Month: September 2011

Putting up the window shutters

“Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.” – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

We are counting down the days to the Oktoberfest! Four days to go! Oktoberfest = Maintenance. We have so many things to do and the list doesn´t seem to get any shorter.

Andrey always has the difficult work. He needs to fix things and I have the easy job: finding work for him. A good example will be the window shutters.

I think women tend to simply things. I look at the window shutters and see the final product. Beautiful, wooden window shutters blocking out the sun. It shouldn´t be too difficult. Cement them into the wall, tweak a little here and a little there and the job is done. But unfortunately it doesn´t work that way. That I have learnt from experience. What looks like a one day job, turns out to be a lot longer.

Andrey inspecting the window shutters

There are always complications and the job takes up more time than expected. The window shutters were no different. Andrey managed to finish the work today. It was a big job with a lot of drilling, cement and tweaking. It is done!

A couple of finishing touches and then it is done!

Ru, our dog, was keeping an eye on Andrey but eventually gave up and went back to sleep.

Ru our Hostel Dog, friend and supervisor

Unfortunately for Andrey there are four windows more…but that can wait until later!

Well done Andrey!

Our pets at Hostel Tinktinkie

An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language. ~Martin Buber

We have two pets at Hostel Tinktinkie and a regular guest. I will tell you more about the guest later. Let me first introduce you to our dog Ru.Ru is a very special dog that became part of our family in 2009.One sunny morning Andrey and I visited the Supermarket in town. I saw an elderly man standing outside with a puppy in his hands. I stopped to stroke the puppy, when he said something to me in Spanish. I didn´t understand much and wanted to know how much he wanted for the puppy.

Andrey was already close to the car and I was running behind him like a little child. “Baby, please ask the man how much he wants for the puppy!”, I cried. “Please Baby, I want the puppy.” Andrey reluctantly went to ask the man and he said we could have it for free. Before Andrey could change his mind, I took the puppy and went to the car.

Andrey has never owned a dog before. He is a cat person and was very sceptical about the dog. There I sat with this tiny white bundle, while hubby rushed back to the Supermarket to buy dog food and shampoo.

I will never forget how Andrey took this puppy and studied it from all angles. Now we had the big task to choose a name. None of the names that I have picked seemed to work. Eventually Andrey came up with the name Ru. It is a unique name and one of a kind. In Argentina Internet URL´s end with.com.ar,in South Africa it is .co.za and in Russia .ru. The @ sign in Russian is called ´Subaka´ which also means ´dog´. Subaka Ru or @Ru got a name that day!

Ru is such a big part of our family. She has the sweetest nature and loves people. This is so important for our business because people like to stroke animals. She loves people too much and when they leave she goes into depression and refuses to eat for 2 days. It is sad to see her like this.

Ru is not camera shy and when our guests pose for photos she is there with them, watching and smiling! Our guests love Ru! We know, we love her too!

Ru posing for the camera

A couple of months ago we heard a noise at the kitchen door. When we opened it a small cat walked in. We looked at each other and smiled. We didn´t have any cat food in the house and gave him some milk and human food. Andrey and I both loved him immediately. We called the cat Minkie.

Maxie when her first arrived at the Hostel

A couple of days later we realized our mistake and renamed the cat to Maxie.

Maxie stayed with us for 2 weeks and suddenly left. We were heartbroken. He stayed away for almost a month and then suddenly reappeared with a female cat. This is our guest. She is a very timid cat and does have a home but she stalks poor Maxie. Every day she is waiting patiently outside for him, while he is snoozing on the bed!

Maxie hunting

Maxie has a beautiful nature and the two of them are getting along just fine! We often see them lying together underneath a tree. This makes me smile.

Ru and Maxie our pets
Ru and Maxie

Ru and Maxie are looking forward to be meeting you one day!

A storm underway!

Yesterday afternoon I took my daily walk and the weather was perfect! Clouds were forming in the sky and I was looking forward to smell the rain! I love that smell!

Spring is not officially here until the 21st of September but the trees have already started to turn green. But we need rain to wash away all the dust and traces of winter.

About an hour later the weather changed dramatically. The wind picked up and the sky turned an orange colour. We prepared for a massive storm. The wind kept howling all night but not a single drop of rain!

A lot of huffing and puffing and eventually it just stop…maybe it got tired!

How unpredictable can weather be?

