Argentina

If trainer Kiaran McLaughlin was looking for answers when he sent Uruguayan Horse of the Year Invasor into the $500,000 Pimlico Special yesterday, he was rewarded beyond his wildest dreams. He had previously considered the Argentina-bred a stalker, but in fact, Invasor pressed the pace with leader Wanderin Boy. He thought Invasor - Spanish for Invader - was finished in the stretch when the 4-year-old dropped briefly behind 5-year-old colt West Virginia. Invasor, instead, found another gear.

Do you have information on cruises sailing between Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Santiago, Chile? What is the best month for travel? Several cruise lines including Princess, Celebrity, Silversea, Holland America and Oceania cruise the South American waters between Buenos Aires and Valparaiso, Chile, from December to March, when it's summer south of the equator. Cruises typically range from 13 to 16 days. Depending on which cruise you take, ports of call can include Puerto Montt, Chile; Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands; Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego)

Are there resources that could help me buy and drive a car in Argentina? According to the State Department's Consular Information Sheet, found online at travel.state.gov/travel, U.S. driver's licenses are valid in the city and province of Buenos Aires, but Argentine or international licenses are required elsewhere. In the United States, AAA is authorized to handle international driver's licenses, and an application can be found at aaa.com. As far as buying and selling a car, Luciana Bieler, the spokeswoman for the National Secretary of Tourism, wrote in an e-mail that foreigners must present to car dealers a passport, proof of address and credit card to buy a vehicle.

SALTA, ARGENTINA / / Traveling in this province is rough. Even on a guided tour and traveling in comfortable vans and cars, I encountered bumps. I bounced over miles of unpaved road, got stuck in a tour van in treacherous sand, gasped in fear at steep drops and sharp switchbacks, and gave up sleep for days that started before dawn and ended too late for dinner. But every bit of discomfort was worthwhile, because Salta's scenery is spectacular. The remote, crescent-shaped province in northwestern Argentina has dramatic gorges that stretch for miles, mountains that show off brilliant mineral hues, castle-like rock formations, green fields, cactus-strewn desert and treeless tundra so high that the clouds float far below.

One can't help but wonder what President Bush expected in South America, where he went to attend the Summit of the Americas on free trade. Escape from his political troubles at home, perhaps? Distance from the quarrelsome din over his Supreme Court nominees? Or maybe some relief from the cloud of smut staining the White House following the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr., one of the godfathers of his war in Iraq? Surely Mr. Bush's handlers knew when preparing him that he would be entering the region most hostile to him outside the Middle East, and the country, Argentina, whose people hold the deepest dislike for him than any in the hemisphere.

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina -- A hemispheric summit to promote job creation and the spread of democracy throughout the Americas opened here yesterday with raucous anti-U.S. demonstrations and deep divisions among participating nations about the Bush administration's free trade agenda. About 200 hard-core protesters attempting to breach the security cordon around the meeting site clashed with riot police about six blocks from the hotel where President Bush and other heads of state were meeting.

Evita, the long-running hit Broadway musical now at the Hippodrome about the life of Eva Peron, wife of Argentinian dictator Juan Peron, has special significance for Dr. George G. Udvarhelyi, the internationally renowned Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon. The physician was born and educated in Hungary, and he worked in the Underground against the Nazi occupation of his homeland during World War II. He barely managed to escape deportation to Siberia when the Russians took over. Udvarhelyi's odyssey, which would take him to Argentina as a young surgical resident, began on a spring-like day in February 1948 when he boarded a steamer in Genoa, Italy.

He likes political themes. A bit of danger. The unknown. No wonder director Harold Prince savored the experience of staging the original production of Evita in 1978. "I've never done a job I was more pleased with the result of and I thought we really nailed it and it was flying blind," Prince says from his office in New York's Rockefeller Center. Considering the scads of legendary shows that the 77-year-old has produced and/or directed, his feelings about Evita run particularly deep.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Argentina's Supreme Court overturned two amnesty laws yesterday that prevented the prosecution of hundreds of military officers, soldiers and police linked to the country's "Dirty War," in which thousands of people were killed in the 1970s and 1980s. The ruling paves the way for the revival of hundreds of prosecutions and civil suits that had been dropped for nearly two decades, legal experts and government officials said. Government sources and human rights activists said new charges naming as many as 300 defendants - most of them retired military and police officers - could be filed in the coming weeks.

Hernan, our taxi driver in Buenos Aires, one night after a dinner flowing with wine, offered a resonant assessment of his town. "There are two things I love," he said, looking at us in his rearview mirror. "First, the weather. Second, it doesn't matter where you come from." I can't agree with the former. We expected summer warmth during a February trip to the Southern Hemisphere, but it rained most of the seven days my fiancee and I spent in Argentina. But the truth of the latter point - Buenos Aires welcomed us, as it seems to welcome all newcomers - wiped out any chill and left only pleasant memories of my new favorite city.