And the word is: GO!

Nico is now in Mendoza and has started the ball rolling on everything.

He has secured us the existing house, across the road, for another year, so we are going to start there. We are going to build onto the bathroom and revamp the kitchen, clean up the rest of the house and build six or seven beds and lockers. 

Then we will start up the hostel - small at first to see how we get along with it.

He has also decided to buy a car from Enrique and Sofi, because a truck is just too damn expensive. They will be buying a truck and we should have some use of it when necessary.

At the same time, we will start building on our property, just the main house at first.

Nico has done some invetigating while he's been there and it turns out it is not going to be as cheap as we first thought - same as with any building project, right? - but it is also not going to cost us the earth.

We chat online when he gets himself in front of a computer back in town. It is a strange feeling knowing that he is there, right now, working on our little project, chatting to Enrique and Sofi on a daily basis,  spending our money...

I cannot express how excited I am about all of this, still a little scared and very nervous, but so very, very excited.

Procrastinating, quitting and polling

Just a quick little update on the status of things.

Nico has delayed his trip to Argentina until the middle-ish of September because he's found a job, or some such nonsense. Money? Who needs money.

I have given notice at work, and though my boss is rather disappointed to lose me (nice little ego boost) he is quite pleased with the reason for me leaving, and grateful for the long notice period I have given them.
It all seems so real now.

I have added a poll to the bottom of the page, let us know what you think of the plans for the main house.

It's ours!

All the money finally made it through to Argentina, and we are now the proud owner of just over, or under, a hectare. The exact measurements will be made as part of the official paperwork when Nico gets to Mendoza. For now, we have a cessation of rights signed over by Enrique to Nico.

Nico has finally reached Europe, after being on a boat delivery from the Seychelles for over two weeks. He must have had a lot of time on his hands, and reverted to his usual ideas and drawings. Luckily he also seems to have access to a computer, because the final results are pretty cool.





When we were all still together, we came up with some pretty detailed ideas for the plan of the main house, based on the house Enrique was living in. Nico took these ideas and put them on paper, so to speak. These are not the final plans, we are not architects or builders and will have to make sure they're viable before starting, but they are a good picture of what we want to build.

Full steam ahead

So now all negotiations are done and we have decided on a price for the land with Enrique and Sofi.
Nico and I are now in the process of trying to get the money over to them - not an easy task from South Africa.

Nico is leaving for a boat delivery on Friday 2nd May and will be doing the yachty thing for a while before heading off to Argentina in August.
He'll start fixing up the "old" el Jarillal house to accept hostel guests, while starting the building process on the new land across the road.

I'll be going to Mendoza in November and take over for a while. I should be there until about March, and then we have to find someone to run the place until winter.

We'll be recruiting from all over the world...

Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

For a few months after we arrived back from Argentina, things were like a roller coaster ride.

The world economy started it's decline into what looked like a recession, and Nico and Tara started having second thoughts about building on land that did not belong to them. There was no way we could afford the US$100 000 for the other property, so it was looking a bit bleak.
Tara also bought into a property in NZ with her mother while we were away and had that bond on her mind.
Being away from Mendoza, the emotions and excitement about the hostel, and area, started to subside somewhat.
I had moved back to South Africa, temporarily, to help a friend with her wedding and make some money for the hostel, so communication between the three of us was erratic.

I was worried for a while that the hostel would not happen.

In the mean time, Sofi and Enrique had been married and on honeymoon for a month in Patagonia.
When they came back, there were a lot of changes happening in the area.
The other properties in the area were all sold for a lot more than they had been available for when we were there. This was a small blow for Nico, who was very interested in one of them.
They had also been offered and investment opportunity that they could not say no to.
So they wanted to sell the section of their land that they had set aside for the property.

This was the best news I had heard in a long time.
I knew that if the price was right, we could buy it and go ahead with building the hostel - investing in land we were going to own made a lot more sense.
Nico agreed 100%, and we started negotiations with Sofi and Enrique.

Unfortunately, Tara decided that buying and building in Argentina was going to cost her too much, in time and money, and she pulled out.

So lots of news, good and some bad, but at least the hostel was back on track.

Where, oh where, could it be?

For those of you who are not sure where Mendoza is....

Digging it

Only a few weeks after we left Argentina and el Jarillal, we got an e-mail from Sofi saying that they had got the diggers in to make the driveway and dig the hole for the pool. They had also flattened out the area we are going to use for the main house, using the sand from the driveway and pool.

It was fast work and cheap too, only cost us US$360.

They sent some photos, but had issues with their camera - so not the best - but you can get the idea.