5 comments about Lonely Planet Argentina: Uruguay & Paraguay (Lonely Planet Argentina, Uruguay and Paruguay).

1. This guide badly needs updating! I found that a lot of addresses for museums and tourist information have changed (I visited Argentina in October-December 1999). Though the included local maps are usually very good and easy to read a first stop should always be the tourist office (ask locals for present address) for more up to date information. Background information on history is excellent. Generally I found the guide very helpful but it lacks enthusiasm for this beautiful country and does not really entice one to go. More descriptions about the essential character of individual towns would help.



2. Though I had this book when I visited Buenos Aires, I found it utterly useless. I stayed with a group of friends who are natives of this incredible city and so I was able to rely on their information about cool neighborhoods and off-beat places. Though LP prides itself on offering this kind of information, this edition has little that allows travelers to discover the city's uniqueness. Instead, I used this guide to find museums and other basic info that I could have gleaned from ANY guide. It's hard to believe that LP included hardly any information about Palermo, one of the city's most charming neighborhoods, or failed to mention the tradition of Milongas, which are "local" dances in venues such as community centers where everyday Portenos dance the tango with more grace and passion than you will find in the expensive, touristy shows. It's rather disappointing considering that the LP published an entire city guide on this capital.



3. Used this guide for all three countries - Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. The information for the latter two countries was the most detailed and reliable (maybe because things don't change there as fast as they do in B.A.). It was especially good for hotels/restaurants in Montevideo; the region around Igauzu Falls (including Foz de Iguacu and Ciudad del Este); and Bariloche. Travellers going exclusively to Buenos Aires might want to get a more cosmopolitan book (it is impossible to distinguish good hotels from bad, good cultural events, etc. using this book). The whole lonelyplanet shoestring/adventure "feel" doesn't mesh well with a city as culturally rich & refined as Buenos Aires.



4. LP guides are usually complete and thorough. so why is the section on buenos aires in this one so carelesly researched? is it because LP wants us to buy their book on buenos aires or because their researchers didn't visit the city at all? i've been to buenos aires countless times. reading the LP guide, one would think that it is just a hamlet not worth wasting your time on. buenos aires is one of the most exciting and mysterious places in the world; a european outpost in south america, full of chic decadence and a lot more than just beef and tango. entire districts are overlooked by the guide, descriptions are misleading or incomplete and uninviting at best. one wonders why. if you're looking for a guide to buenos aires, buy yourself a plane ticket and a map. once in the city, meet the locals. this is one city you need to explore and understand rather than just see. as jorge luis borges once said: ''it would seem that buenos aires has existed forever.''



5. It's true, this book is not the best LP has to offer, with somewhat pedantic, bone-dry descriptions and overly-detailed town histories your average traveler could care less about. It still offers your basic traveler's information, though, and you won't miss much with this complete tome in your hot little hands.
   A promise, however: the next edition will arrive spicier and cutting-edge fresh, with beefed up entertainment sections and wittier town introductions to boot. It will also be more fun to read (same goes for the Buenos Aires guide). I personally guarantee it.

No comments about Michael's Guide Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

1 comments about Argentina/Bolivia/Brazil/Chile/Paraguay/Uruguay Super Atlas.

1. I had to use this book for a report in my geagrapy class on Uruguay, and it helped quite a bit!

No comments about Parque nacional los Glaciares.

No comments about Una Estancia en Salta.

4 comments about Moon Handbooks Argentina.

1. I really like this guide. They spend a lot of time giving you useful information instead of flashy, full color photos. The photos can be nice sometimes, too, but if you really just need detailed information for planing a trip, I recommend this guide.



2. Moon Handbooks Argentina is an all-purpose guidebook for business and recreational travelers to this great South American nation. Suggested plans for exploring the entire nation in twenty-one days, traveling with focus on nature or overland routes, historical tours, a fifteen-day art and architecture viewing, a tastebud excursion through wine country and more are just the beginning. Sections point out the highlights and quality resorts in various different provinces, as well as the most effective means of travel, and offer capsulized background information on Argentina's land, flora, fauna, cultural landscape, environmental issues, history, economy, and more. A listing of internet resources rounds out this recommended guide for anyone determined to see Argentina's beauty with their own eyes.



3. Moon is going head to head with Lonely Planet and Rough Guides and it losses badly.
   
   Do not let the 2004 publishing date fool you. The information in this guide was gathered in 2001/2002. Buenos Aires prices have seriously changed since then and this guide has nothing about these changes. All of the hotel and restaurant rates in this book are irrelevant. Some prices have changed up to 300%! For example, in Buenos Aires, the NH City Hotel is quoted in the guide as being $97 per night. When I went there I was quoted $270 per night. A serious difference.
   
