Spring at Sage: Argentina

Depart San Diego for Buenos Aires. Get to know your group as you head toward Argentina.

After arriving, settle in and rest before exploring the colorful streets of El Caminito. Look beyond the murals and painted buildings to learn how immigration helped shape La Boca’s neighborhood identity. Come together for a welcome dinner and your first Argentine asado.

Start in the kitchen, making empanadas and discovering how this familiar food changes from one region of Argentina to another. Later, visit the ESMA Museum and Site of Memory, a former clandestine detention center, for a guided introduction to Argentina’s dictatorship and the importance of remembering what happened there. In a learning session with Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, hear about the organization’s continuing work to restore the identities of children taken during that period. It’s a day for listening carefully and asking what knowing your own history means.

Explore murals and street art in Palermo, then try making a piece of your own. At El Ateneo Grand Splendid, step inside a former theatre that now holds shelves of books beneath its balconies and dome. In the evening, learn the basics of tango before watching performers bring its music and movement to the stage.

Spend time at a neighborhood club in La Boca, where football is part of daily life. Talk with local fans, join a football clinic, and consider how a team can connect generations of people. Then go behind the scenes at La Bombonera, home of Boca Juniors. If the match schedule allows, experience the chants, colors, and excitement of a game for yourself.

Feel the rhythm of a murga workshop through drumming, dance, and costume. Then walk through San Telmo and visit the Museum of Immigration to explore stories of arrival and belonging. In a session with Memoria Abierta, examine how testimonies and records help preserve the experiences of people affected by Argentina’s dictatorship. Finish the day with a transfer out of the city to Campana.

Head to San Antonio de Areco for a day outdoors with Areco Tradición. Try hands-on activities, go horseback riding, share local food, and hear stories of gaucho life. You’ll also have time to talk with community members about the traditions they value and what everyday life looks like beyond Buenos Aires.

Back in Buenos Aires, learn to prepare and share mate, an everyday ritual that brings people together. Then try fileteado porteño, the city’s distinctive style of decorative painting and lettering. At an artisan market, put your new eye for design to work: look at the materials, skill, and stories behind the objects for sale before choosing what you might bring home.

Begin the journey home. You’ll return with memories of the people you met and new ways to think about the stories that shape a place.