November 3, 2025 . Argentina: San Antonio de Areco to Buenos Aires and Homeward Bound

Greetings as we depart Buenos Aires for the states; not sure we are totally prepared to face what’s been going on in DC. We are sitting in the lounge at Buenos Aires Airport; we board in about an hour, so this note will be very short.

We had a very quiet night at La Florida Pueblo in San Antonio de Areco; the town is safe and quiet and as I mentioned in a previous note, our little four-room hotel was delightful. And staff could not have been better or more helpful. If you’re headed to Areco, I highly recommend you stay here. We had a very nice breakfast (I think the place is based on ecological goals and natural foods): homemade yogurt and granola, eggs, fresh-squeezed OJ, medialuna, scone, etc. And Augustino, who we thought was the owner was there to greet us. He’s actually the owner of the cafe and the store that sells really high quality leather vests and crockery; his friend is the owner of the hotel but they work closely together. After a few minutes, his wife appeared (and her English is excellent) with their 11-month old. She was born and raised in San Antonio de Areco (he is from Buenos Aires). After they were married and she got pregnant they decided to move to her home town because they think it is the best place to raise a child. The front desk woman was also charming and worked really hard to manage with her limited English and my limited Spanish.

Everything is very casual, so even though our bags were packed and ready to go, we decided to stroll the town again. We just left our bags in the room and said we’d be back in about three hours (well beyond check out time). That was fine with everyone. And so we strolled to the main square and other parts of town, passing a sweet biodiversity garden (or at least that is what the handmade sign said). And we stopped in a few shops that fronted the town square/the plaza. (Well I stopped in a few shops and Mike found a comfortable bench in the square to watch the world go by.)

We stopped briefly at the gaucho museum; it was closed, but they let us peek in and also see what they had in the museum store. And I forced Mike to try on one of those ultra large berets that they wear here. We headed to the oldest building in Areco (a bar that serves empanada) to grab lunch, but alas it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. We had passed it last night and it was buzzing, crowded, and loud. Seemed like everyone was having a great time. But it was late and we needed to pack. It’s called Bessornart and we were told that the building ks sort of falling over and leaning which we could see from the street. Would have been nice to get inside. Next time!

Then we headed back to Buenos Aires–a two hour drive–mostly through agricultural land; got lost only once and managed to go about two miles past the turnoff on the highway. to get to the rental car place; actually we were in the right lane which was an exit lane so we got off the highway and suddenly were in some road that took us under the highway and bypassed all the exits… But the trusty GPS figured it out and we made it to the car rental return (chatted with the clerk whose brother lives in Santa Clara!) and hopped into a taxi with a very nice driver who tried to make conversation. We did learn that he lives near the airport so he was happy with us as passengers since he was going to call it a day and go home right after dropping us off.

There are many more tales to tell and so many more experiences. We totally enjoyed Argentina (and also Uruguay). They are both beautiful countries, friendly people, and so much to more to see.

f you’re looking to leave the US, Argentina could be an option, but….. look who might decide to flee to Argentina—— Maybe he things he’ll get a portrait on the side of a building like Eva Peron.