Goodbye July!

What a month! July was full of emotions! First of all, winter made itself noticeable with very cold days and frosty mornings. Then, we had snow! Yes, one morning the mountains dawned with their white peaks proudly gazing at the sun, and it was a beautiful picture to look at.

Sometime around the 10^th, we had a nice 1 night reservation from a friend couple from Cordoba. Ana and Carlitos came along to visit us and stay at our B&B. We enjoyed empanadas and costeletas, and a tasty picada while watching the final games of the World Cup in South Africa. It was a really nice weekend and we hope to see them again soon!

The following weekend we decided to go up the mountains, which were still snowed, to spend a day in the pine forests and frozen streams. We visited a very old chapel from 1947, hidden in the middle of the valleys up river, near El Durazno. It was a great day to enjoy the snow, especially for Osha, who was so tired as we came back home, that she fell asleep during the whole trip.

July 25 was approaching fast, and we were really excited about that because we had a reservation for 2 nights. Ed, from Nottingham, and Fran, from Buenos Aires, arrived on Sunday morning. The day was cold, and we received them with a warm breakfast. We were happy they could enjoy the bikes and take walks along the beach that day. At night, they invited us to join them while having dinner, and we had a wonderful time.

Fortunately, the following day was sunny and warm, so they could hike up to the hill and enjoy the canoe and the lake! In the afternoon we took them to the small reservation called Eden, and we had some fun watching the monkeys, deers, ostriches, and pumas!

At night we joined them at dinner again, and we talked up until midnight. It was a pleasure for us to have them as guests, and we really had a wonderful time. We hope to see you again soon! Oh, and thank you very much for the presents!

Coming next is August… We hope for more snow and less wind this coming month, and of course, some nice guests visiting our Stone House.

Express booking

June is flying by with the South Africa 2010 World Cup, and one would think everyone is in the Dark Continent enjoying the beautiful game. That might be true, and certainly many of us would like to be able to get on a plane and follow the national team in every match.

While eating, drinking, dreaming and breathing “futbol”, we were in Cordoba running some errands on the weekend of June 19^th. Around midday, we checked our email and we found a last minute booking for… June 19^th!!

Fast as we could, we had to gather some vital provisions and fly, not to South Africa, but to Villa del Dique, to get everything ready to receive our coming guests. We were not sure what time they would be arriving, or if they knew how to get to our B&B.

As fast as the traffic, and the speed limit allowed, we arrived and started to work on every item in the list. Ready the bed, turn on the heaters, the lights and the water heater, bake some bread and a special pudding, a little touch here and there and by 7 in the afternoon everything was ready.

Not 10 minutes after that, the phone rang, and a nice english accent made us realize our guests were here. They rented and car and came all the way from Rosario to our B&B. Amazing! We went to look for them and they followed us back home.

Russell and Lida, from the UK and Holland, were our wonderful guests. They had come to Argentina to enjoy the Youth Rugby Tournament, and since they wanted to know more of Argentina’s countryside, they decided to stay a night with us. We had some nice talks about bed and breakfasts and tourism, and just before they left back to Rosario, we packed them some lunch to go for they long ride. It was an honour they chose us, and we were happy to know they had a very pleasant stay.

Not everyone was in South Africa.

That same night, we received a booking request for the last days of July, and so we are looking forward to that. In the meantime, we still keep an eye on the Dark Continent, since a white and light blue flag is still waving in that faraway land.

Autumn and everything after

It’s been a while since the last blog entrance… We have been working on some minor additions to our B&B, and we expect to go on like that. The most noticeable one is that we installed an air conditioning in the bedroom. It will be very useful to heat up the room in the cold winter nights, and cool it down the next summer! We are very happy with that.

We are also looking everywhere for “the” log burning stove… yes, we haven’t yet found the one we want. Once we do, we will install it in the living room, and it will help us reach the peak of coziness.

In the meantime, we had two reservation requests, from the Netherlands and from Canada, but for one reason or another, did not turn into effective stays. A real pity.

We have also been working to include the B&B in more reservation websites. Lovetoescape.com is one of the latest ones in which we added it. We are waiting to go live on innsofargentina.com

Hopefully we will have more exposure with those two great sites.

The lake is slowly starting to recede, and it is now possible to walk down the beach. The last weekend of May we saw the first snows in the high peaks of the Sierras Grandes. Our beloved Champaqui was capped with glittering white snow, and we can’t wait to hike up there and spend a few nights with our friends at the Moises Lopez post. The only thought of a hot mate cocido and home-made marmalades prepared by Juana and Moises are enough to fight the cold.

