VISITING THE PAMPAS

The Gaucho Capital of Argentina

While they were on a flight to Santiago, Chile, last November, the Nortons became acquainted with a young man, Nicolo, from San Antonio de Areco, which is about 70 miles northwest of Buenos Aires and is known as the unofficial gaucho capital of Argentina. The gaucho is the counterpart to the American cowboy but there is much more tradition involved. Nicolo is on the board of a well-known museum in San Antonio de Areco, Las Lilas, and when he learned that the Nortons and many of the other missionary couples had missed the annual gaucho festival there in November, he offered to arrange a special tour of San Antonio de Areco and a private tour of the museum for us. We all enthusiastically accepted.

Nicolo hooked the Nortons up with a micro-bus company for a good rate, and on the morning of December 17, we were off to visit the Pampas of Argentina, where San Antonio de Areco is located. Nicolo had a conflict until noon, so one of his friends, Guillermo, travelled to Buenos Aires and met us with the bus to be our tour guide as we drove through north Buenos Aires and across the Pampas to Areco. Guillermo spoke of the early days of Buenos Aires and how those who settled here borrowed much of their architecture from France and Spain. There are a lot of green spaces, especially here in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires, and Guillermo told us that these open spaces were the idea of a Frenchman named Charles Thays, who was a Buenos Aires architect 100 years ago. Although there are many trees here now, there weren’t in Charles Thays’ time so he had them brought in from other areas of Argentina. The beauty of his foresight is very evident here today, as there are lovely trees of many types all over the city’s parks and along most of the neighborhood streets.

Our ride to San Antonio de Areco

As we drove, Guillermo spoke of the history of many of the areas we passed through and the positive developments that have occurred with recent changes in the governing party in Argentina that are very evident. Then, as we travelled through less populated areas, he indicated that the road we were travelling was known as the King’s Highway, El Camino Reál, which starts in what is now Buenos Aires and ends in Peru. Although it was truly travelled by kings, priests, explorers, etc., it actually has existed since the time of the Incas. Areco, established in 1730 and named after the Areco River, was one of the stops on the Camino Reál but has actually been populated for thousands of years.

We were travelling through flat land with large farms that had recently been harvested of wheat and corn. It looks a lot like Nebraska or Kansas. Guillermo told us that after the wheat and corn crops are harvested, many of the farmers plant soy because the price is so good and there is time for another crop. However, he said that they really don’t use soy beans in Argentina, so about 84% of those crops are exported. He also said that there are not many cattle ranches in this part of the country because the land is very expensive and the domestic price of beef is low and, although the price is better in other countries, beef cannot be exported. Therefore, the cattle ranchers look for less expensive acreage for their operations.

Guillermo

The Pampas

After about 2 hours, we approached the outskirts of San Antonio de Areco and we began to see horse ranches or estancias, some of which are quite large and elegant. Guillermo said Areco is like Kentucky in the United States, in that it is known for its excellent horses, many of which are race horses or polo ponies. This is because the Argentine Criollo horses of the Pampa, which are known as the toughest, are crossed with Arabians, which are known as the fastest. He also told us that the best horse hospital in the world is in Areco.

We arrived at the Ricardo Güiraldes Gaucho Museum shortly before noon and only had a short time to wander through the grounds and small museum of this re-creation of a typical gaucho stop or pulpería, where gauchos would go for drinks and food and dancing. The annual gaucho festival, which includes an artisan fair and rodeo (not so much like our rodeos but more of a demonstration of gaucho riding skills), is held on the grounds of this museum every November. The riders are called jinetes (hee-NET-eh) and the demonstration is called a jineteada (hee-net-eh-AH-dah). We decided not to go last November but we are definitely planning on going in 2017.

Grounds of the Gaucho Museum where jineteadas are held each November

Gaucho pulperia

Inside the compound

Re-creation of a gaucho station from the 19th century

Some artifacts from 19th century gaucho life

San Antonio de Areco is known for its silver work - bridle, spurs, knife, buckle, and stirrups with silver work

The day was hot and after visiting the gaucho museum, we were all ready for some air-conditioned comfort and some food. We drove through to the middle of Areco, a town of about 25,000, to a fun restaurant, Almacen de Ramos Generales, where we said a fond goodbye to Guillermo, met up with Nicolo, and had an excellent lunch. The poor waitress had to separate the checks and do a separate bill for each couple but she gave us excellent service and got good tips. Then it was time to go to the Las Lilas museum.

A typical street in San Antonio de Areco

Our lovely waitress and our bill at the restaurant

Las Lilas Museum

We were welcomed to the museum by our new gaucho friends

Las Lilas is a wonderful museum dedicated primarily to a famous Argentine artist, Florencio Molina Campos. Campos was somewhat like American artist, Norman Rockwell, in that he became associated with a company that published an annual calendar that featured a different humorous gaucho painting by Campos each month of the year. The calendars were published for years and Campos became quite famous. He even worked with Walt Disney for a time. You might remember the cartoon feature where Goofy and Donald Duck go to Argentina and become gauchos. Campos helped with that. Nicolo gave us a private tour of the museum and gave a little history about many of the paintings. It was wonderful and very interesting to get his personal perspective. Photos were not allowed in this part of the museum but here is a link where some of them can be seen.

The rest of the museum features beautiful, historical gaucho items and handiwork, which is also unbelievable, and a diorama presentation. Here are just a few of the many pictures we took:

 

Some photos from the diarama audio-visual presentation

Fancy hand-crafted leather halters and bridles

Hand-crafted leather halters, bridles and stirrups

Boleadoras (3 leather thongs with leather-covered rocks at the ends) that are thrown to trip horses and cattle

A gaucho using boleadoras

Hand-crafted stirrups - only the point of the boot is put in the the stirrup

Broad cinches from the 19th century - they go under the horses belly and the saddle is cinched to the rings on both sides

A new use for cow's udders

Our group at Las Lilas Museum with Nicolo, kneeling front left

We paid a visit to the gift shop, took some pictures of the group, and then headed back to the bus. We had also been told that there is a fantastic chocolate shop in Areco, so we convinced Nicolo to take us there and we found the reports to be true. The shop, La Olla de Cobre (The Copper Kettle), is owned by a couple who use traditional processes to make the chocolate all the way from purifying the cacao through the final product, which is excellent, and we all bought gobs of it. In fact, we are still eating the last of what we bought there. The Nortons had challenged each of us to give someone a pass-along card during the day and the young ladies that helped us were really nice and we gave one to each of them and invited them to Light the World and visit Mormon.org. The Nortons had put the cards in little bags with jelly candy in them and they got a kick out of us giving them candy in a candy store.

The drive home was pretty quiet as tired missionaries dozed after a busy, hot day in the Pampa. The trip had deep meaning for us because up to this point, we had only been exposed to the busy, crowded urban atmosphere of Buenos Aires. It helped us understand that quite close at hand, there is a part of Argentina that seems richer and more familiar to us and we thoroughly enjoyed the history we learned, as well. We will certainly return.

Well, this is plenty for now. We are enjoying our work and seeing Heavenly Father’s hand in it every day. We know the truth of His plan. We hope you are all well and thriving. Until next time.