Why Argentina? - Updated!

Over the years since I have owned La Margarita here in Argentina  many guest have asked one question more than any other “why Argentina?”. Why did I choose to live in Argentina? Thing is it seems so long ago now that I almost forget. For sure in that time when I first came here it seemed one of the most exciting countries in the world and for many reasons still is. I came with Brian, Gaynor’s husband, and the first thing we did when we arrived was go to a football match. It wasn’t just any old football match it was between River Plate and San Lorenzo – it was what is known in Argentina as a super clasico and a super clasico it was without doubt.  I am pretty sure River won but it wouldn’t have mattered if they hadn’t – the hinchos (fans) would have kept chanting even though they were losing. After that game we went to a Boca game (oh the romance of those names in the football world). We had the privilege of seeing Carlos Tevez who was playing for La Boca at that time. Boca lost but by the way the fans where chanting you would have thought they were wining 5- 0 which they weren’t they were losing 2- 0 - what a wonderfully exciting atmosphere it  was -  I for one will never ever forget it . There they were losing but El Doce (  the fans ) officially called  this as they consider themselves the  teams 12th player and  from what I  heard that night  they are probably right

Flash forward and we are in the mists of the World Cup of football 2010. The other day England drew against Algeria – not only did they draw they played crap really absolute rubbish. What did our fans do – they booed them.  Ok ok they were crap but do you think the players wanted to lose that match, did they want to play mediocre – I very much doubt it. I bet they were hyped up to the gills and were really up for it. It didn’t work out but hey that’s football – it’s what makes football so great a spectacle to watch because anything can happen and it probably will. Rooney left the pitch complaining that the fans were booing him – the argument was that they played crapo and that the fans had payed loads of money to see them and expected victory – it was expected for sure but their   tickets’ didn’t come with a cast iron guarantee that they would win did it – in fact there was no guarantee with those tickets thank god – it’s a competition for goodness sake – if we knew the outcome it wouldn’t be a competition.    I am pretty sure that if the same has happened to Argentina the fans would have just kept on roaring no matter the outcome.

It was one of the many reasons I came to  Argentina  that spirit  of never say die – after all without doubt Argentines have had to suffer at the hands of varies corrupt Governments and not to mention the military . But as Ossii Ardiles said to Brian when he was doing a documentary on his life ‘”Brian if you want to see a football match get to a match in Argentina because after it football will never be the same for you again – and it wasn’t  

My advice to those fans who booed us off the pitch is get down to an Argentine game in this World Cup – you will find it difficult to know if they are winning or losing the roar will be so loud - let’s do the same for our boys it may just tip the scales in our favor   – come on you   England you can win it !! If not Argentina or at least one of the South American teams will - time to adopt Uruguay or Paraguay in my opinion if we fail

This is David Cummings alias the English Gaucho keeping his fingers crossed for Wednesday   pleassssssssseeee win 




Update 
Yeasssssssssss we won and now we face the Germans - stats will say we have no chance but we have every chance stats are history its the future we are interested in - don't you just love it - its just  a shame that we didn't meet Argentina next  - or is it  - maybe we will meet them in the final - how fantastic  will that be The Hand of God v El Mellow Cappello!! wonderful

Farming for Idiots - Part 2

Some time ago I wrote a blog called “farming for idiots” After our saga with soya this year this blog probably should be called farming is for idiots. I mean let’s face it to invest all that time and money in planting soya (see my blogs on soya) and showing a profit of just $5US is not what you would call a roaring success. Still the price of soya is now rising and our soya is snugly tucked up in the silos in Azul. As they say it’s not a loss until you have cashed in and we haven’t cashed in yet so we live with pure optimism that the price will rise over the next four months. However, where do we go from here while we are waiting for the price to rise – chew the cud? No we buy cows that’s what we do. The price of meat has gone through the roof here. From Ar$3 a kilo to Ar$6.30 a kilo in 6 months. Its looks likely to continue to rise so together with my Max my famous artist neighbor who owns the Estancia La Tocasa next door we have purchased one hundred head of cows. After all the rains were good to us last year and the grass is plentiful and we don’t have a lawn mower to cut it! But cows eat grass, they get fat and we send them to market – good theory eh! Ok I realize this blog is not for vegetarians but it’s the way it is in the pampas and Argentina – they eat more beef here than in any other country so the market is huge and looks likely to continue. In three or four months time we will send our one hundred cows to the market. Will we make any money or will our cows project go the same way as our soya – watch this space I will keep you up to date its going to be interesting ?

This David Cummings alias the English Gaucho of to watch England v USA in the World Cup after just seeing Argentina win against Nigeria

Hasta Pronto

Welcome Back Ireland to La Margarita

                                                        Welcome Back Ireland to La Margarita

I reckon Ireland is the best country I have never visited. It has great music (well we forgive them winning Eurovision seven times - no country is perfect!), great beer, great pubs, great grub and wonderfully warm people. I had my opportunities to visit, particularly in my guitar playing days. I remember one such opportunity when I was playing in France an Irish guy who regularly came to the resort where I was playing said that he owned a chain of pubs and that he wanted to book my little trio to do a tour of them. It was probably the best gig we never did. Why didn’t we go? Don’t know really – it’s probably to do with that sort of thinking that it is so near I can always go anytime. I mean I am from London but I have never been to Madam Tousauds – imagine that. Course now I live in Argentina Ireland seems such a long long way away now. But as I mentioned once before in my blog it’s great to own an estancia because the countries come to us – well I mean the people who live in them do. Last week Ireland came to La Margarita – it has come before and we had a great time the people were such fun. Last week was no exception when Ireland came to La Margarita. We had the Mc Gurrin  family from Dublin on the estancia. They came for just under a week and by the looks of their comments in our comments book they had a whale of a time – nine year old James wrote “this is by far the best place we have stayed in so far” thanks James you are welcome back anytime - sisters   Jane and  Alia  also wrote lovely things about us so thank you so much. Thing is James and his two sister have some experience of traveling so they know!  Their parents Mark and  Una  are taking them on a road trip for four months taking in such counties as Brazil, Argentina, Chile and America. What a wonderful wonderful thing to do – they certainly looked as though they were really enjoying it. I was lucky enough to be on La Margarita to meet them when they were here and after one night drinking lots of wine and chatting with Mark and Uba I regretted once again not accepting those invitations to visit Ireland all those years ago.

I wish you all a wonderful and colorful adventure and I want to say thank you for choosing to come to La Margarita as part of your big adventure. I always feel humble when we have guest staying with us who have trusted us to make us a part of their travels  in   South America  – after all there is a lot of trust when one books something when one is on the other side of the world booking something  on the other side.

This is David Cummings alias The English Gaucho checking how much it cost to get to Ireland!

Hasta Pronto