#71 best destination in the world

 

Perito Moreno Glacier

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  • Glacier located in Los Glaciares National Park
  • The ice field is the world’s third largest reserve of fresh water
  • UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

Iguazu Falls

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  • Waterfalls of the Iguazu River
  • Legend has it that a deity planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe.
  • In a rage, the deity sliced the river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall

 

Ischigualasto Provincial Park

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  • The first paleontological description of Ischigualasto dates from 1930, which led to the discovery of 70 species of fossil plants
  • Rock formations are eroded by wind, which creates their unusual shapes
  • UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

El Ateneo Grand Splendid

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  • Bookshop that was originally a theater built in 1919
  • #22 of the top 25 landmarks in the world

 

Cueva de las Manos

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  • Series of caves famous for its paintings of hands
  • The artists used bone-made pipes to spray paint over their hands and create each silhouette
  • The cave art dates from 13,000-9,000 years ago
  • Last inhabited in 700 AD
  • UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

Valdes Peninsula

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  • Small settlement on barren land with some salt lakes
  • One of the salt lakes in the region is 130 ft below sea level
  • UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

Quebrada de Humahuaca

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  • Narrow mountain valley named after a small city of 11,000 inhabitants
  • The site has been populated for at least 10,000 years, since the first hunter-gatherers
  • The area has yielded substantial prehistoric remains
  • UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

Garganta del Diablo

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  • Set of waterfalls in Iguazu Falls with the highest waterfall flow in the world

 

Teatro Colón

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  • Opera house considered acoustically considered to be among the five best concert venues in the world
  • Visited by the foremost singers and opera companies of the time in the early 1900s
  • Constructed from 1889-1908

 

Serranía de Hornocal

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  • Range of mountains with eroded, exposed limestone formations called Yacoraite
  • The altitude is 15,620 ft above sea level
  • UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

Los Glaciares National Park

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  • Largest national park in the country
  • Established in 1937
  • It hosts a representative sample of Magellanic subpolar forest biodiversity in a good state of conservation
  • The park’s name refers to the giant ice cap in the Andes, the largest outside of Antarctica, Greenland, and Iceland, feeding 47 large glaciers, of which 13 flow towards the Atlantic Ocean
  • In other parts of the world, glaciers start at a height of at least 8,200 ft above mean sea level, but due to the size of the ice cap, these glaciers begin at only 4,900 ft, sliding down to 660 ft
  • UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

La Recoleta Cemetery

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  • Contains the graves of notable people, including Eva Perón, presidents of Argentina, Nobel Prize winners, the founder of the Argentine Navy, and a granddaughter of Napoleon
  • Monks of the Order of the Recoletos arrived in the area, then the outskirts of Buenos Aires, in the early eighteenth century
  • Built around their convent and a church, Our Lady of Pilar (Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Pilar), built in 1732
  • The order was disbanded in 1822, and the garden of the convent was converted into the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires

 

Villa Epecuén

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  • Was a tourist village in Buenos Aires Province
  • Developed in the early 1920s
  • Was developed for tourism by an Englishman after taking the land on lease
  • He marketed the lake as having healing properties, hiring Italian scientists to bolster the claim
  • At its height, Villa Epecuén could accommodate at least 5,000 visitors
  • In 1985, a seiche, caused by a rare weather pattern, broke a nearby dam, and then the dyke protecting the village
  • The water reached a peak of 33 ft
  • The village became uninhabitable and was never rebuilt
  • Many of the ruins are covered by a layer of white and grey salt
  • It now has a sole resident, Pablo Novak, born in 1930, who returned to his home in 2009 when the waters receded after covering the town for 25 years

 

Xul Solar Museum

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  • Xul Solar MuseumHoused in his former home, this contemporary art space features works by Argentine artist Xul Solar

 

Marble Caves

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  • Located in the Patagonian Andes, on a peninsula of solid marble
  • This geological formation sits in waters shared by Argentina and Chile, and is only accessible by boat
  • Over more than 6,000 years, lake currents eroded the marble, slowing carving out the smooth formations you see today
  • Though the marble itself isn’t a brilliant blue, it displays cerulean color when the water reflects its light
  • Changes color throughout the year, depending on water levels and season

 

 

Costs

all flights $3,982

food $30/day x 22 days = $660

hotel $26/day x 19 days = $494

tickets (all attractions) $233

TOTAL for whole itinerary $5,369