On to Merlo

We set out from our overnight stay in Laboulaye, an unremarkable town surrounded by agriculture, and headed for our destination near the city of San Luis. As soon as we entered the province of San Luis, and long before we actually got to the city of San Luis, we were surprised when, quite unexpectedly, the road improved and became a four lane divided highway. After a day and a half on two lane highways where we had to constantly keep an eye out for crazy drivers, this change was welcome indeed. The other welcome sight for all of us was real mountains! Uruguay is mostly flat with some rolling hills and a few larger “cerros," and the pampas of Argentina are completely flat. Since we love the mountains (most of us spent years living in Montana and Idaho), we were all thrilled when mountains finally appeared on the horizon.

Mountains at Last!

Our plan was to stay near the city of San Luis for a day and do some exploring, and then head north toward Cordoba. However, when we actually got to the city San Luis, we were not really impressed with the area (it was pretty dry with sparse vegetation) and decided instead to head north right away towards the famed town of Merlo for the night. We left San Luis and headed north, into a dry and beautiful mountainous areas with very few houses or towns in sight, but still on the wonderful four-lane divided highway. I kept remarking to anyone in the car who would listen to me about how incredible the road was (it even had lights all along the way as well). I just couldn’t figure out why, in the middle of nowhere, the roads were so good. Later I found out that the former governor of the province built them with an eye to the future. He just ran for president in the recent election here but lost. (In my opinion, the roads of Argentina have suffered a great loss!)

We arrived in Merlo, a cute touristy sort of town, after dark and looked for a place to eat. Since we hadn’t actually planned to stay in Merlo, we didn’t have any idea of where to stay for the night. So at the restaurant, we asked our waitress (in broken Spanish) for some suggestions. A friend of the owner who spoke good English happened to be there. Amazingly enough, he and his wife had just opened up some cabañas that past week. He gave his wife a quick call and then drove us to his place. In addition to the cabaña itself, which was very nice, there were horses for the kids to ride, a swimming pool, a beautiful view of the mountains, and the most amazing homemade breakfasts. Our one night stay expanded into a three-day visit, and we had lots of fun riding horses, hiking and relaxing.


Chris and Elli were overjoyed to get to go riding again


This was our daily breakfast fare, all freshly homemade!!!


Here we enjoying our breakfast feast!

On Saturday, we asked our host about where to go for Mass on Sunday, and he told us about a local convent where the sisters sung “angelically.” So early Sunday morning we hiked up to the church, which sat against an amazing mountain backdrop. It turned out to be a cloistered order with lots of young nuns in traditional white habits. When we first entered the church it almost looked as if we had entered a Byzantine Catholic church. Beautiful hand painted icons adorned the walls and the altar. But the chant was Gregorian and the Mass a mixture of East and West. In talking afterwards with the sister in charge of greeting guests, we found out that they are a French order that combines both Latin Rite and Eastern Catholic spirituality. We were very impressed by the beauty, reverence and holiness that we experienced there.


A beautiful place for a convent - This is their church.

On our final day at the cabaña in Merlo, we had another “dog incident” with Elisabeth. Poor Elisabeth was finally overcoming her reluctance to pet dogs after her experience in Lujan when she was unexpectedly attacked by a German Shepherd at the cabañas. To be fair, I don’t think the dog was being vicious, but rather seemed to be having some pain in its ears. But Elli, in her attempt to befriend it, made the mistake of trying to scratch its ears. Once again I heard Elli scream, but this time I turned to see a German Shepherd on top of Elli with its mouth biting into her head (definitely one of those traumatic moments for a mom). Fortunately Chris, who was standing close by, acted quickly and kicked the dog off. Apart from some scratches and bruises, Elli only received one actual puncture wound on her forehead. This time, since we had just gotten her a tetanus shot and the dog was current on its shots, I opted to not call the doctor. I decided instead to minimize any further trauma by fixing the wound myself with a butterfly bandage. Praise God, Elisabeth was fine, but she may end up with one small scar to commemorate her visit to Merlo, Argentina.


Fernando and his wife at our Cabaña - They were wonderful hosts

The view behind the cabañas - the actual view was far more spectacular than this photos shows