Obviously it’s Margarita

Foto 1 - Marcelo putting Margarita through her paces on La Margarita

Foto 2 -Me and Margrita getting to know one another

Last week on La Margarita my good mates Brian and Gaynor where down here with me together with various other friends and guests. The two of them have been filming a promotional video of the lovely Estancia La Margarita soon to be uploaded to our new web pages. It’s all been exciting stuff as Brian raced here and there with his camera filming as Lalo and Fernando our resident gauchos rounded up cows and horses with Gaynor desperately trying to keep up with him with the sound boom and wondering how many more days she could stand not using her credit card in the shopping malls of BA. On the last day of the filming just as we were winding down and Brian was starting to think it’s a wrap something happened that had him once again running around with Gaynor trailing behind with the sound thingy. I had wandered over to the corrals when Lalo approached me and said that Andraca, the gaucho in charge of Max my neighbours’ estancia La Tocasa, had brought over my new horse. It had been a two year wait but all of a sudden there in the corral she was and looking absolutely magnificent. What happened was that one day a couple of years ago I was out riding with Max when he said that as the owner of La Margarita I should have my very own horse. I said all the horses on La Margarita are mine and he said yes yes I know that but you need to have a horse that only you ride. As we rode he asked me if I wanted to buy one of his horses and if so we could go further into his campo and choose one. Now Max has some beautiful horses as some of you who have visited us will have seen since we often ride with guests over Max land (cheers mate). On agreeing to buy one off we set deep into his campo to pick one. When the choosing was done Max said I would have to wait a couple of years before delivery as she was too young to be taken from the herd.

Two years seemed a long time but last week the wait was over and now there she was on La Margarita – cripps where did those two years go. Lalo said he would call Marcelo his brother who works on La Margarita sometimes and is the horse expert of Lalos 14 brothers and sisters. I immediately rushed to tell Brian to see if he wanted to film my new horse being saddled for the very first time. Before I could finish my sentence he was off looking for his camera and shouting out scoop scoop sound sound where is she shopping again no doubt! We all rushed over to the corrals to witness a fantastic show of beauty and strength as gaucho and horse tested their wills against one another. To make it even more fantastic we got it all on film which some time over the next few month will be loaded up on our new web pages – it will make exciting viewing for sure . Course we always knew that Marcelo would win the battle of the wills but my very own new horse showed she has plenty of will herself (mind I haven’t paid Max yet as he hasn’t given me the bill so technically I suppose she isn’t quite mine yet but Max is here next month so no doubt settling up over a whisky or two will be will be done).

Since last week I have agonised as to what to call her – after going through every name in the book it suddenly dawned on me she should be named after La Margarita - it just seems to make sense, after all both have spirit and beauty . So that’s it then she is called Margarita and if you come to visit La Margarita you will see what a beautiful horse she is – definably worth the wait Max cheers amigo.

This David Cummings alias the English Gaucho off to see how Margarita is settling into life on La Margarita . Hasta Pronto

Treading the Boards Again.

Pic 1, Me and the Director on the mean steets of St Telmo !

Pic 2, Brian and Gaynor doing some filming in between ice cream breaks

Pic3, Yours truly on another come back a la open mike evening

When I came to live in Argentina I had to make some pretty hard decision. Leaving my friends and family to live at the end of the world was the hardest but another hard thing for me was to hang up my guitar (ummm relief to others no doubt) Seeing as I had spent half my life scraping a living playing in pubs bars, strip joints and chicken in a basket cabarets (you name it I did it) I knew it was going to be difficult and I would definitely miss it. In Argentina unless you play tango it’s a no go as there just aren’t the outlets. The only chance I get to play in public these days as some of you who have visited us know is when guests ask me to play a few tunes on La Margarita. So you can imagine how excited I was when I read about an “open mike” event in St Telmo where they were looking for acts to get up and do a turn and in the process run the chance of having a few stale empanadas thrown at them. I e -mailed the guy who was organising it and asked him the average age of the audience. He e-mailed me back saying it’s all ages and I should go for it. Ok for him to say that since he was the right side of 30 - not sure for me being the wrong side of 50. Still to be truthful I was gagging to see if I could still cut it and if anyone out there remembered the old songs I did. So dusting of my trusty acoustic I practised a few tunes and pressed into going with me my very good mates Brian and Gaynor who are filming a promotional video here for me about La Margarita and in the process finishing a documentary about some of my life here in Argentina. Well that’s what they say they are doing but since they always seem to be in and out of ice cream parlours and Gaynor is ploughing a lone furrow helping Argentina to solve its economic crises alone by shopping everyday I am not sure . Still after a bit of persuading and promises of me buying them a Quilmes beer or two they said they would come along. Come the Tuesday off we set. As I waited nervously for my turn to sing my three songs( three songs I mean hey don’t these guys know I have trod the boards on the same stage as Spit the Dog) I nervously looked around at the what seemed to me to be a room full of 12 year olds ( when you get over 50 everyone looks young) . Suddenly it was my turn and I grabbed my guitar and headed to the stage pretty sure I would soon have a barrage of stale empanadas heading my way! After I got up on stage it was pretty much a blur to be truthful. Luckily enough Gaynor was there to record the events and she has done so in one of her scathing but very funny blogs she is writing as they go on their travels filming in South America ( Gaynor writes a funny and to the point blog so have a look I thoroughly recommend it) . I will leave it to her to recount her side of the famous “open mike” event once I had stuck up the first chords to the ancient but still great Proud Mary –To see her full blog go to www.offexploring.com/brigay
Here's what she wrote:

