Patagonia 2006

It all started with an article in the New Yorker Magazine more than thirty-five years ago. There was an article about a new crop of South American writers, most particularly a blind Argentinian from Buenos Aires named Jorge Luis Borges. Two new collections of his work, containing some overlapping of content, had just been published: Labyrinths and Ficciones. I bought copies, read them, and was entranced.

In the years following, Borges has been perhaps the most influential guide to literature, philosophy, and history. Because of him, Argentina suddenly became an active place on the world map that resides in my mind.

Next after him came Paul Theroux with The Old Patagonian Express and Bruce Chatwin with In Patagonia.

Now, when I go fly to Buenos Aires in November, my first priority will be to visit the places where he lived and which he talked about in his poems and stories. I will walk around the suburb of Palermo and the area just north of the Microcentro looking for places that remind me of his work. The old working class districts full of knife-fighters and sleazy dives is long gone, but even a little will go a long way.

There is also a Centro Cultural Borges founded by Borges’s widow Maria Kodama, but I am not altogether sure they have any exhibits about the author’s life. Also interesting is a museum dedicated to the painting of Xul Solar, a friend of the author’s who is mentioned by name in some of his stories.

Right now, I have only the most sketchy information to go on, but I am doing some research that will enable me to put together some walks in the city.

If you are interested in learning more about Borges, here are some web references:

• The Garden of the Forking Paths
• The Wikipedia entry on Borges
• The Kirjasto entry on Borges from Finland
• The Borges Center at the University of Iowa

When I reach Buenos Aires, I hope to give you the results of what I have found.

One of the things I always do in preparation for a vacation is to research the public transportation system and create a little “notebook” to take with me with key maps and scheduling information.

While I am in Buenos Aires, I expect to take the Subte, the city’s subway system. As you can see from the map above, the entire system is shaped like a four-tined fork, with the north/south Line C acting to join the four east/west routes. You can see this map on the Metrovia Subte Website.

The rest of Argentina is a tad trickier. Only a few of the long-distance bus companies have their own websites. I am relying heavily on this schedule from Travellersguru.Com and have my fingers crossed that it is relatively up to date—at least somewhat! At the bottom are links to some of the bus companies that go to Patagonia and have their own websites.

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