We've made it to Alaska

After 20 hours of travelling we arrived at Hostel Alaska in Bariloche on Sunday afternoon where we're staying for three nights.

Alaska...

It was a great bus journey as we'd invested in 'Full Cama' seats on the Andesmar bus which means that at the press of one button and flip of a footstool your seat is transformed into a bed, and I don't mean a reclining chair I mean a full on bed....

We watched an episode of Downton and shared the last bit of a bottle of red wine we'd been carrying around with us and then dinner arrived, a complete carb-fest on a tray; mini quiche, mini pizza, bread roll, cheese & ham sandwich and a muffin served with a glass of Norton Malbec. The mini quiche was nice and I ate the cheese off the top of the pizza and it goes without saying that the muffin and wine went down well. Then the attendant cleared the trays and returned two minutes later..... with dinner.... Roast chicken and vegetables Abs and I instantly regretted the speed at which we'd tucked into the Christmas chocolates.

After our second dinner we watched Love Actually, it was the first time that I've watched it without crying when Emma Thompson goes into her bedroom and listens to Joni Mitchell 'Both Sides Now'.....

Even though we had the very best seats one thing that none of us gets to choose is the passenger who sits next to us (apart from Abby obviously, I chose to sit next to her) but on the other side of the walkway we had a very old and clearly very tired old man who no sooner than he'd finished his boiled sweet was asleep and snoring... loudly.... There were two empty seats at the very front of the bus so we relocated took the two simple steps required to convert our seats in to beds and went to the land of nod ourselves.

Bariloche is known as 'The gateway to Patagonia and The Lake District' and it's a beautiful place. When we arrived we walked to the supermarket and it started raining the first time we've had rain since our hike to Machu Picchu..... The scenery here is beautiful, hills and lakes and with the rain it would have been hard not to draw comparisons to Scotland.

Blue skies, hills, water... perfect....

This morning we planned the activities that we're going to do over the next five days before catching the Number 50 bus to go to Lago Gutierrez to see the waterfall and walk up to the Mirador (viewpoint).

Waterfall at Lago Gutierrez 

The view from the mirador

It seems that each place we go to is more beautiful than the last.... feeling very lucky right now.

Raine x

The start of the Christmas blues.....

On Boxing Day all of the other guests left the estancia and so after an early breakfast and much hugging and squeezing of little people Abs and I went out for a ride with Polo up in to the hills - it was so different having just three of us on the ride I'd got quite used to the hustle and bustle of having the children there.

El Puesto completely exceeded my expectations, it's a perfect oasis away from the rest of the world - with no reminders the real world. The estancia operates on solar power, there's no freezer, no wifi and only an occasional mobile phone signal - a real treat.

If you look closely you can see my 'stolen' earrings

We had a lovely final evening, just the two of us and Raul for dinner it wasn't a late one as we'd arranged to go for another ride in the morning before heading back to Mendoza.

Happy days at El Puesto

As with each of the preceding mornings we were greeted by brilliant sunshine and we had another wonderful ride when we got back at midday it was time to pack up and get back to our travels.... I was sad to be leaving and it's one of the first places that I've ever stayed that I would like to think I might return to one day.

Raul drove us back to Mendoza which is a two hour drive, when we were about 10 minutes away he asked us if we would like to join him for lunch at his house in Chacras da Coria, we didn't have any plans and so we were delighted to accept his invitation. Anna his housekeeper made us fresh beef burgers with salad while Raul kept the lunch time drinking tradition going by pouring the wine, finishing off one bottle of chilled red and then ordering me to finish my wine "Lorena, drink your wine" before opening the second bottle.

When Raul eventually dropped us off at Hostel Lao I was sad to say goodbye to him, he'd been such a charming and generous host.

I am however looking forward to eating and drinking a little less and so along with the rest of you I will be detoxing throughout January. 

It's 4:30pm on Saturday as I type and at 8:30pm we will be catching the bus to Bariloche in the Lake District - 800 miles and a 16 hour bus trip away.... Our iPads are fully charged so I fully expect to be watching Downton Abbey or Love Actually by 9pm.

