In Gaucho Country

Talor: We seem to be doing things in extremes... after being overstimulated and overwhelmed with too much to do and see in BA, we headed to a more calm and peaceful environment in San Antonio de Areco. After a short 2-hour bus ride, we went from a population of 13 million to approximately 20,000. There are far more bicycles than cars here. At first glance, we were seriously underwhelmed... the town appeared more like any typical suburb in the US, but then we started noticing men wearing berets, vests, boots, and then it sunk in... we´re in gaucho country!

On our first day, we were warmly welcomed by a gang of roaming, coughing street dogs... very friendly, but they followed us relentlessly, and even waited outside while we had coffee in a cafe! The dogs were telling of the folks as well... very friendly, with everyone saying, ¨Hola!¨ wherever we went.

Later in the evening, we stopped in at a cafe/bar/resto on the corner of the central plaza, called Esquina de Merti, which had lots of character and a great collection of antiques... cash register, light fixtures, beer pull, everywhere. The decor was typical of most of the cafes, bars and restaurants in town. In fact, we visited a museum the next day and found pretty much the same things, just more of them, including an antique airplane. Outside of the center of town were ranches with gauchos on horseback and herds of lambs, cows, horses, etc.

As with most small towns, as cute and quaint as they are, there isn´t much to do. So we planned on a couple days of R&R then move on. Little did we know that the following day was one of the most important holidays in Argentina... their Independence Day! We had no choice but to stay another day because there were no buses running. Well it was a good thing cause it turned into a lovely day... the sun was shining, and it was gorgeous out. We went to one of the ranches where there was an all-day celebration going on, somewhat like a county fair, with gaucho competitions, a bbq and vendors selling knicknacks of gaucho gear and mate cups. There were tons of people, and everyone was really enjoying themselves.

Later that evening, we peeked into a neighborhood bar, and I absolutely fell in love with the cutest little girl who had a giant plate of sandwiches in front of her. We settled into an evening of wine and chitchat with very friendly locals. Jorge, a leather artesan, invited us to coffee the next morning at his house, and we kicked ourselves for having already bought tickets for an early morning bus to Rosario... arrrgh!

If you´d like to see more photos... http://picasaweb.google.com/erikandtalor/SanAntonioDeAreco