Horseriding in Tupungato

Friday night, I get the Andesmar overnight bingo bus back to Mendoza with my Mum and Godmother and the three of us are picked up on arrival Saturday morning by the owners of Rancho 'e Cuero, an estancia about 100km from Mendoza city.

As we pull up in a jeep along the rocky pathway to the ranch, I realise I have no mobile-phone reception. Agustina, one of the five beautiful daughters of the Palma family who own the ranch, is quick to inform me there's no internet reception either. In fact, we're not far away from civilization but we might as well be out in the middle of nowhere, for all the contact we have with the outside world. 24 hours with no internet or phone - what bliss!

Rancho 'e Cuero main house and terrace

We have half-planned to eat a light lunch and jump on some horses for a bit of riding in the mountains that surround us, but Agustina and family have other ideas. Pedro, the gaucho guide who works at the ranch, is already hard at work over a large cylindrical stone barbecue, cooking through enormous rows of beef ribs and the biggest chorizo sausages I've ever seen. Grey smoke billows away towards the valley and I see Pedro's sweating face through the smoky haze as the fire crackles and pops.

Pedro cooks the best meat on earth

“Take a seat,” said Agustina, as she pulls up a metal chair on the wooden decking outside the main house and gestures for me to sit.

Five hours later, we're still taking in the fresh mountain air and hot sunshine and basking in the complete absence of mobile-phone and internet coverage as we polish off the last glass of Malbec and a simply superb poached-pear dessert in sweet red-wine syrup.

Try and resist this dessert...

And then Pedro expects us to get on a horse!
 
As soon as we're able to adjust our belts enough to stand, he summons us to the small fenced area and helps us put on brown leather chaps and mount the most gentle of his horses. Leading us on horseback across the long, sun-scorched grass, he points out guanacos, an Andean species similar to the llama, camouflaged against the mountainside high above us. At the top of the lowest peak, huge black condors soar overhead as the sun begins to set and the air grows cooler.

 

Horseriding in the mountains

 

Two hours of relaxation in our luxurious lodges later, we're sitting on the black-and-white cowhide sofas, nibbling on pre-dinner canapés of fried quail’s eggs on toast before making room for homemade gnocchi, prepared by Pedro's wife, Roxana.

 

The following morning, Agustina and her boyfriend drive us out of the secluded ranch towards Mendoza in the jeep in which we arrived, stopping only to point out the snow-capped Tupungato volcano. At US$450 per head, Rancho ’e Cuero wasn’t cheap, but the welcoming family atmosphere and home-cooked food made it well worth the money. This is not a place I'm going to forget in a hurry.

 

Guanacos in the mountains

The Patagonian Airport Cat

On Sunday morning we get just a short lie-in before heading to Jorge Newbery airport for our flight to El Calafate in Patagonia. The Irishman is here to stay for 10 days and we figure we should make the most of it and go to Patagonia since neither of us has ever been. I've planned it all down to the last detail.

On arrival 3 1/2 hours later in the tiny airport of El Calafate (I say tiny, but it's like Heathrow compared with Santa Fé airport), we are greeted by a black cat, to whom the airport is evidently home. The cat is on duty surveying the arrivals, though I don't think he has any drug-sniffing capabilities, sadly. I love cats, so El Calafate immediately enters my good books.

The Calafate airport cat

We have pre-booked and paid 190 pesos each for the return bus from El Calafate to El Chaltén, where we're planning to spend the next two days hiking. However, our pre-booked bus isn't due to depart until 18:30, and it is only 15:40. I feel a bit scammed by the tour operator I used in Buenos Aires because there are buses leaving from the airport immediately and we only need to pay an extra 50 pesos each. Not ones to dwell (well, not usually), we say 'sod it' and pay the extra money to arrive earlier. We still don't end up leaving until about 16:30, but hey ho.

A few hours of beautiful scenic driving later (ok, ok, I slept through it...) we pull up outside Estancia La Quinta, a smallish one-storey converted ranch hotel with lots of land, nestled behind a mountain. A big white dog comes bounding up to meet us and soon after we're greeted by its owner, Alfredo, a warm, friendly man with good English, who is expecting us. We're planning to go hiking tomorrow so he talks us through the best walking routes and asks if we want a packed lunch. We do. 

We dump our stuff in our basic, cosy, heated rooms and accept a free lift from Alfredo into the town. You can walk the half-hour or so trip into El Chaltén but we're tired and pretty hungry and the drive is only five minutes.

We have a delicious meal at La Tapera, a wooden-lodge style restaurant that seems to be the main restaurant in town. I've heard lamb stew is the Patagonian thing so I fill myself with hot liquid and meat for the day of hiking ahead of us. It's cold outside and we're wrapped up in ski jackets and hiking boots, so the open smoky fire in La Tapera is more than welcome. 

The view of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torres from El Chaltén at sundown