Raine x

It's Christmas time all over the world (except in South America where it was done and dusted hours ago.....)

Happy Christmas.....

[Note to self: email someone high up in Argentina about them celebrating on the wrong day]

An incredible thing happened on Christmas Day considering we were in a house with four little people (well, three little people and Eliza who at 12 is incredibly articulate and grown up), Abby and I were the only people up at 9am and ready for breakfast!!

We'd woken up at about 8am and listened to The Carol Symphony and some carols and when we were both properly awake and feeling Christmassy we opened our presents... Father Christmas did not disappoint... I got a lovely scarf, a journal, pen, make-up, perfume, a bangle, chocolate, two vest tops, some suntan lotion and a pair of earrings which Abby stole from a very nice shop in Mendoza.

With no one else up we sat out on the veranda in the sunshine and after a few minutes Lilla and Maude came bouncing out of the house in their pyjamas and wished us a merry Christmas, 10 minutes later everyone was up and we were eating breakfast and once the children had unwrapped their presents it was time for our Christmas Day ride.

Me helping Lilla load her 'pez' machine

Christoval and Raul took us on a four hour round trip to visit Raul's other estancia. Riding with the children was the best fun, Archie and Eliza (an experienced rider) led, regularly leaving the rest of us to 'eat their dust', Lilla was frustrated by this and spent the entire ride trying every method to get her horse to accelerate with varying levels of success. The funniest thing to see though was Maude on a horse almost the same size as mine, with her Converse Allstars, camouflage pants and 'no sugar added' T-shirt on she looked like a titchy little modern day Thelwell character bouncing along in front of me, letting go of anything that was securing her to the horse so that she could turn around to show me the 'rein' snake and chomp its jaws at me......

Maude 

After lunch of chorizo steak with mashed butternut squash and sweet potato I didn't feel like a siesta and got talking to Daniele who also didn't want to go to bed, and so while the rest of the world slept we had a great afternoon talking about the estancia, his family (he has a little girl of five and a brand new baby girl who's only four months) and football. Two bottles of wine later and it was 8:20 pm and time for dinner!

A quick shower, some pasta and far too much more wine later it was time for bed.

Raine x

It was Christmas Eve babe, in the drunk tank......

We had such a lovely Christmas Eve......

Christmas is celebrated on the night of the 24th in Latin America and Daniele who wasn't going to be with us warned us to expect a big night with Raul and suggested taking a longer than average siesta to ensure that we were well rested for the night ahead.

After breakfast we all went for a short ride we were only out for about an hour and a half and it was the perfect reintroduction to riding for me - Harriet you'd have been proud, I didn't fall off and I got into a rising trot....

Riding with the gauchos on Christmas Eve

It was an incredibly hot day with a blue cloudless sky which made for some spectacular views of the Andes.

Stunning views all around

We got back, as ever, just in time for lunch and so after a quick shower I was sat on the veranda eating antipasti and drinking Chardonnay before moving to the outside eating area and having Milanese (veal escalope) and Malbec. As Daniele advised we all took a longer siesta after lunch before reconvening just before 9pm for some pre-dinner drinks, a sangria like punch made of white wine (what did you expect....) and fruit juice. When we walked into the dining room there was a huge buffet laid out of prawns & avocado, stuffed tomatoes, roast turkey and beef, Fiambre Aleman (yep, this was a new one on me too, it's a stack of pancakes sandwiched together with ham, egg, mayonnaise, cheese, tomato, onion). 

For pudding there was Rogel, a traditional Argentinian celebration cake made up of a huge number of thin pastry rounds with dulce de leche (really sweet caramel that the Argentinians eat like jam) to stick them together and then it's smothered in soft sticky meringue; it's a similar texture to baklava and about 100 times sweeter. Raul got lots of laughs when he used some of the meringue to create a moustache and he was closely followed by Archie who used it to create a full beard!

At midnight Raul opened a couple of bottles of champagne and the disco!

