20/11/2019 – Travel day, Mendoza to San Rafael, Argentina

We got up and had a coffee. Yesterday in the supermarket we had bought ourselves a small coffee filter thing that looks like a white noddy hat on a stick, a portable way of making nice coffee! We packed our things up and showered, before ordering our Uber to the bus station. We got to the bus station, found our required company and bought our tickets before quickly grabbing a sandwich to eat on the journey. The bus station appeared super fancy and developed, but as we went through security to the platform we were pointed around the corner, which looked more like our kind of bus station, and we pulled our bags closer to our chests. We had heard a few scare stories from other tourists in the hostel in Pucon about bags being stolen, especially at bus stations! I was thankful for those stories though, as it reminded us to not let our guard down as we become more and more familiar with situations. We waited about half an hour for our bus, loaded our luggage, and got in our seats towards the back of the top deck. We plugged ourselves into our podcasts, reclined and I had a snooze for most of the 3 hour journey! We were stopped just outside the entrance to San Rafael and an armed police officer came aboard and looked at everyone’s face very closely, they were definitely looking for someone specific! We continued on for another 10 minutes when the policeman sat in the seat in front of me told us we were approaching San Rafael airport – somehow he had caught wind of us wanting to stop there! From our very short time in Argentina so far, it seems lots of people speak good English. We went downstairs and the bus pulled up on the side of the road. The bus stewardess helped us get our luggage and by that time a young woman was walking towards us – Leonora, our host for our next workaway. She greeted us and we got into her car, she drove us to the finca, called La Carmelita. We pulled up outside a beautiful farm building, and were introduced to her father Frederico and two other workawayers, Casper from Denmark, and Samantha from Ecuador. They greeted us and then immediately took us with them to feed the animals, which will be one of our jobs whilst we are here! We fed the farm cat and the four dogs just outside the house. Next stop was the 3 geese with 3 little baby geese, who immediately started hissing at us. We chucked a bucket of compost food over the fence and they swam over towards us, still hissing away. Then we walked up through the field to feed the horses. We went into the little hut and sorted three buckets of oats and corn, and walked towards the three horses, who were impatiently awaiting their dinner. They have to be fed in order, the oldest, male horse gets fed first, so Casper took the food to that horses stable first. Next Josh went and fed the eldest female. I was planning on fighting my fear and feeding the third, youngest one, but chickened out last minute and handed the bucket of food over the fence for the boys to deal with! Next we had to hunt for the chickens in the field – 1 cockeral and 5 hens, and shoo them into their hutch for the night. Casper and Samantha showed us how to do it and I was crying with laughter on the inside but pretended it was normal on the outside, because it seemed normal to them! We chucked them a scoop of corn in the hutch for them to munch on. Apparently the trick is to get the cockerel in the hutch and then hens will follow! Next it was time to feed the llamas. In the afternoon they eat chopped vegetables – so we used a small knife and chopping board to chop some nearly mouldy carrots and marrows up in the hut. Then we had to make two separate piles on the paddock floor, and make sure we let the black alpha llama in the paddock first, before letting the younger white llama in. Otherwise fights might happen! The llamas absolutely crack me up! They are so curious and have such funny facial expressions! They are quite scary though, they are big and I know they can kick so I am wary of keeping distance. They seem to want to come close and chat. It took about half an hour to feed all the animals and get them tucked up for the night. Next we got shown around. The finca has eight guest bedrooms and a lot of land. They have a vineyard, plum trees, olive trees and quince, as well as four tall palm trees (randomly!) Josh and I went for a walk across the land to explore at sunset, which was a gorgeous pink and orange. The dogs excitedly came along with us. It was so warm, over 30°C, and so peaceful. We unpacked and showered before having dinner with Samantha and Casper, roast vegetables and mashed potato. At bedtime we had to decide between stifling hot, or cooler with a risk of insects, which eventually won!