Andes Lands

We’ve just recently left Andes Lands, a lovely old country property about 15km from San Rafael, in the Mendoza wine region of Argentina.  The house is owned by gracious hosts Mike and Vicki, and we felt very much part of their home during our stay. They raised their 4 boys there, all of whom have since flown the nest, but we enjoyed the company of two of them, Tommy and Charlie, who returned for a while while we were there.  The house was once an estancia, and then home to a fruit farm, and has been in the family for generations.  There are beautiful old wooden features everywhere, in enormous rooms with huge ceilings, adorned with antiques - just our bathroom was bigger than many of the places we’ve slept in altogether. 

There is a wonderful, rambling country garden, that the children adored running around in, spending hours on end in the swimming pool there, as well as playing ping pong, lego (when they stumbled upon the old family lego collection) and probably their favourite pastime, playing with the dogs, Archie, Jock and Rory. They also enjoyed the odd horse ride too!

Wow - he's going fast!

Good old Rory

A particular highlight was the parilla, which we enjoyed in the company of Mike and Vicki and their family and friends on several occasions.  To say that it made our BBQ sausages in England seem very unambitious is an understatement.  There were cuts of meat we enjoyed that we didn’t even know existed - for example, mollejas - sweetbreads - is a real delicacy served with lemon juice.  

Mike's parilla at Andes Lands - what a feast!

Me rather pathetically pretending I had something to do with the parilla
when all I did was find a few sticks.....

We stayed there because Mike and Vicki have recently opened their home as a Bed and Breakfast, and at any one time there are 2 or 3 volunteers there, working on the house and garden in exchange for board and lodging.  The breakfasts were amongst the finest we’ve had this trip.  (We often discuss our best and worse breakfasts), with wonderful porridge, fruit juice and fresh bread, the toast almost tasting better having been prepared in an old toaster with a heavy old candlestick to keep the toast down! 

The home is near the Atuel river, so this was a good base to explore activities like white-water rafting, kayaking, “cool river” (basically riding rapids on an inner tube) and zip lining (or Canopy as its referred to here).

The veranda lent itself well not just to breakfast but also to travel school for the boys. We were fortunate to add a touch of variety to travel school while we were there with art lessons from artist Vicky and Polish architect Christophe. 

Frankie doing some travel school.  Even though it was a lovely big spacious room
and a perfectly tranquil setting, the boys still found reasons to object!

In fact we enjoyed it so much, we are heading back there next week when my father flies out to join us for a week to celebrate his 80th birthday!