Final Dinner .. Great Craic !

It's hard to believe but tonight is our last night together as the main tour is now over and tomorrow we go our separate ways, many to the tour extension to Calafate, Colin and Polly to their R&R in Uraguay, Simon back to Basingstoke and I'm off to Paraguay.

Here we are above, assembled in the lounge at the Arelauquen Lodge ready for our final dinner and prize giving. Simon did a fantastic job on the prizes and was brave enough even to buy jewelry for some of the Ladies' prizes.

With so many different competitions throughout the 2 weeks, there was a prize for everyone and we all thoroughly enjoyed the evening. We had a lovely meal, washed down by the odd glass or two of wonderful Argentinian wine. We finished up with a few stories, gags and of course a bit of a sing song, where Danny Boy appeared again as well as a local special .. Don't Cry for Me Argentina.

A really wonderful evening. Special Thanks to Simon for a great job very well done in looking after us all through thick and thin ! for the 2 weeks and for arranging a great prize giving event. Well done indeed.

Our last Day Together ...

Today was our last day of the tour and we had a very packed, and fun packed ! day. We started with a tour of the Bariloche area including the chair lift to the top to overlook the lakes. Unfortuately the weather wasn't kind and in fact it was lashing rain for some of the time when we were at the top of the chair lift. However, without the rain we wouldn't have had the wonderful fetching outfits ! the yellow rain coats. The view from the top, even in the rain was spectacular.

The tour continued after we came down from the chair left, around the lakes and we stopped to get a wonderful view of the Llao Llao golf course where we played yesterday.

As you can see above, I met another friend by the Church in Llao Llao. His name is Newal (I think !) and he was adoreable ..

And here's the group towards the end of the tour at Lake Mareno. There are a few folks missing .. the intrepid horse riders, Janet, Sally and Hugh .. and Simon who made a brave attempt to get out on the water in a Kayak .. but the weather defeated the project !

After the tour, it was back to the Arelauquen, for our final game of golf. It was a great fun competition .. a Team Texas Scramble. I played with Barrie (the Number One Coach on tour !), Lesley and Steve. We had a great game .. really enjoyable and I was delighted to get the chance to watch and learn from Barrie.

We had a thoroughly enjoyable time .. but unfortunately, the course didn't respond as well as it might have done to our efforts and we finished out of the prizes !!

Back to base then to get ready for our last evening's dinner !

Llao Llao Golf Club

Today, we played at the Llao Llao Golf club. It's pronounced Jauw Jauw and it means Sweet Sweet (i.e. very sweet / Nice). It's called after a very sweet fungus that grows on the local trees.

The golf course was absolutely beautiful, with fantastic scenery throughout, and some nce water holes. Today was individual stableford. I played with Allison, Polly and Janet. We had a really great game, really enjoyed the course ..and we brought in the winner ! Allison was in good form again and won the Ladies event. Colin had a much better day too and won the Men's event.

After golf, we had lunch at the Golf club, and headed back to Arelauquen for a relaxing evening. Tomorrow is our last day together. It's hard to believe that we've been away almost 2 weeks. We have a tour of the Bariloche area in the morning and our final game of golf in the afternoon.

Arelauquen Golf and 4 legged friends !!

Hi,

Today we played at the Arelauquen golf course, where we're staying. The contrast between this and the last game at the Bourbon could not have been greater. It's a wonderful course with fantastic scenery .. it looks like Julie Andrews will pop out any minute from behind a tree singing 'The Hills are alive .. ' !! Today was 'Hidden Pairs', which was good fun. Everyone played individual stableford and the pairs were drawn afterwards by picking cards. I played with Janet and Colin. We had a wonderful day out and the less said about the golf the better !! We all struggled, but we can't blame the course. It was lovely. Here's the terrible threesome after the game. Allison was the hero today with 37 points and she and her mystery partner, Mike, almost did the trick, but were pipped at the post by another mysterious pairing, Sally and Lesley. Well Done !!

After golf today, we went into Bariloche where we had some time at leisure before dinner at the wonderfully local Family Weiss restaurant. One of the highlights of the day for me were the 4 Legged friends we met today. Here's one with Simon outside the Lodge .. he looks more like a sheep than a dog ! And here's another friend Janet and I met in the Square in Town. He's called Duke. He looks so much at home in the mountains. I didn't check the barrel, but I'm sure it was genuine brandy !

Dinner at the family Weiss was a very local affair with Patagonian Lamb and local trout in good supply. We had a lovely meal and headed back to our Lodge ready for another day's golf at the Llao Llao club (pronounced Jauw Jauw) tomorrow.

