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Published: April 9th 2011
The Markets
Where we had lunch. I love the light in this photoColonia was nice as I mentioned and quiet. And that was what I expected of such a small little town. What I wasn't expecting was that Montevideo, the capital of Uraguay would also be to a large extent. Obvioulsy not to the same degree, but for what should be a major city it was rather small and quiet. Which I'm pretty sure was the reason why we spent such a short amount of time there. Only 1 day. But we enjoyed ourselves anyways. Lunch was at the old markets. It used to be a food market, but in more recent years it's turned into a series of restaurants. Fernando recommended that we try the big BBQ plates which had far too much meat or the paella. I chose the paella and it was incredible, but I still ate far too much. This seems to be a common theme for this holiday. I'm not looking forward to what the scales have to say to me when I get home.
That night Fernando had a little bit of a culture shock in store for us. He took us to a karaoke bar. A spanish karaoke bar. And amazingly karaoke is the same
in Spanish too. Some good singers, but mostly drunk girls getting up, sungung their farvourite songs badly and giggling the whole time. So of course I was in. They did have some songs in english but not very many... so I ended up getting conned into singing Brittany! Ouch! I had that terrible music stuck in my head for days.
The day after that we headed by bus to Tacuarembo where we were met by Juan Manuel, a rather gruff looking gaucho with a rather large truck. And of course it was raining. Did I mention that it was an open backed truck? Well it was. But Juan Manuel being the forward thinker that he is had covered the back of the truck with a tarp and brought blankets to cover the seats and giant plastic bags to put everyone's backpacks in. And then with no more further ado we chose places. I of course chose the back. None of the fancy comforts on INSIDE the cabin for me. And what followed was an interesting and not overly comfortable and for some, not overly dry 1 hour ride to the farm. Or estancia or ranch depending on what language
Green drinks!
For St Patricks Day or version of english you speak. This particular estancia was called Estancia Panagea.
The farm itself was very basic in amenities. No permanent power supply, just a generator for a couple of hours between sunset and 10pm. We were requested to not use a full flush unless we NEEDED to (just pour 1/2 a bucket of water in). We were also regaled with tales of previous visitors to the farm... including the "blondies" who broke mirrors by putting candles too close "to check their beauty" and broke the generator by overloading the power supply with hair straighteners and people who left candles to burn holes in couches and tables. And of course the rules for alcohol consumption were discussed. "Strictly one bottle of beer per person per night. But we've found that if we try to make Aussies, Scots and Irishmen stick to that rule we have anarchy. So they can have as much as they like." Yay for having an Aussie passport I guess.
And we also met Juan Manuel's wife Suzzana and his daughter Dharma. Dharma was (is) almost 2 years old and is absolutely adorable. She was shy to begin with, but quickly warmed up
Fernando and Michael
Being tough with their manly manly drinks to this latest bunch of people to come through her house. Ahmed particularly was happy to have a child around. From the way he played with Dharma it was obvious that all he wants is to be is a grandfather, but his oldest child is still only 19 so he still has a little while longer to wait. Suzanna was also charming. A Swiss German who Juan Manuel met on his travels through Asia. She was about 7 1/2 months pregnant so it was really hard for her to spend the evenings with us, but the time we did get to spend with her was great.
We were warned that the food on the estancia was basic, but we did not find it so. It was rich and healthy and sooo tasty. Much better than the same old same old food we'd had time and time again through out the rest of South America. So of course we ate far too much of it.
But the food was only the first of the many fond memories we all have of the estancia. The following morning we had our first horse riding and saddling lesson. And these weren't the
Like A Prayer
Sung with passion saddles that I've seen before. They were Gaucho saddles. We had a couple of blankets, followed by a saddle which was kept on with a large girth and topped off with a sheepskin and a smaller girth. We were warned that it was important to keep our legs relaxed and to hold the reins with just one hand, which was rather different to what I'd been told before when riding horses in Australia and was clearly differnt to what our english riders had been told.
We had amongst us a few experienced riders. Jodie had spent a lot of time riding in Australia and Hazelle and Laura had both done some riding in England. The "boys" - John and Michael - had also been riding a few times before and were harbouring dreams of being cowboys. It was apparent quickly that all of them had the ability to rider their horses fast, to trot, to canter and even to gallop, but Jodie was the only who showed any real interest in keeping her horse to a walk. Eva, had done some riding as a youngster and so we were given similar level horses. I'm not sure if James had
done any riding before, but he was showing a decent level of skill in no time. And then there was: Kat, Jess, Jane, Bailey and Ahmed who'd never been on a horse before and it showed. The one last person we had to round out the group was our fearless leader Fernando. He told us that he'd been here 4 times before and he'd managed to fall off each time. That level of skill - or lack thereof - also showed.
That morning was just a ride to allow Juan Manuel to assess our skills. Then in the afternoon we got into the real work. Mustering cattle. We were told to stay behind the cattle and ride in a line to keep them moving in the direction that they needed to go. This was of course far too tricky for us all. We ended up with people to the side, and some up the front. And those who had more skill at the back with Juan Manuel and his trusty Gaucho sidekick, Bilingua. Surprisingly I was amongst them, although by the end of the afternoon it was obvious that I needed to shorten my stirrups before the next time
Fernando
On the way to the ranch. The umbrella was to stop the rain from getting him. I think it's a great random portrait I went out on my horse.
Once we eventually got the cattle back we had more fun in store for us. We had to separate the cows from the calves because a few of the calves needed treatment for wounds. Some for castration wounds, some for others. So we would get a few in a tight little pen and using white flags we'd get the cows to go through the cattle run where someone was ready to spray them with fly spray and then we got to wrestle the calves to the ground one at a time. And then we did it over and over again. It was fun, but hard, smelly and dirty work. And to top it off I lost my sunglasses in there somewhere. My lovely Oakley's that I'd bought just before going to Antarctica. Oh well. Such is life. They were just sunnies. I sure hope that's all I manage to lose on this holiday!
Day 2 at the farm was pretty similar. Sheep mustering in the morning, followed by more cattle and then more sheep. But this time there was a difference. In the morning Juan Manuel asked the "wonder six" to go
Cowboy hats
No farm is complete withour them with Bilingua to get the sheep from the far corner of the paddock, and to allow them a chance to get their horses up to a canter. It was pretty obvious to most of us who 5 of those wonder 6 were. John and Michael, the wanna-be cowboys were of course. Our two british riders Laura and Hazelle were too and Jodie (the best horseman or horsewoman amongst us) were all on the list. But who was the 6th member. To my surprise it was me! Obviously I didn't need to go, but Jodie convinced me that she didn't really need to ride too fast and if I was uncomfortable then she was happy to hang back with me so I went.
As it turned out it wasn't me who needed Jodie to hang back with her. Laura's horse for the day was one we hadn't seen before and it definitely wasn't a go-er. So we got a couple of little canters in (I know - I cantered a horse!!!!) and plenty of trots, and it was incredible! I wanted to keep going, but all good things must come to an end...
And on our third morning on
Dharma
Isn't she gorgeous? the farm we weren't getting ready to ride. We were getting ready to leave :-( Photos and farewells with Suzanna and Dharma then back in the truck and on to the next location. This time it wasn't raining so we got dust in the back instead. And of course it wasn't just 1 hour... it was 3. With one stop on the way. Not a proper pee stop. But there was a cactus we could duck behind ;-) Classy. But even the truck ride was fun and it prepared us for what was coming up. Our first over night bus! But that's part of the next blog...
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Jun
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Still Alive?
Today is 12th April, this post is 17th March. I wonder if she is laying in a ditch somewhere??????