HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Eating meat, meat, meat, meat
BUMMER OF THE DAY: It rained, like flood rain, but didn’t really impact us
BUYS OF THE DAY: The gaucho BBQ optional
WORD OF THE DAY: Giddy up……
Today the guys are off to ride some horses for a few hours. Not me and not Kate. We are still going out for the trip, we just get to have some free time at the ranch till they come back and then we all get feed MEAT. I am a BIG meat eater, I love it and I couldn’t imagine my life without steak or chicken. I just can’t. When Drew cooked pasta, I would be horrified if there was no meat in it….. I love it.
A Gauchois a term commonly used to describe residents of the South Americanpampas, chacos, or Patagoniangrasslands, found principally in parts of Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Chile, and Southern Brazil.The word gaucho could be described as a loose equivalent to the North American "cowboy" (vaquero, in Spanish). Like the North American word cowboy, Venezuelan or Colombianllanero, or Chilean huaso, or the Mexican charro, the term often connotes the 19th century more than the present day; then gauchos made up the majority of the rural population, herding cattle on the vast estancias, and practicing hunting as their main economic activities. The word "gaucho" is sometimes used to refer to chimichurri, a steak sauce common to Argentina.
We weren’t getting picked up till 9am, so we had time to have breakfast and I needed to get my stuff sorted into ‘camp’ mode. I still have my big backpack under the truck and I only need to pull that out weekly at the moment to get my Malaria tablets out when I run out. I have another smaller bag I have all my day to day stuff in that I can store upstairs in the overhead compartment, but I have decided I am going to have another smaller bag, I know I now really do sound like a bag lady, and just put my daily needs into that and just shuffle that back and forth from the truck to the tent. As we are going to be out all day, we are all pretty keen to just leave out sleeping gear in the tents and then everything else will be on the truck. I don’t remember being that paranoid in Africa (I am not comparing I’m just saying) but in South America’s defence we are camped next to a busy road and we were literally in the middle of nowhere in Africa. There. Statement, not comparing. I think that is where this trip is a little over the shop, some days we are in hotels, other days we are camping and there really isn’t a system and it also makes it that much more challenging for us as each form of accommodation requires different things. I think I would prefer 100% camping or 100% hotels if I was to have a choice, but we are making do and as mentioned yesterday after Santiago, out of 46 days we are camping for 39 of them, so I am getting what I wished for, so if I complain remind me of this entry will you.
The transfer was 20 minutes late but we were on the road just before e9.30am for the hours’ drive to the ranch. Even though we had eaten breakfast at the camp site, they had a small spread of breakfast when we got there of bread, spreads and tea and coffee. I guess it was to give the guys some fuel before heading out. It was time then to kit the guys into leg chaps and matched up to their horses for the few hours that they would be out. I watched with interest as people were loaded onto the tops of their horses, they looked massive and I was so glad that I wasn’t getting on one. I took photos of them all with their own cameras before they left en mass.
Ahhh the peace and quiet. It is a working ranch, so we saw horses run past where we were sitting, gauchos and extended family go through their daily routine. I had bought all my appliances and asked if I could charge them while we waited and they were fine about. So I typed up 2 blogs till I had to move as they wanted to prepare the tables for lunch. In the meantime the meat had been put on the grill over hot coals to slowly cook while we waited for the return of the wannabe gaucho’s. This is when I moved to sit under a massive tree where Kate and Gray were sitting and then the red wine was bought out with 3 glasses and we were told to help ourselves. Well I haven’t touched alcohol in the afternoon, for goodness knows how long, and it was just after midday, so Gray and I hit the bottle and just chatted and enjoyed the afternoon under this massive tree listening to the thunder in the background and wondering if the guys would get back before the heavens opened up. Well luck was on their side and they got back at 2.30pm and then 10 minutes later it started to pour down, it rained cats and dogs for the next 2 hours. Hey looked like they had fun with the only dampener being that Debbie’s horse steeped into a small hole and she fell off her horse. She didn’t break anything, but she did hit her head, so they will go to the hospital when we get back to town to get checked over to be on the safe side. All I could say was welcome back to the group, and about time was all I could think of as the red wine started to kick in and the smell of BBQ’ed meat was salivating.
Lunch was served under an opened sided roof, where we were kept dry from the rain, and it wasn’t cold at all, with long trestle tables covered with table cloths and set for around 25 places. There was multiple salads every 6 people or so, and then the meat was served on our plates as we ate, it just kept coming. We all sat down together, the owner, his family and the workers down the other end of the table. It looked like a scene out of Brothers and Sisters or some western movie. Everyone was chatting, passing bowls of food around, our glasses never went empty of red wine all afternoon with them getting topped up, and not by us I might add and it really was just a pleasant day all round. This was a half day optional, with us leaving the ranch at 4.30pm; I would hate to see how long the full day was. Nothing was too much for the family; they were friendly, welcoming and just a nice bunch of people. Reflecting back I have to say I liked the extend family living, which is weird coming from me, who doesn’t keep in touch with my mum’s family as much as I should, but to have 3 generations in a household had a great feeling about it. Food for thought, I’ve missed that boat with my mum, but should I meet some-one else eventually, who knows I still may get that opportunity.
Well it really had rained and most of the roads back to Salta were completely covered in water, so it made the going a little slower getting back and it made us start thinking on how our tents have pulled up with that amount of rain and what to expect when we got back. Well there was a lot of water around the camp as well but I am happy to report that our tent survived and everything inside was dry as a bone. A few of the other tents weren’t as lucky and there were wet sleeping bags and mattresses all hanging in the truck as they were tried to be dried for the night. If anything the rain had cooled it down and after we got back I had a bit of a nana nap, with a full belly and red wine in the system it was a great way to kill a few hours till dinner, which none of us really needed as lunch was so late and so much, but we all had a bit of carbonara as Gray had gone to the effort of preparing it and then it was an early night to bed falling asleep to the rain still falling on the tent roof. Good work tent 10 for keeping all our stuff dry. We knew it was a good tent!
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