   For all of Buenos Aires the guide lists only 14 restaurant recommendations. Imagine a guide for New York City with on 14 restaurant recommendations! Then, restaurant recommendations are poor selections in comparison to other guides. The writing about restaurants (and accommodations) vacillates between being trite and meaningless. For example, one of the 14 restaurants the guide recommends is a pizzeria (go figure) which says... "unchanged since the days of Carlos Gardel, whose photos line the wall." That's it. From that you will make a decision?
   
   Also, the maps in this guide are very difficult to use. Unlike other guides that give you separate maps for restaurants and accommodations, this guide crams everything on one map: hotels, restaurants, sights to see, etc. You spend far too much time trying to figure where something is ... folks, there are much guides than this one. In short - avoid this guide.
   
   If you are ONLY going to Buenos Aires, then, just for B.A. then take Fodor's `Argentina' (4th edition). Fodor's has very good maps of the city and it has great recommendations for accommodations. Caveat: only use Fodor's `Argentina' for Buenos Aires, outside of the capitol Fodor's crashes and burns. The best all around Argentina guide is Rough Guide Argentina 2005. This guide is Not Recommended.



4. Moon Handbooks have always been useful to me on any trip. They not only cover all the usual stuff you find in a guidebook, but also the unusual and out-of-the-way things you'd otherwise miss. Unless you stay in a condo or all-inclusive hotel and never leave, you should always take a MOON GUIDE with you!

2 comments about Argentina Road Map "Rutas de Argentina" by AutoMapa.

1. We are traveling to the Patagonian lakes region next week. I ordered four Argentina/Patagonia maps to compare them: ITM's Patagonia, Rutas de la Argentina, Rough Guide Map Argentina, and Map Guide Patagonia. I ended up keeping the Rutas de la Argentina and returning the others. Argentina Road Map "Rutas de Argentina" had the clearest graphics despite the fact that the southern half is at a slightly larger scale than the northern half and most of its competition. We plan to use this for road navigation and hope it will do the trick. It does not cover any of Chile beyond the frontier.



2. I purchased this map b/c I was taking a trip to Patagonia and would be renting a car. I was unable to find any maps with real details of the roads in the El Calafate, El Chalten, Puerto Natales area. Guess what, this map doesn't have anything better than what you'll find on line. AND I realized after my trip it was out of date, showing dirt roads where they are paved, not showing smaller roads, not clearly marking border crossings. I opened it, looked at it for 10 seconds and decided I should return it (didn't even bother bringing it on my trip).
   
   If you're going to Patagonia, get a map there - the car rental place will have MUCH better maps.

No comments about Lonely Planet Argentina (Lonely Planet Argentina (Spanish)).

5 comments about Uttermost Part of the Earth: Indians of Tierra Del Fuego.

1. An outstanding account of the triumph of the human spirit against all odds. A truly memorable work. A towering achievement to have written such a telling account of life on the edge of civilization. Tschiffely's achievement in persuading E. Lucas Bridges to commit the story to paper has preserved the memory of a lost race.

   Why it is out of print is beyond me.




2. I was given an old hardback copy of this title by my husband's granny, who lived in Tierra del Fuego for several years. It's the most rivetting book I've ever read. I'd love to recommend it to my book group, but where is it?

   This is the remarkable story of a family which, whilst colonising, nevertheless also became as assimilated into, and trusted by, the native community as it is possible to be. E. Lucas Bridges' account of his family's relationship with the soon-to-be-extinct Indians of Tierra del Fuego is one book I'll read (and be completely absorbed by) again and again.

   It left me with enormous respect for the writer, and deep regret for the extinction that incomers (sometimes unwittingly, sometimes consciously) meted out to this fascinating and multi-faceted people.

   One very minor lack in this brilliant book is the expression of any emotional response to the events that unfold. The story is narrated very factually and presumably accurately, but I often found myself wanting to know "What did the writer really feel when this or that intriguing or absurd or dangerous sequence of events played out before him?".

   No book has more made me want to visit a region than this one. An absolutely unforgettable read.




3. I visited Tierra del Fuego & Patagonia in March of 2004. When attending a lecture aboard ship regarding the early settlement of this area I was told a good resource book on this area was Lucas Bridges book "The Uttermost Part of the Earth" - it was a great recommendation. I was able to obtain the book via Interlibrary loan (believe it came from a library in Minnesota). A great read! Lucas was one of 6 children of Thomas Bridges a missionary sent from England to Christianize the natives. 5 of his 6 children were born there. The book doesn't deal that much with actually missionary (ie: church) work as it does the experiences of Bridges family members with the native tribes. What endurance those people had! I'd recommend it to anyone interested in that part of the world.



