Firstly, it's my Dad's 80th birthday today, 27th February. Happy Birthday, Dad, as per my message below!
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| Hope the message on my arms is legible! |
My father came out to see us this month to celebrate his 80th birthday this month, and we figured where better than the peace and tranquility of Andes Lands, a rambling, estancia-style B&B in San Rafael, where we’d already spent 10 days in January.
24 hours, 2 flights and a long car journey after Dad left Heathrow, we arrived altogether at Andes Lands to be greeted by owner Mike with a warm welcome and insisting that he fired up the parilla immediately for a welcome Argentinian BBQ. Although Dad was tired, and it was already 10pm, he rose to the occasion and it was a lovely Argentinian celebration to start Dad’s trip, to meet the Stuart family and volunteers at Andes Lands, and to get a first taste of Mike’s delicious food.
We picked Andes Lands because it afforded us all opportunities for plenty of relaxation time, so my father had plenty of time to himself to swim in the pool, to read, plenty of opportunity for conversation together, and for playing with the boys. And with our little rental car, we had further options to go out to the river and lakes nearby for some adventures. I should have known better though as Dad doesn’t do much in the way of relaxation, so it was quite rare to see this:
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| Gin and tonic and a good book in the garden. |
and more frequent to see this
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| Preparing for the parilla..... |
We decided during his stay to choose a day to celebrate Dad’s 80th birthday, since he would have returned to England by his actual birthday. Mike had brought in so much meat, it seemed that the herds in the fields nearby looked distinctly depleted the next time we passed. We bought in a few bottles of bubbly, there were some lovely salads, and even some french champagne biscuits that my sister had sent out. We enjoyed a lovely fiesta altogether, lots of laughs, perhaps a couple of tears.
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| Cheers Dad! |
The day after, Dad agreed that white-water rafting would be an age-appropriate way of commemorating his birthday. We headed up to the Atuel River, and organised a raft, donned our helmets and lifevests and plunged in. It was a first for Dad, (he loves the water, having always been a keen swimmer, and having just returned from 10 days windsurfing in Fuerteventura last month!). He looked very relaxed as the raft was buffetted about by the various rapids, and responded to the guides paddling instructions perfectly.
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| Dad in the thick of it |
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| ....and enjoying every moment |
After this we found a lovely little spot by the river and enjoyed a leisurely picnic together, with a bottle of local Malbec being the perfect accompaniment.
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| .....getting our breath back after the rafting |
We had some fun with swimming races another day, Dad was surprised how much progress the boys have made, and both mine and my father’s fastest breastroke is now no longer a match for Louis’ front crawl. Most of the time in the pool though, we were just playing “It”, or generally throwing each other about, he’d play for ages with the boys, it was really nice to watch.
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| Dad throwing Frankie about..... |
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| Me too!!! insists Louis! |
When Dad was about 18, Mum took an incredible photo of my Dad diving into the pool at my Grandmother’s house. When we were children, it always looked to us like he was genuinely flying! So we thought we’d re-enact this photo, with three generations of Bader’s participating. As you can see, it wasn’t very easy to get the timing right, even after the 5th take!
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| this is about as synchronised as we got.... |
When we took a closer look, there is a striking similarity between my Dad and Louis in their diving preparation........
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| a chip off the not so very old block..... |
When the time came to leave, we were very sad to see him go, but delighted that he’d had a happy, safe and memorable trip with the family.