Look at Lilla shaking it.

It was the closest thing to a family Christmas that we could have had without having our own families here.

Our Christmas family, for one year only......

Raine x

Mind the snakes......

On Sunday morning Raul from El Puesto arrived at 10:30 to take us from Tunuyan to Tupungato where we were spending Christmas..... Raul is an incredibly charismatic, charming (and good looking) Argentinian who arrived looking like a true gaucho in cream trousers tucked in to his short leather boots, a crisp white shirt, neckerchief and hat, and despite our Spanish and his English being limited, our shared  understanding of 'Spanglish' was sufficient to have a good conversation on the way to the Estancia.

Welcome to El Puesto

None of the other guests were at the estancia when we arrived but over a cup of coffee and a cake Raul told us that the family that were staying we're out on a ride and the final guest was on his way from the airport - it was really exciting waiting for the other guests to arrive - we were keen to find out who we would be spending Christmas with.

A short while later we found out..... Fi and Matt with their four delightful children: Eliza, Archie, Camilla (Lilla) and Matilda (Maude) who were en route from Italy where they'd lived for seven years to their new home in Australia. They were a really lovely family, so much fun and having the children there really helped to make it feel Christmassy. The final guest, Calum, arrived from Buenos Aires a short while later with Daniele, Raul's equally charming and charismatic (yes, yes and good looking) Italian son-in-law.

Whilst we knew when we booked our stay at the estancia that food was a major part of it I don't think Abby or I had anticipated it being as good as it was.....

Lunch and dinner are eaten much later in Argentina..... Lunch started at about 3pm with a basket full of fresh empanadas which were consumed within a few minutes washed down with a couple of ice cold bottles of Chardonnay. Then another basket with more empanadas arrived, not knowing the format and thinking that this WAS lunch I had another... then Lis, the housekeeper (and most amazing cook) asked us to go round to the BBQ area for lunch (!) where Christoval and Polo the two gaucho's served Chorizo and some incredible steaks that they'd BBQ'd to go with the huge selection of salads and the three bottles of Malbec that Raul and Daniele seemingly managed to pour in to our glasses without us noticing!

Where lunch is served every day

We were encouraged to go for a siesta after lunch at about 5pm; sleeping in the afternoon is easy when you've had a few glasses of wine and when the only noise that you can hear is birds tweeting and horses whinnying......

I woke up about 7pm and after a quick shower sat reading on the veranda with all of the children buzzing around then suddenly everyone had disappeared to have their showers and it was just me on the veranda and 4 year old Maude who sat on the grass telling her doll to mind the snakes when she went out!

Our garden at El Puesto

Then as quickly as everyone had disappeared they were all back, Matt, Archie, Eliza and Abs all reading, Lilla and Maude playing Noughts & Crosses and Christoval and Polo the two gauchos having a kick about and playing 'keepy uppy', all in front of the incredible backdrop of the snow covered Andes - it's crazy - this time last year I had no intention of being away for Christmas but here I am. Last night wrapping Abby's Christmas presents and listening to Christmas with the Rat Pack definitely made me feel more Christmassy but sending a few emails and updating my blog made feel a little bit melancholy. I feel so happy and so lucky to be on this trip but a little bit sad to be missing out on the annual rituals of chrismas and spending time with my family and friends, something that I hadn't realised that I cherished quite as much as I do.

As Raul and Daniele serve champagne and bruschetta canapés, 'Sunrise' by Norah Jones is playing in the background and Lilla is explaining to her Mummy that "when it rains it means the clouds are crying", I'm struck by how perfect this moment is.

Our late (by English standards) dinner of Pollo al disco, which is chicken in a delicious sauce cooked in a special pot on the BBQ served with rice and the obligatory red wine, a merlot this time, followed by Malbec pears - Argentina is not a place to be visited and enjoyed by vegetarians or teetotallers - we head to bed safe in the knowledge that whilst Christmas will be different this year, Raul and Danielle are going to make it one to remember.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

Raine x

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a very merry and magical Christmas!

