A Lesson on Mate & Interesting Golf !!

As promised, today Maria brought some hot water and Mate, to show us how to make it and let us sample the local staple refreshment. It's something of an acquired taste, but we enjoyed it and I'm sure it set us up well for the day ahead after a very early start.

The Bourbon Club wasn't exactly the most welcoming, with staff who didn't have either English or Spanish and who couldn't fathom why these strange foreigners would want water to drink, when they were only going out in a mere 90 degrees !! It was a struggle but we did eventually get the water and started off on our round.

Today's game was the infamous Men v the Ladies. Lesley and I played better ball against Andrew and Hugh. Here's the intrepid foursome before we started.

It's obviously not high golfing season at the Bourbon Club and the tee boxes and fairways and even the greens had not seen a mower in quite a while. The 11th fairway was a particular challenge. We all hit good drives down the fairway .. all of which proved impossible to find as the grass was knee high !!! Here's Lesley with her ball in the middle of the fairway.

Nevertheless, we survived and had a great game. Andrew started like a dream and with help from Hugh, parred and birdied his way to a 4 hole lead at the turn. We were looking dead and buried ! But we rallied on the back nine and got to the 18th only one down. This was index 1 and all 3 of us had shots on Andrew on this one. It came down to the last put, but we managed to hold on for a win and the match ended in an honourable half .. a fitting result.

Here we are looking not quite so chirpy at the end of it all. The overall result went in favour of the Ladies 2 1/2 to 1 1/2, so our half mattered (Glad we didn't know that on the 18th !!).

We almost had an International incident before we left. We waited on the bus for what seemed like forever, while Simon and Maria sorted out things with the club. They had confirmed the costs yesterday, but our Brazillian friends claimed that the exchange rate had changed so much overnight that the cost had increased massively. Serious difficulties ensued, particularly as there was no common language. The incident was only averted when Steve, with his lawer's hat on (must be the only thing he hasn't lost so far on the trip !) intervened.

We eventually escaped from Brazil and back to our nice comfy and friendly hotel on the Argentinian side. We're off to dinner in Iguazu tonight and tomorrow we fly to Bariloche, where we understand it's a bit cooler than here !

Bye for now,

Kate