“Dave hasn’t sung and played his guitar in front of an audience now for at least a couple of years, except for our wedding of course but that hardly counts as not only did he know most of them they were mostly inebriated too. Seeing an ad in the local press the other day for an open mic evening at a restaurant in San Telmo he announced his intention of ‘maybe’ performing. If the wind was in the right direction, his horoscope was aligned with Jupiter and there wasn’t an ‘R’ in the month, that sort of thing.

So the night of the gig saw us all set out, with guitar in hand and a spring in our step but with Dave still muttering about being ‘too old for this sort of thing’ and he would ‘see how it went’. We got to the restaurant to find a good crowd, including a group of students from Kentucky who were in Argentina for an exchange programme, together with a reasonable number of musicians and singers awaiting their turn.

Although we got Dave to put his name down on the list, his resolve was weakening as he watched each of the performers do their thing and he started muttering about how late it was getting and how everyone was too young to even have heard of half his songs. Finally it was his turn. He shuffled onto the stage, dragging his feet and looking at the audience like an apologetic little puppy. He promised to play them just 2 songs and then put them out of their misery by leaving.

He struck a chord. He started to sing and play; we held our breaths, prepared to slink backwards towards the door ready to hold it open for him while simultaneously pretending we didn’t know him. And the crowd went wild, singing along, waving their arms in the air and even getting up and dancing in the aisles. What a turn-up, and such a great evening. Dave played 3 songs in the end and left to enthusiastic applause but no requests for an autograph. Yet.

We all left on a high, Brian and I feeling like roadies for the Rolling Stones and Dave feeling like his old idol, Sir Keef Richard. Dave has asked me not to keep mentioning the word ‘old’. Haha. Too late…..”

The full blog can be read at www.offexploring.com/brigay

Thanks Gaynor funny as ever give us an encore

This is David Cummings alias The English Gaucho off to practise some more “old chestnuts” in the hope of a call to action for trusty guitar again

Hasta Pronto

I do I do I do revisted.

More often than not guest who stay on La Margarita say it far better than I ever can. Here's Katherine's lovely e mail to myself and all those involved with La Margarita...............

David, Maria, Andrea, Raquel, Fernando, Lalo, dogs, roosters and chickens (even the ones who woke me up at 5am),

This is long overdue, but thank you from the bottom of our hearts for one of the best trips of our lives. We were so sad to leave our friends at La Margarita and the estancia will FOREVER be one our most cherised memories since that is where Hrvoje(Luka) proposed to me! While on horseback, like the Croatian gaucho he is! It was magnificent, just like him. Thank you for celebrating with us and for the extremely lovely writeup at the Virgin on the blog. CAN'T wait to share it with our families and friends.

We hope you are all quite well and we look forward to seeing you again as after our experience we are certifiably hooked on horseback riding and estancia life. In fact, one day you'll have to come to our own estancia in Croatia ;-).

Wishing you all the best - love to our horses too. I'm attaching a picture of the happy (and sweaty and sore) couple after the milestone event!Fondly,Katherine and Luka

Self Catering Rooms on La Margarita now Available

Just before Christmas I sent out our Christmas greetings email. In it I mentioned that we have converted three rooms in the guest annex to self catering units. I recently had some emails back asking me for more details on these self catering rooms hence this blog.

The rooms we have converted are located in the pretty guest annex near the casa principal. The setting is lovely and peaceful. They are perfect for a mini escape or for those of you who need peace and quiet to finish that manuscript you have been writing! They are ideal for the independent traveller among you who want to stay on an estancia to ride horses but want the opportunity to prepare your own food. The rooms all have a private bathroom and outside there is a parrilla for guest to use. The rooms all come equipped with cooker, fridge and microwave in fact all you need to stay on La Margarita independently. No food or maid service is providing so sadly you will have to make your own bed but we do provide towels and sheets. Of course all the facilities of La Margarita are yours to use such as horse riding, bikes, TV room, boches and the pool (in summer). As regards supplies of food there are two supermarkets in the town of Tapalque and we can always arrange to drop you into town to pick up supplies if you need to buy some things
The rooms have already proved very popular and we have already had guest use them and some have put some comments on Trip Advisor. If you want to see what they said here is the link.

The cost per night per person for these rooms at the moment is a very reasonable 55$US. We make a small supplement to 5$US for single travellers. Included in this price is the horse riding and all other facilities that we offer on La Margarita . WEe laso offer discounts fvro 4 or more people booking

If you want more information please don’t hesitate to e mail me. I will be more than happy to answer all your questions.

Hasta pronto y saludos
David Cummings