My birthday weekend

This was back in mid February and I have already described the outing to the Fiesta del Guacho . The day before I had decided to take myself out to a ‘proper’ meal to celebrate my birthday. Having put on my only skirt and a clean T shirt I set out at about 8.30pm to find a good restaurant. San Martin de los Andes is a very trendy place so there was bound to be a good choice. However, I had completely misjudged how the different meal time culture was from the south. In Patagonia everyone is out hiking and ravenous at the end of the day and intending to get up early. So, meals were being served at pretty ‘normal’ time ie 7.30 onwards but here the Spanish type timing had come into play.

I wandered around town looking into windows of restaurants that were all set up but definitely not expecting anyone yet. So I window shopped for an hour!! By 9.30 I had done a complete survey of what this small town had to offer!! Eventually, I saw other people peering at menus and decided it was now ok to be seen entering a restaurant. I was ravenous but I had of course been able to do a very thorough survey of which restaurant I was going to eat in. Delicious meal during which some guy came up to me calling me Julietta ..... he was convinced I looked like someone who was a friend of his sister's. Quite genuine ... not a local chat up line.

The other joy of the weekend was a day’s riding with Yvonne Corbett. Once again I have Harry Hastings to thank for my introduction to Yvonne. He said I had to make contact because we would get on. And, of course, he was right. Yvonne is an anglo argentine based in San Martin and organises riding trips. She was just back from a long trip into Chile so I was lucky to catch her. We met for a drink and in between lots of people passing by and greeting her, we agreed that I would join her for a day out on Sunday.

She picked me up at about 10.45am ... with Raoul her business partner. Roaul was a delightful chap, an Italian-argentine, who very soon was giving me his life history. While he did this, Yvonne popped into various shops collecting things for our lunch. Eventually, we motored out of town a bit to Raoul’s ‘property’. This was a set of old barns and one small new house that he had just built surrounded by a plantation of trees and various fields – with the horses in. He used to run a nursery providing trees for the municipality so he is happy amongst his plants. He seems also to have fingers in other pies .. including a business in Chile that makes some kind of electronics for buses.

While Raoul shows me his property .. including the accommodation they have prepared for riders in the old barn, where he intends to build his new bigger home, and his strawberry patch, Yvonne catches the horses and prepares our saddlebags (lunch!). Finally we saddle up, I borrow a pair of riding chaps and a nice broad brimmed hat from Raoul, and Yvonne and I set off.It was a glorious day: sunshine but a good breeze too. We wound our way through lovely woods and meadows, whilst having slow chats about all sorts of things. Yvonne was very good at pointing out all the trees and flowers ... lots of them ... including blankets of the astrameria and clouds of a white flowers... also some enormous purple thistles. Yvonne did all the opening and closing gates and fences (we were crossing quite a lot of neighbouring properties). I felt I should have helped but I knew I would have difficulty getting up and down – she was much more nibble. Her horse was called Bandiera and was a grey/dappled horse. I was on Colorado ... which is what they call bay horses. The riding was not challenging so I felt quite at ease – we did a few canters but I could hold on to the pummel quite easily. The horses are controlled like polo ponies by just flicking the reins forward, backward, left and right - very easy. Colado was much more responsive than the horses at El Condor.

In a clearing in a wood, we stopped for a lovely lunch of tomato, avocado, egg and meat with delicious bread... and wine. Much more chatting and talks about changing tack in mid age, divorce, business partnerships, etc. A very happy time. Then a long ride further around the hill and eventually back to Raoul’s place by 6pm. He wasn’t there but had picked strawberries for us so we sat in the sun and had gin and tonic and strawberries until he rocked up. It was all very laid back .... and they eventually dropped me off at my hostel at about 8pm. I was setting off for Pucon the next day and rather regretting leaving San Martin after such a lovely time: fiestas, riding, ..... Perhaps I will go back for a longer riding trip sometime.