigrants. By the start of World War I, Argentina was one of the world's leading agricultural exporters, and the phrase "as rich as an Argentine" was commonly heard abroad.

Although those with land were doing well, the working class was suffering. Populist leader Juan Peron, along with his wife, Eva, also known as Evita, found great support from these Argentines. He led the country from 1946 to 1955, and again from 1973 to 1974, bringing political and economic reform as well as, in its wake, political and social controversies that have yet to abate.

The latter part of the 20th century saw a cycle of elections, coups, countercoups and a steady erosion of the nation's wealth. The country hit bottom in the 1970s, when a series of military governments instigated the Dirty War, or guerra sucia, an anticommunist witch-hunt that caused the "disappearance" of as many as 30,000 men, women and children and that Argentines are still coming to terms with today.

In hopes of deflecting attention from their failed policies, the armed forces fought a war with Great Britain in 1982 over the Falkland Islands (known as Las Malvinas in Argentina). Argentina lost. As a result, the ruling junta of generals and admirals was ousted, and Argentina returned to constitutional government.

The election in 1989 of President Carlos Menem marked the century's first orderly transfer of power from one civilian government to another. Although the 1980s were a time of economic chaos, the '90s saw relative calm. That is, until the inflated peso that had propped up the economy began to implode under the government of Fernando de la Rua and the cycle of boom and bust hit a new low of riots, looting and pitched battles between protesters and police.

The interim government of Eduardo Duhalde went some way toward restoring calm, however, and the election of Nestor Kirchner in 2003, along with subsequent judicial and foreign-policy reforms, helped to turn things around.

Although he was elected by only a slim margin, Kirchner became extremely well liked, and the economy rebounded. Kirchner's popularity grew as he worked to strengthen and diversify the economy without antagonizing or eroding the influence of Argentina's traditional power base, the farmers' voting bloc.

In 2007, his wife, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, was handily elected as his successor, but thanks to a heavy-handed policy of almost autocratic decision-making, immediately alienated not only farmers, but also other important constituents. Forced to back down on several key economic issues in the face of open hostility and threats of violence, she made sufficient concessions and was re-elected in 2011.

At the end of 2015, however, the opposition party Cambiemos, led by Buenos Aires city mayor Mauricio Macri, did so well in the polls that it forced a run-off with Fernandez de Kirchner's anointed successor. Macri, a right-of-center politician and former chairman of Boca Juniors soccer club, subsequently won the presidential election.

Snapshot

Previously one of the most expensive countries on the continent, recent economic woes place Argentina behind regional powerhouse Brazil and other more stable economies such as Uruguay, Chile and Peru. Still, Buenos Aires remains quite costly. Argentina has long had a fascination with the high life, and its prices reflect this. Hotel and restaurant prices at the luxury end of the scale have continued to rise as occupancy rates fall.

Argentina's main attractions are Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, Patagonia, cattle ranches, the Andes, desert canyons, historical sites, wineries, whale-watching at the Valdes Peninsula, skiing, nightlife, spectacular scenery, the Pampas, wildlife, fishing and casinos. Beaches are merely adequate compared to those in Uruguay and Brazil.

Argentina has something for just about everyone. The only people who will not enjoy the country are those who require five-star accommodations and service everywhere they go—although there are more first-class properties in small cities and rural areas than in most of South America. Even in remote, scarcely populated Patagonia, travelers will encounter luxury ranches.

Potpourri

If you thought Eva Peron, the wife of Argentine leader Juan Peron, had an interesting life, you should hear what happened to her after her death in 1952. The trip to her final resting place in Recoleta Cemetery was not a short one: It included stops in Argentina, Italy and Spain. Blending fact and fiction, noted Argentine author Tomas Eloy Martinez chronicles the peregrinations of Evita's corpse in his novel Santa Evita.

After legendary outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid escaped the U.S., they eventually settled in Cholilia, Argentina, just south of Bariloche near the Chilean border. The famous pair were quiet cattle ranchers until they took to robbing banks again and were gunned down in Bolivia in 1907. Their home still stands on the shores of a lake outside of town. Unmarked, it is occupied by a local farmer.

Argentines consume 130 lbs/59 kgs of beef per person, per year, the second most of any nation in the world. Argentina ranks seventh in the world for per-capita wine consumption.

It is against the law in Argentina to give children names that are "extravagant, ridiculous, contrary to our customs, political or foreign." The government reserves the right to veto any name, though it kindly provides a list of "acceptable" names for new parents.

Diego Maradona, the soccer star who many feel was the greatest player of his era, grew up in a poor barrio of Buenos Aires. Other well-known Argentines include tango musician Astor Piazzolla, singer Mercedes Sosa, tennis player Gabriela Sabatini, basketball player Manu Ginobili and revolutionary Che Guevara, as well as soccer sensation Lionel Messi, though he has lived in Spain for much of his life.

That llama you see in the landscape may not be a llama, but a vicuna, alpaca or a guanaco. All four belong to the camel family. Like the camel, they are used as beasts of burden and also for their wool: Vicuna is much finer than merino.

Argentina's Ruta 40 is a legendary highway, akin to the famous Route 66 in the U.S. Ruta 40 runs parallel to the Andes from the Strait of Magellan to the high plains of the northwest.

Carlos Gardel is the ultimate tango hero. He was the child of French immigrants, sang "like a thrush" (hence the nickname "El Zorzal"), never married, loved his mother, starred in several movies and died young. Argentineans still say, "Gardel's singing gets better every day" (in Spanish: cada dia canta major), and, "To be Gardel is to be great."