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Right - well - i'm horribly behind with this - so you'll have to pretend i am where i am writing about as opposed to writing from - if you see what i mean.
Well, it's Saturday 14th February & i'm still in Colonia - the Internet Cafe (or Cyber Cafe as they call them here) is closed hence no update on the 14th itself - anyway, i got the Buquebus Hydrofoil from Colonia to Buenos Aires (BsAs is the local abbreviation apparently) - the hydrofoil does the 35km journey across the River Plate in 45 minutes or so - much better than the ferry.
I was met at the BsAs terminal by the very suave Jose who drove me to the Estancia Dos Talas (www.dostalas.com.ar), which is in the Pampas - about 15km from Dolores (& about 180km from BsAs)....
The first impression upon seeing the Estancia is that it reminded me of La Thibauderie - French in style & set in lovely grounds (family will know what i mean). I got to the Estancia about 5pm - had a quick late-lunch & then went riding at just after 5.30 - what a life, eh? There were two Swedish families staying at the Estancia - the Lehmann's and the Henrikssonn's - and being Swedish they were of course fluent in English. They were also fluent in Spanish as well. The two families had never met & knew nothing of each other but discovered that the Henriksson's had a summer house in the next street to where the Lehmann's live. Not only that but a son & a daughter from each family are currently studying in Buenos Aires, which was why the two families were in Argentina - visiting their respective offspring - all very strange, eh?
Lars Henriksson is an extremely interesting chap - having been born in Brazil, he & his wife lived in Brazil for many years but went back to Sweden so that their daughters could finish their education there (ironic) - he has travelled & worked extensively throughout South America. With all due respect to the Lehmann's i did not find out what they did other than they bought Peter Lehmann wines out of a sense of duty - yes of course they gave me a withering look when i brought that up - just as they were baffled by my talking about the Munskenkarna and having been to Ostersund - but i digress.....
It was really nice having company & people to talk to and being Swedish they were very polite, unassuming, very friendly and amusing - but they left on Sunday afternoon, sadly....
Anyway, Dos Talas is set in about 31 hectares of parkland surrounding the house and that is set in about 1500 hectares of farmland - mostly given over to cattle. You can read about Dos Talas in Monty Don's Around the World in 80 Gardens (p116) (there's a picture of Monty on every page in case you forget who wrote it); it features in the Footprint guide to Argentina apparently and in On a Hoof and a Prayer by Polly Evans (pp207-221)............
I was so lucky with the weather - gloriously hot & sunny. I went riding twice on Sunday & twice on Monday but only once on Tuesday as various parts of me had lodged complaints. But the riding was easy - because the Armadillos dig burrows all over the place you have to go at walking pace - which suited me fine but must have driven Pedro, the Paraguayan goucho, completely up the wall - especially having to accompany just me on those 5 occasions....
There are two lovely Alsations - sisters about 10 months old - very playful - Speedy & his mother make up the dogs plus Rudolf the deer - i assume it is a Fallow Deer - very sweet but must be lonely....
It is so tranquil & very relaxing - something i didn't think i'd be able to do - Monday morning i wanted to leave - enough already of this paradise! - but the walks through the trees & gardens & riding through the pampas spotting Nando; molito; nutria; zorro & hares as well as Southern Screamers; Chimango Caracara; Baywinged Cowbird; Guira Cuckoo; Golden Breasted Woodpecker; Lapwing; Swallows and more - finally brought me back to my senses - i couldn't go back to England - there wasn't a job for me to go back to - which was why i was here in the first place...
Plus the lovely Sara Elizalde & her staff looked after me royally! I even drank a whole bottle of Felix Lopez Semillon at lunch on Tuesday (sorry, Sara) - good grief! In my defence it was boiling hot; the food was delicious; the wine was cold & i was sitting outside in the shade of a big oak tree.....
Sara's gorgeous daughter Clara is marrying the suave Jose on March 28th - so keep your fingers crossed for a beautiful day!
I will add some more facts on Dos Talas - but you probably get the idea it would be a lovely place to stay when you come over to Argentina........
At about 1pm on Wednesday 18th, Ricardo drove me back to Buenos Aires so that i could catch my flight to Trelew....
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