Estancia Los Potreros, Argentina

25th September – 28th September 2017

After leaving the salt flats at 9, we didn’t have very far to drive for the day. We drove for 150km at first, until we stopped for a food shop in Jesus Maria. Just before we reached the town, we were pulled over by the police. They didn’t give any reason for this and even though Lars and Sara showed them all the appropriate truck paperwork, they still got on and asked to check all our passports. We weren’t exactly sure why they did this but they looked quite young, so we guessed that they were in training, or recently hired and after some practice.

Once we were set free, we pulled into the town and had to drive a few blocks down from the supermarket so that we could park up. We were sent off in our groups and given over an hour to food shop for cook groups and get our own lunch for the day. Because I had written the lists earlier, our food shop was easy because I gave William and Joe the list for the dinner food and they went and got that, while me and Katie got the food for the two breakfasts we had – luckily this was the last food shop with me as ‘group leader’ and I was so glad of that! We bought all of the food first before people went off to do their personal shopping – I know we were going to be out of contact and out of reach of a shop for 3 days but people were acting like they needed to buy the whole supermarket for this! I bought myself a drink and ate the lunch stuff that I still had left over from Cafayate.

At around 1 o’clock, we left the town and carried on our journey to the estancia. We only had about 50km to go, but it still took us 2 hours because there were some windy and bumpy roads and lots of little villages that we had to drive through.

We arrived at the estancia just after 3 and were reunited with Amber and her passengers – it was good to see them all again after spending a few nights apart. We got off the truck and had a quick welcome talk from Kevin, the owner of the estancia, before we set up our beds for the evening. Most people had to set up tents because the dorm room that was there had been taken over by Amber’s passengers mostly, but there were a couple of spare beds so I took full advantage of this and took one of the beds – I didn’t see the point of setting up a tent on my own for just one night because Amber was leaving the next morning and we could all move into the dorm once they had left.

Once the tents and beds were all set up, we had a little time to chill and catch up with the other group which was nice. At around 4, Kevin had put on tea and biscuits – it was very British! I obviously didn’t drink the tea, but the biscuits were good and I took full advantage of this. While we were there, Tom came creeping over because he had missed us over the last few days and wanted to catch up with us. We all sat had chatted for a bit before separating and going to shower and chill for a bit until dinner.

Just before dinner, we were sat around chatting and the guides came over with the equipment to lasso. I didn’t go over at first because I was too busy chatting, but towards the end I went to have a look at how it was done, as I was intrigued. They weren’t lassoing animals, there were some large buckets in the field, so they were lassoing over these. I had a turn and apparently, I have a good swing over my head but I couldn’t get the loop over the bucket. I had a few goes before giving up – it was good to try though.

Dinner was ready just after 7. We were all invited over and given a glass of wine to enjoy while we stood by the fire. The meal was a leaving meal for the other group and because we had just arrived, Kevin was doing it as our joining meal – he had to mix the itinerary slightly for us. While we were stood around the fire, we were served little appetisers to keep us going: I had a mini pizza and a sausage on a bread roll.

Once we had finished the appetisers, we were invited to sit at the tables. For dinner, we were served a barbecue: we had chicken, ribs and steak. On the tables already, there was potato salad and normal salad and dips. With dinner, there were jugs of wine on the tables for us to help ourselves to, but I had a really bad headache so I just stuck to water for the evening. For dessert, we were served fruit with dulche de leche on the side, I just ate the dulche de leche and then gave up on the rest of the fruit.

After dinner, we were moved up to the games room. Kevin has built a games room that is away from the main house, so that people can go up there and make noise and not disturb him when he is in bed. We sat in the games room for a while: some people played table football but most people sat and drank. Because of my headache, I went to bed around 11, to try and sleep it off.

During the night, I woke up because I was too hot – it was a nice change from being too cold though. Forgetting where I was, I tried to sit up to tie my hair up but then remembered I was on the bottom bunk of very low bunk beds, when I whacked my head on the bed above me – it was so painful!

At 5.25, I was woken up by the other group getting ready to leave. I knew the exact time because as soon as the alarm went off, MC exclaimed the time, saying that she didn’t have enough time to get ready; she flicked the light on and was banging about. I didn’t mind too much because I wanted to get up anyway to say bye to everyone properly, it just wasn’t the best wake up call. I got up just before 6 and went out to say bye to people. I was really sad to say bye to David and Rianne because they have been like my travel parents for the past 2 months and now I wasn’t going to see them again. When I said bye to Hayley and Tom I wasn’t as sad, because we had all made plans to meet up again in their home towns on the other side of the world.

