What a day! Rain threatened today, so Juan Gibelli (who would have been our host today) made the decision to switch days and go to his estancia tomorrow (as we will be driving horses and he did not want us to have to do so in the rain!). Good call as it turns out. It rained at 8 am and again at 11 am. So we visited another estancia (pictures are all up on the CAA Facebook page of our fabulous visit today) near the town of San Antonio de Areco, which would have been our visit tomorrow. (Follow me so far??!)
Our hostess showed us her lovely house and a building where she had recreated an old typical Argentine bar and then finally we went in to her newly built carriage house where we got to see her collection of vehicles and ponchos. Here we also got to enjoy a barbecue lunch all together and once the morning rain finished, the sun came out and a breeze blew and it was a glorious day.
Upon departure, we were told that it was a shorter and more interesting journey back to Areco by the back road, so a large grader was called for (!?!) and a path was scraped so our small bus could “venture” across a field to meet the road. We were all so stunned that no one got a photo!
The town of Areco is full of small shops, restaurants and bars and starting tomrrow the gauchos will begin arriving in town for the festival. There is lots to see and after a leisurely afternoon we all went to the main square and enjoyed a great meal together.