Headed to San Antonio de Areco via a 2 hr bus ride. Luckily, I was sitting next to a 19 yr old college girl who spoke English! She was headed home & looking forward to seeing friends & family. Her college is free & she thinks she is learning a lot. She admitted that she parties lots but no drugs & limited drinking… which she says is common here. Of course, I had to tell her about my college gkids. The bus dropped us at a gas station & while we were waiting for an Uber driver confirmation, a man, Mario told us there's only one Uber driver in town so wait might be pretty long. Mario offered us a ride for about the same as Uber cost. Whatcha gonna do?? He took us right to our hotel. Our hotel was kinda a disappointment…but stayable. We walked all around this town known for old restaurants & bars and billed as gaucho country. Had a pizza which again was loaded with cheese before going back to our room. I spent time researching where we could get a real Gaucho experience. All I found was an estancia that put on a show, served BBQ & let you ride in a hose drawn carriage…$168 each. Sure sounded like a touristy experience. Next morning, we went to the visitor center & asked if they knew of a gaucho show anywhere & we hit a jackpot!! Villa Lia,small town 11 miles away was having their local festival and we could join in for free. So off we went and as we drove into the small town, we could see horses everywhere & people all headed for the main square. There vendors were selling crafts, baked goods & gaucho gear. It was packed with people of all ages. The square was gated off & before long, a parade started. First little ones in school uniforms (which are just large aprons here), then bigger students, followed by sports teams, cultural dancers, ambulance, fire trucks, sports cars and then 50+ horses mounted by 6 mo to 90 yr olds! Girls with skirts draped over the horses; boys with berets or straw hats, tall boots, belts covered with silver coins with a 12-14" knife stuck in behind them. Many carrying younger kids on their laps. The last gaucho led 12-15 silver horses with no harness and had them circle around him . It was the real McCoy! When the parade was over, people lined up to get lunch. A long charcoal grill was covered with humongous sides of beef with the smoke carrying the smell enticing everyone. We of course, joined the line. Most people were getting a huge chunk of meat & a loaf of fresh bread which they took back to one of the many long tables. (Tables were a sheet of plywood held up by saw horses & lots of chairs were available to all.). Their families/friends crowded around the table and one of the men would pull out his long knife & cut off chunks for all. He also used his knife to open the many bottles of wine on the table. Since we didn't get the memo to bring our own butcher knife, we had to settle for the sandwich they sold filled with sliced grilled beef on fresh bread. It was fabulous! We wandered about checking out the booths and then grabbed a couple chairs & just people watched. What a feast for our eyes! The large groups gathered around the tables were sharing stories & laughing and greeting others passing by; kids were running around & begging for pesos to buy ice cream or balloons from the wandering clown; people cooing at the babies in buggies; moms nursing while chatting with others; young male gauchos eyeing girls who were sashaying by them; gkids rushing into their delighted gparents arms; kids climbing the trees & central flag stand; young couples flirting with each other; dogs scrounging for scraps. Music & Spanish chatter filled the air. I felt like I had a 360 degree view & was in the center of a live movie about the gaucho culture. Incredible! A stage was set up & at 3, a lady talked about the history of Villa Lia and then everyone joined in signing (probably) the National Anthem. An older Gauche with his flashy electric guitar took the stage next and with much gusto he sang a ballard (we think about a boy growing up). He must of made it funny cause there was much laughing & clapping throughout his story. He seemed to be powered by the love he was getting from the audience …and his mate. Later an accordion player joined him & quickly the street filled with couples who danced the Zamba…a slow, romantic and folkloric dance often waving handkerchiefs. (Yup, I looked that up). Many of the ladies were dressed with white lace or eyelet blouses and men wore neckerchiefs & berets and both wore blue jeans. Over 50 couples in near perfect unison were still dancing at 5 when we decided to head back to our hotel. Since Uber wasn't available, we called our new friend, Mario who came & picked us up. We didn't quite have enough pesos to pay him but he was ok with what we had. Back in SA de A, there was another kind of Gaucho festival…no horses…just motorcycles speeding up & down the streets while revving their engines. The town was packed.with people who'd come from Buenos Aires to escape the big city. We were glad we'd escaped SA de A! We took a short walk to stretch our legs & when we headed back, we heard someone call, "Roger." It was Mario…Rog had left his hat in his car. He also wanted to let us know he could exchange dollars for pesos so we arranged to meet him in the morning to exchange money. So Mario turned out to be another jackpot!
With pesos in our pocket now, we were able to fill Rog's craving for a bike ride. We peddled around this now much less busy, interesting town. Then we headed to the Gaucho Museum that was filled with more artwork than gaucho stuff but we could check off that we did the "best museum" in town. Then we biked some back roads that followed the river passing a campground & many soccer fields. The traffic was picking up so we returned the bikes & started walking back. On the way back, we went to another museum which we enjoyed much more. Though it was mostly art, it was done by the man called the Norman Rockwell of gaucho art. It was pretty fun to study the pictures so filled with vivid characters with so much detail. Like Norman Rockwell! It also had a theater featuring 3D remakes of some of his paintings complete with music & a narrative of a story the scene represented. Clever idea! This town reminds us a lot of Colonia del Sacramento that we visited in Uruguay with lots of ancient buildings that were never maintained and now draw people for that same reason. Charming, quaint and a glimpse of the past. Living on our 100 year old farm on Dancer Road was kind of the same!
