what to do in San Antonio de Areco

And plan the getaways to enjoy one or several days of this “super weekend” which still has several days left, San Antonio de Areco is always one of the gems that enters the radar.

105 km from General Paz Avenue, Areco is a “gaucho refuge” that maintains like few others the cultural traditions and aspects of country life. Not for nothing in 2015 was it declared “National Capital of Tradition”, that tradition that is expressed in different places and in different ways both in the city and in the towns that surround it.

For example, in his renowned variety of craftsfrom the most traditional of silversmiths, rope makers, saddlers and weavers to the most modern.

Or in typical activities like horseback riding, camping days in ranches such as La Bamba, El Ombú, La Cinacina or La Florita or a varied agenda of cultural eventsboth in historical sites and in museums or in outdoor spaces.

As the “Field day“what will this be done?” Saturday 30th, from 12in the Parque Criollo, where in addition to lunch there will be trooping, rein testing, horse riding, a leather race and a bonfire, with canteen service and free entry.

On Saturday from 8:30 p.m. it will be the “night of bars” at Lo de Co, with live music (Demi Carabajal closes); and on Sunday the 31st there will be a religious guided tour leaving from Plaza Ruiz de Arellano.

Other activities for this long weekend will be aa guided tour of the nature reserveon Monday the 1st at 11, leaving from La Matera del Parque Criollo, and a meeting of “Bailecitos Criollos” with live music, from 3pm in the Patio Guida O’Donnell of the Tourism Department.

That same day at 11:45 p.m. the traditional Vigil for the Malvinas Deedat the Monument to the Fallen, while on Tuesday, April 2, there will be different activities related to the Malvinas war in Areco, Duggan and Villa Lía.

And they are always, of course,the classics that are worth visiting. Here, a must-see for a getaway to San Antonio de Areco.

A visit to the city almost inevitably begins in its attractive historic center of cobblestone streets, buildings that tell stories and a list of old bars and restaurants which in other times used to be grocery stores and general stores.

There are historic bars like Mitrehe Tokio and the Balthazar Areco, and especially the Bessonart Bowling Club, a corner with more than 200 years of life and that has been a bowling alley and warehouse for more than 100 years. Stop by, admire and try the typical drink, fernet with Pepsi.

In terms of gastronomy, you can also treat yourself to Hunchthe restaurant of chef Paula Mendez Carrera, who after having worked and lived in different cities – from London to New York, Lebanon or Singapore – and in French restaurants in Buenos Aires, chose Areco to settle with her family and give rise to a “simple” kitchen, linked to traditions and local production.

The story is also told in the interesting museum circuit of the city, which begins at the Ricardo Güiraldes Museum – although this weekend it is closed due to the flooding it suffered with the last rains – and Pulpería La Blanqueadaa complex located in the “Parque Criollo” that houses a rich heritage linked to the gaucho, its uses and customs and country life, and displays the literary work of Ricardo Güiraldes.

The route may well continue along the Usina Vieja City Museum and Cultural Center, the Railway Interpretation Center de Vagues and the Las Lilas de Areco Museumwhich houses an important collection of original works by Florencio Molina Campos.

Vagues, Villa Lía and Duggan They are three essential towns of the party, arising, like almost all of them, around a train station.

Less than 100 inhabitants, few blocks and only two with asphalt. 8 km from the centre from Areco on a rural road, Waves It is tranquility made a town.

The greatest movement, as always, is experienced in its train station, from 1894; and not because the convoys pass by, but because a Railway Interpretation Centerwhose rooms tell, in the history of a place, a large part of the history of a country: from the arrival of the first locomotives to Argentina to the “last train to Vagues”.

There are dozens of objects on display, from railway bells to photos of local people to old traffic lights and phonoluminescent signals. On Sunday the 31st and Tuesday the 2nd, at 4 p.m., there will be guided tours.

Towards the “other win”, 19 km north of Areco, Villa Lia It has its fame, since several films were filmed in its streets and its station. television productions. It is much larger than Vagues – around 1,200 inhabitants – and in addition to the Saint Joseph Chapelworth a visit Los Rostros de la Pampa museumwith guided tours that invite you to learn stories of the immigrants who came to these lands.

And also Bellavista Housean old colonial mansion where the film Imagining Argentina, with Antonio Banderas and Emma Thompson, was filmed.

In it La Segunda Recreational Field A collection of machines is on display and there are activities such as horseback riding and cycling, as well as accommodation.

To get to Dugganthe third of the obligatory towns in the district, you have to go 19 km to the west, following Route 8, and enter another haven of tranquility and rural life.

The interesting thing about the town is that it was born as a irish immigrant colony around the Argentine Central Railway station, where today an agrarian school operates and is the headquarters for skills in the great Patron Saint Festivals.

Hay historical buildings like the chapel from the beginning of the 20th century, and although the famous La Estrella bakery, which had been revived in the hands of a group of young people, is now closed, there are new winds from the hand of other young people: Black Eyes is a cultural project by the pianist José tambutti and the photographer Maximiliano Amena, who designed an original house built with metal, wood and glass that houses a multiespacio cultural to offer an agenda different from the traditional one of the area.

It is both a center for the arts as a proposal for an artistic residence and tourist accommodation, and focuses on promoting the diversity of artistic expressions, for which it appeals to classical music concerts as well as photo exhibitions or interdisciplinary workshops. Of course, for this weekend it is already reserved; We’ll have to try our luck next time (@ojosnegrosduggan),

More information in www.sanantoniodeareco.tur.ar