September 21, 2024

Dateline – Buenos Aires and San Antonio de Areco

Yesterday was city mouse day and today was country mouse day. The hotel was in hysterical preparations for a society wedding tonight with 400 guests expected so the usual breakfast buffet had to be relocated. The food was the same, even if it was on a makeshift series of tables in the lobby of the main restaurant one floor down. I have a feeling this was not the first time the hotel staff had been to this particular rodeo. After more than a week of overeating, I’ve decided to keep my breakfasts a bit lighter so it was coffee and pastry and fruit and let someone else explore the hot bar and this hotel’s version of scrambled eggs.

Then it was on the bus for a trip out into the pampas to the little town of San Antonio de Areco (on the Areco river) about thirty some miles northwest of Buenos Aires. A stop at a local crafts store to break up the bus ride (I bought a new belt as my current one is rather the worse for wear) and then into the town. The first stop was at a business located on the main market square – a working family silver smithy currently run by Mariano Draghi, the second generation to live and work at the location. His father, who started the business, was the child of Italian immigrants to Argentina. The Draghis have made a name for themselves by designing and making the fine silver accoutrements worn by the gauchos of the pampas on ceremonial occasions – gaucho knives, bridle and saddle tackle ornamentation, trophies, mate cups, and the like. The old family home is now part boutique, part museum, and part working smithy where Mr. Draghi was happy to talk about the art of creating the intricate silver engravings and lovely relief patterns for which he is known. There was nothing that caught my eye in my price range (a single hand done piece can take months to complete and is priced accordingly – he does a lot of commissions for wealthy collectors).

Then, a little further out into the countryside to another family owned business, Estancia de Rosario de San Antonio de Areco which is part horse farm for the training of polo ponies and gaucho rides, part event space, part polo club, and part family home. The weather could not have been lovelier with a breeze off the Areco river and we were treated to demonstrations of gaucho trick riding, horse training techniques, and then yet another three course meal, this one served al fresco on tables under the trees. Several members of the family whose home and business it is were there as hosts and were quite charming folks. I again ate too much and had maybe one too many glasses of wine. It was enough to convince me that a large dinner was not in the cards.

We got back to the hotel around 5:30 and I spent some time walking through Recoleta at dusk. I must confess I did stop for some ice cream. The hotel lobby was filled with Buenos Aires society awaiting the nuptials. The men in dark suits and ties, the women in gorgeous long formal dresses, more than one of which I recognized as major designer. I don’t know who was getting married but someone was obviously dropping a few shekels on the proceedings. There was a bunch of extra security buzzing around and it was pretty clear that, even as a guest of the hotel, you weren’t going to get more than a peek at the festivities. As I watched them all going on about their ways, admiring their get ups, all I could think of was the aristocrats chorus in the original Hal Prince staging of Evita and I kept expecting them to move as a single unit. I was slightly disappointed when they did not.

Tomorrow is our last full Buenos Aires day – tours of the Recoleta cemetery and Teatro Colon in the morning. (I checked and there was nothing much playing there during these few days or I would have gone to a performance) and fairly unstructured after. I’m thinking I’ll hit the major art museums. If anyone has a can’t miss thing I should see or do available on a Sunday afternoon, drop a note below and I’ll see if I can fit it in.