During this time, we also managed to visit some of the nearby attractions, so as to keep updated on what to recommend to our guests. We spent a wonderful day in la Cumbrecita and also paid a visit to Peñon del Aguila (www.penondelaguila.com) for some adventure in the mountains.

On the cultural side, we visited the Embalse Museum, and learnt a lot about the construction of the Dam that created our lake. The museum is built in an old power station from 1914, and we could see photos and machinery from those days.

One of the other museums we visited was the one in the small historical town of Amboy. The quietness of the narrow dirt streets and the old facades really send you back in time. The museum has 4 exhibits that show machinery and items from the turn of the century, some paleontology and archaeology, and finally a small room showcasing the history of Dalmacio Velez Sarsfield, writer of the Civil Code.

June is now starting. We hope to be welcoming some new guests!

Looking forward to that!

Reserva de Pascua!!

Empezamos abril con una reserva en nuestro B&B! El clima ya está cambiando y se notan los días más frescos. El otoño se está empezando a ver en los colores de los árboles y el aire tiene un aroma distinto…

Mientras tanto, el lago sigue y sigue creciendo. Las lluvias de estas últimas semanas terminaron por llenar el embalse, y la espectacular caída del vertedero ya se puede oír desde esta orilla!

Prácticamente no queda playa, pero por otra parte hay mucho lago para disfrutar! Los días están especiales para navegar y pasar el día cerca del agua!

Los últimos días de Marzo recibimos la reserva de Anto y Juan, para el 1 y 2 de Abril, e inmediatamente empezamos a dejar todo listo para recibirlos. Habíamos plantado unos nuevos pinitos en el jardín de entrada del B&B, y sembramos unas flores para darle más colorido.

También habíamos estado probando nueva pastelería para el desayuno y algunos nuevos panes para incorporar a los menús.

El jueves 1, cerca del mediodía, llegaron nuestros huéspedes y, más allá de algún inconveniente con la batería del auto, todo salió muy bien! Los esperamos con unos sanguches recién hechos, de pan casero con ajo y orégano.

Ese día el clima fue muy agradable y pudieron recorrer el lugar. A la noche, y luego de una picada, les cocinamos una tarta de atún que según nos contaron estuvo muy rica!

El día siguiente comenzó a llover cerca de las 5 de la mañana… y llovió… y llovió… y siguió lloviendo casi hasta las 6 de la tarde… Un poco de dulce de membrillo con queso, y algún disco sonando en el viejo tocadiscos ayudaron a acompañar la lluvia.

Aún con el clima en contra, nuestros huéspedes salieron en las bicicletas a hacer algún recorrido, y mientras aprovechamos para hacer un poco de housekeeping!

Para la noche, cocinamos una tortilla de papas con ensalada y unas costeletas con humita.

Para nosotros fue un placer recibir a Anto y Juan! Esperamos que vuelvan por acá!!

And the Little Stone House was full of light again…

2010 started a month and a half ago, and work never stopped at our Bed and Breakfast. We worked on the new entrance, we planted some flowers, and we got a beautiful new night table, because we were missing one.
We also told our friend Mabel, who sells old recycled furniture, to keep a single bed apart for us to go get next month.
We are also thinking about making some work on the exterior roof, and add wooden tiles.
So, everything is looking nicer and nicer!

And it was then when our first reservation for 2010 came… Yes, on February 3rd, we got a request for a night stay on the 16th! We were thrilled with the news, so we started working on every little detail we could think of.
Ideas for new meals, recipes for bread, breakfast alternatives… we also changed just a bit the placement of the carpet in the bedroom, and then placed the crate at the bed’s foot.
Little details, but everything seemed just a bit nicer.

The days passed, and along came Tuesday 16th… the weather was not really helping, and storms revolved all the way around. Now and then, a light drizzle came down, and all we could think of was “please, no heavy rains today!”…

In the meantime, the bread was cooking in the oven, the room was ready and the lights were on… The Stone House looked beautiful, warm and welcoming.
We wanted to prepare some cheese and salami to receive our guests, whom we thought, might arrive quite tired after a long trip.

Around 19.30 we went to look for them at the bus station. Rain started falling. It was more than a drizzle now. At 20.10 the bus arrived, and with it, our guests, Beth and Nate, from Idaho…

They spent two nights with us, and it was a pleasure having them as guests. They liked the peace that surrounded the place and they told us everything was great, and it was exactly what they were looking for. We couldn't believe they came to Argentina just to spend two nights at our place. It was an honor, we were very happy.
We really enjoyed cooking dinner and breakfast for them, and we shared some nice talks about cattle, places and cultures, trips, and languages!

It was an extraordinary experience and the best way we could think of for a new year’s start at our Stone House.

Our next reservation is for the last days of March, and we are already looking forward to it! Unless we have a last minute reservation before that one!