Advertisement
Published: July 15th 2008
So, it's a fact. I'm now officially 30 years old. I must admit that up until now I'm feeling good. It might have something to do with the fact that I'm currently hauled up in a 4 star lake side hotel with just the sounds of birds and lapping water for company. Oh... and Sergio of course!! So let's go back a few days to the BIG event and start from there.....
Friday 11th July was a typical working day for me. It marked the last day of term before the schools broke up for winter holidays, and not only that. It's exam season here, so not only did I have to work on my birthday, I had to administer English exams to the majority of my students. What a tiring day (and few weeks) it's been!! I finished work around 19:30 and made the short walk home to open my fan mail. I jest! I had, however, been waiting all day to open, what I presumed to be a birthday card with a huge airmail sticker from the UK on the front. A beautiful glittery, girly M&S birthday card awaited inside the perfectly preserved envelope from my sister Julia.
What a lovely suprise to not only have a card from her but to think that the Argentinean postal service isn't the greatest or fastest in the world and yet this card turned up on my doorstep a few days before my birthday. It put a smile on my face anyway.
So, after a quick shower and change Sergio and I headed out for a nice meal at our favourite restaurant in town, El Solar del Convento. There, they treat us like Royalty and ply us with free glasses of champagne throughout the meal. We had our usual favourite dishes. Sergio had grilled goat and I had my garlic chicken with little potatoes. Scrummy!!! We headed home to chill out for the rest of the evening as the next day we were leaving around midday for the Hotel Del Dique.
Saturday morning I was up early as usual to start packing. I'd heard that the hotel had organised walks around the lake, plus we were on a 2 night special so I thought it prudent to pack a couple of changes of clothes for the evenings and my Timberlands for a possible jaunt around the lake at some
point. Plus, being the middle of winter I wasn't too sure what the weather would be like out of the city so I also had to upgrade my first thought on overnight bag to a mini suitcase so I could pack in my fleece and extra 'emergency' jumper. My nephews came round at 12:30, one to pick up the front door key as he was on lights & curtains duty and feeding the dog while we were away. The other had borrowed his other Aunt's car to take us to the Dique. (Note: Dique means Dam, however this Dam is more like a lake and I've been told it's one of the largest in the world). One quick stop enroute to pick up my nephew's girlfriend and we were heading out of town towards paradise. (Distance from Salta city to the Dique, approx 75km).
We arrived at the hotel around 2pm and were promptly checked in to our room, the Presidential Suite no less!!! It was the only room they had left for this weekend. What's a girl to do? It was huge. Double the size of the other rooms, and stunning. We had a big lounge area with
Sergio, Me and Vero
On one of our balconiesTV, glass dining table with 4 chairs, balcony, wardrobe space and separate bathroom which lead on to the main suite of bedroom, more wardrobes, another TV, another balcony and accompanying ensuite with double sink and jacuzzi bath for two, with hydro-massage. I quickly lunged into my handbag for my camera as I wanted to get some nice pictures of the room as it was - untouched. After snapping away for a few minutes as if I was the editor in chief of House & Home magazine we decided to leave the room and go and explore the restaurant area as we were all quite famished. My nephew, Jorge and his girlfriend, Veronica joined us for lunch on the terrace as the weather was spectacular. Not a single cloud in the sky and bright, warm sunshine. We all ate a hearty lunch and then disappeared downstairs to check out the rest of the hotel. We located the games room on the ground floor aswell as the Spa area before heading out through a side door to the gardens overlooking the Dique. Down a few steps was the outdoor pool. It may have been 25 degrees but there was no way on
earth I was dipping a toe in the pool. The water was freezing. After venturing around the grounds we all decided to play some ping pong in the games room until Jorge & Vero had to head back to the city. Before disappearing back to our room I made a whistle-stop tour of the Spa to book us in for massages for the following day. The masseuse seemed really friendly and she talked me through all of her other strangely enchanting and enticing treatments. I couldn't think on the spot for an equivalent phrase for 'raincheck' in Spanish so I just edged towards the door, smiled and bid her farewell 'til the next morning.
After a relaxing jacuzzi and hydro-massaging bath, Sergio and I donned our hotel bathrobes and headed out to the balcony to watch the sun set. Once we realized we were actually facing east and not west we headed back in to watch some telly before thinking about dinner. To our suprise and to Sergio's delight we found out that our room is the only one where the hotel allows you to have dinner room service. (I think it had something to do with the fact
that our room was almost the size of a house and had the facility of a dining room table). Sergio promptly rang through to the restaurant to request the menu and it was delivered shortly after he'd put down the receiver. It was the same menu from lunch so after having locally caught trout earlier in the day I opted for a stuffed chicken breast with rice perfumed with chopped rocket. Sergio had a steak. Well, when in Rome..... Over the two days we both ate like it was going out of fashion, but I did remind Sergio that we had paid for it as part of our two night, two dinner special, so I told him I was going to eat it, regardless. I must have worms, as I managed to polish off a starter, main course and a pudding. It must have something to do with the fact that we were both sat at the table in bathrobes and once finished we could just walk a few metres into the other room and collapse on the bed. No dress code at our table!
