Day trips from Buenos Aires can be both cultural and culinary adventures

There are a number of day trips from Buenos Aires that you might consider. Most travel guides describe some options. During our Las Américas Trip we did two "day trips". Our first trip was to the guacho town of San Antonio de Areco. Our second trip was to the Molina Campos Museum, Moreno.

San Antonio de Areco
San Antonio de Areco has been described as one of the best places in Argentina to feel the charm and view artifacts of gaucho life.  Prior to taking the trip we went to the Retiro bus station in Buenos Aires and purchased a return ticket. The trip takes about two hours by bus; so we left in the morning and arrived in San Antonio de Areco just before mid-day. Since San Antonio de Areco is a small town we had no problems just walking around and checking things out.

San Antonio de Areco mural on a wall near the gas station © Spaswinefood

While in San Antonio del Areco we had lunch at La Esquina de Merti. La Esquina de Merti has its own webpage and a facebook page.

What a great way to advertise a restaurant © Spaswinefood

Lunch © Spaswinefood

Desert Time © Spaswinefood

After lunch we continued to tour the town. We enjoyed touring the artisan shops. San Antonio del Areco has lots of high quality ponchos and leather and silver artisan products to buy. There also a few museums in town to visit.

Sign for Park & Museum © Spaswinefood

Late afternoon we returned to the bus terminal, at a small gas station to catch the bus back to Buenos Aires. We had planned to return to Buenos Aires in time to relax before going out to dinner. That did not happen. The bus with the particular bus company that we booked did not arrive on time. We kept checking and after waiting for an hour or more decided to check out other options. Finally the bus counter attendant suggested that we go on the next bus. Fortunately the bus accepted our ticket and we were on our way. When we arrived back in our apartment in Palermo Hollywood our cat, Amadeus was quite happy to see us.

Amadeus loves Argentina!! © Spaswinefood

Moreno
On May 25th we took a day trip that is not described in travel guides. Our second day trip was to the Florencio Molina Campos Museum in Moreno, Greater Buenos Aires. During our visit to Argentina we became fascinated by the work of Molina Campos. After some online research we discovered that there was a Molina Campos Museum in Moreno. Molina Campos is best noted for his illustrations of the popular Alpargatas Calendars. He also spent some time as a cartoonist at Disney.

This time we took a taxi to the Once Train Station in Buenos Aires where we boarded a train for Moreno.

Train Station © Spaswinefood

After a pleasant train ride to Moreno we took a taxi to the museum.  Given that May 25th was a public holiday (so we discovered) and there was some reconstruction going at the museum, upon arrival we found that the museum was closed.  We quickly recovered from the news, and asked the taxi driver to take us back to the plaza for lunch.

Maybe next time © Spaswinefood

Maybe next time © Spaswinefood

We had lunch at a local restaurant on the Condor Plaza. The restaurant was advertising the special for the day, Locro Criollo. We were curious and so John asked what the special of the day was. 

Locro © Spaswinefood

The waiter explained that Locro Criollo was a traditional Argentine dish eaten on May 25th.  John ordered the special.  I ordered Chili Relleno.

Locro Crioll (bottom) and Chili Relleno (top) © Spaswinefood

In conclusion, while we did not get to visit the museum we did have an Argentine culinary outing. After lunch we walked back to the train station and took the train back to Buenos Aires. 

So while in Buenos Aires you can easily do day trips to towns such as, San Antonio de Areco and Moreno. While both our trips were cultural excursions they were also culinary adventures. If you would like to visit wine country but can not go to Mendoza, it is good to know that Buenos Aires Province has a number of wineries you might consider visiting. One example is Bodega Saldungaray in Saldungaray District. You can also do wine tasting in Buenos Aires.

I invite you to join me in my travels in Argentina and elsewhere at Spaswinefood, or you can visit my travel column at the Examiner. 

Sharon
Tasting Memories from the Las Américas Trip
January 2011
© Spaswinefood

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