I've been to paradise, and it has soccer

After seeing THE burning bush, we arrived at La Chacra. It was this beautiful mate farm. They grow there own verduras, frutas, mate, y carne. The farm had a pool, tennis court, volleyball court, massage table, open space to play soccer, hammocks, suntanning chairs, the works. As one guy said, "this is what I imagined heaven would be like". He wasn't kidding, the place was incredible. Right off the bus I changed into shorts and joined a few people in a juggling (soccer) circle for a good hour. Now i really was in heaven. I love juggling with guys and girls that don't play soccer that much but like to try because they just look so goofy with their motions and the way they hit the ball. Its very cute. I got a few good shots of my friends doing some "tricks". After juggling we had our first round of food: Empanadas and freshly squeezed lemonade. People always ask me what's the best thing you've ever eaten and most of time I can't think of anything, but I now have an answer. The empanada they made in there open fire stove was the most AMAZING thing I have ever had. It was perfectly cooked, gooey on the inside, lightly crispy on the outside, moist and juicy when you bit into it, but not greasy. Perfection. Not to mention the lemonade was so refreshing. I had to contain myself from eating too many because I knew that that was only the first course. Later, the chef's brought out choripan. This is chorizo sausage sandwiched by a roll, aka a hot dog, but so much better. They even had there own oil and vinegar seasoning to add on top of the sausage. It was a little messy, but as expected, delightful. After that I explored the farm some more. I got some hammock time then it was back to juggling.

Finally, the two chef's called us over for the main course. We had an actual salad with lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, and cheese. I haven't had a salad like that since the states. They had their own homemade oil and vinegar to accompany the delicious salad. Fresh, home grown food just has this amazing taste to it. Indescribable. Similar to Brazilian BBQ restaurants, the servers came around with slices of meat and Yucca to serve us personally. My plate was never empty, for they were always right behind me with a another piece of meat when I was on my last bite. I guess I'll say it one more time: This was the best food I have ever had. Plain and simple. (See picture 1). Italy had great food, but I think this farm was better. I was thoroughly stuffed, as was everyone else, so we all claimed a sun chair or hammock and took an afternoon siesta. My one friend was like, "umm i'd be perfectly okay with dying right now if that was my last supper." That's a bold statement, but I kind of agreed with him.

After the siesta the owners offered us some fresh fruit for dessert: apples and tangerines. Again, amazing. Then we went on a tour of the mate factory. Mate is the tea that is famous all over Argentina. People here drink mate like we in America drink coffee. Our one ISA director Coque (Ko-kee) is a mate addict. She is always drinking it and can't go too long without it. She told us she typically goes through nine large thermoses of mate a day. That's insane. I would think that she would have to pee a lot. (See picture 2). When we got to the warehouse full of mate she literally was in heaven. Sorry for a lot of religious references this post.... It was pretty cool to see how they make mate. We were in the warehouse full of bags of mate and I noticed Coque trying to steal a bag but it was too heavy jajaja. The air inside the warehouse smelled like grass. It was a little intoxicating and made some people feel light headed. This lead some people to the conclusion that mate wasn't the only "herb" in the bags if you get my drift.....After the tour they treated us to a mate infusion drink and what looks like mini funnel cakes without sugar but tastes like a combo of a funnel cake and a french fry. You guessed it, AMAZING. the mate infusion tasted like really hot ice tea. It was very good and i highly recommend it. Finally after all that incredible food it was time to go to our hotel. I was hard saying goodbye to paradise. If this was only day one of my weekend, I can't image what the rest of the weekend would be like.