It’s the final Argentinian public holiday long weekend for a while and we are invited by the Millans to join them at their farm in Benquerencia. It is about 1.5hrs outside Buenos Aires near San Miguel del Monte – more commonly referred to as Monte. Agus and I have been there a bunch of times but this will be a first for Alfie. Mily has horses, ponies and probably more importantly for Alfie there mechanical thinks like tractors, lawn mowers & chainsaws there. It’s a family affair so we are travelling there with tia Silvi & Trombeta. Tio Santi and Caro are coming along as well but driving separately as they have relocated to their newly renovated house in (Don) Torquato which is about 15mins drive from Florida. Paz & her 2yr old, Sofi (Millan) will also be there, so Alfie will have a playmate – let’s hope they get along a bit better than the other day.
We leave at 7:30am and 1.5hrs quickly turns into 2hrs with roadwork and traffic – everyone is getting out of the capital for the weekend. Alfie starts asking “are we there yet” about 30mins into the journey and no amount of Take on Me (by A ha) can dissuade him from asking this on repeat. Finally we arrive at Estancia Benquerencia and hand over our ID to the security guards at the gate – they take our body temp. from our wrists with an IR thermometer gun. This will soon become pretty standard for us – this system is at most supermarkets and shopping centres in BA. We take a slow drive to the Millan’s house (40km speed limit inside the estancia) It’s good to be in the countryside and breath some fresh air, and Alfie is now out of the cars so my ears can take a rest.
Mily for the win – Alfie and Sofi are riding a pony, together, around the lake, nicely. Awesome! Chasing sheep with Candy (their dog) and running along hay bales…an amazing playground for toddlers. We have milanesas for lunch – these are very popular in Argentina with entire restaurants dedicated to just serving them. They are similar to the Aussie parma / schnitty (chicken parmigiana / schnitzel,) except the majority of milanesas here are beef not chicken. I did a quick reconnaissance of the golf course prior to lunch and the weather is holding (rain is scheduled later and tomorrow) so I head out for a round. For the golfers out there, check out my other blog post on this.
Back to the Millan’s for dinner – meals are never a small affair at the Millan’s and this time proves to be no different. They love to cook and entertain for family and friends, and they invite both – there are 14 of us. We’re treated to some Armenian food that has been made by one of their employees. I’d never had Armenian food until I came to Argentina (pre-COVID) and we went to the Armenian club in BA. I did have my first empanada pizza though – excellent, I’ll be having one of these again. Papa Mario Millan brings out the vino tinto, a Siete Fincas 2012 reserve Malbec from Mendoza…I’m not saying no to that bad boy! We head back late to the original estate manor house of Benquerencia that has now been turned into a hotel. Its period features remain, so let’s just say that it has a lot of charm and many quirks. We’ve stayed here before so I’m not too surprised that it takes some fiddling to get the shower to work and when the hot water finally flows we get Alfie in for a quick splash and put him into bed in the 2nd room of our suite as he is well and truely cooked after his big day on the farm and playing with Sofi.
Dia 2 – it’s a feast! We’re up early – the Aflie alarm clock goes of around 7am every morning without fail. Shower and then head over to another building for breakfast. Alfie is looking for a leaf blower, lawn mower, chainsaw or whipper snipper (line edger) and is disappointed to not find any and only see horses. He’s restless at breakfast and just want’s to be outside. Alfie and I head back to the manor house, Agus follows later, she needs more time to re-enter the human world. Alfie wants to see his aunts and uncles who are in a room across the hall from us & I struggle to stop him knocking on their door and jiggling the handle whilst trying to open our door. The locks ad fittings are all old so it’s not very easy to open it. Agus arrives 2mins after we got there and stops Alfie trying to open the other room door that is in between our suites. A guy then comes out of this small room, super grumpy and complains that it has been like being in hell with the noise and the doors. It’s 9:37am mate, both check out & breakfast finish at 10am, we’re in an old manor house with high concrete ceilings and wooden floors, everything creeks and is inherently loud. I’m about to tell him to fuck off, but I think that my stare and size were enough to send him back into his room. Uncle Santi emerges on his balcony, he and Caro come down and we get a lift with them back to the Millan’s house.
More of our friends join the party. Fer, Pauli y 3 hijos Cata, Fran and Trini llegar. Awesome more kids for Alfie to play with, more free time for mummy and daddy. It’s Asado day – get ready for it meat lovers (sorry Silvi). Luis has been hired to cater lunch for us, he has a parrilla restaurant in Monte. I’m told he caters for up to 500 people (no easy task), we’re a mere 20 so he should have this locked but we do have a vegan and a celiac so that may test him. Apparently he also has some grilling techniques that I’ve not seen, so I’ll be paying attention. Lunch is served, my new companion Candy is growling at me – her way of asking for some carne. Empanadas, chorizo, then mollejas, vacio (grilled then wrapped in foil – the special technique), then the king – asado ribs! These ribs may have been the best so far that I have had in Argentina. With wine and soda (syphon soda bottles are another love of Argentines) flowing freely I was well and truely happy, stuffed full, but very happy. There was plenty of salads as well – I’m always asked if Argentines have vegetables (they do) as I seem to only talk about meat. Oh and I may have given Candy a few small bits of meat under the table.
Dinner – pizzas, home cooked. I didn’t think that I could eat any more, but I do. I think that I may have found my new taste combo – cheese and onion. (I’m now ordering empanadas with this stuffing). Alfie has discovered Dulce de Leche…we’re screwed as all he wants now is DDL and helado. We know he is done for the day so we head back to our rooms at the manor house.
Dia 3 – it’s a relazing day around the Millan’s house again. It’s sunny – where is the forecasted rain? We must have got lucky and missed it at night. We say goodbye to Santi and Caro as they have to head back to BA to do a course at the church that all engaged couples have to do prior to getting married in a catholic church over here. We cook up an asadito (small asado) for lunch consisting of chorizos, the left over meat from yesterday’s asado (we re-heat it in a foil bag) and some homegrown zucchinis along with the remaining salads and pizza. Not forgetting the many dulces & postres that are par for the course here in Argentina – everyone here has a sweet tooth! Then it’s back with Silvi & Trombeta after lunch to try and beat the holiday traffic back into capital federal. Gracias Millans para un gran fin de semana.
3 meses en Argentina 
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