South America
29 May
The Five Senses of Garzon Image: fading grace, white dusty roads, peeling facades and rusting junkyards, bruised skies and rainbows Sound: roosters at dawn, baying dogs, horse hooves and gaucho whistles, a bike squeaking Smell: wet earth and damp walls, jasmine and lavender, rosemary and roses, cow pats and horse manure, fire smoke Touch: sheep’s...
26 Apr
Our new watering hole… Our newest shopping venue… But the important things remain the same.
23 Mar
I’m very fortunate..I have clients, who have become friends, who, when traveling around the world, will text me the name of a restaurant or shop that they have stumbled across, or send me the phone number of a great guide. This week Allan sent me not only an email raving about Gruta de Santo Antonio but also a cache of photographs showing his...
26 Jan
I had a serendipitous encounter yesterday in Buenos Aires. Walking along the street, my eye was drawn to a little “boîte” of a shop, dark and lush with a center table set with gorgeous glass, dramatically spotlit. Enchanted, I stepped through into a magic kingdom of scent. Fueguia, I was told by Julian Bedel, the “nose”...
25 Jan
Casa Sur is a really good, reasonable alternative to the grand hotels of Recoleta, the Alvear, Park Hyatt, Mansion Algodon and Four Seasons. Located on Avenida Callao just down the street from the big boys in a pretty 10-story house, this small boutique hotel has decently sized, peacefully decorated rooms, good service, an in-house restaurant, a tiny...
22 Jan
22 Jan
There is this unusual aspect of my village in Uruguay..it is Sunday today and the two general stores in the village that offer any food are closed. I have pasta to cook..I am not without. Yet I have been asked by my neighbors to have dinner with them..a Sunday night simple kitchen dinner. Neighbors watch for neighbors. Before I left for dinner I fed...
18 Jan
18 Jan
It is, without doubt, one of the most moving experiences. Like Bartabas, Martin is magical with his horses. The stillness between them vibrates with an almost visible energy of love and trust. His performance is mesmerizing and moving. Arriving from San Antonio de Areco to Pueblo Garzon, I have been doing my own horse talk with my neighbor in the...
16 Jan
Adorable Emilia from the beautiful estancia of La Bamba in San Antonio de Areco, shared with me her favorite shop for bombachas, those pleated, ankle-buttoned, waisted trousers that are synonymous with the Argentinian gaucho. The cut is important, of course, but what makes me keep searching for the perfect bombachas is the rough fabric one finds in...
15 Jan
A real find in BA’s trendy Palermo Soho, this small hotel with diminutive swimming pool on roof, reasonable rates (and rising as it becomes more popular), welcoming staff and terrific in-house restaurant, Sipan, is a real find. Ask for room no. 14 with balcony overlooking the leafy street and a terrace through the trees where a would-be juggler...
27 Dec
One tends to think beach when looking at Rio’s top hotels and the Fasano usually tops the list. But there is a new Design Concept Hotel in Rio, the Santa Teresa, and it is a meticulously restored coffee plantation mansion located in the historical heart of the city. Surrounded with lush gardens and with views to Tijuca mountain, Guanabara...
2 Dec
There are these gems around the world, small, owner-operated hotel homes, tucked away up a mountain road or down a sandy beach lane, that you cannot believe you have stumbled upon let alone have the good fortune to claim a room key for. B&B reconfigured – no longer the sweet pot pourrie basket on the bedside table and the berry-filled...
26 Nov
Buenos Aires is not unique in offering up expressions of private passion. But to find this intense love of tango is quintessentially “porteno”.
24 Nov
Those of us who come down to Uruguay’s Atlantic Coast year round have two restaurants to applaud – Baby Gouda in La Barra and La Olada just outside of Jose Ignacio’s Playa Juanita. Open year round, they have attained the stature of loyal die hards, and we are grateful. While everything else closes up tight as a tick outside of...
10 Nov
Brazil’s coast is, of course, magnificent. It’s hotels, to my eye, have never had the same beauty. The resorts never quite sparkled and those boutique, owner-operated properties that one found tucked away needed some real grooming. How lovely to find Uxua which opened in 2009 in Trancoso, one of Brazil’s trendiest beach resorts....
17 Sep
I have an interesting and very cool young woman, Rebecca, working with me who has equally dynamic friends. Alex Ball, founder of the Sacred Valley Project, is one of them. Alex, having led various service trips to Central and South America, bumped up against an issue that moved him deeply when working one summer in Peru’s Sacred Valley. A...
25 May
It could only be in Argentina or Chile that you have a ranch called Endless Waters! Here, on 6800 acres of Chile’s Patagonia, is a 4 bedroom ranch called Dos Lagos. Accessible only by water, helicopter, by foot or on horseback, this warm and comfortable lodge offers the twin luxuries of extraordinarily beautiful landscapes to be savored in the...
2 Apr
A great brouhaha went up this morning bringing us into the road. We found Julio and a fellow gaucho herding the village sheep out of town and in to the hills. They needed a hair cut around the eyes, I was told – the full chop will follow soon. One wooly fellow escaped from the flock and turned tail, only to get swooped up by Julio and carried...
29 Mar
I was in the hills last night, no more than 15 minutes from Pueblo Garzon and 40 minutes from Jose Ignacio, where I had lunched at La Huella, my favorite restaurant, at the usual table for 12. Chic, trendy, great food and fun, I always breathe a sigh of contentment, however, when I leave JI and turn off route 9 to head back to our village. But so...
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