Once we had waved Amber off for the last time, we went back to bed. It was just me and Katie in the dorm room now, so it was nice and peaceful. I moved onto the top bunk so I didn’t have any more head injuries, and fell back to sleep. Luckily, Katie had set an alarm for 8 and although we didn’t think we would need it, we did because we fell back to sleep quite easily.

We got up and got ready to prepare breakfast. It was my group’s turn to cook breakfast and I asked everyone to meet at 8.30 so that it was ready for 9. For breakfast, we were having French toast with syrups and strawberries. I didn’t have much involvement in the process of making the French toast, I let William take control because he is from France and the food was a hit. Even the strawberries got a special mention because it was different from apples and bananas that we get all of the time.

We had a little spare time after breakfast to finish getting ourselves ready. We had to wear long trousers and closed toed shoes because we were going horse riding. We were collected at 10.30 and taken up to the other house which wasn’t too far away. I thought it would be a great idea to sit in the back, until I became cold and uncomfortable, so I then regretted my decision slightly. The other house is where the estancia hotel is too; it was a very fancy place and apparently the hotel is expensive.

First of all, we given a horse demo. Bea was on one horse and showed us how to control the horse by using your hands to make them start, stop and turn. I was very nervous at this point because I have never even sat on a horse before, let alone ridden one alone! We were all assigned to a horse; mine was called Mostaza, even though he was more white than mustard coloured, which is what mostaza means.

When I first sat on Mostaza, I was very nervous and did not want Georgie, the guide, to let go of me. However, once we got going, I got used to it a little more and became a little bit more confident – it probably helped that Mostaza just seemed to follow the crowd. One thing he did do though, which he wasn’t allowed to do, was that he kept eating. Every time he could reach some food without moving his head too much, he would go for it. I kept pulling him away but I know how he feels because I want to eat all of the time too – his personality perfectly reflected mine in this way.

Going up and down hill was a difficult one for me – it was also quite painful, but if I leant forward going uphill and leant back going downhill it would apparently help Mostaza to balance the weight when moving. During the ride, there was the opportunity to canter. I wasn’t sure about this because it was my first time on a horse and I didn’t know how well it would go because I wasn’t confident enough. I knew that there was the chance to try cantering again the next day, so I gave it a miss and hoped I would be more confident to try on the second day.

After three hours of horse riding, we arrived back at the stables. When I got off the horse I felt like my legs could have collapsed underneath me, but they didn’t. We were given a glass of lemonade and had to sit and wait for a few minutes while they collected the car to take us back to the house.

Back at the house, it was Jack’s groups turn to make lunch; by this time, it was a late lunch at 2 o’clock. We had ham and cheese and salad sandwiches but when they were shopping, they miscounted the bread, thinking two slices per person would be two sandwiches, so there wasn’t much, but we made it work.

After lunch was packed away, I decided to get my group together to prepare dinner for the evening. We had to have a slightly earlier dinner because we had musicians coming at 8, so had to be cleared up by then and as we were making chili, we thought that the sooner we cooked it, the better it would be. We worked together and got the meat cooked in the sauce before having the rest of the afternoon to ourselves.

When we left the kitchen, we realised how misty it had got. The fog had come right down over the estancia and the air had gone very damp. This was a shame because it looked so beautiful in the sunshine when we arrived on the previous day. We didn’t have much option but to go up to the games room for the afternoon and sit up there. This was okay for me because it gave me some time to catch up on things but the boredom soon kicked in for some people and they were going crazy just sitting around doing nothing all afternoon.

At 6.45, my cook group went to heat the chili and prepare the rice for dinner so that we could eat at 7.15. We ate on the truck as usual because it was so cold outside and there was nowhere else to eat. The chili went down a treat though, everyone loved it but as Joe took over when we were cooking, I couldn’t take any credit for it. I would have had seconds but as the group leader for the cook group, I had to let everyone else go first.

We were just about cleared up and ready to head up to the games room for 8 o’clock.

When we got there, Bea, Sarah and Georgie were there waiting for us, but the musicians hadn’t arrived. Kevin had provided more wine for us to enjoy during the music, so we all got a glass of wine and had a chat while we waited.

When the musicians arrived, they set up with their guitar and drum and played some songs for us. Although the songs were in Spanish, they were still very enjoyable and I had a great time dancing along in my chair. They managed to get us to sing along to one song, making a competition out of it.

