Posts Tagged ‘christmas dinner’

We had enquired earlier in the week if the Hotel El Paso was going to be open on Christmas Day. It was open, but with only a doorman, no other staff were going to be there, and neither were the owners. Every where else in the town was going to be shut and we wondered what we were going to do for meals.

However the owners of the hotel came to our rescue. “No problem, there is the hotel kitchen, there is the meat, salad, wine, and soft drinks, there is our parilla (barbeque) and there is the swimming pool. Help yourselves”.

So we did. Christmas Day was a lazy day of getting up late, cooking, sleeping, lazing in and by the pool, eating, lazing and sleeping.

Our meal was barbequed chicken and steak, salad and a bottle of fine wine and lots of sunshine.

Graciela prepared the meat and the salad in the hotel’s kitchen.

Graciela in the Hotel Kitchen

Ready for the parilla (barbeque)

I lit the hotel’s barbeque (parilla).

La Parilla en el hotel

We cooked the meat outside by the pool

An expert at work

And when it was ready we retired to the shade and had our Christmas Day meal.

Christmas Dinner

Later in the evening I was dragged to church as Graciela attended the evening mass.

In San Rafael Christmas is not the commercial event that it is in England. Decorations did not appear in the shops until the week before Christmas, and even then they were understated. There was no panic buying in the shops, no special late night shopping and no sign of the greed that is so often seen in the UK. Everywhere was shut on Chrismas Day.
On the road we could see occasional cars and trucks full of people and with chairs and tables tied to roofs that were obviously on their way to visit family.
It seems that the spirit and meaning of Christmas is still alive in this part of the world.

Having given up any hope of our container with all our possessions arriving in time for Christmas, we replanned what to do for the holiday period.

Our neighbours Ernesto and Victoria asked us over for Christmas Dinner, and we gladly accepted their kind invitation.  Here, Christmas Dinner is held late at night on Christmas Eve so it made sense to sleep on our farm instead of driving back to the hotel El Paso in the small hours.

In the evening of the 24th December we drove to the neighbours’ farm, dropped off the drinks and ice cubes that we had bought in the town, and then set up camp on our farm.

The back of the pickup was covered with blankets and sleeping bags to act as a mattress and the all important mosquito net was tied over everything in order to ward off determined attacks by starving insects.

Temporary bedroom

At about 10 pm we crossed the fields and joined Ernesto and Victoria.
An ambient temperature of about 20 degrees centigrade at night meant that the Christmas Dinner could be cooked outside in a clay oven.

Clay oven

Everyone sat around in the dusk talking and drinking with only the stars, moonlight and huge fireflies lighting up the scene. That is something we cannot see in the towns due to the light pollution.

As the food started to be ready it was taken into the farmhouse where everyone congregated, guided by the smell of empanadas, asado and wine.

Christmas Dinner is ready

As midnight came and Christmas Eve changed to Christmas Day we all toasted each other.

The Toast

All the food was grown and cooked on the farm. Only the drinks came from shops. And it was seriously tasty food too!

PS: If you look at one of the photos of Graciela outside you will see something hanging from hers belt. It is a swiss army knife which she received from me as a birthday present. Why such a romantic and girly present? A colleague from work kindly gave me one and it has seen much use. And Graciela wanted one too!!

In the early hours of the morning we walked across the fields to our ‘bed’ in the pickup by the light of an oil lantern. It was a wonderfully romantic experience.
As we lay in the back of the pickup we could see nebulas, planets and stars with incredible clearness and brightness. Also being 2000 feet up with no city close by helps enourmously.
Then, covered by the mosquito nets we watched the stars until we fell asleep…..

…. only to be woken up by something sniffing in my ear.
“Regalito*”, one of the neighbouring farm dogs had decided to guard us. And obviously part of this duty  neccesitated seeing we were OK by putting his front paws on the side of the pickup and looking inside.
Eventually Regalito went to sleep under the pickup, but we were still occassionally awoken by his tail thumping the underneath or the side of the pickup as he stood guard!

Our volunteer guard dog

Sunrise was a pleasure to watch and we were surprised at the amount of dew on the grass first thing in the morning.

Dawn

Time to undo the bed, pack up and head back to San Rafael for breakfast and Christmas Day.

Late Riser!

An outside toilet with full do it yourself facilities was also available to the early risers.

Outside Toilet

Finally, when packing up the bedding we discovered a recluse spider had joined us in the night despite the netting. As these spiders are venemous, it calls into question the efficiency of Regalito as a guard dog!!!

Unwelcome visitor

* Regalito means “Little gift or present”. In this case he really was one!!!!