San Antonio de Areco, Argentina...

The internet at the hostel has been out of action for two days, so plenty to catch up on. On Sunday we caught a bus to the Feria de Mataderos, which is about an hour away from central Buenos Aires and traditionally where the city´s slaughterhouses were located. Now home to the most incredible gaucho market on Sundays, where you can watch traditional dancing (and the locals who dance in the streets) and listen to singing, eat amazing steaks and sausages straight off the estancias and shop for local leather, silver and assorted trinkets. We wandered about for a few hours enjoying the atmosphere and beautiful sunny day, then headed back to the hostel in the afternoon to catch the Superclassico. That being a football match between rival Argentinian teams Boca Juniors and River Plate, also known as the biggest football derby in the world. As we strolled back to Millhouse the streets (except around the Obelisk, the big monument in the city where the fans celebrate after matches) were practically deserted as people watched the match. 70% of all Argentinians support one of these two teams so it´s a HUGE deal.

Today was a bit of a disaster frankly. In the morning we caught the bus to San Antonio de Areco, which is supposedly the spiritual home of the Argentine cowboy and a great little town (not that we saw it). After three hours on the bus we started to wonder if we´d missed our stop. We had. As usual the lovely and accomodating Argentinian people helped us out, putting us on a bus back to Areco free of charge. Unfortunately by the time we got there, we only had half an hour until our return bus arrived. So we had a quick steak sandwich from a local parilla and then got back on the bus. I can tell you that part of the country (it´s about 110km North of Buenos Aires) is very beautiful and full of estancias (ranches) and horses and cows. But unfortunately that's really all I can tell you.

Right, off to get an early night as we have a big one tomorrow, heading to a Millonga (tango club) with a friend who is visiting, to learn some moves and I´m sure enjoy a glass or three of local wine...