Alpargatas are as fundamentally Argentine as mate and dulce de leche. The traditional shoes are worn by Argentines of all shapes, sizes and classes; from the Patagonian cordillera to the porteño avenidas. They’ve even made the fashion culture leap to America, spurred on by the philanthropic mission behind TOMS.

Young Argentine musicians are trying to recapture the energy of turn of the century tango with a thoroughly modern take on the music. Performing weekly in the middle of downtown streets, one group has earned the adoration of neighbors and at times the ire of the Policia.

Maybe it’s the influence of the large agriculture industry, a legacy of ranch culture, or maybe they are just more creative than English speakers… But here in Argentina, they seem to have many more food/sex expressions than we do. Here’s your guide to talking dirty like an Argentine.

On a quest to regain the affection of her parents, our author takes the family on a three day drive through the Argentine Andes and the Seven Lakes district of Barlioche.

Rays from the setting sun spill through the cracked windowpane of an open garage. The tiny dust particles catch in the soft light, swirling ethereally around cars used in the time of our great grandfathers. Phonographs, paraffin lanterns, antique water pitchers, wooden wheel barrels, time appears to have stopped long ago. However, its 2008 and one of Uruguay’s oldest estancias near the town of Carmelo is in its sixth year running as a refurbished luxury bed and breakfast.

Every day of the year, Atilio’s home is open to throngs of hikers seeking a warm meal, mate, and a place to the rest their heads. Refugio Cajón del Azul is set against the startling beauty of the Andean Comarca of the 42nd Parallel, a mountainous area west of El Bolsón and Lago Puelo that has become of one Argentina’s most treasured wilderness sanctuaries.

In recent years Buenos Aires, and indeed the rest of Argentina, has been experiencing a development boom. It has in fact been described by property developer John Boyle as the largest in the nation’s history.

But it is the regularity with which ambitious projects seem to be left unfinished that grabs the attention of so many. Dramatic empty buildings with no windows or doors and roads that stop in mid air… All can be seen in Argentina’s capital and all lead to one big question: How is this possible?

During the early hours of 8th February 2007, a fire ravaged Villa Cartón, a shantytown built under a motorway flyover in the neighbourhood of Villa Soldati, in the south of Buenos Aires. Nearly 400 families’ homes were destroyed, and 170 people were treated for asphyxia, minor cuts and light burns.

A year on, despite government pledges, little has been done to improve the living situation of the country’s most poor and vulnerable, and the housing deficit is bigger than ever.

On the corner of Plaza and Olzabal in Buenos Aires there is a park hedged on two sides by the exposed brickwork of the adjoining buildings. It’s midday, overcast, and a light breeze is shaking the park’s only tree. Otherwise nothing, no one. Except for a diminutive little man standing on a crate, running a pole up and down a wall.

Meet Blu, one of the most innovative artists working on the streets today.

That’s the problem with small towns: the lack of choice. The long, enthralling drive from Salta had left us peckish, but a lack of options meant we had to wait for the curiously named ‘Los 3 Chinos’ restaurant to open at who-knows-what hour. No choice but to watch the handful of village kids spill onto the dirt football pitch. No choice but to watch lightning flash innocuously above the vast mountains. No choice but to place our beer on the jagged mud wall and amble onto the arena for a kick of the ball.