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