South America

Day 4 – Golf and Wine What could be better than playing golf with the first tee time of the day on a beautiful, sunny morning using a riding cart AND having a caddy? I am sure the non-golfers reading this can thing of 1000 such things, but for the golfers reading this … you get the idea. Now, we went to the minimalist clubhouse to get a cobbled set of clubs and range balls to play, and the course is more like a mediocre public course, but hey, I am playing golf in January in Argentina! My caddy, the knowledgeable Bob Lazard, and I had a very pleasant and peaceful ride around the 9-hole layout. The extravagant clubhouse. I should note that the course layout is actually quite nice (it was designed by 2 Argentinian pro golfers). With continued investment and growth in the property, some additional maintenance and landscaping would make it a really cool place to play. Steve managed to par the first hole, have a birdie on a par 5, and end the round with a respectable 41 ...

Day 3 – The Real Estate I am writing this in the late afternoon on the back patio of our small hotel. It is a remarkably pleasant 92 ° with a gentle breeze and low humidity. It feels great! (Sorry to rub this in on my Northern Hemisphere friends and family). On with the events of the day. Steve had a passing visit from Montezuma, which slowed him down a bit for the day’s happening. We had a simple breakfast in the “guest house” – a very nice house converted to morning dining. No one gets started very early here (it feels like a retreat) so it “opens” at 8am. Things at the breakfast room really didn’t get started until 8:30-ish. Life just moves at a different pace here. We did a little wondering around this vast property. It’s hard form me to know how big it is since different people give different answers. What I can make out is that there are thousands of hectares (1 hc = 2.5 acres). At noon, we met with the architects   - a husband and wife team, Franco...

Day 2 San Rafael We arose early to catch our flight to San Rafael (about 1.5 hours flight mostly due wet of BA). This is at the southern end of the Mendoza region, which is the wine country of Argentina. We landed at a VERY small airport – we were the only plane there. Despite the fact that we simply walked off the plane and 50 feet across the tarmac to the airport “terminal” (it was more like the size of a convenience store), it seems to me that the San Rafaelians want to feel as important as other larger cities in the Mendoza region. So, they have the usual airport process whereby we went into the “terminal” and waited in a very small area at a baggage claim belt for our bags. I say we went into the terminal, but we simply went through one door and stood peering out the glass windows at our plane. The funny thing is … the plane was parked about 50 feet away and the baggage claim belt was about a 30 foot oval. Half of the belt was outside the glass window and the other half c...

Forward For those who don’t know, I am traveling with Bob Lazard, an upright young man who is in the throes of retiring from a long career as a partner in a prominent accounting firm. This whole trip was his idea since he happens to be well-connected with The Algodon Group, which owns the Algodon winery in the Mendoza region of Argentina. Bob was responsible for the winery part of the trip, and I took on the additional excursions to Iguazu, Paraguay and lastly Buenos Aires. Day 1 – The Walkabout It was a normal departure from Indianapolis although it is worth noting that the temperature was in the mid 20’s (about -4 ° for my “outside the US” or OUS friends). Our connection to South America (SA henceforth since I do not want to spend any more time than necessary on typing) was Miami, FL. I only bring this up because we were able to use the American Airlines lounge due to our Business Class booking, which was nothing short of spectacular! The food and drinks were “off the char...