Hello from Estancia Los Potreros...a 6000 acre cattle ranch in the middle of Gaucho country....

Well we´ve only ridden twice and already are aching a lot! We left Cordoba town to rioting yesterday morning although we didn´t see it apparently it was quite serious and a couple of people died... the car took us our of town and up through the Sierra Chicas where the Estancia is located. When we turned off the road we sitll had 20 minutes to travel down dirt tracks and through gates to get to the buildings itself- to say it is remote is a bit of an understatement in English terms. We were greeted by Kevin and Louisa Begg and a cook holding 2 glasses of lovely home made lemonade. We also found out we are the only people staying here which is quite amazing!

Kevin is an Argentinian whose family have owned the Estancia for 4 generations. You would not, however know he was Argentinian to speak to him- as Charles says he seems more English than us! That´s a British boarding school for you... Louisa moved out here 4 years ago after coming here on holiday and falling in love with the place and Kevin and now they run the ranch together. We are very spoilt here- the fire in our room is kept constantly burning and the cooks prepare fantastic meals...it is a little bit like I imagine living in the Victorian times to be with all the staff which is a bit awkward (for example Kevin rings a bell after dinner is finished for them to clear it away) but an amazing treat after we have had quite a bad week in terms of the places we have been staying!

Yesterday afternoon we went for our first ride which is with English saddles with sheepskins over the top but Western style in terms of riding with just one hand and using the reins on the neck to turn the horse. Our task was to bring the young mares and foals in to protect them from the puma (who thinks foals are the yummiest thing ever) and we took to it quite well- managing to get them into the coral where they belonged quite quickly. We did time our visit to coincide with the only mist and rain they have seen in 3 years which is quite spectacular but the roaring fires everywhere are keeping us warm.

Riding happens twice a day- in the morning and afternoon and so despite not being able to see far in front of our noses we went out again this morning- Charles had his first gallop so is learning fast- so much better this way then in a stuffy riding school in England with some woman shouting at you to keep your heels down! The horses are so calm and good tempered too...they are bred that way for working and Polo and there are 160 here so they´re not exactly hard worked! We came back for a yummy Barbecue and I am about to go out again with the head cowboy Luis but Charles is going to give his bum a rest...he is currently finding it a bit hard to sit down! He will enjoy the views and play with the 5 happy labs that are running around...