To a finca

The senora of the house has 3 sisters and they are all very close. One of the reasons is probably because they are all widowed or divorced. Yesterday, Sunday, one of the sisters invited me to her finca in the country. 3 of the sisters could make it, all of them quite a lively group. What a blast!
We drove down this big long valley, that Merida lies in, about 45 minutes. Then we drove up to a big plateau with incredible views. It seems to me that the dream of many Latin Americans is to own a finca, or small farm somewhere in the country.
We went down a long country road near the town of Las Lagunillas. The finca looks to me like about a 50 acre farm. There is a caretaker and his family who live in one house and then there is the home of the senora. She must have called the caretaker to let him know we were coming. The BBQ was already going when we arrived.
The senora-owner told me she firmly believes that this is the best spot in all of Venezuela. I believe her. There are wonderful mountain breezes all the time. I dont know if it´s the breezes or the location, but the humidity is very low there. It´s perceptible. It´s also about 1000 feet lower in elevation than Merida, so it´s a bit warmer and doesn´t have Merida´s late afternoon clouds. They have about 50 head of Brahman cattle on the farm, as well as the usual pen of chickens, rabbits, a couple of peacocks, some sheep, the dog, geese, and a big land tortoise.
The senora´s house was huge. There was a center courtyard but not the usual kind of courtyard. This one was filled with flowers and vegetables and fruit trees. Around the courtyard was a covered walkway with nice tile floors. There are individual bedrooms that lead off the walkway.
Everything is open air: the dining room, sala, etc. There was even a corner of the inside walkway with couches and chairs set up before a tv set. It felt like you were miles and miles away from anything and everything. After the crazy traffic and noise of Merida, I can understand why these places are so popular.
We had a HUGE lunch...little sausage appetizers, an avocado salad, yucca, a slab of beefsteak and a couple of beers! Oh, yai, yai! We sat on a covered outside veranda with views looking over the valley and the Andes mountains behind. We could make out the gung-ho hang gliders hanging in the air near the top of the mountain across the valley. The whole scene was very idyllic. After over-eating shamelessly, we then all retired to separate bedrooms for the afternoon siesta. How civilized! And what a great way to digest all that food and those 2 beers!
After about an hour, we were awakened by the caretaker´s wife with small cups of coffee for us all. We then went for a short hike and headed for home. On the way home, we stopped to look at the huge stadium the government is building to host the America´s Cup soccer match coming up this summer.
All in all, a wonderful day!
Hasta luego