This is the outside of our building. The entrance to our suite is under the overhang. Back in the day this part of the building held the tack room and some stables. There are other rooms in the building for family and also for the guides to stay in. We are a good ways from civilization so the guides stay here instead of going back to their families. Being a guide is tough on families. You work during the season, any time you have off means no income and no tips from the clients. Winter is time to be with the family, or have a different job.
There was a beautiful tree on our walk to the main building for breakfast. I have no idea what is was. The nice part of traveling to the Southern Hemisphere during our winter was seeing all the flowers, the warmer temperatures, and the longer period of daylight. My favorite day of the year used to be the day the clocks were turned so that I could get more sleep. Now it is the winter solstice as I know the days will stop getting shorter. 
At breakfast there was a gorgeous sterling silver bee caddy for honey. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was going to appear in my blog!
I went for the scrambled eggs and bacon our first morning. Charlie, one of the guests, here ordered three fried eggs with one piece of toast. The kitchen staff couldn’t understand the order and he always got three pieces of toast. We would all have a laugh in the morning wondering if he was going to get his three eggs and three pieces of toast. He always did, no matter how many times he said three eggs and one piece of toast!
Breakfast was at 8:30, and after that Steve would meet Fernando and they would go off fishing. I would stay back at the Estancia and read, blog or walk around. Here is a beautiful rose bush on property. 
The Estancia was well known for its gardens, and in the past garden clubs would come to tour the grounds for the day.
Here you can see a traditional garden bed planting of lower plants in the front, higher plants in the middle, and bushes in the back. I never saw anyone weeding. I think the plants are so well established that they only have to do minor weeding.
There was a man made pond near the main house, with an Henri Bouchard stature of a young girl with a fawn. What a great view!
Here is one of the Estancia’s dogs, joining me on my tour of the gardens. I think there were nine dogs in all!
This is the view of the back of the Estancia. There were four bedrooms on the right, the left part of this picture shows the sun room with the white chairs. On the patio outside were different groupings to sit on; couches, chairs, semi recliners, and mesh chairs. I think there might have been a hammock also.
This was the other side of the building where Steve and I stayed. On the left was an office for Martina, and other apartments for family and staff upstairs and to the right.
I probably wasn’t supposed to peak in, but I couldn’t resist! This is Martina’s office.
I liked the compass in the patio. When we first moved into our current house in Poughkeepsie we had a sundial stamped into the concrete. I was quite excited about it until I realized that the metal guide had been broken off. I think it was too dangerous, and people were tripping on the metal guide!
It took me a while to figure out what this picture is of. (It’s been two and a half weeks since we left Arroyo Verde!) This is the view of the front of the Estancia. The bedrooms are on the left, and the fluffy brown dog in in the center of the picture. The family originally stayed here, now guests are in the four bedrooms.
I took a couple of walks the first day, getting the lay of the Estancia. This is as far as I got on this walk. This road leads back to the main road, some 15 kilometers to the main gate. Cattle and horse don’t like to cross the cattle guards. If someone is going riding, they will go through the gate on the right.
While in our room, Steve and I would hear a humming at times. This was caused by the generator on property. You did know that a well documented blog includes a visit to all available places, didn’t you?
This is the dog kennel. I was happy that I wasn’t a visiting dog.
This is where some of the horses hung out. This is not all of them, I forgot how many Katrina said the Estancia had. There was a very old mild mannered mare that was going to be my horse to ride. I said “Maybe next year!”. Katrina said “She may not be alive next year!”
No, this picture is not about my manicure, or how wrinkled my hands are! Steve was having problems with his hands getting cold, and was afraid that he would lose his wedding ring. I told him instead of putting it in the suitcase, I would add it to my ring collection. The big honker of a diamond is my fake travel diamond that I got at Home Goods. I lost one of the trilliants on the side at some point on our excellent adventure. Looks like I’ll have to get another ring before our next vacation. This center stone is 3 carats. I think I’ll try for a 5 carat next time!
Soon it was time for lunch. We had canapés on the patio.
Tomatoes with mozzarella balls. I think this is such a great canapé to make. Just cut your grape tomato in half and skewer it to a mozzarella ball. Sprinkle with parsley to make it festive. Voila, you appear to be quite the hostess!
Charlie asked for a cold beer. I think this mug was kept in the freezer. I don’t drink much beer, but this one looked particularly attractive! There was only one mug. I think one of the guests needs to gift the Estancia. Do you think I could get a free week if I bought some next time? I don’t think so.
We had a lovely salad for lunch.
The entree was rice with some kind of meat. I can’t figure out if this is chicken or pork!
Dessert was fried dough dusted with confectioners sugar.
This was so tasty, it gets its own close-up!
After lunch I took another walk. These busy bees were gettin pollen from this flower.
The road kept going, but I headed back to the Estancia. Somewhere ahead lies the stream and across the way Ted Turner’s La Primavera and the mean guard. Steve and Fernando had stepped foot on La Primavera, and the guard told them to get back onto the correct side of the stream! 
This was a panoramic view of the valley that I took.
This part of the picture is on the mid left part of the picture above. You can see how wide the valley is.
Steve came back about 8:30 and it was soon time to shower and change for dinner.
Tonight we had the brown china at dinner.
We had a different arrangement of flowers at dinner. You can see the candle reflections on the table also!
I loved the way the napkin looked like a rose. Katrina said the staff would give me napkin folding lessons. I thought about it. I knew it would be great for my next candlelit dinner party, but thought I would forget how to do them. I was on vacation after all, no lessons of any kind for me!
Dinner started with a vegetable soup. Almost as good as Stella’s soups!
Our entree was spatzle and pork cutlets. There was lots of paprika on the side for those who liked to add more spice to their food.
Salad was iceberg with sliced red beets.
Dessert was a berry mouse. It was nice and light. Katrina was in a bit of a tizzy at dinner. Tomorrow a bunch of Argentinians were coming to stay for a bit. She said they were a crazy bunch. Hmmm, I couldn’t wait to meet them!
