What can I say. Life begins with asado.We have fond memories of cooking ourselves four years ago in this same kitchen, as well as of excellent conversations at long table meals. Four guests at the pasado (bed and breakfast) joined us, one couple for dinner the other later for conversation. Both couples were from the U.S. and were on extended trips, six months and one year, the kind of travel that can be an essential part of an education. It was our first experience being traveling Canadians and having the name of the mayor of Toronto come up. Sadly, not likely our last.

The woman in one couple was originally from Uruguay and it was interesting to talk to her about how the legalization of marijuana is going in that country. It is proving an unpopular commodity to buy legally as the government requires purchasers to register. This means that a future government could re-criminalize possession and, poof, they’d have a ready list of suspects.

In addition to three guest rooms, Hans has four hectares of land on which he grows Malbec and olives. Both crops are costing him money as inflation has this year driven the inputs high above any price he could hope to get. He intends to join a planned protest by local farmers to dump crops into the streets in town. If it happens, we may even been here to witness it.