The next morning I woke up before the sun rose and decided that I'd
Just the two of us
Getting ready for massage treatments head out to the balcony to watch the sun come up over the hills. Well, what a sight. Our balcony is positioned to look straight out to where the sun comes up and it was fantastic to watch as the sun popped its head over the hilltop just after 08:30. I, of course had my camera by my side to snap away. What made it extra fantastic is that it was such a clear morning. So I caught the light on the water, the hills and the sky really well, without any clouds obscuring the photo. You can see for yourselves, I got a postcard shot. What a great start to the morning, I thought.
We both headed down to breakfast at 09:30 which consisted of the usual continental style of: cheese and ham, breads, cakes, croissants, yogurt and fruit salad. We both piled up on fruit salad and a couple of croissants and I decided to wash it down with a big cup of black coffee. After brekkie I accompanied Sergio down to the Spa where Carina, the masseuse was ready and waiting. Sergio went first so I dived off back to the room; but not before passing
past reception to get some more info on the guided walks. I was instructed to look at the notice board by the entrance door which had the schedule for the walks attached to it. After gazing at it briefly and trying to remember what day it was I decided it was too much hassle and prefered to have another Spa treatment at the hotel than go walking with a bunch of tourists. Soon it was my turn with Carina so I headed back to the Spa to find out how she was getting on with working all of the tension out of Sergio's back. A few minutes after I arrived Sergio appeared looking refreshed and half asleep. He headed back to the room to relax whilst I got myself prepared for my massage. Forty minutes later I was done. It felt great and my neck seemed to move a lot easier than before. I got back to the room to find it empty. As the room was so big I even checked it twice. No Sergio. Where could he be? In the toilet? No. On the balcony? No. Let's call him, I thought. No answer. Where the hell is he?
At that exact moment I heard a small speed boat start up its engine below me and pull away from the bank. Well, you can imagine what was going through my mind. I thought he'd gone for a wander around the hotel gardens, got chatting to someone and been invited on a boat, all the while I'm having my massage. Luckily, this was not the case as I soon found him in the bar/lounge area, laptop in hand seeing if he could get a wireless signal. After re-telling my story, Sergio found this all hilarious and we both went back to the room. Shortly after being back in the room, Sergio slipped into a deep sleep until 2pm. I decided to wake him up at this point as my tummy was rumbling and telling me it was feeding time. Another glorious afternoon, fit for eating out on the terrace again. This time, just the two of us.
Earlier, at the Spa I'd arranged to have another treatment involving exfoliation for the whole body and then an intense moisturisation. So at 17:00 I was back to see Carina our friendly Spa attendant. An hour later I was back in the
room feeling soft and silky in my now thirty year old skin. We decided to have dinner in the room again as it meant we could chill out and didn't have to go through the routine of having to get dressed up for the sake of a few hours. I decided on the grilled trout this time and as Sergio wasn't feeling as hungry he ordered a starter and a simple toasted cheese and ham sandwich for his main course. We both managed to polish off puddings to round off the meal. After dinner I went out on to the balcony to star gaze as the sky was so clear. As I was trying to trace the moon's path I saw a shooting star, so I made a wish. I couldn't believe it so I went running in to find Sergio to tell him. Later that evening Sergio said he'd seen one too. What a funny experience.
Monday morning came round fast. Checking out day. I had breakfast early as I was up for the sunrise again. Sergio got up later and disappeared for half an hour while I packed everything up. We did the final round of checking
all of the nooks and crannies before heading down to reception at midday. Upon final departure we were asked to write a note in the hotel's visitors book, which I obligingly wrote, in Spanish. The hotel organised a private taxi to pick us up and take us home, which appeared after 15 minutes of the hotel calling it. We were dropped off at our door 45 mins later. Five minutes after entering the house I was greeted by Patch who'd obviously missed us both as she stretched out on the floor for some cuddles. Five minutes after that I was greeted by Madonna who must have thought we'd gone for good as she went mental when she saw us. All in all a fantastic birthday which I made last almost a week! What a great way to start my two week holiday. Cheers!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.077s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 8; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0452s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
rrruss
Russ Pearce
Jealous!
We are soooooo jealous but your blog brought back wonderful memories. Have they fixed the table tennis equipment yet? It was a bit dodgy when we were there!