Between the vines.....

With lots of Christmas love.

Raine xxx

Time to put a cork in it.....

Our visit to the wine lands of Argentina is coming to an end.

We visited three wineries yesterday, Salentein a huge Dutch owned operation where the wines were average but the architecture of the winery was stunning - producing 1.8M litres of wine a year they are considered to be a medium sized operation.

Salentein - a grand piano wouldn't fit into La Azul.....

Bodega La Azul our second stop of the day may well be my favourite of the whole trip; a tiny family owned fruit producer and wine maker with a lovely little restaurant that sits in the shadows of the Andes. We stopped here for lunch which was superb, a trio of small starters: pumpkin soup, a cheese, black olive and tomato quesadilla and a steak empanada followed by another of the best steaks I've ever had, a rib eye cooked Vuelta y Vuelta (very rare). Each course was complimented by one of the four wines that they produce and when we finished we had the opportunity to taste a fifth, their Malbec Gran Reserva, still in the barrel with two years left (one more in the barrell and one in the bottle) before it will be ready to drink - it tasted good at this stage, I can only imagine how good it will taste in 2015.

Bodega La Azul

Just for you Marc - an arty food photo.

Our third visit was to another big winery called Andeluna set in beautiful grounds and producing some very nice wines. I prefer the smaller boutique wineries where the attention to detail is still paid to their wine production and customer service.

View across the vines

On the way back from the wineries we visited Manzano Historico, a breathtakingly beautiful little place where the liberator and national hero Jose de San Martin supposedly devised his plan to liberate the country under the shade of an apple tree, hence the name Manzano Historico - Historic Apple Tree.

Manzano Historico

Back at our hotel we opted for a power nap and it pains me to say it knowing what the weather is like back at home but it was just too hot to sleep and after an hour or so we decided that our time would be better spent wrapping Christmas presents and drinking one of the bottles of Sauvignon Blanc that we'd bought.

Then for the second night in a row we watched a couple of episodes of Downton Abbey which was intended to get us in to the Christmas spirit but it turns out that tragedy befell the Crawley family and so for an hour and a half Abby and I were crying our eyes out.....

This morning we are travelling to La Puesta which is the name of the estancia that we're staying at for the next four days. There's no wifi there but there's horses and of course those hills!

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas wherever you are, whatever you are doing with whoever you're doing it with.

With lots of love,

Raine x

Home is behind, the world ahead, and there are many paths to tread....

Three days of wine tasting in Lujan de Cuyo were followed by two far quieter days in Mendoza, or 'Dozy' as Abs now calls it.

On Wednesday we had dinner at a lovely restaurant, Florentina Bistro. It's nice going to restaurants where they have thought as much about the interior design as they have the food and they've definitely thought about both in this restaurant. We ate in a beautiful covered outside seating area with wooden tables and chairs all painted white with floral cushions and with the biggest wall painted white and filled with terracotta pots with geraniums all bright red and in full bloom. [note to self: start taking your camera out at night!]

Pork with honeyed carrots for me and Pasta and prawns for Abby washed down with a glass of the Alta Vista Torrontes that we had discovered on one of our wine tours.

On Thursday we headed to one of the shopping malls in Mendoza to pick up a couple of last minute Christmas goodies and some wrapping paper - we were unsuccessful on both counts, Santiago wins hands down on the shopping front. I did manage to replace my sunnies though which was a result.

What do you think?

For those of you familiar with J.R.R. Tolkien you may recognise the quote that I've used for the title of this blog entry, we went to see The Hobitt last night and I loved it when Gandalf said this to Bilbo Baggins. 

The film is excellent - so much so that when the credits rolled I could not believe that three hours had passed - I highly recommend going to see it.

Tomorrow morning guess what, we're going on another wine tour.... 

Update to follow.

Raine x

The road to Tunuyan

We've just got off the bus from Mendoza to Tunuyan and arrived at the hotel that we're staying at for the next two nights, Posada del Jamon (Ham Inn).

