Travel with Indigo

Well, today is New Year’s Eve and what a great place to celebrate it!  Today we had a BBQ prepared by Captain Toby and cooked on the grill on the dock.  Chef Geraldine and I prepared some parts of the meal but Toby cooked it all on the grill.  We ate on the aft deck–the new cushions are here–and it was delicious!  These South Africans really know how to cook on a grill.  There was plenty of meat but my favorite was the chicken that was marinated in something really good.  The vegetables were cooked perfectly and I have some good ideas about how to grill vegetables.

Our special treat this New Year’s Eve was another invitation to La Torcaza, the marble mansion I described earlier.  Carlos Pedro sent his driver for us and Sahori had been invited again.  This time, she wore a special kimono that her grandmother had made for her, all hand-stitched.  It was a beautiful fabric and I would love to have a jacket made of the fabric.  Carlos Pedro took us on another tour, this time showing us places we had not been to before.  His wine cellar was really interesting.  It is a huge room with metal shelving and wood cases of wine from floor to ceiling and stacked anywhere he could find room.  He told us that he has a total of 35,000 bottles of wine and his son has some more in his wine cellar in the room next door.  The real find was at the rear of the wine cellar where Carlos Pedro had stacked up many, many boxes of Churchill cigars that were made before Castro took over Cuba.  As you can imagine, these are worth a lot of money, especially since they have been so carefully preserved.  He gave Phil a box–a special gift–but he says he is not going to open the box or smoke the cigars because they are so valuable–and so strong.  We’ll see about that.

Carlos Pedro told us he has about 250,000 acres of properties, including estancias or ranches, and about 6000 employees, including those who work on the sugar cane properties.  His collections of silver and china are indescribable.  I think I forgot to mention that in addition to the many sculptures located in the park outside the mansion, there are many statues and sculptures in the house.  He told us where some of them came from and when some of them had been done.  The whole place is so beautiful that it doesn’t surprise me that the plan is to turn the property into a museum after Carlos Pedro’s death–which hopefully won’t happen for many years.

After joining the other guests for champagne and caviar, we had a wonderful “light” dinner with lots of wine.  Carlos Pedro explained to me that on Christmas Eve, they invite family and on New Year’s Eve, they invite friends so we felt very honored to be guests both evenings.  Near the end of the evening, Phil brought out his Bob Marley wig and dark glasses and everyone, including Carlos Pedro, thought it was great.  Carlos Pedro actually put on the wig and allowed us to take photos.  Later, he pointed to two Christmas tree ornaments sitting on the dinner table as decoration and said, “These are like the balls of a priest–nothing to do.”  For an old guy, he gets a lot out of life and enjoys it immensely.  Those of you who know me will find it hard to believe that we got home at 3AM!