The Los Potreros Estancia was set in a beautiful area north of Cordoba, the only down fall was the road to the Estancia, Although the view was amazing, the sheer drop of the cliff into the valley was not the nicest. The road was gravel and a little on the skinny side, so driving a large Mercedes truck was not the easiest of jobs. Several parts of the journey were spent with me squeezing my eyes shut and praying to the gods for a safe journey. My hat is off to James, who managed to get us through it all safely.

Whilst we were supping a way on the tea in fine china and biscuits to boot, the members of Elle turned up after their day out horse riding. All in all it was a relaxing afternoon. That evening the owners of the Estancia put on a fabulous asado with wine.for both trucks. After promising myself a break from steak once we left Mendoza, I fell off the band wagon and stuffed myself stupid on the various cuts of meat that were being passed around. Argentina truly is the world master of meat.

It's riding day, we're all thrilled to pieces about the prospect, after doning our spiffing riding hats (ye classic velvet number with a pretty ribbon on the back - I should have be at Badmington), it was time to get matched up to the horses.

Rosecita was the name of my horse, she was an oldish mare that was on the polo team. She was a lovely horse, slightly temperamental but I guess that goes well with her rider J.

The ride out was at a fairly slow pace, but everyone was enjoying themselves. The intention was to ride for a while and then stop at a waterfall for some lunch. I had been feeling slightly queasy earlier that morning and had thought nothing of it. Suddenly when we stopped to for lunch, I had a gut wrenching feeling in my stomach and across my head. I tried to ignore the feeling, hoping that it would pass and began the walk up to the waterfall. I managed to get about a third of the way before keeling over and regurgitating the yoghurt and corn flakes I'd had for breakfast. Not a pleasant experience and poor Anki had to stand there and oversee the whole thing. I managed the walk down to the waterfall, at a snail pace.

Whilst at the waterfall, we were invited to a couple of, shall we say interesting, sights. Firstly, some people haven't quite learn the art of subtle swimwear changing. A towel slippage meant a full view of one of the boys rears. Next up was the reason why one should wear the appropriate attire whilst swimming. The water was at shall we say, a refreshing temperature and Calvin Kliens don't leave much to the imagine. Someone once said to me, better a master with a dagger, than a fool with a sword….guys, please wear swim shorts!

I decided to head back to the horses as I figured it would take much longer than normal. I managed to get half way up the rock path before I felt like collapsing, so I had a wee sit down. Eventually I managed the trip back to the horses. They left me to last to mount, so I sat and waited, after I'd been put on the horse, it took all of two seconds for me to want to get down from fear of fainting. I was in a dilemma, I really wanted to continue on the horse ride, but I didn't have the ability to stay on the horse, but I also didn't want to have to use my own steam to get anywhere. I've never felt the way I did at the moment, I couldn't put a finger on my illness and it was quite stressful.

The decision to walk me out of the trek and get one of the owners to pick me up in their ute was made. I was to drink rehydration salts, and try and stumble out of the area. It took about 45 minutes to walk a distance that you could probably walk in about 15 normally, every five to ten minutes I had to sit down, exhausted. The heat didn't help and all I felt like doing was curling up and going to sleep, but somehow I don't think they would have let me do that. The delirium was strange, and not a state that I would ever want to be in again.

Eventually we made it to the road, and I collapsed into the ute, the 15 min journey back to the estancia was a blur, the owner asked me medical questions and suggested a doctor, but I thought that the journey to the doctors wouldn't be worth it - we were seriously in the middle of nowhere and the nearest doctor was over an hour away. All I wanted to do was pass out and sleep through it all.

We were camping at the estancia, but they put me into one of the rooms where I slept the rest of the day. The others returned later and I barely noticed as they passed through the room to use the shared bathroom.

The next morning, I was feeling slightly better but not well enough to join everyone on the second day of riding, my day was spent sleeping, and reading. That night I managed some rice for dinner, but I missed out on the wine tasting, which was unfortunate…..

The next day we left the estancia. I couldn't believe the one par that I was looking forward to the most on this section, was the one time I was really sick and had to miss out. I also discovered that I had lost my sunnies somewhere along the line, so between the monetary loss on not riding the horses and missing the wine tasting as well as my sunnies, I reckon the illness cost me in the region of three hundred quid - not impressed at all.

Although I wasn't impressed with the financial loss, the estancia itself was amazing and I would definitely go again.