4. No other book has been written, to my knowledge, that is similar to the "Uttermost Part of the Earth." The book is well and evocatively titled. The author was the third white child to be born in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina in 1874. Ushuaia has become today the southernmost city of the world -- a place where 60 degrees F is a hot summer day and the wind never stops blowing.
   
   The author's missionary family came to Ushuaia to convert the Yahgan Indians who eked out a cold existence around the waters of the Straits of Magellan. Growing up, the author became even more fascinated with the Ona Indians who lived in the interior of Tierra del Fuego and hunted guanaco, a wild version of the llama. The author spoke the languages of both tribes, lived with them, and recorded their culture and lifestyles. These two peoples are now culturally extinct. In 1947 the author estimated that their numbers had declined from more than 7,000 when he was born to about 150. Disease brought by the White Man along with White settlement of Tierra de Fuego for sheep herding, mining, and fishing doomed the Indians.
   
   The "Uttermost Part of the Earth" is also an adventure tale, told in a dead-pan understated style that accentuates the extraordinary events in the author's life. There are tales of sailing in waters that probably have the worst weather in the world and of being the first to cross Tierra del Fuego on foot. One does not doubt Lucas's veracity; there is little of the contrived excitement lesser adventurers try to generate. Indeed, he seems guilty of understatement. One would welcome from him more forthright expression of his views.
   
   This book deserves a place on the short bookshelf of travel and adventure classics. "Uttermost" is one of the finest and most unique reads you will find, and one of the most informative also.
   
   Smallchief



5. This is one of the true golden nuggets, the rare find that few people know about... it captures an era and a people long gone with poignant, personal anthropology in a voice filled with empathy, objectivity, and humility. How many peoples like the fierce, brilliant Ona will never again walk the earth? What secrets, innovations, and knowledge bred of millenia living within the ecosystem are lost forever? It's an unknowable question, but the depth of the answer is suggested in the unvarnished portrayal of life growing up among the peoples of southern tierra del fuego. This book is a journey into a time and place filled with danger, adventure, enterprise, cultural exchange in the deepest sense, and above all comradeship and family bonds. I have read Uttermost Part of the Earth numerous times and am so grateful for its existence.

5 comments about Bad Times In Buenos Aires.

1. After living for many years in Buenos Aires, I've been living in the US for the last 5, I feel with some right to give an opinion about this book. All through the pages you can feel the bad intentions this girl had when wrote it. All the experiences she says she went through are unlikely to happen in everyday life in Buenos Aires. She expresses she lived a nightmare ("bad times") in one of the most friendly and beautiful cities on earth. I have lived in many places around the globe and I haven't found a place where I could have all the fun, make all the friends and fall in love so deeply with a city like in Buenos Aires. I am even planning on moving back there soon. Although with all the problems and contradictions any big city have, is one of the best places to live I found. Beautiful, charming, friendly, cosmopolitan... Is almost stupid thinking that the "unhappy" everyday events she tells, are specific BA problems. Last night I went to the grocery store (here in the US) and I have to stay in line for almost 30 minutes to pay. The phone, electric, etc.. bills I get here are exactly the same I used to get there. Apparently she was trying to meet and get involve with the most strange characters in town. That's not every day BA. It seems like she was in another city, some imaginary place made up buy her mind, all this peppered with a good dose of arrogancy and intentional disaproval. On the other hand she is not well informed at all about specific data about the city and its history. The book is over-charged with inaccurate information. I don't think Buenos Aires is the place for this girl (France), so, don't come back!!!!
   For the rest of people that are interested in learning about Buenos Aires, do not waste your time and money reading this . A trip to Buenos Aires will take this book to pieces. God bless Buenos Aires!!!!+



2. Three-and-a-half stars rating, really.
   
   I think that it is unreasonable to expect a travel book to be anything except the author's perpective on the places visited. French clearly brings her own (British) agenda to Argentina, but she also just as clearly makes an effort to move beyond that to present a balanced look at the city she was living in. I found it a good read (almost too quick) and a well-formulated one. It was worth the time that I took to read it.
   
   Good points:
   
   France owns her own prejudices. She is very careful to note when she was being cranky and British about something so that the reader is clear that it is her persective and not the voice of authority.
   
