The Mother of Hall Sabaticals

The US Dollar issue reared it's ugly head again today. As we went to pay for the time we had spent at Finca San Antonio, Josephine told us she was expecting us to pay in US dollars. Of course we didn't have any and there was no way we were going to be ale to find any. We ended up coming to an agreement which meant we paid a high exchange rate. Toby wasn't bothered as it was the amount we had been quoted in the first place. Travelling in Argentina with US dollars obviously earns you a discount. We didn't know where we were going to stay the night tonight, but we knew the route we were taking. We had accommodation booked for tomorrow and thought it would be different to just see how far ... read more

As usual we had a plan for today. Unusually and amazingly it actually happened. We wanted to spend some time enjoying the space and countryside on horseback and so we had arranged to ride the estancias horses for a few hours. As we are so bad at Spanish, Josephine organised for her eldest granddaughter Maria to accompany us. Fiona has done quite a lot of riding but the style in Europe is different than in Argentina so it took a while to get used to. The other thing that was really hard was mounting. Fiona found it almost impossible to get her leg high enough to go in the stirrups. She really is getting old!Once we were all ready we went for a lovely ride around part of the farm. The jam factory next door was ... read more

The history of Cordoba cannot be separated from the Jesuits. Around the city they had several estancias that provided the income to support the university in Cordoba. We knew that we had to visit at least one of these estancia and were thrilled when the lady at the tourist information office told us how easy it was to get to and from Alta Gracia. As well as the estancia, Alta Gracia is famous for being the home of Che Guevara during his adolescent years. The local bus station was a 5 minute walk from the hotel. It looked like a small version of all the bus terminals we had seen so far. The ticket offices were inside downstairs. There was only one operator who had Alta Gracia tickets as they were the only ones to go ... read more

Mendoza is one of the major wine producing areas in Argentina and so one of the main tourist attractions is going on a wine tour. Harriet was not in the slightest bit interested as she is too young to taste the wine. Toby and Fiona didn't like the thought of sitting on a bus for a whole day with other tourists on a guided tour. We therefore planned to do a different type of wine tour which we thought would be more fun. Not far from Mendoza is a village called Maipu. There are several vineyards in the village and to help you reach them, there are several bike rental places. The village is an hour bus ride from Mendoza on the local buses. Like most local buses in Argentina, you need coins to pay for ... read more

Mendoza was a pleasant surprise. The town is small and compact with a large piazza at the centre. There were inviting clothes shops, trees and beautiful buildings. A cafe lined pedestrian street led from the hotel to the piazza and the sun was shining. We arrived a bit later than expected due to the diversion. We had managed some sleep but were all a bit tired. The bus was easier to sleep on than a plane, but we had been gone to sleep late and been woken early for breakfast. And the mate flask in our hand luggage had leaked everywhere making our jackets wet. We walked from the terminal to the hotel and checked in. Then we walked into town in search of coffee. It was so nice to be in the sunshine again. At ... read more