Gauchos and Asado!

Today is all about Gauchos and Asado, or in simple terms Cowboys and BBQ!

We had an early morning departure from the hotel, with Adrian picking us up in his purple Fiat Crono at 8.30am; he didn`t speak a work of English and we don`t speak Spanish, but the translation app he had on his phone worked!

The journey to San Antonio de Areco took 1hr 40 minutes, but the road was beautiful once we were out of the city. Even though its only 140km away from Buenos Aires, its like a different world; Yessica, our guide for the day, met us in the main square called Ruiz de Arellano.

The tour started at the Parish Church of San Antonio de Padua, the foundation of which was 1730 and the year in which the town was founded. The church has been added to twice since then, and it is probably the nicest ones we have visited since arriving in Argentina. The interesting part was the baptism chamber which has now been closed for use; there is an All-Seeing eye, which our guide said is associated with the masons.

After visiting the church, we walked through the main square, followed by a number of street dogs; all were incredibly friendly. On the other side of the square is city hall, it was an old colonial building, modelled in French architecture with a courtyard on the inside. All the colonial buildings have to be kept the same and there is a law in the town to ensure this happens.

The next stop was Museo Draghi, a private collection illustrating the evolution of silversmith styles in Argentina. Mariano Draghi, the son of the original owner, allowed us into the workshop to view some of the pieces he was putting together. The museum also has a hotel attached which was beautiful! Maybe one day!

 

 

There were another two stops; the first was a shop housed lots of items worn by Gauchos. There were also espadrilles which looked very familiar, now I wonder where TOMS got the idea from? The other stop was where the owner knots dry leather into lots of different items. They had a horses bridle on display, now I`m not sure why I didn`t take a picture, but he sold a similar one recently which took 8 months to make and sold for 8000 USD. 

We then stopped at La Olla de Cobre, an artisanal chocolate factory; it also has the best alfajores in the world and there is a cetificate to prove it! The chocolate they make in the factory is beautiful, which could clearly be seen given the queue for the shop was out the door! Remember taking the number for the meat counter in WM Low many a year ago, its like that! You may need to be a certain age to remember that though!

After walking for quite a while, we started to get quite excited as she mentioned we would be going to a traditional bar, but unfortunately it was just to see inside and no drink was on the menu! The last stop in the town was to visit a park with a special tree and a bridge, both of which aren`t very exciting. I`ll come back to the tree, but the reason the bridge was built was so people did not have to wait until the water was low enough to cross, but this is common sense; the reason it is important is because as soon as it was built, it became the first toll bridge in the whole of Argentina! 

Now, back to the tree! The Ombu tree is a siymbol of gaucho culture and is used for shelter from sun and rain. It just so happens that the ranch or Estancia we are visiting is called Estancia el Ombu, with one of the trees having been planted back in 1806.

On arrival at the ranch, we were greeted with more beef empenadas and beer! This time Patagonian beer which is way better than Imperial, although Imperial is starting to grow on me! 

A group then joined and it was time to set out on a hack; only 20 minutes, but you got the choice of riding a horse or going in the carriage! My horse was called marròn, which translates to brown, guess what colour he was; not very original! All the horses were well behaved and basically followed the leader, mine was determined to be second behind the lead gaucho though; sounds a bit like my dads been betting again!

After the ride, it was time for food or Asado, the Argentinian BBQ. There was so much food coming off the grill along with potatoes, bread and salad which were already on the table. Here is what we tried, although not all to my tastes; blood sausage, intestines, chorizo, pork sausage, chicken drumstick and beef tenderloin. There was also pork ribs and other steak, but we were absolutely stuffed! All of the above was served with Malbec, happy days! 

Once dinner was finished, and they cleared the main course away, it was time for coffee and dessert; we chose the `Scottish` ice-cream bomb with a chocolate covered bomb with milk ice cream and dulce de leche in the middle! The entertainment also arrived and we were serenaded with music and dance, before watching a show with the gaucho and his horse, which shows not only the bond, but also the trust between the two.

It was time to leave, but Yessica showed us the house (now hotel) before we left. I could definitely see myself staying here!

The trip back to Buenos Aires was uneventful apart from an accident or two plus the huge streams of traffic going into and out of the city. It took us much longer to get back, and we even felt our drivers frustration when he started beeping at people; he got a good tip! 

There was no need for food, so we decided to have an early night and just get a beer for the room, time for me to catch up on the blog and relive the day through my pictures once more!