Luján: Complejo Museográfico Provincial Enrique Udaondo: Museo del Transporte [Enrique Udaondo Provincial Museum Complex: Museum of Transport]

Our third stop in Luján is part of the museum complex, in much larger buildings, because it’s got a bunch of moving things in it!

Now, normally, I’m not a big fan of transportation museums. Things that transport are pretty utilitarian to me; it would be like visiting a museum of hammers. Cars are especially boring. But fortunately for me, this museum was chock full of OLD-TIMEY TRANSPORTS. And those are much more fun.

You know how big this is? I wish I got someone to stand next to it for scale. The wheel was person-high.

Old-timey things are often interesting because of their scale. It is difficult, for whatever reason, to accurately imagine the size of things without our bodies physically there to compare to. If you only see representations on TV or on paper, it’s still a bit startling when you find yourself occupying the meatspace with a covered wagon, a steam engine, or an NBA player.

The museum’s steam engine and train cars were not available to climbing, but they thoughtfully included very scary mannequins.

“Oh, it’s La Porteña, from 1857! How charming!”

If you stare long enough, you’ll swear you can see them move.

Let’s take a look at a carriage for classy people! This one was presidential, so it has the fancy national logo.

From back when assassination was actually a challenge.

I really liked the bicycles.

Ricardo Nuñez Saavedra rode this bike all over the world, from 1963-1966. His thighs must have been insane.

You can also find the Plus Ultra, the first plane to cross the southern Atlantic, in 1926. It was given to the Argentine Navy and also delivered mail.

There is a sailboat!

I…I don’t remember anything about the sailboat.

Now there is apparently a popemobile that I did not notice, and there are many, many carriages on display, but the most impressive are the 1880 funeral coaches:

So that’s the Museum of Transport, and it was much more fun than I expected it to be. Open seven days a week with a very inexpensive ticket. I leave you with a couple of views of a nearby mural, that I think is on one of the museum buildings.