Dolores returns Doubled Handed

No doubt it Dolores is our most seen guests on La Margarita. It seems like yesterday she arrived in our office in Buenos Aires and proceeded to hand out some presents to each of my staff and asked to book a couple of days on La Margarita . That must have been 4 or so years ago. Each time she arrived in Argentina (which is lots of times) she would ring and book a couple of days out of this bloody crazy city ( her words) Off she set by coach to La Margarita for her couple of days break – it never mattered to her if we had other guests here or not or that she didn't speak Spanish because she just loved to be here. She came so many times that she even got a horse name after her who many of you who have been to La Margarita have ridden. Dolores the horse is a lovely horse and many guests who ride her for the first time ask to ride her again and again.

I hadn’t heard from Dolores for about 18 months when all of a sudden she arrived in our office asking to book a few days on the estancia to get out of this crazy city. This time however she wasn’t alone - no this time she came double handed. In between the time we had last seen each other she had had to twins. The twins Jackie and Ralph were with Dolores as she booked her latest stay on La Margarita.

I was on La Margarita when she came with the twins and it was good to see her with the children who seemed to thoroughly enjoy being in the campo – all that space to explore and animals to stroke – no doubt about it it’s a great place for kids.

Dolores stayed for two nights and three days with the children and Kathryn Ackland her friend from California who is a raw food expert ( here is a link if you want her to explain more about what she does kathryn@rawfoodsebastopol.com)

They all seemed to have a great time. Dolores told me that La Margarita was her favorite place in the world – with that type of compliment she is most welcome here for sure. Certainly she knows what we offer on La Margarita – a place to really get away from it all – chill out and be alone with nature if you wish, go for a horse ride over the never ending pampas or have a glass of wine or four!! with friends while watching the sunset ( well with friends and kids in her case this time ) . Dolores loves it and I love it that she loves it.

David Cummings alias the English Gaucho until the next time

Let there be light – it’s only been promised for 20 years plus!!!

1 The petrol station

2 The Super Market ( seriously!)

3 View of the village complete with village green

4 Estella ( on the right ) with pupils

I was talking to Lalo and Lettie on La Margarita at the weekend. Kevin their 12 year old son really wants to be a gaucho like his dad – school is not his favorite thing in life and he rebelled against going to the local secondary in Tapalque . Kevin wanted to go to a school right in the campo where he would have only fellow gaucho sons as school friends . He got his wish. On Monday he started school in a small pueblo called Velloso about 35 kilometers from LM and believe me it really is in the middle of nowhere. On talking further with Lalo he said the tiny town which was founded when the railways came in the 1920s suffered when the military in the 1970s shut many of the railways down through lack of money and Velloso was a victim of that. When that happened it virtually cut the town off from the rest of the world. Incredibly even though it is only 250 kilometers from BA it only has electric for 3 hours of the day! – 8pm til 11pm. I really had to see to see this town only 250 kilometers from BA is without electric most of the day. The next day of we set for a look. On arriving in the town it was obvious to me that the Brits had founded this town with the typical village green the middle in the days when they built the railways. We went to see some the children in the school and I talked to Estella who is in charge of the school. She said that she came here first in 1986 and she taught at the school for 8 years without electricity using gas light – imagine that no telly what would our kids do! She gave me a tour of the school and showed me the classes and I got to meet some of the kids. In spite of the lack of electric they seemed very happy. The good news is that in May they will be getting electric 24 hours a day – Estella told me that in May they are planning a big party and I have been invited - can’t wait - let there be light I say they deserve it after waiting patiently for -so long.

This is David Cummigs alias the English Gaucho - hasta luego

Welcome Kereta

Some time ago I wrote a blog called Horses with No Names. The gist of the blog was that Gauchos often don’t give horses names. When guests came to La Margarita they would ask the Lalo what is the name of the horse they were riding. He would smile and say “”no tiene nombre””. Guest would smile back and say ok I am going to give my horse a name. My guess is that he got fed up with guest asking him for the name of the horses that he must have decided that ok enough is enough I know when I am beaten and he started to give names to horses. Guests helped with naming some and Lalo started to use some of the names the guests christened the horses. Now there is no stopping Lalo it seems that pretty well all the horses have names now – what a turn around. Every time now we get a new horse in a flash it has a name. So I would like to give a warm welcome to our newest arrival Kereta who almost upon arrival had a name. I rode her the day she arrived and she is a lovely horse very placid and ideal for guests who have little experience of riding - and hey she has a name
This is David Cummings alias The English Gaucho of to see how Kareta is fitting in with the herd
Hasta pronto
.