"Roughing It" with wine, steak and chocolate

I missed Christmas this year. Obviously, I was away, but I was in the heat of summer, away from my family and without the means to treat myself to anything special. So, in a very real sense, I didn´t have a Christmas. After one day in Bariloche, I feel like I ´ve had the fall I missed, and a taste of the Christmas cheer that I was craving so badly. The town is big into ephisizing it´s swiss german roots, so all the buildings are either log cabins or stone cottages, oozing cute, and the crisp but delightful weather and incredible mountianous scenery makes you feel like you are in some fairy tale village. Window shopping with mom in cold weather here is bringing me right back to when we would do it around christmas, and popping into one of the many chocolate shops to have a "posh coffee" and pastry makes if feel even more like a holiday treat. We were both charmed into staying two extra days here, but the hilight was not the town it´s self, but the day long trail ride we did on horseback today through the countryside here, half spent in pine forrests, the other half galloping across the open grasslands, and of course the typical Argentine asado parrilla, or bbq (with wine!). We were definately livng out our cowboy fantasies, feeling the wind whip across your face as you ride off into the horizion. By mutual agreement, we are going to do more riding in Bolivia, in some rugged canyons that are Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid territory.
Much to my delight, Mom is taking to traveling in hostels like a duck to water. All of the kids my age all want to talk to her, and it´s nice to see her responding so positivley. Every now and again she turns to me and says, "oh I am having so much fun!" and it just makes me feel so glad, so happy to be able to share this special experience with her, and thriled that she is enjoying just as much as I am. Maybe even more. It just makes me feel proud of her, silly as that sounds. Well, off to Buenos Aires tomorrow, in our first class bus! with chocolate provisions! As I said, we are roughing it.