 |
| Gaucho presentation at Estancia |
We headed out early this morning for San Antonio de Areco about a 2 hour drive. It has been declared a city of historic national interest by the Argentine Government. Here we visited the Draghi Silversmith Museum where Juan Jose Draghi was the forerunner of the revival of traditional gaucho silversmithing in Argentina. On view were traditional gaucho belts, sabers, stirrups, as well as contemporary jewelry and high relief placards. The shoppers in our groups spent a great deal of time in the gift shop. Wayne and I walked to the park and listened to the birds.
After listening to the birds, we boarded the bus to Estancia, which is a ranch (normally for rearing sheep or other cattle) that in this case is a place for Polo horses and Guachos. All the Polo horses were on sabbatical. But we had a nice glass of wine and then an impressive gaucho show. The first show involved 2 gauchos racing under an arch with a keyring size ornament that they tried to spear with a stylus. They were extremely fast and pretty accurate. If the ornament was speared and remained on the stylus, the gaucho held it aloft and then presented it to a señorita he desired. I got one!!! Then the son of a gun got another ornament and presented it to another señorita...the two timer. They also played a game much like football and one gaucho presented his horse as he had trained it. Check this link to read about him and Flickr to see the photos of both placed we visited.
