A brand new festival, “Cuerdas de America” or “Strings of America,” brings together a wide variety of string instruments from traditional western guitars to Paraguayan harps, “charangos,” and “bandolas.”According to My Buenos Aires Travel Guide, the festival takes place from October 9th through the 12th, and the performances, three a day beginning at 7pm, will be held at the Centro Nacional de la Música at México 564.This festival shares its end date and location with the other major guitar festival happening right now, the “Guitars of the World Festival.” The final, joint performance of the festivals will take place at Auditorio Buenos Aires in the Buenos Aires Design Center on Pueyrredon 2501.

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September 8th, 2008 by A World Vacationer

From our Win a Trip Contest
A travel story by - Cherie L. Bob and I have been fortunate enough to have traveled to many beautiful spots around the world in our 36 years of marria…China, Japan, France, Italy, Mexico, Hawaii, and many cruises throughout the Caribbean; however, our favorite trip ever, was our cruise to Alaska. We flew Northwest Airlines to Anchorage, where we met up with our cruise representative. Traveling by bus to Seward, we were able to get our first glimpse of the amazing scenery and wildlife there. We stopped along the way at a wildlife reserve where we saw moose and black bears in their native environment. As we sailed the inside passage of Alaska, we thought we had seen it all, from pyramids to ancient gardens; from the Spanish steps to the ruins of Pompeii, but nothing had prepared us for the wonder of the Glacier National Park in our own Country’s state of Alaska! We sat on our balcony, speechless, as the great awe and splendor of it’s beauty surrounded us in an inexplicable silence, shattered by an occasional fierce crackling and crashing of ice breaking from the glacier. We spent a full day inside the park, huddled in our warm winter coats and rain gear, and covered in blankets out on our little balcony, unable to leave the sight for even a moment.

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Gap-year travelers—students taking a year off between high school and college or college and “real life”—are more and more likely to choose Latin America as a destination to spend their money and their time.According to the Telegraph, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, San José, and Lima are now all on the top ten destinations for gap-year travelers.The reason for this change is the decreased air-fare to Latin American as more and more carriers service the continent, as well as the favorable exchange rate.Particularly true for visitors from Europe and the United Kingdom, Latin American is a cheap option that is as culturally exciting as anywhere else in the world.

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LAN Airlines is meeting the growing demands of travelers in Latin American by expanding their South America Airpass to include a Business Class version. They say that they are responding to both increasing tourism and, specifically, increasing luxury tourism. The South America Airpass Business Class will offer services on flights throughout South and Central America by LAN Airlines, LAN Argentina, LAN Peru and LAN Ecuador.This allows travelers to enjoy the adventure of Latin American while still also enjoying a leisure experience of flat bed seats, wine, fine food, and power outlets for computers.

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A special collection of Picasso paintings is being exhibited for the first time in Latin American in the Casa de la Cultura de Buenos Aires from June 27th to July 27th.The paintings on display are normally part of the permanent collection of art in the Picasso House in Madrid.The works were given by Picasso to his barber, a fellow Spanish exile in France.The barber eventually donated them to the museum in Spain.Buenos Aires is lucky enough to have these fine paintings on display because of an exchange agreement between it and Madrid.The Picasso exhibit is on 575 Av. de Mayo and runs Tuesday through Sunday from 2 to 8; entrance is free.

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According to a study by the International Whaling Commission, whale-related tourism brings in 280 million dollars every year to Latin America, making whales big business. In 91 towns in 18 countries, whale-tourism grew 11.3 percent between 1998 and 2006 and in Argentina the growth was between 15 and 19 percent.One of the authors of the study was Argentine researcher Miguel Iniguez, who recognizes the complex management problems presented by such a boost in tourism. 245,000 people come to watch whales here every year, primarily in Patagonia, and making sure that they have positive, eco-friendly experiences is an important part in keeping whaling tourism growing without hurting the whales. The results of the current conference on whether or not commercial whaling should be legal again will certainly affect the future of this profitable industry.

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