The trip only takes one hour and the views are incredible as the road runs in parallel with the Andes. 

Out of the window on the left hand side of the bus the land is completely flat and all that you can see is sand and scrub like areas with low green/grey bushes and lots of power lines but what a difference when you looked out of the window on the right hand side of the bus!

In the foreground the same sand and then scrub land but beyond, the Andes - completely covered in snow and looking spectacular. It's hard to believe as it's 22C (70F) as I write but yesterday there was so much snow that the road over the Andes that we had travelled from Chile to Argentina on on Sunday and the border crossing were closed.

The sky is a pale duck egg blue, to the left wispy cirrus clouds and to the right, over the Andes there are occasional puffs of fluffy white cloud sitting above the peaks. 

On the journey I saw a bird of prey (sorry David & Anne, I couldn't identify it) swoop in mid air and take a much smaller bird out of the sky - amazing.

Every mountain top that we can see from our hotel is covered in snow, each one looking like the Paramount Pictures logo.

Another room with view.....

So I guess we could be closer to having a white Christmas than I thought......

Raine x

Four Friends, Three Days, Thirty Wines....

We arrived in Mendoza at 3:30pm on Sunday and walked from the bus terminal to Hostel Lao where we met up with Phoebe and Ben before walking to The Wine Lounge a few streets away for our 5:30pm wine tasting. It was a really fun event where were introduced to five different wines from the Mendoza region.

After the tasting the four of us went for dinner where I thought I had the best steak in my life, however, now three days in and with two more steaks under my belt I can confirm that Argentina only sells the best steak I've ever had in my life.....

Some of the oldest vines in Mendoza

On Monday morning we were picked up just before 9am for our Lujan De Cuyo Wine Experience - what an amazing day. Lujan De Cuyo is one of the two principal wine producing areas of Mendoza, the other being Maipu, it sits in the foothills of the Andes and in the shadow of Aconcagua which at just shy of 7000 metres and with its ever snow capped peak is quite an impressive backdrop.

Aconcagua is just by Ben's right ear if you look very closely

We visited four wineries each of them with a different and interesting history and approach to wine making and after each tour we tasted 4/5 of their wines. Most of the wineries that we visited were classed as 'Boutique' producing wine on a relatively small scale and even the bigger ones produce wines mainly for Argentinian consumption, but all of them do export small amounts to the UK - here are a couple of recommendations just in case you come across them....

Altavista Torrontes Premium which was a fantastic floral and fruity yet dry white wine which would make a really nice alternative to Sauvignon Blanc in the summer.

Caelum Dolce, a red dessert wine something that I hadn't tasted before but would definitely recommend.

Our final tasting of the day at Bodega Ruca Malen was a five course lunch with wine pairing, it was fantastic to eat a meal that had been so well thought through from beginning to end matched with some superb wines and it was a perfect end to the day.... 

Having had a couple of 'top end' wine tastings we decided to take a different approach on Tuesday. Just before 9:30am we got on our bikes which had been delivered the night before and cycled to the wineries, it was so different that it's hard to compare the different days but we definitely laughed more on Tuesday. We visited Carmelo Patti an incredibly charismatic wine maker running a far smaller operation with bottling, corking, labelling, wrapping and packing all still done by hand, I've said it before many times but there is something wonderful about listening to someone talk about something that they are truly passionate about.

Again we finished the day with a lunch and wine pairing this time at Bodega La Garde which was excellent and was an ideal way for our couple of days with Phoebe and Ben to end.

On Wednesday Abby and I head back to Mendoza for a couple of days and Phoebe and Ben are flying to Buenos Aires.

More wine tasting updates to follow from Tunuyan and Tupungato, our next two stops.

Raine x

Time, Tide and Buttered Eggs wait for no man.....

God I love this time of year although I have to say it's a very different build up here in Latin America. 

In Quito (October) and in Cusco (November) quite a few restaurants and shops already had Christmas decorations up (too early...?) but in Chile (December) pretty much nothing (too late...!) apart from the shopping centre which was much like ours at home with oversized decorations everywhere and with every purchase we made being popped into a paper or plastic bag with Feliz Navidad emblazoned across it.

