trip to the country

 My husband asked me to go with him to the country this weekend. The missionaries had planned a talent show on Saturday night and we were scheduled to speak in the branch on Sunday. Rather than drive four hours on Saturday and do the same trip again on Sunday, we decided to stay over night.

Doug asked the missionaries to help him find a place to stay. I wasn’t feeling very secure about that and did my own research. He made a reservation for the Gran Hotel. I got directions from Google Earth for the La Rica Estancia.

Once we stayed in a hotel in East Germany. It was kind of like staying in a prison. The five of us were in bunk beds in the same room and the bathroom was down the hall. When I saw our room at the Gran Hotel, I was Wishing that I had that room in East Germany.

I talked Doug into looking for the Estancia. Google Earth totally let us down. We ended up precariously close to a villa and almost gave up on the project…until I remembered seeing a sign to La Rica on the way into town.

We went over to a parilla to make dinner reservations and asked the lady there about the estancia. She said she thought that the town of La Rica was an hour away. With those encouraging words, and some online directions, I talked Doug into driving for 15 minutes to see if we could find the place.

The online directions said to travel 7 kilometers down the road and then take a dirt road for another 7 kilometers. There was a dirt road at the 7 kilometer mark, but no sign. We tried to talk to a stooped and leathery woman with pumpkin teeth. She seemed afraid of us and told us to follow the truck that had just dropped her off.

We then followed a truck that looked like it was made out of duct tape and after about 4 more kilometers we ran into this sign:

I was so happy! 

We followed the dirt track for 7 kilometers and came to a t-junction. By now, the duct tape truck had disappeared. We had a 50-50 chance and turned left.

After driving for another several kilometers and seeing nothing but countryside, we decided to give up on the project.

But I couldn’t quite give up. Seriously. I have a hard time giving up on a project, once I have set my mind on it. So we drove all the way back down the dirt track and back to where we saw the leathery lady…who was still there, before we found enough signal to make a phone call. Sure enough, we had been on the right track, except that we needed to turn right instead of left at the t-junction.

Teresa, the lady who owns La Rica,  told us that she didn’t have room for tonight. When I asked her if we could come and see the estancia, she said yes and then said that she would find “something” for us.

So we went back down the road for 7 kilometers and back down the dirt track for 7 kilometers and eventually found La Rica.

Teresa was really nice and took us on a tour of the premises.

Then she invited us into her living room to have a chat. Of course, we had to get back for the talent show, which we explained and asked about our room. At this point, she told us that she didn’t think that we should stay there.

What??????

However, she did recommend the bakery in the “town” of La Rica.

This is the town of La Rica. We saw a half a dozen buildings. None of them looked open or even inhabited.

 

 

We spent the night at the Gran Hotel.