After a while, the musicians needed a break, so they went for a drink and during their break Jack played a song on their guitar. It was nice to sit and listen to some relaxing music while they had a drink but Jack wasn’t a fan of all the attention being on him. After one song, he handed the guitar back and they came back on. They played a few more songs before calling it a night.

Once they had finished, I had a go on one of their drums, just messing around and before I knew it, we were having a full drumming lesson. They taught me a beat which I struggled with at first, but as soon as everyone else started playing their beats and we were in a rhythm, I got it and I was great!

The whole night was so much better than expected. When we spoke to the other group about it, they said that they had one guy turn up with his guitar, he would play a couple of songs and then leave again. It seems like they had a very different experience than us, but I loved our night and I could have listened to the guys playing all night long.

That evening, Jack and Aaron had moved into the dorm with me and Katie, so the four of us went to bed together after the musicians had left. The night was much colder and there was a storm that had come over the estancia – not surprising after the afternoon’s weather. I still managed to sleep quite well though because I was wrapped up in my sleeping bag and I didn’t wake up properly until my alarm went off at 8.

My group was on breakfast duty again, so I asked the team to meet at 8.30. It was the last meal that we had to cook on this leg of the trip, which meant that it was my last meal as group leader – I was very happy about this! For breakfast, we made scrambled eggs with avocado and toast. Although we are all sick of eggs, myself included, there really isn’t much else we can cook and eggs are cheap, so we thought we would try and mix it up with the avocado and toast – I think it worked.

While we were preparing breakfast, we had a visit from Kevin, who told us that there was a question mark over riding for the day because the weather was so bad. He said he was going up to the other house, where he could get some wifi, to check the weather and he said he would let us know – there is no phone signal at all on the estancia and although he pays for wifi at the other house, it is so expensive that not even his staff are allowed to use it.

After we had cleaned up breakfast, we all kind of crashed in the kitchen; we had no energy to move and as we didn’t have a plan for the day yet, we just sat and chatted where we were. The news eventually came back to us that riding was cancelled for the morning because the weather was too bad. Apparently, it isn’t the rain that stopped us riding, but the thunder did. Sarah and Georgie had come over to us instead and had brought some board games and quizzes for us, so we all ended up in the games room.

Up in the games room, some people sat and played the games but I didn’t have the energy, so I just watched from a distance.

At around 12.15, Sarah and Georgie left us to go up to the other house to get our lunch. They seemed to be gone for ages, but when they arrived back, it was worth the wait. We didn’t have to get out of our seats, we were served lunch where we were sat – it was perfect. We had three mini empanadas each, with a rice salad on the side which was nice. They even brought a jug of lemonade over and we didn’t have to clean up after ourselves – it was definitely the highlight of the day so far!

During lunch, Georgie was radioed by Kevin who asked if we were still interested in going out on the horses if the weather cleared up; most of us did, so we just had to wait a little longer for the decision. I kept up with the optimism and kept telling everyone that it was brightening up, but pretty much as soon as I said that if clouded over again and I was annoying everyone. Sadly, the final decision was made around 2 that the storms weren’t clearing up, so we couldn’t go out for our second horse ride – I was a bit gutted about this which was strange to say I was so scared the previous day, but the weather cannot be helped.

The afternoon, that afternoon, seemed to drag on forever because we were very limited with our options – it felt to me like we were stuck on a rainy holiday in Britain somewhere, with nowhere to go and nothing to do because we literally had nowhere to go and nothing to do. I found some cards in the room and played a few rounds of solitaire but that got boring after a little while, so I gave up on that. I walked to the truck and back for some snacks, but that didn’t kill much time. We got monopoly out and looked at it, before deciding that we didn’t have the mental energy to play it, so we put it away. To pass the time, we played a few more rounds of cards before I had to move and try and entertain myself.

I wanted to take some nice photos of the estancia, in the sunshine, like it was when we arrived. As this sadly wasn’t possible, due to the weather not clearing up, Katie went out in the rain to take some, so I stole hers. It still looked nice, but was nicer in the sun.

To split up my afternoon a bit, I tried to strategically place my shower near the back end of the afternoon, so I had less time to kill after. It did kind of work, because after my shower, I tried to pack up my things a little but struggled because some of my clothes were in the laundry still, but I did only have about an hour to go until a planned activity. I went back up to the games room and played a few more rounds of cards, before it was almost 6.30 and we decided to walk to Kevin’s house for the wine tasting.