Hostel Tinktinkie – Santa Rosa de Calamuchita – Córdoba -Argentina


Hostel Tinktinkie opened in 2009, just in time for the annual Oktoberfest. Our hostel is situated in the beautiful Calamuchita Valley which is a very important tourist destination. People from all over Argentina love to come here for holiday or for a weekend. The Santa Rosa river, mountains and lake add to the attraction.

Andrey and I did not want to open a hostel in the big city. There is too much stress and no nature to enjoy. Hostel Tinktinkie is not in the town centre of Santa Rosa de Calamuchita. We are +- 2.5 kms from the city centre but close to the main road where buses stop. The Santa Rosa river (Rió Santa Rosa) is 300m from the hostel and close to a balneario or beach that ahs recently opened there. Visitors love it there and would often relax with their chairs inside the river. We love to go there in the evening to cool down.

River 300m from Hostel Tinktinkie

Our hostel offers many opportunities for hikers, bikers and nature lovers. The local tourist office and Turismo de Córdoba do a lot to promote tourism in this part of the country. Working with tourist we have noticed that many people go to Buenos Aires, Iguazu, Perito Moreno, Mendoza and Salta and Jujuy. What we have been doing at Hostel Tinktinkie is to give travellers a taste of the Córdoba Province. Many travellers like to go off the beaten track and to visit places that other travellers have not heard of.

Hostel Tinktinkie is 12 kms from Villa General Belgrano, 12 kms from Villa del Dique, 25 kms from La Cumbrecita, 10 kms from Villa Rumipal, 70 kms from Alta Gracia and 80 kms from Córdoba city. We are also en-route to Buenos Aires, San Luis, Mendoza and Rio Cuarto.

All our rooms are spacious, modern and have been prepared with a lot of love and care. We have three rooms with individual entrances. We decided to built it like this to offer more privacy to our guests. Each room has it´s own bathroom and a small table where you could work. We have Wi-Fi, free Internet and tea and coffee is included in the price.

Private room with 1 bunk-bed and TV/DVD

6 Bedroom dorm with private bathroom

The furniture in our hostel have been made by local people. We are a green hostel and take great pride in the nature that surrounds our hostel. We don´t flush toilet paper and we recycle glass and plastic.

Andrey is a master chef and love to prepare cuisine from Russia, Asia, Argentina and even South Africa for our guests. One of the things we love to do is to have a meal with our guests. We don´t charge exorbitant prices like many other hostels. We enjoy the company more than making money from the food that we prepare.

Hostel Tinktinkie recently received an endorsement from TripAdvisor, which we are very proud of. We also joined forces with the Tourist Office in Santa Rosa de Calamuchita and Argentina Turismo to further promote tourism. We also work with Hostelworld and HostelBookers.

If you are travelling to Argentina and would like to come and meet us please send me an email or visit our website:

nelieta@tinktinkie.com
Hostel Tinktinkie Web

This is what some of our guests had to say about us:

Excelente muchachos! Gracias por los días hermosos. Esperamos volver alguna vez =)Emilia

Estuvimos ahí el noviembre por la cercanía que tiene con Villa General Belgrano ya que queríamos ir al Oktoberfest pero no estar constantemente con mucha gente, como suele suceder con esta fiesta.
El hostel nos sorprendió positivamente, sus dueños (Nelieta y Andrey) son realmente muy amables y se preocupan porque uno siempre esté bien y no le falte nada.
Lo recomiendo para descansar y estar tranquilo, en un hermoso lugar en las afueras de Calamuchita. También por la relación calidad-precio. -Laura

Si realmente quieren escapar del ruido y del caos de las ciudades grandes, relajarse y disfrutar silencio y tranquilidad, si quieren descansar lejos de centros urbanos, de multitud en la playa, entonces el Tinktinkie es para Ustedes.

300 metros del Rio Santa Rosa, 2,5 km del centro de Santa Rosa de Calamuchita – importante centro turístico con restaurantes y boliches. 8 km del lago Embalse del Rio Tercero.

Todo para pasar vacaciones o fin de semana en un lugar hermoso, con la vista de las sierras chicas y grandes. Muchas opciones para hiking, tracking, ciclismo, montañismo. 12 km del Villa General Belgrano.

Habitaciones con baño privado, cocina-comedor totalmente equipada, TV-DVD, Internet y Wi-Fi.

El precio incluye desyauno!!!