More on Mate & Glorious Bariloche

We set off this morning from Iguazu to fly to Bariloche via Buenos Aires. On the coach to the airport, Maria picked up the story on Yera Mate, and after yesterday´s practical, today we had the history and theory! The Yerba Mate plant was originally grown wild by the native Guanani people. When the Jesuits arrived in the 1600´s, at first they banned the plant as they believed it was a drug, bt when they discovered it was in fact harmless and a lot better than the alternative - alcohol, they adopted it and encouraged it´s use, and cultivated the plant themselves.

Yerba Mate is the 3rd industry in the Iguazu region. First is the Pine tree business for paper, followed by tourism and then by the cultivation of Yebra Mate leaves. The process is complex and takes about a year from picking the leaves to being ready for consumption. The leaves are picked by hand, left to settle, shaken periodically and are ready for sale in about a year. definitely a fine art !

Our flights were uneventful. Thankfully both on time and we arrived as planned in Bariloche about 7.30pm. The terrain on the approach to Bariloche airport was very different to anything we had seen to date in Argentina. In fact it resembled a huge Links Golf Course with dunes and fairways. We reckon it would take a while to get around it with a 7 iron !

We drove from the airport to the hotel through some magnificent scenery and we could see why the area is often referred to as Little Switzerland. It has a very Alpine feel and the lakes and surrounding mountains are truely wonderful. We arrived at our Country Club, the Arelauquen, to find a vast estate of private villas and lodges. We´re staying in the main Guest Lodge, a beautiful building that looks like an overgrown Log Cabin, with a fantastic view over the golf course and the mountains in the background. Here's the view from the lounge in the Lodge .. fantastic. We´re very much looking forward to playing the course tomorrow.

Birthday Celebrations

Hi,

Well after a not exactly perfect day on the golf course, our local agents redeemed the situation by treating us to a wonderful dinner in Porto Iguazu. We drove into town to a really nice restaurant, for our last night in Iguazu. We had a birthday girl with us - it was Lesley's birthday and we helped her celebrate. We had a great meal, mostly fish, which was quite unusual so far in Argentina. Maria organised a birthday cake and we sang Happy Birthday. We also had a few impromptu tunes and my favourite, Danny Boy got a bit of a hammering.

Lesley shares her birthday with another famous birthday boy. Last night was Burn's Night and we raised a glass to the bard and finished with a rousing chorous of Auld Lang's Syne.

We had a lovely evening and here´s today´s intrepid foursome at the end of the evening.

We´re off down south to Bariloche tomorrow for some golf and relaxation where we understand it´s slightly cooler.

Bye for now,

Kate

A Lesson on Mate & Interesting Golf !!

As promised, today Maria brought some hot water and Mate, to show us how to make it and let us sample the local staple refreshment. It's something of an acquired taste, but we enjoyed it and I'm sure it set us up well for the day ahead after a very early start.

The Bourbon Club wasn't exactly the most welcoming, with staff who didn't have either English or Spanish and who couldn't fathom why these strange foreigners would want water to drink, when they were only going out in a mere 90 degrees !! It was a struggle but we did eventually get the water and started off on our round.

Today's game was the infamous Men v the Ladies. Lesley and I played better ball against Andrew and Hugh. Here's the intrepid foursome before we started.

It's obviously not high golfing season at the Bourbon Club and the tee boxes and fairways and even the greens had not seen a mower in quite a while. The 11th fairway was a particular challenge. We all hit good drives down the fairway .. all of which proved impossible to find as the grass was knee high !!! Here's Lesley with her ball in the middle of the fairway.

Nevertheless, we survived and had a great game. Andrew started like a dream and with help from Hugh, parred and birdied his way to a 4 hole lead at the turn. We were looking dead and buried ! But we rallied on the back nine and got to the 18th only one down. This was index 1 and all 3 of us had shots on Andrew on this one. It came down to the last put, but we managed to hold on for a win and the match ended in an honourable half .. a fitting result.

Here we are looking not quite so chirpy at the end of it all. The overall result went in favour of the Ladies 2 1/2 to 1 1/2, so our half mattered (Glad we didn't know that on the 18th !!).

We almost had an International incident before we left. We waited on the bus for what seemed like forever, while Simon and Maria sorted out things with the club. They had confirmed the costs yesterday, but our Brazillian friends claimed that the exchange rate had changed so much overnight that the cost had increased massively. Serious difficulties ensued, particularly as there was no common language. The incident was only averted when Steve, with his lawer's hat on (must be the only thing he hasn't lost so far on the trip !) intervened.

