Riding around the ranch

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As usual we had a plan for today. Unusually and amazingly it actually happened. We wanted to spend some time enjoying the space and countryside on horseback and so we had arranged to ride the estancias horses for a few hours. As we are so bad at Spanish, Josephine organised for her eldest granddaughter Maria to accompany us.

Fiona has done quite a lot of riding but the style in Europe is different than in Argentina so it took a while to get used to. The other thing that was really hard was mounting. Fiona found it almost impossible to get her leg high enough to go in the stirrups. She really is getting old!Once we were all ready we went for a lovely ride around part of the farm. The jam factory next door was established many years ago by Josephine using the fruit grown on the property. We saw the fruit trees, maize crops and we saw the tobacco drying barns. Tobacco is the main cash crop in the area. The horses are not really used on the farm, but Maria's grandfather loves them. He used to play polo when he was younger and has taught all his children and grandchildren to ride. They have enough horses so they can all ride together. As they have 23 grandchildren, they have loads of horses.

We had a rest over lunch. We went back to the cafe across the road and Toby had a tamale. Harriet and Fiona had empanadas for a change. Harriet and Toby then had to try the ice cream. A wild wind had blown up and the power had gone out. They were worried that if they didn't eat the ice cream it would all be wasted.The wind got worse and created a huge dust storm. The sky changed colour with all the dust. It looked like clouds. Fires started in Salta and the smoke was drifting over as well. We were going to go riding again later and we were glad that we had chosen now to rest. We holed up in our rooms until it died down.

When we got back on the horses the wind had stopped. The air was full of dust and the sky still looked a funny colour. We rode over the other side of the farm this time. We saw the workers planting tobacco and also the cows. A dog decided to come with us the whole way. We thought he would give up but he went the distance.We all ached in funny places when we finished. Dinner was amazing again and we went to bed tired and fully fed.

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