I would like to tell you about a wonderful day we spent on a sheep farm (Estancia). The farm was 65k outside Rio Grande; a young man had knocked on the door of OJ and given him a flyer. John rang and spoke to the "Farmer" who had perfect english, they agreed that we would arrive the next day, which was a Sunday; also that we could park overnight.
After a lovely ride down a rippio road (note from julie:- not sure what a rippio road is, any ideas?) past a Beaver Dam we arrived at Estancia LAS HIJAS www.estancialashijas.com.ar for our day on the farm. The family all spoke english and were from english descent. In fact Richards (the farmer) family came from Romford in Essex 
Carol was Argentine but had spent most of her childhood in Australia so conversation was very good.
We were told the history of the Estancia and sheep farming in general in a very pleasant little cottage complete with wood fire overlooking the BBQ area. We had a complete tour of the farm with instruction on the way. We saw the shearing shed, but because of all the rain shearing was late and we could not see this being done. We did however watch the dog round up the sheep which was amazing. Very close watch was made by us on the cooking of the BBQ; which is a very large area where wood is burned; at the side of the fire a lamb is crucified on a rack which is pushed nearer or away from the heat, there is also a long flat BBQ made from old stove tops with a 2nd fire underneath; on this large pieces of lamb are cooked - all of this was lunch!! with lovely salad, home made bread and plenty of wine. Because it was Sunday a number of their friends from Rio Grande arrived to share lunch there was a real party atmosphere. After lunch we had a walk down to the river - Peter even went fishing. It was very cold and windy outside and my chest is not so good with all the dust on the roads so Olwyn and I sat by the fire in the afternoon chatting to the other visitors. When Peter, Janet, Norman, Barbara and John came back the table was laid for tea!! More home made breads, Jams and cake with lots of tea - they even had Earl Grey!!
We stayed in the room for the evening, Richard and Carol joined us, it was lovely. We bade them a sad fairwell in the morning promising to return..............................may be!!!!
We then headed off to Ushuaia, meeting up with Les and Margaret on Christmas day. We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year with some lovely days out in between the festivities. We could not have been on a better campsite. The management worked tirelessly in making sure we were all happy and had everything we needed. Camping LA PISTA DEL ANDINO www.lapistadelandino.com.ar We had a magnificent view over Ushuaia. it was very handy for town, the office would call a taxi which always only took 2mins to arrive and only cost 5$ or 1 english pound. cannot be bad.
OJ and Womble left there on New Years day after helping Margaret to celebrate her birthday. We then headed slowly for the "Los Glaciares Nation Park" Which I have to tell you is just AWESOME!! another magnificent, beautiful sight in this wonderful world in which I have the privilege to be travelling. I have seen small glaciars before but was totally unprepared (even after looking at photos) of what was before my eyes- the colour which has so many shades of blue, it is breathtaking, the size and just the sheer beauty. This is said to be the 8th wonder of the world and who ever said that is not wrong. I am afraid I do not have the words to write to describe how I feel or what I really have seen. Just please believe me it is MAGNIFICENT
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