   I also like that she did not try to take a sweeping 20,000 foot view of the culture, but limited her commentary to those aspects to which she had access.
   
   Less Good Points:
   
   She treated some subjects (the Faulkland Islands, for example) more quickly than they seemed to deserve and at times that left me with the frustrating feeling that there was more to say about a subject but she had already moved on to the next point. I do not think that it needed to be much longer, but a little more filling in areas that got short shrift would have been good.
   
   At times her writing was a little too precious and tried a little too hard to make all her moments meaningful. One of the things that makes a writer like Chatwin so great is that he does not try to connect the dots for the reader and is very sparse in the way that he handles detail.
   
   The final very best point is that I enjoyed reading it and it inspired a desire to know more about the subject-- which is, I suppose, the ultimate point. Recommended if you like travel books.



3. I just could not finish this book. It is so mean. Why should a writer bother to stay in a country just to critize everything, exagerate and write all her negative points of view.

   I was born in Buenos Aires, I live in Canada, I have live in Norway and I travelled a lot around the world (London included, city that I loved). I am not a fanatic nationalist and I think this book is so unfair.

   Some British hate Argentina and some Argentinians hate Great Britain, because of the Malvinas (Falklands) war, because of the Soccer World Cup, because of Maradona or Beckman... who knows... and who cares.

   I gave this book to a canadian friend who was curious about my comments about it, and he agrees that this book is awful to read.

   I am sorry for the writer, she lost lots of time in a beautiful city and she did not enjoy it at all. It is a waste of time...




4. Like many English travel writers, Ms. France blends very well in the society she describes, and captures masterfully all kinds of moods, nuances and details. Her choice of subject for the ten chapters is a happy one, perhaps with the exception of the chapter on the pampas, a bit out of pace with the rest. Unfortunately, despite all her (I am sure, genuinely) best effort, English travelers abroad can never leave home a sort of superiority complex so that foreign ways of doing things inevitably end up looking just a bit silly! This book reminds me of Tim Parks' books on Italy: both France and Parks clearly love their subject countries, but can not help looking down upon it... albeit perhaps unconsciously! A great collection of pictures well worth reading!



5. The title of this book is a bit deceiving. It is a chronicle of the experiences (both good and bad) of an Englishwoman journalist in Buenos Aires in the mid 1990's. Not really knowing what to expect from this book, I figured that reading anything I could get my hands before moving to BsAs myself. It turned out that I was pleasantly surprised and found myself laughing out loud at points, always a sure fire sign of a good read. Using the experiences of her everyday life in BA as a framework to build off of, France interweaves hilarious anecdotes of daily life in BA, provides glimpses into the BA residents (they are known as Porteños) psyche, and gives an account of the all too often bloody history of Argentina. Although the France complains about the various short comings of BA, the chronic lack of coins, the crossed wires of the telephone system, the endless queues for anything and everything (all of which are still very much true), you can definitely tell that she has developed a soft spot in her heart for unique quirks that make BA what it is.
   Argentina at the turn of the 20th century was the sixth richest country in the world behind the USA and the leading European powers. With so much promise for a grand future and such failure to achieve anything close to the possibilities it is no wonder the events of the subsequent hundred years are filled with political and economic instability. The rise and fall of Juan and Evita Peron, the various military dictatorships and the infamous `Dirty War' of the 1970's that accounted for the disappearance of tens of thousands of Argentines all invoke strong emotions that still reside just under the surface of Argentine life, often times coming directly to the forefront. France explores this common history and the effect it has had on the Argentine people. One possible result is the number of psychoanalysts in BsAs; per capita there is more than three times as many in BsAs than there are in New York City. Apparently it is a Porteño pastime to be psycho analyzed, indeed many find it hard to accept life without it, often working two or three jobs in order to pay for analysis.
   For me this book gave me an idea of what to expect when I arrived here in the Paris of the South as it is often called. Although it speaks of a BsAs about 10 years past, it excited my imagination and curiosity in this giant Latin American city, the home of the Tango. The Tango is a sad genre speaking of lost loves, suicides, murder, and betrayal; a fitting theme for the constantly melancholy Porteños, something that really catches the essence of the people. France describes the dance, if done correctly, as passionate and loveless as a one-night stand.
   Although I have found through my own experience some of France's tales have been embellished a bit for dramatic affect, the book provided me with a decent idea of what to expect once I arrived. Since France wrote Argentina suffered a terrible economic crisis in 2001 that sent the country reeling for years and it has had noticeable effects on all levels of society. Today Argentina is moving forward again and prosperity is returning, but it must be realized that much more than a decade has passed between 1997 and 2007.