We eventually escaped from Brazil and back to our nice comfy and friendly hotel on the Argentinian side. We're off to dinner in Iguazu tonight and tomorrow we fly to Bariloche, where we understand it's a bit cooler than here !

Bye for now,

Kate

Iguazu from Brazil ...

Hi,

Today we crossed the border from Argentina into Brazil and saw the Falls from the Brazilian side. Whereas yesterday, we were very close to the falling water and could really hear and feel the thunderous noise, today we were a little farther back and could appreciate the sheer size, width and majesty of the Iguazu Falls.

Maria picked us up and we drove the few hundred yards to the border. There are 2 borders. One to leave Argentina and one to enter Brazil. The line representing the border between Argentina and Brazil runs down the centre of the Iguazu river. We stopped on the bridge over the river, had Brazil ahead, Argentina behind us and Paraguay, visible a little down the river to our left. The flagstones on the bridge are painted in the flags of the 2 countries and cleverly show the exact line of the border. Having cleared both sets of border checks, we continued to the Brazil side of the Park. We left the bus and started on our walk. It was absolutely one of the most spectacular walks imaginable. The trail brought right around the falls from the smaller falls to the largest. We were very lucky in that the river is currently at it's highest and the roar of the water is truely majestic. We saw some boats doing the same journey that we did yesterday. We were too far away to hear their screams, but I'm sure they were just as loud as ours were yesterday !

Here's Maria and me enjoying the view

Our friendly rainbow appeared again and gave an air of magic to the whole scene. We finished our walk with a ride in the lift which brings you back up to the top, had a lovely relaxed lunch on a terrace overlooking the water and had time to reflect on such a wonderful experience of the Falls from both sides.

Golf tomorrow at the Bourbon International across the border again in Brazil.

Wow !! Iguazu ....

Hi - Today was a real Wow !! Day. We left Buenos Aires early at about 7.30 and flew to Iguazu. It was a very clear and mostly cloudless flight and you could see everything on the ground. The pilot made a wonderful fly over the falls before we landed and it was absolutely spectacular in the sunshine. We landed at Iguazu International Airport. I'd seen the runway from the flight and it looked just like a small road in the middle of a forest. We met up with our new guide Maria and transferred to our hotel quickly and then started on our afternoon tour. We drove to the Argentina side of the Falls to the National Park, which is actually a tropical jungle. We took the small train (The Green Train of the Jungle) to the start point of the walk and then walked across the top of the Falls, over very high fast flowing rapids, apparently the highest the river has been for a long time given the recent rain. This led us to the viewing platform, at the Devil's Throat, where we were almost deafened by the thunderous roar of the water. It's a magnificent sight, complete with rainbow ! We then walked back across the top of the rapids to the meeting point, to start our next treat.. the Grand Adventure. This was terrific and definitely another highlight of the trip. We started off on a truck, with our guide Enrique. We drove through the jungle for about 10k. Enrique told us about some of the species in the jungle. There are somewhere between 200 and 400 species of Butterfly ( I reckon we saw quite a few of the hundreds of species in the few hours we were in the jungle), and about 450 species of birds. Here's one of the colourful butterflies, that took a particular shine to Steve! We saw a Pelican high in a tree by the roadside. Enrique also pointed out some huge spider's webs which stretched from one side of the jungle road to the other, with really big spiders in them. He told us that there are Jaguar in the jungle (or American tigers, as they sometimes call them), that can grow to 140 or 150 Kilos. He's never seen one and I'm very glad we didn't either !

The truck brought us to another meeting point where we walked down a lot of steps and onto the boat for our ride to and through ! the Falls. We got onto what looked like a very large rubber dingy, with seats and life jackets. We'd been well warned by Maria that we'd get very wet .. she wasn't wrong ! We were given big water proof bags to put our belongings into ; told to take off our shoes and put away anything that we wanted to keep dry, like cameras, watches etc. Then we roared off through the incredible River Iguazu towards the Falls. We were almost under the falling water. It was majestic .. and as warned, we got absolutely drowned .. but it was wonderful, a very memorable and exciting afternoon. We even saw another magnificent full rainbow as we sped towards the falls. We didn't find the crock of gold .. maybe tomorrow !

There was quite a trek up various wet and slippery steps and pathways when we got off the boat and we had a few more oportunities to photograph and marvel at the various different views of the Falls .. What a wonderful day.

Tonight was low key and quite. We had dinner in our hotel, which looks terrrific. It has lovely outdoor pools, which we plan to test out tomorrow after our tour of the Brazillian side of the Falls. We look forward to that,

Bye for now,

Kate