Or is it Irish John... who knows...

We went to San Antonio De Areco today, a little town (see the posts about Carmelo... it's similar) about 100Km from BA. They needed our IDs to let us buy tickets but they put my name in as... I wonder, is John Irish the sort of name that would be suitable for a TV detective in the 70s?

San Antonio is very pretty, all old buildings, follow the flickr link for more pictures if you want to see. There's a river and it's a popular spot for summer picnics and asados, so popular that next to each of the fifty or so concrete picnic tables there is a concrete 'H' about half a metre high where you can put two asados (barbeques). Along the dirt road there are a few bars (all closed today, it's the depths of winter, 15C) which advertise that they sell charcoal, wine and they rent out asados and horses... the horses are, I'm pretty sure, for riding and not for the asados.

The town has a small Irish background. I asked one restauranteur if his family was Irish and he said no (he looked just like the old swimming pool attendant in Thurles, Noel) and his friend said it was just beacause he was old. But later on two of the waitresses where we had lunch said their grandfathers were Irish. And in the small town square (which has a great mix of trees, from olives to cypress to to palms) there's a plaque commemorating a visit by Mary Robisnon, the Irish President, in 1995.

On the way back there were no free seats on the bus so John Irish had to sit on the steps... until enough people got off after which he got to use the comfy chair (semi cama, half beds, these seats are three abreast on the buses, so they're a third wider than UK coach seats, and they recline like La-Z-boy armchairs... it's a good job they're so comfortable because come January we'll be taking 20 hour and longer trips).   ¶ 11:21 PM