Estero Beach Hotel/Resort RV Park

I got up early to walk around the hotel/RV park grounds and get some pictures.  It was a fabulous morning.  I took the following pics.

Diving for food.

Don and Kim pointed out I these sea lions that were way out on a jetty.

Also spotted some pelicans.

At the end of the malecon were some young fishermen walking home with their catches.

Walking along the malecon was this beautiful private home.

Off to La Bufadora

We left about 9:00 and our next destination was La Bufadora also known as “The Blowhole”.  It was only a short drive of about 17 miles.  There is a large parking lot where we were all able to park and then you have to make your way through many vendors on each side of a narrow road.  Each of the vendors are yelling at you to enter their small shops and purchase their merchandise.  It is odd but almost every shop sells the same kind of stuff.  I guess it is who yells the loudest gets the business.

Beautiful Scenery

The coastline was beautiful.

La Bufadora otherwise known as the Blow Hole.  As the tide comes in it creates a vaccuum that blows water thru this hole and sprays way up the side of the rocks.  It is very impressive.

Don and Kim had stopped at this one vendor selling cooked clams in a shell.  They really looked good so had to try them.  They were absolutely delicious.

Stopped by the Federalies

Then we hit the road again and our next stop was quite a drive from the coast.  We drove about 46 miles to a beautiful valley.  Just prior to our stop we had to go thru a checkpoint where the Federalies had to check our vehicles for guns and drugs.  Don explained to them that we were all together and were only going about a mile further to our destination.  They let us go thru without any hassle at all.

On to Bodegas San Rafael

The last stop of the day was at Bodegas San Rafael.  It is a family run business located in the Valle de Ojos Negros, formerly known as Valle de San Rafael.  This is a private winery owned and operated by Ricardo Hussong who was the grandson of John Hussong that I spoke of in a previous post here.  It is not open to the public, but it is available to Harvest Host members both for tours and camping overnight.

Ricardo Hussong was a very gracious host who showed us thru his winery and let us sample some of his great wines.  He also had these huge bulldogs that were so friendly.

Ricardo Hussong gave us a grand tour of his entire winery.

He had a spigot in the large vats that he poured wine out of so we could all taste it.

Ricardo then poured us a bottle of Brandy which we later enjoyed after our special dinner.

What a fabulous dinner!!

After the tour of the winery we were all invited to have wine tasting and a paired dinner prepared by Ludwig (Lui) Hussong, the great grandson of John Hussong and the son of Ricardo Hussong.  He explained to us how cooking was always a very important part of the Hussong family and how his mother used to prepare a huge meal every Saturday for the entire family.  He then went to school where he learned to be a chef and prepared a wonderful meal for us.

We walked up to our outdoor dining area.  It was rather chilly, but the wine, great food and brandy helped to keep us warm.

It was a beautiful spot.

Another view showing some of the smaller tables.

This was were we had our feast.  The dinner was absolutely fabulous.  To start we had a delicious soup with a nice white wine.  Then  we were served pork that was about 3 inches thick over couscous and fresh asparagus along with a wonderful red wine.  For desert we had a fig with a slice of cheese made by his grandmother with a small slice of toast.  Soooooo Gooooood!!!  Then we all enjoyed conversing over some of the brandy we had been given previously that day.

What a fabulous day!!!  Lots of wine tasting (and brandy too) and a fabulous meal.  Plus we also got to tour a winery that is not open to the public, except for members of Harvest Hosts Link.

This is a pic of where we parked our rigs.

Another great day of a winery tour, wine tasting, dining and great conversation.  It can’t get much better then this!!!