Even though we would have stayed longer, we had to leave. The next destination was Colon, right across Rio de la Plata. On our way to the Buquebus terminal, I took a few more pictures of the Mitre train station and the docks. Then, at midday we said farewell to Buenos Aires from aboard the ferry which was going to take us to Uruguay.
Tags: architecture, train
Yesterday we spent many hours in BA. First of all we went to the old docks area, where, after a walk on the waterfront, we visited the museum aboard the Uruguay corvette. From there we continued on Avenida Belgrano. The whole city and it’s inhabitants were all dressed up for the upcoming holiday.
The rain got stronger after a while, but we found shelter at the subway. Line A is famous for it’s century-old trains, with original wooden interiors.
For the evening, we booked a tango show at BA’s oldest cafe, Tortoni.
Tags: architecture, museum, train
The next day we rushed to Buenos Aires to solve some business at the Romanian consulate. We took the “General Roca” train line from La Plata. After nearly one hour we arrived at Constitucion terminal in Buenos Aires. Both stations (photos 1 to 3), featuring turn of the century architecture, together with the steel and glass cover, have a true European design, in tone with the surroundings.
Being in a hurry, I just had time to take few photos en route. The city itself is a true masterpiece, with interesting statues, wide avenues and many parks. Unfortunately not as clean as Santiago de Chile, it wins at the diversity and quantity of classic (mostly mid 19th to early 20th century) buildings.
Last photo – in front of Casa Rosada; to the left a scene is organized for the festivities occasioned by the bicentennial of the independence while in the right side you can see the permanent camp of the Falklands war veterans.
Tags: architecture, train
The old prison is nowadays home to all municipal museums, covering such aspects as ship navigation in the area, flora and fauna, the discovery of Antarctica, the colonization of Tierra del Fuego and marine related art.
The area around nowadays Ushuaia was colonized during late 19th century, in order to assure Argentinian sovereignty over the newly acquired land. At the beginning it was just a small penal colony, that grew together with the town. From the beginning there was some rail transporting systems implemented that allowed prisoners to bring wood from the nearby forest to be used for construction and heating.
After the penitentiary was decommissioned, in 1947, the 25km long railway was left to rust. Around 1990, when authorities, in response to the growing number of tourists, decided to restore the system, not much was left (one loco and one passenger car were preserved and are now on display at the local museum). So they decided to build the End of the World Train (El tren del fin del mundo) that is today moving tourists along the last 7km of the original railway. The ride lasts for about 45 minutes each way. The views are terrific: only the landscape from Disneyland is anywhere close to the one we saw during the ride, the ponds, creeks, wild horses and snow covered mountains competing to create such an impression!
Tags: train