CHRISTMAS IN ARGENTINA

Festivities here are a little different from our customs in the States.  It is typical on Christmas Eve (Buena Noche) to have a big asado (BBQ) and roast and entire goat or lamb.  Our hosts cooked a delicious goat served with several cold salads and cakes for dessert all eaten outside. 

Dinner begins at 10:00 PM and at midnight champagne is opened to toast Navidad with hugs and kisses around the table.  Also, at midnight fireworks go off all over town even though they are against the law.  

Our hosts' son is a volunteer fireman, so he stays tuned to his radio.  Around 10 minutes after midnight he gets a call to help put out grass fires, dashing away to the nearby fire station on his bicycle. When he returns, about half an hour later, we go inside for a present exchange.

Christmas Day is spent with friends and family enjoying the leftovers from the the night before. We were invited for 1:30 PM where we enjoyed cold lamb and a large array of cold salads. Another present exchange and then a relaxing time spent in the garden under the trees.  We were home by 6:00 PM and did not need to eat anything else that day.

FISHING WITH BODHI

This morning we went fishing, and I forgot to take the camera.  I could have done a whole study on fishing with Bodhi.  He stands in the water and watches the end of the fishing line waiting for a fish to strike.  If you don't catch something within a few minutes he starts whining with impatience.  If you don't catch anything for a long time he almost howls!  This is our dog who hardly ever barks.  When at last he loses interest, he goes to the bank to pull out roots and sticks.  Of course, he must swim out occasionally to check on things, and that's usually when he swims downstream into the backs of my legs and nearly throws me off balance.  At one point he was watching my line carefully and there was a dragonfly perched on his head.  I would have won a photo contest for that one.  It's tough having your dog criticize your fishing.

WE ARE BACK IN PATAGONIA

We arrived back in San Martin just 2 weeks before Christmas after spending a few nights in Santiago catching up with friends and then a few nights in Villarrica, 400 miles to the south, with more friends.  It was a relief to arrive at our house to find everything in order  This was a big change from last year when construction was still underway.  The landscaping is still a work in progress and if we can beat the rabbits at their game we might get 

the plants to grow.  The introduced European rabbits have now become a plague here so everyone has resorted to rabbit fencing.  The weather has been unseasonably warm with only two rainy days since we arrived.  We still haven't fished as much as we would lik

e to, but now that we are settled there will be more time to do so.  

These house photos should look a little different from the ones we posted last February.

WHAT IS PATAGONIA

Loosely defined Patagonia is a sparsely populated region stretching sea to sea across the South American Continent south from the 40th parallel to Cape Horn at the tip of South America. It has a land area of 348,000 square miles/561,300 square kilometers, the equivalent size of the states of California and Montana combined (the U.S.’s 3rd and 4th largest states), but with a population of only 2,000,000 inhabitants. Blessed with natural resources of gas, oil, coal, and bauxite, extraction operations have fueled the region’s recent development. Previously sheep and cattle ranching and timber were the staples of its meager economy. While Patagonia has been romanticized as a mysterious land, filled with wide open ranges, snow-capped mountains, smoldering volcanoes, trout-filled rivers and lakes, rugged gauchos and bank robbers like Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid, it is in fact all of that and more, except the bank robbers have moved to Bolivia. It is also filled with warmhearted people, the best beef in the world and has a mercurial climate of extremes. The rainforests of Chile receive more than 180”/450 cm of rain per year as the lofty Andes peaks wring the moisture from ocean- spawned clouds. To the east the arid Argentine steppes receive less than 15” annual rainfall. Dead still days give way in a matter of minutes to strong winds that can blow ferociously for days on end.

Nomadic Pre-Hispanic tribes settled in the region more than 10,000 years ago. Fernando Magellan made the first contact with the indigenous people in 1502. Disease, displacement, and genocide depopulated the region much the same way as in the American West. The vast steppes produced cattle and sheep barons from the 1850s on all contributing to Argentina’s rise as the world’s fifth wealthiest nation just prior to World War II hostilities. Post War political and economic upheavals and the collapse of the railroads under Dictator Juan Perón in the 1950s left the region an isolated backwater. The discovery of petroleum resources in the 1970s pitched an economic life ring to long suffering towns in Patagonia. Across the Andes, Chile became an economic juggernaut in the 1980s owing to policies put in play by Dictator General Augusto Pinochet. Puerto Montt, Chile’s largest Patagonian town became the world’s largest exporter of farm-raised salmon. The advent of stable democracies and foreign investment has spurred on an economic renaissance and a renewed vitality. Today individuals wanting to escape the confinement and pressures of large cities are heading to Patagonia finding an outstanding quality of life and plenty of room to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams.

For us Patagonia is like returning to the America of our youths with a low density of population, a simple family oriented life, where homes are left unlocked and where the values of honesty and hard work are the accepted norm. For sure Argentina has its own social and economic problems as all nations do, but for us each day is an adventure in an invigorating climate where we can hike in the near-by mountains and wade in crystal clear rivers and kick back by a fire with a glass of fine wine with sizzling meat on the grill in the evening. Falling asleep with the Southern Cross and constellations of bright twinkling stars over head is a nice way to end any day.

BUILDING A HOUSE IN PATAGONIA....

...takes giant leaps of faith

Building a house anywhere is guaranteed to try one’s mettle. Building in Argentina would be considered by many sheer lunacy…well, we haven’t been committed yet and the fruits of our efforts have exceeded our wildest expectations.

First of all, as the property we chose to buy, while in a well established real estate development, required a year-long approval process that included submitting an FBI report stating we were not felons and that we were not named in any pending lawsuits. Guess Argentina is trying to clean up its image as a nation that harbored war criminals for decades. Anyhow, as it was explained to us, our property was within 50km/30 miles of the international frontiers with Chile, so all foreigners purchasing property had to go through this vetting process to make sure “terrorist” or “undesirable” groups were not sneaking under the radar to establish a secret foothold in Argentina! In reality, the process is one to try the patience of would-be foreign investors.

Being of an impatient sort, we soon learned for every rule there is a way to circumvent it, this is the Argentine way. We did a straw purchase with an Argentine friend, and with the property in her name we preceded full speed ahead to have a house designed and built. The agreements with the architect and the contractor were closed with a handshake and ground was broken without a down payment. To make a long story short, weekly photos were sent via the Internet to keep us apprised of the construction progress and we wired money as certain benchmarks were met.

Really, it was simple a straight forward, much like the way summer houses were constructed in the early 20th century, i.e., plans approved, contractor employed, money sent and your house was ready for the next season. We have nothing but high praise for the seriousness and professionalism showed in accomplishing our objective of moving into a new house before Christmas 2007.

These images will give you a quick tour through the construction process. We're still waiting for the completion of the landscaping.