We wrote a couple of days ago about our horse riding experiences, but that is only a part of the story of our relaxing stay at the Estancia, and in the rushing about of the ensuing week, albeit with fantastic animal observation experiences, and very long bus journeys, we have found ourselves looking back on the calm of those few days and wishing we had a few more to spend there.
On the first day, within an hour of arriving, the boys had a great time milking the cows and enjoyed a very fresh cup of warm milk.
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| "But there's not much coming out?" |
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| "No Frankie, it's like THIS!" |
And whilst the horse riding was the main focus for channelling the boys energy it was by no means the only one, participating in a variety of other activities including cycling (bikes for both on the estancia) table football and table tennis....
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| Brian entertaining the boys as usual! |
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| Spoilt for choice |
......and indeed sideways hammock jumping, which the boys took to very enthusiastically, Frankie unable to beat his record, though, of 5 metres at Cabo Polonio!
On reflection too, it was one of the rarer times this trip when we could give the boys some independence and just let the boys run around on their own and be confident that they would be fine, which, aside from Louis somehow cycling into a window - no damage - to Louis, at least, (sorry David) they achieved, giving Mummy and Daddy some relaxation time ourselves.
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| Glass of wine please, Louis! |
Aside from the activities above, plus the horse riding, sleeping and eating, if we couldn't find the boys, we know they would be off playing with the four kittens....
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| Shhhhhhhhh! Tigre's asleep! |
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| Louis, Frankie, Tigre, Negra, Chaussette and George |
And it wasn't just our boys who were fond of the kittens - Antoine, from Belgium, one of the great volunteers, was very keen too!
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| Antoine with Chaussette, which explains why the kitten has a French name! |
We were never too far from a mealtime, where we got to enjoy the food that Raquel, Veronica and the team prepared for us.
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| Breakfast is served |
Mealtimes at lunch and in the evening also gave us a chance to chat with owners David and Susana, and some of the other people staying at the estancia, including three English girls travelling together whom the boys in particular really liked and were sharing stories with, and two lovely Argentinian couples from Buenos Aires, all very patient with my faltering Spanish (thanks for the Atlas Luiz, very useful when we rented a car a few days later!). On the first night, after a delicious meal, we all sat round on the comfy seats in the lovely lounge, with host David leading the guitar playing and us all singing songs together, and although it was late we let the boys come back to join us, as they'd been sitting up in bed anyway, singing along too!
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| Estancia owner David, without guitar, with Baders on tour |
So we were sad to leave when the finally day arrived all too quickly. We'd all improved our horse-riding significantly, and had really unwound and as well as the boys having plenty of time to play with each other, had shared many experiences altogether too, it was all in all a super time.
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| One last photo before we leave |
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| Two very sad boys who didn't want to leave. Mum looks a bit wobbly too.... |
We got a nice mention from David in his blog "The English Gaucho" a few days later which gave us all an opportunity to relive it for a while. Thanks for this David.
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