PANDEMIC TIMES

THE COAST

In April 2021 we went with our car for a few days to a relatively little-known beach resort (abourt 550 km from Buenos Aires) called ” Balneario Reta”. The weather was already quite cold and the sea was not suitable for bathing, but we enjoyed being able to walk along the almost deserted beach. During the journey we spent a night in Balcarce, which is the birthplace of Juan Manuel Fangio, who was five times, Formula 1 World Champion during the 1950s. The museum in his hometown is a very interesting work of architecture. They have emptied the interior of the old National High School and inside they have designed a series of concrete ramps with great skill. The thematic exhibition is first class and gives an interesting review of the life of that great character. Before arriving to “The Coast” we visit some Pampa towns that are almost empty due to the emigration of their young population.

LOW MOUNTAINS

In April 2022 we made another short trip with our car to the “Low Mountains” of the Province of Córdoba. We spent the first night in Colonia Caroya, which has a fantastic entrance avenue with old plane trees, which form a perfect four kilometers long shadow tunnel. From there we went along an earth road to visit the Church of Santa Catalina, which was the center of a Jesuitic estate during the colonial era. Through other terrible gravel roads, but crossing beautiful landscape and streams of crystal clear water, we went north to Ongamira, which has become a mystical place where people go to communicate with their “own being” (!). We continúe along a narrow and lonely road to the house of the painter Fernando Fader, who settled there in the 1920s to cure his tuberculosis. This place was very interesting, both because of what was on display and also because of the house itself that has a series of very original construction details. Before our return to Buenos Aires we spent a few days in the quiet Village of Tulumba.