Cafe's and Dog Walkers

Each corner it seems in Recoleta has a little bakery cafe, and we had one next door to our apartment.  Very nice!  Breakfast is not big in Buenoa Aries.  You have coffee and tostadas, which are little round pieces of toast and a spread that tastes like mayo.  Or coffee and croissants that are glazed with sugar.

 This is a VERY dog friendly city, it seems everyone has a dog and dog walkers are out with their charges early in the morning.  I took this pic from our balcony of an apartment building across the street and the walker picking up another dog, i think he had 11 dogs, but we saw up to 15 with some walkers!

(Note the fall leaves, they have opposite seasons to ours).

One of our favorite place's that we visited was the Recoleta Cemeter!

Visiting El Ombu de Areco!

Another favorite of our visit to Buenos Aires was a visit to an estancia (ranch)! Actually this was my favorite thing that we did, as you know if horses are involved I am going to love it!

 The town of San Antonio de Areco is a little over an hour from Buenos Aires and is reported to be the birthplace of the gaucho tradition.

 We took a bus early in the morning to the little town and a driver met us and drove us to the estancia and told us a little of the history of the area during the drive. When we arrived a young women met us along with several dogs and took us to the dining room where we were served delicious croissants, empanadas, juice and coffee.

 The rustic dining room.

Notice the lighting fixtures and beautiful french windows.  You can see the shutters peaking through.

This is the main house on the property a Late-Colonial style mansion which was built in 1880 by Lieutenant-general Pablo Riccheri.  It is now owned by the Boelcke family and has been since 1934.

  After our first ride we had Argentine wine and snacks here on the lovely wide veranda.

Isn't the tile beautiful?

We met our horses while the mist was still rising from the ground.

And our guide, a real Gaucho!  Note the sheep skin over the saddle, this made for a very cushy ride, I may have to carry a sheep skin with me every time I ride!

Lunch was served al fresco.  We were treated to Argentinean barbecue and local wines.  The weather was perfect and the meal was one of the best I had while we were in Argentina ( I say one of the best!)








After our meal we were serenaded by one of our gaucho's and then and a demonstration of horse training by this young man which was impressive.  

I wish we had planned a longer stay here,  maybe next time!

Below is the estancia's namesake the Ombu tree.

Recoleta Cemetery

As cemetary's go the Recoleta Cemetery is amazing and beautiful, so much so we went twice! The cemetery has been a burial place of notable and wealthy family's in Buenos Aires since the early 1800's. We saw tombs of past generals, presidents and of course Eva Peron. Something that was interesting to me is they had stairs going down into each tomb. Generations of family's coffins stacked with the latest person's coffin or urn on display upstairs. Sorry about the blur but you can kind of see the stairs going down in the above photo! I know, vampires right?! In spite of the spooky factor, it is beautiful and I have never seen anything like it. This little boy with the ivy growing over him was lovely to me, and the larger sculpture showing the mother and baby. Most of the tombs are well taken care, of but some look like they have not been attended to in many years. Maybe the family has died out, sad to think of.

If you ever get to Buenos Aires the Recoleta Cemetery is a must see!