fin de semana

So instead of going away for the weekend I decided to do a day trip to San Antonio de Areco on Sunday, the symbolic center of the Argentine "gaucho" culture.

San Antonio de Areco lies in the pampas of the northern part of the Buenos Aires province about 115km from the city of Buenos Aires. The town was built in the early 18th century and what is now the central square used to be the corrals belonging to the town's founder. The now square is in front of the main house of the original estancia.

We parked the car and walked around the cobble stone streets, checking out local artist studios, grabbing lunch at a cute little cafe and walking across the "punto viejo" (old bridge) and then along the river where a surprising number of people were swimming (the water was REALLY brown). We also visited a couple museums with local gaucho artifacts and the history of the town and then headed back to the city driving through lots of farmland and open countryside.

This morning spanish class was packed with fun!! Learning prepositions on a Monday morning is almost as fun as talking about what you did last weekend in spanish- in the past tense of course. This afternoon I think I'll check out the horse races at the Palermo Hipodromo. Who knows, maybe I'll make some money off the ponies!! Wish me luck!