November 2, 2025 . From Lobos to San Antonio de Areco . Argentina

Greetings from San Antonio de Areco, about 70 miles northwest of Buenos Aires. It has a population of about 26,000.

We began our day at the “castle” (see yesterday’s post for information about Estancia La Calendaria) and after breakfast began our two-hour drive, knowing we’d probably make a lot of stops en route. Most of the drive was one lane in each direction, well paved, and flat. Lots of greenery, agriculture, and a few small towns. About 2/3 of the way, we randomly took a turnoff and went to the town of Mercedes — population 65,000. It was very sweet and seems quite prosperous, I assume as a result of the agriculture industry that surrounds the town. Many architecturally designed, fairly new houses. Strolled a bit and then decided to stop for a pizza (!) at a very sweet indoor/outdoor place called “El Triangulo.”

Then we headed back on the main road to San Antonio de Areco, a very old colonial town—with a perfect grid of streets, all one-way streets–where in some ways it seems time has stood still; still in many ways it’s pretty modern. There are a lot of artisans and numerous shops selling wares for the equestrian and gaucho crowd–belts decorated with coins (rastra), silver knives (facón), and leather boots. San Antonio de Areco was given the title “National Capiral of Tradition.”

We are staying at a small hotel on the edge of Plaza Gomez; four rooms; totally charming; and very photogenic, as I hope you can see. We are the only guests and the front desk closes at 7:00 pm. so we are truly alone–the only people at the hotel; no staff after 7. Seems like a safe little town, and we have the phone number of the owner…. just in case. Lots of wood and taseful locally-made furniture. They have a lovely shop attached to the hotel and also a coffee shop (where we will have breakfast). The shop sells beautiful leather vests and wool shawls. I’ve already tried on a few but nothing fits me correctly. And most of the other goods are pottery so that’s too difficult to carry back.

First a little history and then I’ll describe the town as we saw it when we walked this afternoon. San Antonio de Areco was founded in 1730, with a chapel dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua. Before the Spanish conquest, the area was inhabited by various indigenous communities, but once the Spaniards pushed for their form of “civilization,” the indigenous tribes disappeared, and there was intermingling between indigenous people, conquerors, and enslaved Africans. That is supposedly how the Gaucho was born—a mixed-race male with dark skin and they say also with a raging temperament.

The main square used to be the corral for the ranchers who founded this place into a city in the early 1800s. In the mid-1800s a bridge was built that required a toll–supposedly the very first toll in all of Argentina.

There is a gaucho museum in town; maybe we’ll check it out tomorrow before we head to Buenos Aires. And the town is also famous because of a book that told the story of a gaucho and an orphan, written by a famous Argentine author (Ricardo Guiraldes) who lived in San Antonio de Areco for many years. From what I could glean from very quick research, the book is about a poor man who is “richer” than everyone else because having nothing, he desired nothing more—an idealized vision of poverty. Anyway, the gauchos settled in this area and grew their cattle herds on lands belonging to ranchers.

And we learned that there is an annual gathering of the gauchos which would have been fun to experience. It takes place in about a week. Next time, better planning. The only downside of San Antonio de Areco is that it is pretty muggy due to the river that runs along the edge of the town.

The young woman at the hotel, who tried so hard to explain things in English (we were about equal in terms of my Spanish and her English) suggested some restaurants, including her favorite. Turns out she is vegan so her favorite restaurant serves vegan, vegetarian, and gluten free foods. It’s probably good, but we are in Argentina—land of beef. So funny that she can be vegan in this country! Anyway, she and the young woman in the hotel’s coffee shop made four suggestions. The best one sounded like Colorado, so we decided to stroll there to take a look. But Colorado is closed on Sundays, along with three of the suggestions. So we reluctantly decided to go to Almacen de Ramos Generales.

Almacen de Ramos Generales was fine; not great but everyone very attentive. We had (yet again) sweetbreads–one portion that could have served 8 people, and a pasta dish that was somewhat bland… and a chocolate mousse that also could have fed a table of four or five. And a carfe of the house wine which they said had 3-4 glasses, but by my count would have about 6 glasses had we finished it all. We managed to find our way back to the hotel and now we are all alone here. We did meet up with the owner/manager as we were leaving for dinner. Nice guy who said he lived just two blocks away, so if there was any problem to WhatsApp him and he’d be here in 2 minutes. Hopefully we won’t need him.

That’s it… Tomorrow we drive back to Buenos Aires, return the car… and head to the airport. Will likely post a short note tomorrow.. but basically… Argentina—we will return. So much more to see and do.