John:
We spent today at the Feria de Mataderos. Mataderos is one of the most south westerly barrios in BA city proper (which is the limit of travel on the colectivos (buses) for 80 centavos: if you want to go further you may have to pay up to AR$1.30).

The feria (fair, festival,) is a weekly event where 'the country meets the city' and we sat at a table next to three very friendly local ladies who said they came every week because the food was 'economical.' It is also fantastic, follow the photo to flickr to see. There were ten or more asados and parillas, the asados are the barbeques and the parillas are the barbeques inside.

There are a load of nice craft stalls, specialising in silver, leather and wood. We bought a mate and a bombilla so we can start drinking another drink no one else will like. We got there at 1:30 or so, after almost an hour on the number 92, so we were ready for our lunch. The asado was going strong, I had a vaciopan, which turned out to be bread with two slices of beef cut from a grilled hunk, rare and delicious. Liz went off to queue for some Locra (spicy stew) but the guy next to her in the queue convinced her to try the tamales. In the meantime I found a spare bit of seating next to three old ladies (mentioned above) so we got to practice our Spanish, and I had a little shiver of pride when they said to one another 'los ingleses son lindos' the English are lovely.

Then we saw the gauchos playing darts... or not. What happens is this, hanging from a stand is a ring, the size of a key ring. The rider comes to it at a full gallop and tries to spear the ring with a biro.

They go really fast, look at the photo, it's just on the road... the sand runs out just after the picture and the horses make a great noise and take ages to stop...

Oh, and it's getting a bit Autumnal here, Liz bought a scarf but the 24C temperature meant it was a little redundant.
  ¶ 1:15 AM