South America blog
About this blog
Wayne Bernhardson is the author of Moon Handbooks to Buenos Aires, Chile, Argentina, and Patagonia. Here he shares his vast knowledge of South America and its people.
Recent Posts
- Reporting from Santiago, on Robinson Crusoe
- Recovering Chile Charts New Course
- Argentina Takes the Oscar
- Coffee & Submarines in Southern South America
- From Uruguay to Chile, with Concern
- Quake-Stricken Chile Begins Bouncing Back
- Massive Earthquake (8.8) in Chile
- Argentina Pressures South Atlantic Cruise Ships
- Skies of the Atacama
- Buenos Aires: Carnaval Meets Chinese New Year's
- Catamaran to Carmelo: Whys and Wines of Uruguay
- The "Caves" of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
- Sex & Food in Buenos Aires: Part 2
- "Authentic Buenos Aires"
- Freezing Out the Little Guy? Professionalization of Tourism in Chile and Argentina

"Authentic Buenos Aires"
Last July, literally the day before I flew to Argentina for a couple weeks to begin updating Moon Buenos Aires, I received an out-of-the-blue phone call from an editor at National Geographic Traveler, asking whether I was interested in writing a piece on “Authentic Buenos Aires.” The idea was to spend a week or so in the city, in the company of local experts (of my choice, with approval from NGT editors) on the topics of food, sights, accommodations, shopping and nightlife in the city. It would be part of a recurring feature that focuses on high-profile world cities - New York and Paris, for instance, have gotten similar treatment.
That occasioned an additional September research trip and, after a rigorous editing process, the results have now appeared in the magazine’s new March issue. It's reached print subscribers already, and the online version of the article is available at the link in the previous paragraph. The magazine photographs are by Bob Krist (though the one above, of a youthful tango orchestra playing in San Telmo, is mine).
Meanwhile, I am finishing up the manuscript of the new edition of Moon Argentina, which is due out this fall, and about to start the bulk of the work on Moon Buenos Aires. I will be in the city until mid-April or so, with a two-week detour to coastal Uruguay (where destinations such as Colonia del Sacramento appear in the book’s excursions chapter); it will be out shortly after the new edition of Argentina.
