On Thursday, September 25, the Congress will open with a welcome buffet dinner in the Caesar Park Hotel, which will start at 8pm in the Foyer on the first floor of the hotel. There will be both hot and cold food stations as well as dessert ones for everyone to enjoy. The session will be informal and relaxed for everyone attending to get to know each other again, especially those who did not partake in the pre congress tour.

Friday, September 26 sees delegates partaking in the technical sessions being held in the hotel congress room during the morning. For the same time companions will have the opportunity to set their own programme to enjoy the sights and facilities of the local area, including the excellent shopping mall opposite the hotel. Both delegates and companions will come together for lunch in the hotel, after which a city tour will be enjoyed.

This will entail a tour taking into account the best of its 47 neighbourhoods. These will include the Plaza de Mayo (the main square of the city), La Boca (the old port where thousands of immigrants arrived), Palermo and Recoleta (elegant and distinguished districts with plenty of parks, sculptures and French style mansions and palaces). The tour will also embrace the old district of San Telmo, with its narrow streets and colonial houses; it is there that on a Sunday a famous “flea market” is held, where tango dancers, antique sellers and bohemian artists display their talents. There will also be the opportunity to visit Recoleta Park, which is next to the Cemetery where Eva Peron, the iconic Argentinean President, is buried. After a suitable time for delegates and companions to recover, the evening event will comprise of a wine tasting session. Argentina is famous for its Malbec and Torrontes wines.

The group will be divided into groups and go to local restaurants where a sommelier will provide information and examples of these wines from different regions of the country for attendees to enjoy; snacks will be served during these sessions.

On Saturday, September 27, companions will be bussed to the town of Tigre, (www.tigre.gov.ar) which is the gateway to the area known as the Delta of the Parana River. This delta is formed of thousands of islands and canals. The town itself has a long history going back to the days of industrial expansion in Argentina and to this day still remains a port for receiving certain merchandise.

The other part of the town dispays impressive residential buildings in old colonial style. Probably, its main claim to fame is that it is the starting point for leisure boats cruising the delta to view the ecology of the delta and its islands. The companions will take advantage of this and will be boated thru the delta on a private chartered boat and will take lunch on a typical local restaurant on one of the islands. After the boat returns to the town of Tigre, the companions will be bussed back to the hotel in time to recover for the Gala Dinner being held that night.

This dinner will be Tango themed. It is being held in a bar/restaurant which evokes the atmosphere of the Tango……..dark and mysterious. The building in which it is housed is located in the old historic centre of the city and was built in 1867. It was transformed into a bar in 1920 and then converted into its now modern state.

The restaurant, El Querandi (www.querandi.com.ar), will provide a tango show, with dancers and singers tracing the history of this evocative dance from the end of the 19th century thru current times. At the end of the show some of the dancers will stay on to provide assistance to those wanting to try the dance, by demonstrating steps and then dancing with attendees. Following this, more modern music will be played to allow everyone to dance the night away until the early hours of the next morning.

OPTIONAL TOUR:

Sunday, September 28 provides the opportunity to go on an optional tour for those not leaving that day. Participants will be coached out to a ranch in the pampas, some 100 kms from the hotel.

On the way there, a visit will be made to the nearby town of San Antonio de Areco to enjoy and sample its attractions for lunch and the afternoon activities. This town stood on the outer circle of “civilization” stretching out from the city of Buenos Aires; a river running by the town marked the divide in olden days between “civilization” and the “netherlands”, where the Indian tribes lived; in that way San Antonio was very much considered a frontier town. A visit will be made to the small bridge that still crosses this river, although in recent years, things have very much changed on “the other side”.

A visit will also be made to a famous working family silversmiths in the town, Draghi (www.draghiplaterosorfebres.com) to see how silverwork is still made by hand in what is still a family home, and also to the local town museum which houses many items of interest relating to “gauchos”, the cowboys of the pampas who provided the muscle to grow and guard the herds of cattle and sheep which formed the backbone of Argentina’s rich agricultural industry; time will be given to allow companions to walk around the classic Plaza Mayor (Main Square) in the town, which was built in classical Spanish style and still contains buildings dating from that time.

It will then be time to go to the ranch El Rosario (www.rosariodeareco.com.ar) which is located on the pampas, about 15 minutes drive from the town of San Antonio.

It is family run by Francisco de Guevara and his wife, who will personally meet everyone on arrival. Francisco’s family runs to eight children, of whom the oldest four boys spend their winter time playing polo professionally for European teams. One of the themes of the ranch is the game of polo, and it has its own polo field.

Another theme is the gaucho and after lunch, the delegates and companions will enjoy watching an exhibition of horsemanship put on by gauchos employed at the ranch. The other activity that all attendees will enjoy after lunch is a demonstration of local folklore in both costume and music. Lunch precedes these two highlights and this will consist of an Argentinian barbeque of various meats, but mainly beef, cooked out in the open for all to see and freshly served.

Return to the hotel will be made in late afternoon.