Here in Mendoza in Argentina there's nothing... We're less than a week away and you would never know it. 

Our Christmas preparation started in earnest in Sunday when we got the bus from Santiago to Mendoza - it began with us taking in turns to play our favourite Christmas songs from the selection on: Now That's What I Call Christmas and Christmas With The Rat Pack - my choices in no particular order were; Fairytale of New York, Driving Home for Christmas, Last Christmas, Santa Baby, Merry Christmas Everybody, Baby It's Cold Outside and It's Christmas Time All Over The World.

After we'd listened to almost every Christmas song we then listened to The Box of Delights; my Dad used to play this to me, my brother and sister just before Christmas every year ever since I can remember and it wouldn't feel like Christmas to me if I didn't listen to it - thanks Dad x

Christmas prep continued when we met up with Phoebe and Ben when, for each of our wine tastings, we all donned Santa hats which Abby and I had bought when we were in Vina del Mar.  

Baby It's Cold Outside?!?!?!

Only four days to go......

Raine x

"One is just never enough is it......"

Well our little luxurious bubble popped on Sunday morning marking the end of Abby's birthday celebrations and our time to leave Boutique behind and head back to a world of B&B's and hostels.

We had such a lovely time at The Aubrey, it was so nice to shower and to be able to blow dry my hair for the first time in two months - and to get dressed up (well as dressed up as it's possible for me to do with the contents of my rucksack!). 

On Friday night we had dinner in The Dining Room at the Aubrey which was excellent. Our evening started sitting outside in the sun (at 8:15pm!), a real treat just 10 days before Christmas, drinking G&T aperitifs which were followed by a pisco sour and then another.... to use the words of a good friend "one is just never enough is it...."

Our Wagyu beef and Boar casserole main courses were washed down with a very good Limited Edition Malbec and after dinner we moved to the bar area where we enjoyed a few drinks, including a bottle of sparkling wine which was sent over at midnight to celebrate Abby's birthday (now that definitely wouldn't happen in a hostel... God I love boutique hotels....).

The Dining Room at The Aubrey

Cheers!

Abby treated us to dinner at Astrid Y Gaston on Saturday night, a top end restaurant in South America and we were not disappointed. Maracuya Pisco's to start and then I had the mixed seafood ceviche followed by the Lomo Saltado which is a traditional Peruvian dish of steak and vegetables.

Saturday was our designated Christmas shopping day and so we were up and out early, it was the first time in almost three months that we had been somewhere with designer stores and the first 30 minutes were spent grinning and saying thinks like "ah, shoes..." and "ah, Clarins...." to each other. Then it was down to business, with a set budget and one and a half hours we split up to make sure that Father Christmas doesn't disappoint either of us too much next week.

After breakfast it was time for another bus trip, this time to cross the border into Argentina and then head to Mendoza to meet Phoebe and Ben who we became friends with in Bolivia - they were fellow members of the UN  Peacekeeping Mission.

Mendoza is the largest wine producing region in Latin America and so you can probably imagine that Abs and I are hoping for good things and  so whilst I'm sorry that our Boutique bubble has popped I am very much looking forward to the cork of our first bottle of Argentinian Mallbec popping.

See you there.

Raine x 

Welcome to The Aubrey

Not wanting to linger longer than necessary on the experience of our last night in Valparaiso allow me to welcome you to Santiago and more specifically The Aubrey in Santiago.

I booked us into this beautiful Boutique Hotel which is owned by a friend of a friend as a birthday surprise for Abs (she'll be a year older than she is today tomorrow).

It's a beautiful hotel and I may struggle to leave when the time comes on Sunday morning.

Can you see that it's 30C?

Beautiful (sunny) outside area.

Tonight we've reserved a table at the restaurant in the hotel, tomorrow night we're going to Astrid Y Gaston to celebrate Abby's birthday.

Looking forward to updating you on our gastronomic two days.

Raine x