Argentina, land of the tango, pampas, and gauchos

La Boca is one of Buenos Aires' most colorful districts. Italian immigrants were the first settlers of La Boca, and the working class neighborhood was Buenos Aires' first port. Today the buildings in the barrio are painted in bright colors. People wander down the famous pedestrian street of Caminito (image), which was named for a popular tango song sang by the legendary Carlos Gardel.

La Boca is one of Buenos Aires' most colorful districts. Italian immigrants were the first settlers of La Boca, and the working class neighborhood was Buenos Aires' first port. Today the buildings in the barrio are painted in bright colors.

Elderly antiques vendors, artisans, musicians, and street performers come to San Telmo's Sunday market in Buenos Aires to share their treasures and their talents with the public. The antiques market overflows in the Plaza Dorrego with a plethora of ancient goods. Even if antiques aren’t your thing, exploring the market is like having a key to your grandmother’s attic, or a window into Argentina’s past.

Elderly antiques vendors, artisans, musicians, and street performers come to San Telmo's Sunday market in Buenos Aires to share their treasures and their talents with the public. The antiques market overflows in the Plaza Dorrego with a plethora of ancient goods. Even if antiques aren’t your thing, exploring the market is like having a key to your grandmother’s attic, or a window into Argentina’s past.

Elderly antiques vendors, artisans, musicians, and street performers come to San Telmo's Sunday market in Buenos Aires to share their treasures and their talents with the public.

The choripan is Buenos Aires’ answer to the hamburger. It consists of a sausage made out of beef and pork, hot off the grill, split down the middle, and served on a roll.

Buenos Aires is known internationally for being the city where tango music and dance was nurtured and where, nowadays, its is mainly confined to shows for tourists. Nevertheless, many street dancers can be found in the more touristy areas of the city.

Neighborhoods like La Boca are where the heart beats, where the soul lives and comes alive after dark. Here is where tango was born, in this historically Italian neighborhood mixed with the Spanish other immigrants who did not have a place in other, wealthiest areas of Buenos Aires.

Founded in 1858, Café Tortoni is the oldest coffee shop in Argentina. With a very rich history, it is visited at all times by intellectuals, politicians and artists. Going into the Tortoni to have a cup of coffee, to meet someone there, or to attend any of the innumerable cultural functions offered there, is getting into the very heart of Buenos Aires tradition.

Graffiti has a colourful history in Argentina. It began in Buenos Aires in the 1950's and 60's primarily as a form of political expression. Groups were paid to paint slogans promoting political parties, a practice which still continues today.

Graffiti has a colourful history in Argentina. It began in Buenos Aires in the 1950's and 60's primarily as a form of political expression. Groups were paid to paint slogans promoting political parties, a practice which still continues today.

No visit to Buenos Aires is complete without a stop at "El Cuartito" (literally: "Little Room") and a taste of their famous fugazza, a relatively common tomato-less pizza with sauteed onions, mozzarella, grated Parmesan, oil, and salt. The super-sweet onions, so soft they seem to dissolve, get a bit of a crisp from the super-hot gas oven; the cheeses are so ample as to ooze over the sides.

Argentine empanadas are often served at parties as a starter or main course, or in festivals. Shops specialize in freshly made empanadas, with many flavors and fillings.

Argentine empanadas are often served at parties as a starter or main course, or in festivals. Shops specialize in freshly made empanadas, with many flavors and fillings.

A picada in Argentina is basically a selection of finger foods, or hors d’oeuvre, that people nibble on while having a few drinks and can even end up being a dinner. They can be as simple as cold cuts and cheese or as complicated as twenty different items.

Argentina is highly influenced by Europe, and reflects this in its cuisine. In general you will find that the food here is generally a variation of Mediterranean cooking, with a large emphasis on the products that are easily grown in the area. Desserts are not the exception to this rule, especially when it comes to cakes, pastries, chocolate, and the delicious and very Argentinian "Alfajores"

El Ateneo on Avenida Santa Fe, in Buenos Aires, used to be a theatre and movie palace were Carlos Gardel and other renowned artists performed. It was converted into the bookstore that it is today, but despite the abundance of books, the building still feels very much like the glorious theater it once was and retains much of its original architecture.

Wander for hours in the amazing cemetery of La Recoleta in Buenos Aires, where ‘streets’ are lined with impressive statues and marble sarcophagi. Crypts hold the remains of the city’s elite: past presidents, military heroes, influential politicians and the rich and famous including those of Evita Peron.

Wander for hours in the amazing cemetery of La Recoleta in Buenos Aires, where ‘streets’ are lined with impressive statues and marble sarcophagi. Crypts hold the remains of the city’s elite: past presidents, military heroes, influential politicians and the rich and famous.

Wander for hours in the amazing cemetery of La Recoleta in Buenos Aires, where ‘streets’ are lined with impressive statues and marble sarcophagi. Crypts hold the remains of the city’s elite: past presidents, military heroes, influential politicians and the rich and famous.

A "conventillo" (the diminutive of convent) is the name given to a type of urban housing collective, where each room is rented by a family or a group of single men. In Argentina and Uruguay they were the first home of many immigrants newly arrived in the country. It was mixed people of all languages ​​and nationalities, mainly Spanish, Italians, Jews and Arabs and a breeding ground for popular culture. Nowadays many "coventillos" have been turned into art galleries and souvenir shops.

A "conventillo" (the diminutive of convent) is the name given to a type of urban housing collective, where each room is rented by a family or a group of single men. In Argentina and Uruguay they were the first home of many immigrants newly arrived in the country. It was mixed people of all languages ​​and nationalities, mainly Spanish, Italians, Jews and Arabs and a breeding ground for popular culture. Nowadays many "coventillos" have been turned into art galleries and souvenir shops

The Argentine musician Sandro was an early Latin American rocker who matured into a ballad singer and died at 64. His real name was Roberto Sanchez, and began his rock career in the 1960s in the style of Elvis Presley. He later developed into a ballad singer with a distinctive style and a strong following across Latin America.

The Plaza Espana in Mendoza, Argentina, is famous for its colourful tiles that depict many episodes of Argentinian history.

Many mendocinos (people from Mendoza) consider the image of the Virgin of Cuyo, patron of San Martín's Ejército de los Andes (Army of the Andes), miraculous because it survived Mendoza's devastating 1968 earthquake. In the Virgin's semicircular chamber, visitors leave tributes to her and to independence heroe José de San Martín.

Argentina is currently the world's fifth largest wine producer by volume – after France, Italy, Spain and the USA in that order – a position it has held for many years. Yet it is only very recently - perhaps over the last ten or fifteen years - that the industry has really begun to develop the methods, attitudes and will to become a serious player in the international wine market.

The city of Mendoza, on the western part of Argentina and close to the Chilean border, has great access to the outdoors that surround the city. If you are a cyclist, the roads around Mendoza are very flat and provide a wonderful and fun way to visit the wineries while admiring the scenery.

Argentina’s olive oil industry has been struggling over the past several months, and there have been few signs of a recovery. Although Argentine olive oil does well at international food competitions, the general industry is having a hard time as a result of motionless market prices, rising production costs, low crop yields, the low international price of oil and difficulties acquiring labor. The Argentinian government pledged federal government help to aid the country’s battered olive oil industry following 200 layoffs in the Catamarca region.

A "Gaucho" is a resident of the Argentinian pampas. They could be described as a loose equivalent to the North American "cowboy".

In Argentina summers are very hot but winters are severely cold. During seasonal migrations or drought, wild horses travel hundreds of miles in search of better weather conditions.