A few weeks ago a few of us went to a lovely concert at the Colegio de Escribanos in San Isidro, described in a post called Our San Isidro Adventure. Last night Cecilia and I went to another event there, this time a folkloric group called Otro Cantar.
I usually love South American folkloric music, with all its bright costumes and guitars. This was a bit of a different take on it, and I must say we weren’t too keen. You’ll see the video clip is much shorter than usual — that’s why!
The concert ended about 10.30 pm and we hadn’t had dinner, so we headed back to Olivos, where Cecilia lives, for pizza. I’m showing you this photo of Cecilia because, even though it’s just a pizza joint, not even a bar or cafe, it does serve wine—Cecilia thought it strange that I would even question it! Anyway, we drank a bottle and ate a pizza and then went home to bed — I slept until the 9 am alarm woke me!
Not every concert is great, but you can always have fun!
Today was a lovely, sunny day, with temperature around 16 degrees celsius. I went with Cecilia to a medical appointment in San Isidro, a lovely town about a half hour drive from Olivos, where she lives. It was such a lovely day that we made a day of it.
First, we went to the Quinta Los Ombues, a museum that was once a luxurious private home overlooking the town with the river in the background. Apparently it was a place where various figures in Argentine history gathered, including one of my heroes, General Jose de San Martin, commonly known as El Libertador. I love places like that, and I could just imagine them all sitting under the huge ombu trees in the garden, having discussions that would affect the history of the country.
We are in the midst of the winter holidays, so the kids are out of school, and quite a number of them were at Quinta Los Ombues!
From there we drove along the river side, stopping for dessert and wine at a lovely cafe overlooking the river itself. It was actually quite warm, as you can see from the people relaxing on the grass, and you can just see Buenos Aires in the distance past a bend in the river.
We’ve just arrived home and decided we couldn’t be bothered making dinner, so later tonight we’re going out for Peruvian food — always a treat. If you’ve never had Peruvian food, you should try it!
You know those times when things turn out very differently from expected, but maybe even better? Well Friday was one of those times.
Cecilia had invited Venetia, Vivian and me to go to San Isidro, a town a few miles past where she lives, to see a concert. It was a charity event put on by the College of Notaries, and she told us it was to be a flamenco show. Well, when we arrived early to get our tickets, we discovered it wasn’t flamenco, but zarzuela. I think she just registered that it was a Spanish show and assumed flamenco. Zarzuela is a kind of Spanish operetta type of music — no dancing! But we were there anyway, so what the heck.
We were early though, and decided to use the time to go and have a glass of wine before the show. San Isidro is not Buenos Aires, and finding a place open was challenging. We asked a flower seller, who told us there was a wine bar “just down the road”. After we walked several blocks, we found the place. It was called “Best Wines”, but it turned out it wasn’t a regular wine bar where you could just go in and drink wine. It was more of a wine tasting place, and a bit of an Alladin’s cave if you like either wine or whisky.
But…
The guy told us we couldn’t stay because they were closing in half an hour! There were two customers at the back, happily quaffing away, but he said they had been there for a while and he couldn’t serve anyone else. Well, Cecilia went into her Argentine feminine wiles routine, telling him we were going to show and would have to leave in half an hour anyway. The two men who were drinking at the back were also egging him on to let us in. Long story short, we were finally welcomed in, offered a choice of lovely wines and he gave us some nice cheese and ham to go with it at no extra charge. How nice was that. We had a lot of fun there — if he hadn’t been closing we might have been tempted to stay there instead of going back to the non-flamenco show!
As it happened, the show was fun too. Although it did have a kind of church basement feel to it, the two singers were professionals who had sung at the wonderful Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires and they were wonderful. Interestingly, even though they spoke and sang in Spanish, it was very obvious that this was not South American music, but Spanish through and through. You’ll see what I mean when you watch the video. I hope you enjoy it.
The concert ended about 10.30 pm and we hadn’t had dinner, so we headed back to Olivos, where Cecilia lives, for pizza. I’m showing you this photo of Cecilia because, even though it’s just a pizza joint, not even a bar or cafe, it does serve wine—Cecilia thought it strange that I would even question it! Anyway, we drank a bottle and ate a pizza and then went home to bed — I slept until the 9 am alarm woke me!
