The Southern Cross

Pasado del Jamon. We pulled in to The Ham Hotel happy to be there. This was one of the coolest hotels in Argentina. There was a big playground, a soccer field and vines to run and play in. There were also all kinds of animals; dog, cats, horses, guinea fowl, puppies, peacocks, and parrots. Mom and dad had fun touring the beautiful wineries and Everest and I had fun playing at the hotel.

We spent the nights under the stars lying in the garden. The sky was breathtaking. All the twinkling little stars were outstanding. We learned about different constellations that you can only see from the southern hemisphere (South America, Australia, and Africa). The Southern Cross is the most famous. It actually looks more like a kite than a cross but it is amazing. Looking up we also noticed that Venus and Jupiter were extremely close and we later learned this was an extremely rare happening and was the closest the two planets had been in a very long time.

The next day we left for La Falda where we got to stay at another estancia (yay!) Our bus pulled up at 4am and Roberto (our driver) pulled up minutes later. We don’t have much luggage but in his tiny car it seemed like a ton. The ride to the estancia was really rugged but the sunrise was gorgeous. We decided to take a nap before we started exploring. A few hours later we discovered that this was another amazing place. There were all kinds of animals, goats, horses, dogs, cats, chickens, bunny’s donkeys and cows.

In the afternoon we went down to the river San Gregorio. This was the home of the Comechingon Indians before the Spanish conquest. The river was clean and warm (perfect for swimming). In the evening we set out on another beautiful horseback ride. The terrain was very different, it was much thornier so we had to where big chap like leg covers on our saddle. We kept our routine all week. Every day we would do school in the morning and later in the afternoon we would go and spend hours by the river. We had endless water fights and created obstacle courses on the boulders. The river was awesome.

We cooked our own meals every night and I helped with the bruschetta (toasted French bread with cheese, fresh tomatoes, garlic and herbs on top). On the last day we had a special treat. Our gaucho Daniel taught us how to throw the lasso. It took a while to get the hang of it but I eventually figured it out (we didn’t throw them at the cows.) We were sad to say goodbye but excited for our next adventure in Cordoba!