Cattle, cacti and Colorado

I was super excited to wake up at the estancia hostel (the saggy bed turning out to be really comfortable), having organised a horseride the day before with the offputting (but now pleasantly non-existant) owner. The only problem was the weather... grey clouds at times threatening rain but mostly just protecting the sun from really giving us the view we desired. On a good day, we were to learn, the mountains bore a blue haze reminiscent of the Blue Mountains of NSW, before a blazing afternoon sun gave them a rich autumn glow (for indeed it is autumn now here) before fading with the constraints of time. Not before providing a beautiful backdrop for the sunset itself... but that is for another blog.

We were orignally going to ride sometime in the morning, but it being Argentina, eventually got on our mounts sometime around lunch. We were to help D with gathering some steeds from the wilderness around the hostel - mostly filled with desert-dwelling and decidedly scary plants - and so set out on our gaucho saddles equipped with what is best described as a frame, at the front draped with cow hide where the legs should go, to protect them as we forged through the vegetation. Poor horses, they must be scratched to blazes half the time or have an exceedingly tough chest by now.

It was super fun riding out with the cattle, a totally new experience to the mustering I am used to in Australia or anywhere else for that matter. One moment you are cantering through sparse cacti and thornly bushes, jumping the odd one here n there, the next you are scrambling through bushes so dense you lose the cattle you are trying to herd and with so many rocks underfoot it is impossible to go any faster than a brisk walk. Thankfully, after all my talk of previous experience with horses, I was given the owner`s ride, most probably the best of the bunch, and was duly rewarded with a great ride. Colorado was a pleasure, easy on the legs and rein, and went wherever I asked him to without complaint.

We ended up going out three times to get more cattle, it being that hard to gather them all at once, stopping in between for lunch and a siesta... mostly for D, I stayed awake and started to read a book I had found on the coffee table by an English traveller in Argentina (turned out to be a really entertaining read). I started to get more adventurous with the kitchen, sneaking bits of ingreditents here n there and moving my food to the fridge now the owner had left. Fuck it, if she was gonna go back on her word of a free room, I will do as a damn well please in her absence. What kind of hostel leaves its only guests - yes, only - to the gaucho??

After several times out into the bush, I was well pleased - the price we paid was for just 2 hours but we got much more - and poor C was already in pain, having not ridden a horse since she was a bub. But well she did as me and the gaucho bolted around haplessly after cheeky bacas. So much fun!!

That night, D got out a bottle of vino from somewhere in the depths of "free of charge" and we didn`t complain. Had some more pasta (woot) and rested ourselves after the day`s activities. C went to bed before me and I got a little uneasy at being alone with the gaucho, especially with the disappointed look he gave me when I said I was going to bed while he was going to his room to listen to music, so I gladly bailed for the comfort of my saggy bed and tea towel towel. He must get lonely out here but really... it ain`t gonna happen.

This night, our second, was to be our last at the hostel and it was well filled. I just wish the weather had been brighter. But, as it turns out, we had more time than we knew to wait for it to clear...