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Published: August 13th 2008
Uruguay, what a beautiful place. Unfortunately we didn't stay long enough to savour all the delights of this country but we managed to stay on a working ranch, Estancia as they call it there.
We heard about this place from a girl we have met in Bolivia and the prospect of horse riding was just too tempting for me not to go. Ed agreed to join me and the minute we arrived there he probably regretted it because apart from the farmer he was the only guy inbetween 5 other girls 😉
The deal was to pay 30 Us$ a day and you're getting accommodation, foof and all the horse riding you can think of. As it is a proper running farm, you can go out everyy day and "help" working every day. That involved rounding up cattle to bring them back to the farm and check if they're ok, pregnant, etc. Usually we went out twice a day, in the morning and in the afternoon and always on horseback. Juan, the farmer, taught us how to saddle the horses ourselves. It was great fun to see how a farm in South America works and it's so different to farm life
in Europe. It didn't seem to involve as much work, I suppose because he didn't have any milk cows, only meat!
There was no electricity on the farm, except for 3 hours in the evening and that was mainly to watch movies. Juan is a big movie buff and has a huge collection of DVD's at the farm. A lot of rubbish but also some really good films. He also has the whole Sex and the City collection. I assumed his wife owns them but it turned out, he loves it! A fecking cowboy, in the middle of nowhere loves Sex and the City???
Anyway, after 3 nights on the Estancia we decided to move on and check out Montevideo and Colonia before heading back to Buenos Aires.
Montevideo was a bit of a disappointment really. The people are extremly friendly and helpful but the city itself wasn't that great. We only stayed for one night and then moved on to Colonia. Colonia is just a 1 hour ferry ride from Buenos Aires and a popular spot for Portenos (inhabitants of Buenos Aires) for a weekend away. When you get there, you'll understand. It is a little gem!
Beautiful cobbled streets and a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish architecture make this place unbelievably beautiful. Sure enough it was packed with tourists, Argentines and other travellers alike. Apart from a few lovely sights, there's also an abundance of great restaurants. It's not cheap, in fact, all of Uruguay isn't but it is well worth it, as we didn't have a bad feed all the time.
After 2 nights in Colonia it was time to say good bye and on the ferry back to BA to find a suit and leather jacket for Ed 😉
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Roly
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Lovin it
Hey you guys, lovin the blogs, bringing it all back to me as I sit in work mildly depressed! Ed you have a youthful countenance about you, all that ridin must be doing you good! Yvonne take care. I bought an electronic drumkit for my studio and will start music production course in temple bar next month. Gill is well and we are both happyoutin our apt. talk soon..