So Mendoza was great, but we were still feeling rather “city-fied.” The wine tours were fun but still touristy and you could tell all of the locals just wanted to run all the bikers off the road. Nothing dangerous, but it just didn’t feel very authentic. Our hike into Cerro Arco got us excited to get out into the open coutry and stretch out a little bit, so the next day we hopped on a bus and traveled about 3 hours south to a small town called San Rafael. Like Mendoza, San Rafael is a decent producer or grapes, but is actually better known for plums (and dried for prunes), apricots, peaches, and pears.

Upon arrival to the San Rafael bus station, Holly and I finished our grump sack of crackers, apples, and about a half bottle of wine from the night before. About 20 minutes later Miguel, or Mike (our host), picked us up. Our first stop was to a mechanics shop in order to get his drive shaft fixed for his pickup. He had sheered it in half pulling up stumps. A good start if you ask me. Next we went to the grocery store to pick up some random things and then we were off to his house. We drove about 20 minutes out of town and arrived at his estancia Andes Lands.

His house was once his grandfathers, left to his father and then abandoned for a couple decades. After Mike finished his stint in the British Armed Forces, he moved back to Argentina (a native to Buenos Aires actually) and moved into this house. It is a beautiful old german style farm house with massive ceilings, huge rooms, a large porch, swiming pool with poolhouse, plenty of fire places, and well equiped kitchen. Our first night, we were left alone to familiarize ourselves with our new home while Mike went to go pick up his wife Vicky from an appointment. We made a simple spaghetti with garlic and olive oil for dinner and wandered around the house not really sure what to think. It was beautiful but also seemed a little forlorn and cold. After getting a good fire going in our room, we went to bed. We had no idea what to expect from the next day, but we were both tired and excited to be doing something totally new and different.

0830 came around in a hurry and we had a breakfast of toast and homemade marmalade, honey, and coffee. This has become one of my favorite meals. I love it. I’ve never really been a breakfast person, but I think I’ve converted. After breakfast, we put on our boots and were off in Mike’s well loved Volkswagen down the road to begin what would be our main project, digging out the irriggation canal and clearing it of all the crap that accumulated from the past year. Sounds wonderful, I know, but it has actually become something Holly and I enjoy. It is very satisfying because you can really appreciate your work and see the progress. It is also pretty physically strenuous so it makes you feel like you’ve earned your next meal.

We get back to the house after clearing about five meters of ditch and find lunch is ready, egg curry. We ate entirely too much, took a rather long siesta, and went back to work which for me was cutting plum wood and Holly working out some weeds in the garden. Dinner is usually on us so we had garlic pasta again and went off to sleep sore and happy.

Saturday passed much the same, except lunch was a very good oso bucco and mashed potatoes. Saturday night came and Holly and I found ourselves at a bonfire with some of Mike’s friends. We were surprised to find they all spoke english for the most part. Turns out that Mike and two of his friends are products of Anglo-Argentine relations, and they have a tight little community here in San Rafael. Anyways, Mike left us there to go off to his bi-weekly squash match and we met some other people doing workaways in the area. We got back to the house around 2130, had a quick bite to eat and went on to bed.

The next day came and we hadn’t be woken up by 1030. We peeled ourselves out of bed to find Mike and Vicky in the kitchen with a bag full of ribs and smiles on their faces. I had mentioned that I liked cooking meat as per The Branded Butcher and Rooftop, so they put me in charge of lunch. As I didn’t have too much experience cooking ribs, particularly short ribs, I took Mike’s suggestion to bake them in onions, garlic, carrots, and water for a couple of hours until they were falling apart. While that was going on, I made some of Robert Richardson’s famous Memphis style BBQ sauce. We pulled the ribs, lathered them up with some sauce, and threw them on a grill over top of some really hot plum coals. They hissed and spit and carmelized like champions. They were served with some coleslaw, mashed potatoes, and cold beer. No complaints. Everyone got there fill and asked for the BBQ sauce recipe. This Sunday is rapidly approaching and I’m still thinking about that pork shoulder…

Anyways, the rest of the week continued on like that. The work has kind of started to run together, but Holly and keep the days straight by lunch. The following Monday we made burgers, Tuesday Vicky made some awesome tortas, Wednesday I made pizza (tomato sauce, goat cheese, salami, wild arugula) and butternut squash soup today, Thursday.

Todays work was actually kind of awesome though. We started off with breakfast as usual, went to the ditch to work and got to a really haggard part. The retaining brush had become way overgrown and drooped down into the ravine, so we pulled it all down to the bottom, raked it to the middle, and set it ablaze. So we go after lunch to where we raked it all, about 30 meters of dead, very dry brush with Mike. Naturally, we bring a tank of gasoline, matches, hoes, shovels, etc. We get to our little row of brush, I striked one match, and light a corner. That was the only match we used. After it got going a little, Mike said chaudios. Holly and I looked at each other like he was crazy to leave us there, but he said to call if we had any problems and not to worry too much if it got out of hand, becauase you know… Argentina. He said he’d bring reinforcements if we called. Holly and I were there tending this fire for about 2 hours and didn’t have a single problem. I almost wished it had been a little more exciting after the novelty wore off.

After a good walk home, we cleaned up, ate a lot of corn bread, and had lomo and eggs for dinner. Holly made some more hot pepper sauce and I stoked fires. Holly played Candy Crush and I played with the dogs. And such is life here in San Rafael. Every night we sit at the huge kitchen table by the furnace (the kitchen is the one warm room in the house), drink tea and either read or work on the blog. I honestly feel like I could do this indefinitely because there is just so much to do and Mike and Vicky are so appreciative. We get fed three times a day, live in an awesome house, can go exploring the Andes whenever, and do satisfying work constantly. We will decide to leave eventually in the coming weeks, but we will leave so much richer because of the time we will have spent here. I am already looking forward to returning if our journey ever calls for gratification of the highest order.