A trip to Pilar

Qué lindo!

My Argentine friend Lucio invited me to his family's home in Pilar, which is about an hour outside of Córdoba city. It was so great to get out of the city and spend some time with a real Argentine family. And really, they couldn't get any more Argentine. Lucio says his family goes back hundreds of years in Argentina. His dad is this really neat, smart, interesting man -- a writer/teacher/architect/farmer/etc etc, and was even one of those exiled to Amsterdam during Argentina's instability in the 1970s. His parents are absolutely lovely and so kind.

The Scelsos live on this huge old farm in a beautiful home right on Rio Segundo. They harvest wheat, soy and corn, and also have pigs and horses. Their home is old old old. The inside is absolutely beautiful. I took some pics of the kitchen and living room with walls and walls of books. Every nook and cranny has books...books in Spanish, books in English, books in Greek...it was awesome! They have all this intricite old wooden furniture dating back centuries, old family portraits, and only got electricity just a couple of years ago.

The Scelsos were very kind to have me, and cooked a big dinner Friday night and a huge, long lunch Saturday afternoon, which consisted of meat, veggies, fruit, wine, juice, coffee...the works. We also ate some of the jam Lucio's mom made from a fruit growing in the backyard. (I had to take a long siesta after that meal!) I loved listening (or, trying to) their conversations as they spoke the fastest and most animated español I have ever heard! I caught some of the conversations, but mostly relied on them speaking slower to me or having Lucio translate.

The big topic of discussion, of course, was the current state of affairs involving the government, la presidenta Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, and the farmers. Obviously, the Scelsos disagree immensly with her resistance to the culture of Argentine agriculture, but they manage to keep a great sense of humor and attitude about it. Marcelo (Lucio's dad) turned to me at one point and said, to kind of round up the whole conversation that had just gone over my head, "Este año es mierda!" (this year is shit) and then proceeded to chuckle loudly.

Other than eating a lot, Lucio showed me the land...we walked around by the river (which reminded me a lot of Grandma Marie's land!) and hung out with his two rottweilers (awww!). We also spent a few hours just reading some books from their huge library.

I love these horses!!

So, yeah...it was definitely a great experience to spend a day with a true Argentine family. And it definitely made me miss MY family! But they're coming to visit soon...yay!