When we were invited into Kevin’s house, it was like being on a different part of the estancia altogether. We walked into his dining area where he had set the table out all nicely with cheese and salami and crackers set down the middle. The room was set with the chairs placed around the table, in a circle and we all had a wine glass each. Kevin told us that this usually happens on the first night, so he can get to know us but because of the other truck, we had to switch it round slightly.

The first of the four wines we tasted, was a white wine, Torrontes. It was different to the white wines he had given us for free on the other two nights – it was much nicer. Kevin explained a little bit about his vineyard that he has shares in and said that this wine had come from there. The second wine we tried was a red wine. It was a Malbec and although I wasn’t overly excited about trying it, it was quite nice – one of the nicest reds I have tasted yet. Sadly, for me, the third wine was also a red but this one was even nicer still. It was a Cabernet Sauvignon and I think all three wines we had tried so far were from his vineyard. The fourth and final wine that we tried was a fortified dessert wine. It tasted okay but it was very sweet and I could only manage a mouthful. I never understand why you don’t get to try more white wines at wine tasting events!

During the wine tasting, we scoffed our way through the food that was on the table; apparently you shouldn’t eat cheese with wine, you are supposed to keep a clean pallet but that didn’t stop any of us. We also played a little game during the tasting. Kevin had a box full of different scents, from France, that can be used in wines. In the game, he would pass two scents around at a time, in opposite directions, and we had to try and guess what they were. I was useless at this game and out of fourteen scents I only got one right, but I tried my best. Some of the scents that we had, I wouldn’t have guessed you would have put them in wine. We had lemon, smoke, honeysuckle, melon, raspberry, prunes, mushroom, green peppers, apricot, leather, apple, toast, pineapple and lychee – the only one I could guess was the apple scent, the rest were too difficult for me! At the end of the game, Katie won a prize for being able to guess the most scents, even though she did only guess four right altogether.

After the scent game, Sarah had some horse riding prizes to give out: one for best rider and one for most improved rider. William won the prize for best rider, although she did say that this was by default because Sara was the best but she can’t win a prize because she was crew – I’m not sure she should have said this but anyway. When she was announcing the winner for the second prize, she started off by saying that the prize was going to someone who got on the horse and screamed in panic at it moving. As soon as she said this, everyone knew she was talking about me. At least she thought I improved over time though! The three winners won a bottle of champagne, which wasn’t from champagne so I don’t know if it can technically be called that.

Once the evening with Kevin was over, he practically kicked us out of the house so that he could go to bed. This was okay though because it was after 9 and we still hadn’t had our dinner yet. We invited Sarah to eat with us, which she did, so we all went to the kitchen to get our beef stew that Joe and Char had made in the afternoon – it should have been Jack’s cook group cooking, but Char took charge and made the dinner with Joe. The stew tasted good but we were all so full because of all the cheese we had eaten during the wine tasting – oops.

After dinner, we cleaned up and had to pack the truck up. We were leaving very early the next day, so we wanted everything to be in the truck before then, so we didn’t have to mess around. It took a while and some people were pretty drunk from the wine, so it was a little entertaining.

Once the truck was packed away, we went up to the games room. We played some music and sat around for a bit, before making our way to bed. Before we got in bed, we all made sure we were packed up, ready for morning.

In the bathroom, in the dorm room, the toilet had been flushing itself for two full days at this point (ever since the other truck left on our first full day). It was very annoying, because at five-minute intervals, the chain would just go by itself. When we first heard it, I thought the other truck had left someone behind because it was literally as we walked back into the dorm room after saying bye to them – luckily, they hadn’t. We had reported it to Kevin and his team looked at it but they didn’t know what was wrong, they just joked that there was a ghost in there. Fortunately for us, we figured out how to turn the water off so that it didn’t annoy us overnight.

Once we had sorted ourselves out by packing up and turning the toilet off, we got into bed around 11, ready for a very early start the next morning, so that we could head towards Buenos Aires for our final stop of this leg of the trip.

Despite the awful weather, I loved my time at the estancia! I liked having a final meal with Amber and her passengers, I enjoyed the music night and learning to play the drums, the wine and cheese tasting was great and getting on a horse for the first time and being the most improved was amazing – even if we only got to do it for one day. The estancia is definitely a highlight of my trip so far and I would have loved to stay a little longer to relax in the sunshine – if that ever made an appearance again, but unfortunately, we have to move on to Buenos Aires.

To travel is to live, Katie x