The Ranch- Uruguay

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Okey dokey... now were into interesting times....
We were pleasantly surprised by the buses in South America. Talk about luxury....picture first class in an aeroplane. we had a double decker bus, with fully reclining individual seats, so it really felt like you were floating. However we then had to get onto a truck to head to the ranch.... talk about a juxtaposition! But on to the ranch we went...yaaahhhooooo!
A bit of info about the ranch.. it only has 3 hourts of generatedpower (from 6pm til 9pm), so candle light was the go. It was a fully functioning cattle and sheep farm, run by gauchos.
Juan Miguel and Susannah, the owners of the property, were fantastic hosts. Not only did we eat fabulous (again) traditional food, but they allowed us to spend time in their house and around the property. It was a great change from the cities of BA and Montevideo. The landscape is so eerliy like Australia, particularly WA- made us a little homesick.
We spent most of our time there horseriding. And then there was a very competive game of volleyball. The horseriding was great, although it was a little strange at first as we rode gaucho style, which is a bit different to the way we ride at home. It was great. We saddled our own horses (with a lot of expert guidance) and we set off. We herded cattle and no one fell off their horse, which is apparently really rare.

After our stay at the ranch, we headed to a town with some thermal baths. It took three hours in the truck - talk about sore bums. To be honest, we were more interested in finding a toilet and something to eat (no!) so no swimming for us. It was really bizarre seeing everyone walking around the place in their bath robes though . . . After that, we then had a 12 hr bus ride, which was a bit of a horror. It almost looked like we mised it as there was a bit of a problem with one of our group members at the border. They took away her passport as she is from Hong Kong, but they insisted that she needed to be cleared as Chinese . . . luckily it got cleared up and we made our bus.

So anyway, the stay at the ranch was excellent, and definitely a highlight of the last few weeks.

xxx

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Comments

[Graham]

Yeeeha!
you girls look like seasoned cowd'ys! Anyone do some lassooing? Think I might have to get city slickers out again

[maqui]

awesome
hey girls...im glad you had a great time i my country.....made me homesick, i grow up on a 800 acres ranch in Lavalleja...u are welcome anytime:)