Monico Family Travels

  • Home
  • Instagram
  • Videos
  • So they cancelled the Day of Tradition…

    Posted at 9:06 pm by Charlotte, on November 12, 2018

    ……in San Antonio de Arecco…..but we went anyway……. for no logical reason: the hostel we had booked was significantly less comfortable than our lovely home in Las Palmas, there was 100% certainty of rain (the torrential kind with keep-you-awake thunder), and all the outside events had been postponed till next weekend.

    IMG_20181110_131923 (1)
    IMG_20181110_131939

    After an extreme expectation setting effort by Jimbob, I was genuinely impressed by the cleanliness and friendliness of our hostel, (and he was initially relieved when they kindly put an extra mattress in our ‘girls’ room so he didn’t have to bunk up in the mixed dorm……but less so next morning when 6 nubile Aussie lasses trooped down from said dorm to breakfast in their pjs).  We met some other interesting travellers there, including an older lady who was traveling with her sister (the dusty ‘in a box’ type) which led to some interesting explanations and speculations!

    IMG_20181109_174714
    IMG_20181109_193702
    IMG_20181109_185754
    IMG_20181109_192753
    IMG_20181109_192309

    The rain held off for the afternoon so we took a walk around town and enjoyed an exhibition of top quality Gaucho artisan work.  Highly skilful craftspeople had produced some brutal bits and spurs, some beautiful knives, bridles, and belts and as for the boots – I want me a  pair (made-to-measure of course)!

    IMG_20181109_182520
    IMG_20181109_181827
    IMG_20181109_181905
    IMG_20181109_182030
    IMG_20181109_181819
    IMG_20181109_182300
    IMG_20181109_181659

    Our evening plan had been to join the gaucho bonfire and dancing, but having walked over a mile to the outskirts of town to find that there wasn’t even a sniff of it starting by 10pm, we surrendered to our English bodyclocks, and bailed to bed (the spritely older lady let us know at breakfast the next day that it really started ‘kicking’ at around 1:30am).

    Tenacious to the end, the following morning we we wentIMG_20181110_115907.jpg to Parque de Criollo where the Gaucho displays and games should have been staged.  There were a few hopefuls like us lingering around, and a few gauchos hanging around on their horses.  Turns out gauchos are pretty accomplished at hanging around, and they out-hung most of the hopefuls, but we hoisted the girls into a tree (from whence we could no longer hear their moaning), and stuck it out until the gauchos decided to put on a very fine display of traditional skills (begrudgingly credited with ‘worth the wait’!).

    IMG_20181110_124310 (2)
    IMG_20181110_121801
    IMG_20181110_124342
    IMG_20181110_113909
    IMG_20181110_124440

    Before heading home we enjoyed some local brew and empanadas.  We went to a general store which was purported to have been converted into a cafe, but which more closely resembled something out of a cupboard at Hogwarts.  

    IMG_20181110_131823 (1)
    IMG_20181110_131805
    IMG_20181110_131836

    On the way home it rained A LOT.  And its been raining ever since, A LOT.  We have become highly adept at both bucket placement and speed-mopping which are certainly good life skills to bring home from our adventure!

    • ← A surprising event for Argentina…
    • A cumpleanos muy feliz! →

    Author: Charlotte

    | 2 Comments |

    2 thoughts on “So they cancelled the Day of Tradition…”

    • Grandpa Suffolk

      November 14, 2018 at 3:27 pm

      Oh Help! This one definitely needed a positive attitude and you clearly achieved it, well done. Question, has that bullock been doped or does that chap have a hypnotic trick up his sleeve, second question, how many legs has the solo horse to the right of the recumbent bullock got! It looks like the “local store” has some reasonably toxic fluids on sale, but no doubt they help you sleep through the rain and drips into the buckets! Just order the boots and put them on my account. Love to all.

      Reply
      • Charlotte

        November 14, 2018 at 6:05 pm

        Watch out or you will be bringing a 4th suitcase to Chile! Bullock roped, and 4 legs with gaucho riding technique. All fairly impressive. Wish you’d been there to see it with us. Xxxxxxx

        Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    • Follow Blog via Email

      Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

      Join 45 other subscribers