Asado

We arrived in Santiago, Chile on Wednesday last week. Two recovery days walking the town and hunting down empanadas was exhausting in the heat, but we survived!

After a short flight from Santiago to Córdoba, Argentina on Friday, we caught a 2.5 hour bus to La Cumbre. Thirty plus years ago I had the fortune to meet 3 Argentinian travellers in Europe. We were all university aged backpackers and we bonded immediately.

One of the Argentinian travellers is Cristina, known to all as Tuti. She, her husband Jorge and three of their 4 children plus the kid’s girlfriends, plus other family and friends have welcomed us into their family life with open hearts and minds!

The most Argentinian of events is the BBQ or ‘asado’. We were invited on Saturday to go to an asado with our hosts. This asado was held at a new and very modern house built into the dry and rocky landscape in the middle of a large ‘campo’ (farming property). The central courtyard had a built-in fireplace with a grill called the ‘parilla’.

The menu for the day consisted of a selection of meat cuts and sausage (chorizo) plus sweet potatoes cooked on the parilla, accompanied by a green salad with tomatoes.

And of course, there was plenty of Argentinian Malbec.

A peach crumble with locally made ‘helados’ (gelato) topped off the meal. It was a perfect day in the Córdoba hills with fine food, friends and beautiful scenery.

Sunny skies prevailed for the rest of the weekend and we were able to go to some other scenic destinations in the area. Andrew captured these pictures of Tuti and I catching up on 33 years of our lives.

I feel so lucky to have been able to reunite with an old travel-mate, meet her wonderful family and be greeted with warm and friendly people in Cordoba and La Cumbre.

Next stop…San Carlos Di Bariloche. Gateway to Patagonia.