Miramar

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Home from Miramar — a Day Early

We were supposed to come home from Miramar on Thursday, but unfortunately the weather was not at all kind to us and we decided to come back on Wednesday instead. I managed to get my usual holiday cold, which is now entering bronchitisland, so I didn’t mind leaving early.

The drive back was horrendous, with thunderstorms that turned the sky black as night and torrential rain for a large part of the time. Only when we got to within about 90 minutes of Buenos Aires did it clear up, and by the time we arrived home it was lovely. Of course we got reports that the weather in Buenos Aires had been beautiful all week!

We did enjoy the company though. Cecilia’s cousin Carlitos was a wonderful host, and he cooked a mean asado! And when he left he gave us all a bag of apples and wonderful tomatoes from his garden in Neuquen. One day I’d like to go down there and visit him. Maybe the weather is better there!

 

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Miramar Beach

Yesterday we spent some time on the beach. The sea was quite rough, and even I wasn’t daft enough to go in the water — just an ankle dip. But it was lovely breathing in the sea air and lying on the sand. Here are a couple of sketches I did to capture the feel of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back at the house preparing dinner. Everybody was buzzing around in the kitchen doing the work, while Claudine and I decided to stay out from under everybody’s feet and quaff a glass of red wine!

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Miramar — finally!

Well we finally arrived in Miramar in the middle of the afternoon yesterday, after a longer trip than we had expected.

There was an accident on the highway, but at first we didn’t know that. All we knew was that we were moving v-e-r-y slowly. There were two lanes on our half of the highway, but as only Argentines do, they gradually expanded that to three lanes by everyone moving onto the shoulder. I told Cecilia that if she did that in Canada nobody would let her back in, which she thought very strange!

As we sat on the shoulder, at a stop, we suddenly realized another lane was forming on the right, as people drove on the grass! So of course Cecilia, being Argentine, thought it was a good idea and joined them. I thought the next stage was going to be into the farmer’s field with the cows, but fortunately it didn’t come to that!

Unfortunately, in the end we found it was a double decker bus that had gone off the road, but there was no sign of any passengers so we think they all got off.

 

 

 

 

Anway, Cecilia’s family were waiting for us and we had a long-awaited lunch. The house we have is great, and personally I think it’s great fun being in a house with ten people! We all went out to explore a little last night, and this morning we went to the beach. Venetia did a lovely video of the ocean, which I will try to upload via YouTube and post here.

Apparently tonight we are all going to watch the Oscars. I’m having fun in Miramar!

 

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A Very Argentine Vacation!

A few weeks ago my friend Cecilia asked me if I’d like to go to Miramar. As I’ve said before, the only thing wrong with Buenos Aires in my view is that it doesn’t have a beach, but there is a series of ocean resorts on the coast about five or six hours from here that are very popular vacation spots for Porteños. Cecilia and I went to Mar Del Plata a couple of years ago, but I’ve never been to Miramar, so I was up for it.

Her cousin, Carlito, was coming up from Neuquen province to join us, and I also invited Venetia. So that was it originally — four people. Then there was the possibility that Carlito’s daughter would come. But that was it — five people.

Then we started to look for an Air BnB house. It had to have an asado so that we could have the traditional meal at least one of the nights. We needed three or four bedrooms, depending on the distribution of the beds. Venetia did the original Air BnB research and sent some suggestions to Cecilia. Apparently none of them suited, for various reason, and she and Carlito took over the search. They booked us a house, two blocks from the beach with its own asado — and big enough to sleep twelve!

Apparently the word spread, and first Carlito’s daughters and one of their children were added. Then someone else — who the heck knows how it all happened. Anyway, we now have a house that sleeps twelve and it’s a full house. Twelve people — that’s definitely it. If anyone else joins us they’ll have to sleep in the garden.

When I told a few people the story, they all said the same thing. “Oh yes, that’s typically Argentine!”

I don’t know these people yet, but since they are family and friends of Cecilia, I know it will be a riot!

We’re leaving at 7 am tomorrow. I’ll post here to let you know (and see) how it’s going!