el-
this is the latest email from our friend
david, who owns the house adjacent to ours,
from his place in argentina. he's been
doing a lot of renovating and stuff and
clearly enjoying life in south america.
we'll have to visit him at some point ....
A new month, a new message from this amazing place. The mountains all around are still snow-clad but down here in the valley we have fresh raspberries, strawberries, cherries and the best little carrots. Fishing season is in full swing and in the center of the village, where all the shops are, everyday sees masses of various types of rafts, driftboats etc. provisioning up for an assault on some of the spectacular waters to the S. of here.
They can't begin to cover all the available waters: this is a vast land;but, truly I've arrived and purchased land in the epi-center of trout universe!
An update on the construction shows,that all will be ready for visitors by Feb. 9th which is the day I return from Pto. Montt, where I drive over to pick up Michael Burr.
We will eat "pulpo al pil-pil" over the lake in Pto. Varas, a spectacular town , in a restaurant out on pilings. Pil-pil is in nobodies dictionary, it's an amazing garlic sauce, over fresh octopus! If you ever visit, this is a must; one word of caution, you will have to pay. I have a new strict rule, you can use the intelligence I've gathered, but you have to pay for it! I reckon I've invested $30,000 so far just on figureing things out; it's you that will have to pay for everything; balls to the wall, needing a taxi to go home, would be $40 usd for 4.
By the 3rd all patios will be fresh concrete, awaiting the "valdosas" huge concrete tiles with a chequerboard pattern. This will finally put paid to the dirt being dragged into the house, which has been the biggest pain! I have a man working non-stop tiling the new bathroom,so that 1st flush should occur any day now. The new lawns require contant watering, as do the new plantings as it hits 30 mid-day everyday now; mercifully dropping down to about 12 at night.
When last reported 4 kiitens had met their fate down in the garden: surprise, surprise, 5 more were later discovered and this part of the story has a happier ending: they will go down and live in a horsebarn on Est. Las Nires.courtesy of Mariella.I suspect I will have all the others "fixed" to prevent anymore of the latin lover stuff!
I rec'd a legal opinion from that emminent Master of the Supreme Court, Alan Patterson. The question posed had to do with the ownership of a chicken which has taken up residency with my flock: I supposed that he would have to research Napoleonic law over this one, but Oh no, quick as a min. back came ; "possession is 9/10ths of the" etc. I have a dinner appointment with this one, before she realises that she's lost!
Drove up to Esquel to purchase a few things and borrowed a friend's card, allowing me to visit their equivalent of Costco. I came away with 24 bottles of wine for $30.00 usd. Scotch was less than $4.00 for Vat 69, veritable give-aways by our standards.
Spent a couple of hours on the Rio Grande, now that they have stopped the teriffic water releases from their huge hydro dam. It was great to be out in the boat again, it has sat unused for 1 month; it started right up, a true testament to Mr. Honda and his quality product. No fish on the fly, but took a couple spinning, which I don't really enjoy much. However the weather was simply perfect and as we headed W. into Chile the views more than made up for the lack of fish. As I write this the guard "peke" lies in the bed beside my computer desk; we have become fast friends; it's amazing what you can accomplish with small bribes, in this case fresh roast chicken breast.
Away to Esquel early this am to put my couple on the bus to Mendoza. They then go direct to Valpariso to have a beach holiday with her Grannie. I have got a replacement cleaning lady and a daily gardener, alas, I shall have to drive again; I had become quite accustomed to watching the passing scene.
Wendy, the guard"peke" will live at the estancia with Roy's Mum, but I have visiting rights and will take Burr down to fish Rio Frio which goes for miles thru their property. He's bringing a copy of "Mother Tongue" for Mariella, to read while she is here for a month. Her city Santiago, and Mendoza, the wine capital of this country ,were both 43 yesterday, no thanks!
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One of my hens is sitting on 20 eggs so in a few days there should be little yellow" bumblebees" on the lawn: speaking of which, I have a very interesting tree down below that swarms with bees all day. It's a weeping willow of sorts, but it's leaves are very different, it's native to here.
The phone rang a min. ago and I took my first 3 way call with a friend and a friend of his, who are thinking of property investment in Bs. As., as am I; if you can accept the currency risk, which I think is nil now, the returns are stellar! By our standards, it's shockingly good. This place isn't about to go away, it's huge, rich,and though it has a history of revolution, they've never lost sight of the right of freehold title. As I said to Nick and his friend,the "brits" who put up all of the early investment here, must have said something like " I don't care what you call it, just give us freehold title, or you will see none of our money"! My title looks like it would in Canada! The economy, which was thumped in 2000, because they had foolishly tied their peso to the usd 1/1, cratered and ruined many. The opportunities exist here, and the huge inflow of foriegn funds over the past 5 years should attest to forward thinking! Anybody who is anybody has a place here! I count a! mongst my neighbours the Benneton clan (who have just built a huge new abbatoir), the Ted Turners, ( Jane Fonda is around the corner )and the guy who owns HardRock cafe, who keeps a $10,000,000 helicopter in Barriloche and flys a Gulfstream G4 ,the Earl of? etc. Honestley, it's worth a drive out to the jetstrip to see the planes.The Bennetons have a Dassault, Fonda has a G4, and the visiting fishermen have all sorts of cool things!
I have a Galloper with a slipping clutch and a new expensive sounding noise.
I shoot this away will fondest regards to all
OK i haven't been invited over for dinner yet, but?
Stuart Wolfe sent this along to me; I hadn't heard it, so I pass it along for your edification! " Argentina is a nation of Italians who all speak Spanish (Castellano) and are all trying to be Brits"
As I write this my front porch has been destroyed with a huge hammer, and is now being re-fitted into the new patio scheme. If I didn't have another exit I'd be a prisoner for 12 hours, 5 guys are troweling new cement in front of my window as I write this. A quite attractive lady police officer has invited herself over for dinner; how she will enter the house tonight is a matter we will deal with later. |
