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Published: January 11th 2008
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We left Puerto Iguazu on the Expreso Singer overnight bus, leaving about 90 minutes late. Explanation was that the guys had been fixing the air conditioning - so probably worth the wait given the temperatures here.
A fairly uneventful 14 hours later with decent amounts of sleep, particularly after the blankets were given out, we found ourselves at the roadside outside Concepcion del Uruguay. Not quite sure which direction to head in but a minute later the local gendarmes wandered across the road to ask us where we had come from, and where we were going. Having established that we did not want to walk into town, next thing we knew the policeman was on his radio getting a cab to take us the 7km into town. The taxi driver then gave us a running commentary on the merits of the various buildings on the route. He seemed a bit surprised that a couple of Brits had materialised in his town.
Did the usual routine of hotel/shower/find breakfast. Not in any the books we have but if you ever happen to be passing through the Cafe El Ris on the corner of the main square does a wicked coffee and
Palacio San Jose
Reminded me of Citizen Kane's house a bit excellent fresh orange juice.
Decided that the thing we really wanted to do here was visit the Palacio San Jose, the big house about 30km away, built by Jose Justo Urquiza, first president of the nation. Found out that they have just started doing nighttime visits on Fridays (in Jan and Feb) so got ourselves organised with a trip for the evening. Most of the significant buildings in the town seem to have something to do with Urquiza, he even gets to have his tomb in the cathedral.
Either we caught everyone on a good day or this might be the friendliest town in Argentina, at least so far. Which in a country of friendly people takes some doing. Waitresses asking us if we can show them pictures of the UK, cab drivers, gendarmes etc. Even the man in the post office.
The Palacio trip was great, another chatty driver with lots of info who turned out to also be our guide to the 30 or more rooms, gardens etc. The house has retained a lot of the family furniture and layout, you even get to see where Urquiza was gunned down in 1870, the room turned
An oddity in Concepcion
honest - we are in Argentina not Italy into a sort of shrine by his widow. Interesting statues in the garden included "the Conquistadors", busts of Hernan Cortes, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, and some other dangerous liberal type whose name I forget. Urquiza´s role models?
Next day we wandered around town, down to the river, Concepcion is another Argentine town with great 19th C and early 20th C buildings. Makes you wonder what it must have been like coming here in the 1930s, travelling by train, seeing all these buildings in their original state etc. In the evening we watched the world go by whilst sipping chilled "Chablis Classico", a cheeky little number.
Sunday we headed down to Buenos Aires, a simple four hour trip, quick change of buses and out to the gaucho town of San Antonio de Areco.
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