I should look so good when I'm this old...

This casa is large, but doesn't really qualify as huge, with
several sleeping quarters, a main room and a kitchen all
around the Spanish version of an atrium. But it is over
300 years old and beautifully renovated for new use.

If I look so well-preserved when I'm 300, I shall be quite happy indeed! A visit yesterday to this old, old casa that has been renovated by a fellow who is married with children shows the value of these older houses in the Santander region.

Inside you can see how the original owners designed the roof line to provide a catchment for water right into a very large carved-out stone trough at each corner of the roofline.

The patio, shown here, looks across at the northern end of the Andes and gives the viewers a nice breeze in the afternoon.

This is the wine "in production...."

The present owner is also a hobbyist wine-maker and is growing a grape called "Isabella" with great success here in the Barichara area. He has been doing this for about eight years here, I gathered from our tour. We sampled some of the 'juice' which had not yet fermented to the fine wine stage yet and it had a nice fruity flavor with a hint of greater flavor to come.

I'm off today to a small village called Curiti to attend a fair and see some more of this area that I'm working on to call 'home.'