Going Gaucho!!


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Published: January 9th 2007
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After going to Uruguay (Colonia del Sacramento), we got on a bus (at Buenos Aires’ giant bus station) bound for a nearby town of San Antonio de Areco. This town is famous for its gauchos, or Argentine cowboys. Theresa had really wanted to visit an estancia (or hacienda) and our book said this was the town to do it.

The town of San Antonio de Areco is very small and quiet. Our book had said that the bicycles outnumber the cars and we think they might be right. Everyone is riding around on bikes!! The homes in the town were very suburban looking with “moats” of land around them and one story - reminded us a little of California but walkable and without the cars.

We walked to an estancia nearby where we had a wonderful day!! This estancia was like huge park and we were free to walk about. There was a charming little chapel and a typical gaucho home (made of packed mud, not adobe). While walking around we encountered some birds that were black and white and looked like plovers (called tero teros??) that literally started screeching and tried to attack us. We tried to see if they were defending a nest or something, but couldn’t find anything. Reading a Patagonia travelogue, we found these same birds mentioned - apparently they just hate people. We went for a little horseback ride (it was very brief and short, but Ben and Oliver loved it) and also a carriage ride.

The gauchos working at the estancia wore berets and baggy pants tucked into boots with a knife stuck into their waistband behind their back. Now the whole image of Che Guevara with a beret makes so much more sense!! (We tried to find authentic gaucho berets to buy, but couldn’t seem to find them anywhere)

After the horseback ride, there was music, dancing, and a barbeque. The dancing had a lot of stomping. And the gauchos “competed” with each other for who could do the footwork the fastest (Riverdance, move over!) Apparently, the gauchos, stuck out on the range would have contests a lot to pass the time. They also demonstrated a dance they would do with their boleodoras. These are leather straps with heavy balls at the end that they would twirl to trip up cattle. They would twirl these around, hitting the floor while
typical hometypical hometypical home

similar to those back home!
they dance - it would really hurt if one of those things hit you.

The gauchos also had contests on their horses which they took us out to see. Riding as fast as they could with a 3 inch pin in their hands they would try to snag a ring hanging from a rope above them. Apparently, the gaucho with a lot of rings would look pretty manly to the gals when he came to town. When they were done with this “contest” they passed out their rings to people watching - they gave one to Oliver!!

We met some nice tourists at the estancia - a group of women from New Zealand who had traveled together to Antartica following Shackleton’s route and a couple from Sacramento, California who were great fun to chat with. Leaving the estancia we headed back to Buenos Aires. All the buses going to and from San Antonio de Areco were double decker buses and we were lucky enough to get the front row of the upper deck - what a view!! Steve could be a backseat driver from the front seat!



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notice the knife


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