Between his own earlier references to his love of solitude and to the flight time to Buenos Aires, of course we should have figured out that Mark Sanford was headed to the Argentina capital.

Those ‘mystery solved’ headlines from Monday evening are looking pretty prescient, right?

South Carolina state Sen. Jake Knotts (R): “Cover-up, cover-up. Lies, lies, lies.”

The AP showing some skepticism:

Sanford told The State he was alone on the trip to Argentina. He declined to give any additional details about what he did other than to say he drove along the coastline.

Trying to make such a drive could frustrate a weekend visitor to Argentina. In Buenos Aires, the Avenida Costanera is the only coastal road, and it’s less than two miles long. Reaching coastal resorts to the south requires a drive of nearly four hours on an inland highway with views of endless cattle ranches. To the north is a river delta of islands reached only by boat.

TPM Reader GK concurs:

Know that the “coastline” in BA is completely featureless and incredibly boring — it’s on a slow-moving, broad river. When residents of BA “go to the beach” they drive many hours away to Mar del Plata, which is on the Atlantic coast (or they hop on a boat to Montevideo, Uruguay.) But right now it’s in the low 50’s during the day and the mid 30’s at night on the coast.

CNN’s Peter Hamby just twittered that Sanford will be holding a presser at 2 pm.

What was Mark Sanford really doing in Buenos Aires: stalking Nazi war criminals? searching for Obama’s birth certificate?

Readers offering their ideas at our Exotic Argentine Open Thread.

Theda Skocpol says Dems and Obama are facing a moment of truth on health care. Right now.

Mark Sanford is currently the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, whose Facebook page is “The GOP Comeback,” complete with photos of Sanford and Sarah Palin.

(Thanks to TPM Reader AW for flagging.)

From ABC’s The Note:

ABC’s Joe Goldman reports that a US embassy official in Buenos Aires tells him that the embassy had “absolutely no idea” that Sanford was in Argentina. The embassy official added that this comes “from out of left field — it would be extremely odd that a US governor would not check in with the embassy.”

Late Update: On the other hand, a State Department spokesperson tells The Plum Line that a governor would not notify the department or embassies if he were going abroad.

TPM Reader BC …

On the BA ‘coastline’: As someone who has been to Buenos Aires many times, just returned from BA and is in the process of moving there later this year, I can tell you unequivocally that someone who goes to Buenos Aires to ‘see the coastline’ is akin to someone going to New York City or Boston to see the Atlantic Ocean. As for getting away to clear his head, the greater Buenos Aires area is home to 30% of Argentina’s 40 million people. While Sanford is trying to paint a picture of a peaceful drive along a beautiful coast, in fact he was crammed into a land-locked city of 15 million people. Worst excuse ever.