Children remember what they did, not what they saw. This journey is built on that: in Buenos Aires the family cycles, folds empanadas and learns to tango with dancers their own age; in Patagonia they watch sheep being sheared, play football with local kids, look for dinosaur bones in the steppe and walk on a glacier. Two places, eight days, and a pace that leaves room for everyone.
Day 1 · Buenos Aires by bike
Highlight · The marsh and woodland of the Costanera Sur on the way to La Boca.
An afternoon bike ride through the south of the city: the Plaza de Mayo, the docks of Puerto Madero and the Costanera Sur ecological reserve, a wild strip of marsh and woodland on the river, ending in La Boca with the story of the city's founding and of the immigrants who built it. Dinner together at a traditional restaurant.
Night · Buenos Aires
Day 2 · Empanadas, asado and tango
Highlight · The grill, the dough and the chimichurri in a neighbourhood kitchen, then lunch with all of it.
A morning in a neighbourhood kitchen learning the two national dishes: the cuts of beef and which go on the grill, the dough and filling of a proper empanada, the fire, the timing and the chimichurri, and then lunch with all of it. In the afternoon, a tango lesson where the children learn by playing, and dinner in San Telmo, with a show or a milonga for those who still have energy.
Night · Buenos Aires
Day 3 · To Patagonia and a gaucho estancia
Highlight · Sheepdogs working the flock and a shearing demonstration at a sheep estancia by Lago Argentino.
A flight south to El Calafate, on the shore of Lago Argentino. In the late afternoon, a sheep estancia on the edge of town: mate with homemade cakes, a short walk along the Calafate creek, sheepdogs working the flock, the old shearing shed and a shearing demonstration, then an asado with folk dancing.
Night · El Calafate
Day 4 · A day with local children
Highlight · Lunch and a football match with the children of El Calafate.
A morning at a local school, or a summer camp in the holidays, sharing lunch and a football match with the children of El Calafate. The afternoon can go to a 4x4 drive up the hills behind town, with marine fossils at 1,000 metres and a labyrinth of boulders carved by an ancient river, or to the Glaciarium, an interpretation centre devoted to the ice field, the best preparation for the glacier.
Night · El Calafate
Day 5 · Cave paintings, dinosaur bones and the La Leona river
Highlight · Paintings made with fingers, locks of hair and hollow guanaco bones in the Walichu caves.
On the lakeshore near town, the Walichu caves, where the first inhabitants painted in red, ochre, black and white with their fingers, locks of hair and hollow guanaco bones. Then north on the Ruta 40 to La Leona, an old roadside inn halfway to El Chaltén, with the Fitz Roy on the horizon on a clear day. In the afternoon the family splits: a three-hour walk down gullies full of petrified trunks and dinosaur bones, or a gentle float down the La Leona river in an inflatable boat.
Night · El Calafate
Day 6 · The Perito Moreno glacier
Highlight · Waiting on the walkways for the ice to fall from the front of the Perito Moreno.
Drive · under 2 h
Walk · Minitrekking on the Perito Moreno · 2 h
Less than two hours through the national park to the walkways facing the Perito Moreno, to watch it from every angle and wait for the ice to fall. From the age of ten, the minitrekking: a short crossing by boat and two hours on the ice with crampons, among crevasses and blue pools. For the younger ones, an hour's boat ride along the front of the glacier.
Night · El Calafate
Day 7 · Back to Buenos Aires
Highlight · A last dinner together in Puerto Madero.
The flight north and a last dinner in Puerto Madero.
Night · Buenos Aires
Day 8 · Buenos Aires
Highlight · Bikes and kayaks in the Tigre delta, or horses and an asado by the Areco river.
A free day before the flight home: a bike and kayak day in the Tigre delta, or a day at an estancia in the pampas, with horses, a carriage ride and an asado by the Areco river.
