Money + Imagination

If you mix the Winchester Mystery house (in San Jose California) with Walt Disney and add in a splash of Mad King Ludwig you’ll get Campanoplis. Seriously you will. This guy was a supermarket genius in Argentina. In the 1980’s he learned he has cancer and 5 years to live. So he sold everything and started to build his dream town on 250 hectares of land. He used local labor and a ton of recycled materials he bought or found from around the world. His only rule was “no one should ever stay overnight” so the building are really only facades and there aren’t any kitchens or bathrooms or even furniture and definitely no beds. He lived 20 years and died in the 2000’s. So the entire place looks old but is pretty new. He wasn’t and architect nor and engineer but he designed the town to look like his idea of an Italian village. I don’t think it does, instead it comes out like a cross between Harry Potter and Zermatt, Switzerland. A unique place and well off the beaten path for even Argentinians to visit.
Oh and I made a another new friend Dina from Macedonia. We were the only two people on the tour who didn’t speak Spanish (me who struggles with 1 language and her working on her fourth). Travel is great for new people.Read more