ABOUT SAN ANTONIO DE ARECO -  compliments of The Rough Guide to Argentina: 

Delightful San Antonio de Areco is considered the home of gaucho traditions and hosts the Dia de la Tradicion (see beow), the country's most important festival to celebrate the pampa culture that is such a central part of Argentine identity. Despite its modest promotion as a tourist destinatino, San Antonio  has retained a  surprisingly genuine feel, augmented by its setting on the banks of a tranquil river, the Rio Areco. You may not find the town full of galloping gauchos outside the festival, but you still have a good chance of spotting estancia workers on horseback, sporting traditional berets and rakishly knotted scarves, or of coming across paisanos propping up the bar of a traditional boliche establishment. San Antonio has a prestigious literary connection: the town was the setting for Ricardo Guiraldes Argentine classic Don Segundo Sombra (1926), a novel that  was influential in changing the image of the gaucho from that of an undesirable outlaw to one of a symbol of national values.