They own a beautiful house in Sauce Viejo, 15 kms south of Santa Fe.
Since the sun was always out and the temperature was close to 40 degrees we took full advantage of the pool in the garden.
Jorge Ponce is an excellent cook. He has built a huge barbecue at the back of the house where day after day he cooked for us the famous Argentinean meat.
On the 30th, our friend Paola took us out clubbing with some of her friends.
You need to know that in Argentina (like in Spain) people don’t go out clubbing until 2/3am in the morning!
At 5 am we were still dancing in a club full of people, waiting for the sun to rise.
Nothing would have stopped us, except the fact of course that poor Paola stepped on a broken glass and cut her foot.
Initially her friend Hernan stopped the bleeding with some bandages, operating like a professional doctor, then we took her to the near hospital where they took care of her in no time.
That was the end of our first night out in Santa Fe.
On NYE we had the honour to be invited at the gathering of the whole Ponce family for the celebration of the New Year.
When we asked what should we bring to the party we were told ONLY FIREWORKS!!!.
Argentineans are quite keen on fireworks. On the 31st of December you might not be able to find bread on the streets of Santa Fe, but certainly there was no shortage of stalls selling all sorts of weaponry, from ordinary fireworks to the most advanced bombs, rockets, intercontinental missiles.....you get it.
We stocked up and went to the Ponce party.
Once again we truly felt at home.
At midnight we launched some balloons in the air with attached our wish for the New Year, then joined the war in the streets with our artillery.
I only burnt my right thumb in the occasion which, given my inexperience on the matter was certainly good news.
Back in the house we joined 85 years old grandma and the rest of the family on the dance floor until 4am.
All Argentineans are of course excellent dancers, so this time, instead of giving them a lesson on the “chicken steps” I thought I would step it up a notch to the more skilful “limbo step”.
When we thought it was all over Paola told us that she would meet her friends at 5am to go clubbing!
Since she was in good company and since we were feeling quite tired from the night before and our trip from Bariloche we decided it would be safer for us to stay with her parents......well, not exactly safe: at 6am they were still up, including grandma!
On the 2nd, after recovering from the NYE party we went out at the Santa Fe Brewery to taste the local beer.
We truly enjoyed the local production
Pic 12: Paolo, Paola and Eric
and the atmosphere
Then we moved to another bar, where already partially plastered Elena finished us off by ordering some Chandon.
In our last day in Santa Fe we hit the river Parana for some fishing on the boat.
This time we were more successful than our previous attempts on the Chilean rivers.
First, somehow, I managed to catch a CRAB! How do you manage to catch a crab with a fishing line is still a mystery. Did it get stuck with a claw or was it stubbornly trying to steal some chicken from the hook?
Then Elena caught several Palomitas, a fish of the Piranha family.
Late in the morning we successfully filled our lunch box with some reasonably sized fish.
We then stopped to a little shack on the island to cook
Pic 19: Cooking in the shack
and eat our catch of the day.
Back at the villa it was time to pack the bike for the following day departure, only after taking Norma for a ride around the neighbourhood.
We don’t have enough words to say thank you to Paola and her family for the amazing time we had in Sauce Viejo.
We felt so relaxed that somehow we had the feeling that in Sauce Viejo our trip to South America ended and our Holiday in South America began.
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