I’ve been informed by my other half that I need to go back to my various wandering day trips and stop spending so much time at home. A vestige of the last two pandemic years. And, I have missed doing those, it’s just not been easy to motivate myself to get back into them. But, I gamely rolled up a random number to pick a place from my list of area barrios and towns, and it came up with Lanús, a small city of about 212,000 people to the southeast of BA.

A hop onto the 37 bus, just a block away, and in a little under an hour I was deposited in the center of town. I’d already checked for a couple of places that have been on my “to eat at” list, so I had a pretty good idea of where lunch would be. I also had picked out a couple of things of cultural interest to do prior to lunch. First up, a couple of block walk…

…which landed me in front of the Museo Histórico Juan Pinheiro. I knew nothing about who Juan was, it just showed up as a historical museum and point of interest. I walked in the door and found the place empty. I called out, no answer. I mean, I probably could have just walked out the door with various historic objects. Instead, I started to browse, though there’s not a lot of labeling on anything, so I didn’t have much context. About halfway through the second room, suddenly some guy wandered out of a back hallway. He was definitely more startled than I was. Not sure what he was doing that he didn’t hear me calling out, but, so be it. He gave me the grand tour, and I spent a good hour there learning about the history of the town – which is what this museum is dedicated to.

Juan Pinheiro himself was the first town superintendent. The museum, other than being named after him, and being located in what used to be his house, and stocked with a lot of his original furniture and fixtures, isn’t really about him. It’s more about different local politicians and landowners, and just general cultural stuff, from soccer to politics to music to technology.

Various photos of town officials with famous folk, mostly singers, like Carlos Gardel.

Some objects that may have belonged to Pinheiro. Most interesting, that octagonal needlepoint thingie there on the left – it’s actually a speaker for a record player, just with a decorative cover.

Apparently one of the most popular displays, particularly with students who come for visits. All this “ancient” communications and audio equipment. Basically everything here on these shelves is now packed into the average cellphone. Kids are, I gather, a bit astounded.

I can’t say that Pinheiro’s choice of bathroom fixture color ranks high on my list.

After thanking my guide through the museum, I headed back to the street.

Next up, MACsur, the local contemporary art museum.

Currently on display, a multi-room exhibition that connects the artificial and the natural. A lot of stuff related to recycled plastics, and a lot of stuff that I wasn’t really clear on how it connected to the theme.

But I found myself bizarrely captivated by this exhibit (Gaspar Libedinsky, a local artist who has a studio here in Belgrano, and this is titled “The origin of the species”) – a table covered bundles of recycled colored plastic sticks. Took some photos and quite a few videos. Just something about it. Not even something I’d normally consider “art”. Perhaps it really has been too long since I was out adventuring….

I was feeling peckish, and on my way to the third spot on my list was a pizzeria that somewhere along the line got there as the highest recommended one in town. Now, that doesn’t actually accord with things like Google reviews, where it’s decently ranked, but probably around 7th or 8th in the city, but on someone’s list, somewhere along the line, this was the one. Las Palmas, Av. Hipólito Yrigoyen 4498, Lanús Oeste is known, however, for its devotion to cheese. Basically all pizzas come with huge amounts of it – their basic mozzarella pizza is touted as having double cheese, just to begin with.

And so I ordered up a slice of their much-touted ham and pepper slice, with, indeed, a mound of cheese underneath; plus an anchovy slice – a good way to try their sauce; and, they offered up a little seen version of fainá, the local favorite chickpea and cheese bread, packed with green onions.

Now those of you who’ve been with me awhile might remember when I was asked by various expats to defend local pizza. It was a bizarre request, based on an article written by someone who’s since become a friend, who didn’t particularly care for local pies. I didn’t really defend the pizza – at the time, I wasn’t all that far off of his assessment. Now, since, as has probably been obvious with the hundreds of pizzas I’ve been out there trying, I’ve both come to appreciate the Argentine style for what it is, but also found places that do it well. And, of course, there are now all the non-Argentine style pizza places that didn’t exist back then.

So let me just say that this isn’t one of the places I’d likely defend. The crust is bland. The cheese is bland, and as Tom put it back then, “it sweats as if masturbating”, just oozing oil and water from what seems to be about the cheapest mozzarella they could probably find. A bit of a shame, too, because the sauce they use on the non-cheese pizzas (there is virtually no sauce on the cheese topped pizzas) is actually pretty good. The fainá was quite good, though I’d have appreciated it warm rather than cold. Overall, though, a bit of a meh.

After lunch a quick stop at the Casa De La Cultura Y Biblioteca Municipal, the city’s library and cultural center. Unfortunately they were in the middle of changing exhibitions and the only art to see was a small selection of paintings in the lobby, all done by local residents.

I returned to my drop-off point, or at least across the street, hopped on the next 37 bus heading back to Recoleta, and home. Happy I got in a day trip somewhere, and there will be more. Once again.