Days 80 - 82 San Antonio De Areco

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Although we flew into Buenos Aires it was always our plan to see some of the country around the city before exploring it and then flying home. So after arriving late we had one night in a hostel here and early in the morning set off for the bus station. Originally we had hoped to go to the coast but it was a bit far away for only a two night stop so we decided to see the pampas, the vast agricultural lands closer to the city. When we got to the bus station it was a 7 hour wait for the place we wanted to go so we changed our plans and got a bus for a couple of hours to San Antonio De Areco about 130k outside Buenos Aires.

We were lucky as it is a really interesting old town, very friendly and very pretty. We stayed one night in the only hostel in town and spent the day at a nearby country club which had a pool and then moved to a really nice hotel which was part of a silver and leather workshop shop with apparently a great reputation and history (they have made a polo trophy for the queen!). It was very hot, probably around 33C so we were very grateful of a pool.

When we were there we found out that there is a town about 20k away called San Andreas De Giles. The lady in the hotel said that it had been settled by Irish and English and Giles was the surname of the man who founded the town. However she advised us against going as there is apparently nothing other than houses to see. There was mention of a Maria Rosa Giles in the church so possibly there are some long lost relatives here. I would certainly take them up on the offer of staying with them for a while to find out.

We spent our time walking round, eating, drinking and relaxing, reading & subathing in this very pleasant town which was exactly what we wanted. We got the bus back to BA where we have 4 nights before leaving for home late on Monday night, arriving Tuesday night.

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