Happy New Year to all. I am now back in Buenos Aires after a couple of trips away. The first to San Antonio de Areco, a little 'gaucho' town 2 hours out of the city and the second for a friend's wedding in San Nicolás de los Arroyos.
The former is a beautiful little town which the guidebooks describe as things like original, authentic and beautifully preserved. I went on a Monday which meant I missed out on a lot of the gaucho horsemanship displays in the big park at the bottom of the town that seem to be pretty regular on the weekends but I still got a taste of the place. I take my hat off to the tourist office who supply a few bicycles to roam about on for free. This did mean that for all my care-free pedalling about I frazzled myself in the sun but I think it was worth it.
While I was doing my tour on my bright yellow push-bike I saw on the dusty back streets a few signs saying something like 'se alquiler caballos' (horses for hire) and I was incredibly tempted. There were plenty of ponies about and some were tied up by trees near the signs. Although I was desperate to ride I thought the horses didn't look very happy so I pedalled back to the tourist office to find somewhere a little more official. Yes there were estancias for riding and I went of to visit a couple... however the norm here is to do a 'day in the country' with more gaucho shows and lunch etc included, rather than just a trek out, so unfortunately I missed out again.
The rest of my time in San Antonio was just mooching about the very sleepy town with a beautiful town centre. There is a river at the bottom of the town which gets populated with teenagers daring each other to jump in off something higher. I sat watched and read my book.
Although San Nicolás de los Arroyos is not in any of the familiar guidebooks it still attracts thousands upon thousands of visitors every year. These visitors are not, I hasten to add, here because it is a particularly beautiful place... its popularity is due to some lady called Gladys having sightings of BVM (Blessed Virgin Mary) back in the 80s and now it is a place catholics go on pilgrimage. On the 25th September (the town's big day) there are on average crowds of over 300,000 - nearly trippling the population of the town.
BVM sightings aside, now I know why some places are in the guidebooks and other places are not.
The wedding itself was fantastic and held on a beautiful estancia (no horses unfortunately) and partying until 6am. I crashed at 3am and was found kipping out of sight of the party by the estancia owners. They took me into their farmhouse and gave me coffee and even with the caffine injection I still managed to sleep for a couple of hours in a chair the their living room. Argentines are incredibly kind like that, so so generous and hospitable even to strangers.... although as always, the English accent helps.
One last thing.... am I right in thinking that of the 25+ letters and postcards I have sent, nothing has arrived?
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1 comment:
Our postcard arrived a couple of days ago, thank you.
We couldn't send you one from the Lake District as we didn't know where you'd be!
Beryl's had a good look at your blog (she'll be able to see it better after her 2nd cataract op later this month).
Vxxx.
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