Uruguay
5:31 PM
I´ve officially arrived in the last country that I´ll be visiting on my south american trip, Brazil.
Our tour started in Buenos Aires in Argentina and took us to Uruguay first thing on day 2. We took a 1 hour ferry across to Colonia del Sacramento, which is a quaint little town with cobblestone streets. It´s not very big at all and unfortunately for us, all the museums are closed on a tuesday which left us with nothing much to do. I checked out a lighthouse, wandered around but didn´t do much else.
Day 3 we headed to the captial of Uruguay, Montevideo. Here we found our hotel then headed down to Mercado del Puerto, via Plaza Independencia, where 5 of us shared a massive meat bbq cookup, Uruguian style. Needless to say I didn´t eat for the rest of the day, which was a bit of a shame given we went to a nice restaurant that night that had live tango singing.
The next day we took a five hour lunch time bus from Montevideo to Tacuarembo, where we met our ranch guide, who put us in the back of his truck and drove us about 2 hours our to his ranch where we would spend the next 3 nights and days. The ranch only had 2 hours of electricity each day but did have hot water in one of the showers 24hrs.
We rose the next day having decided as a group to work rather than relax and were quickly introduced with our horses. We were taught to saddle them up ourselves then next thing we were off in the fields rounding up sheep. I´ve never ridden a horse and was rather nervous but found the experience enjoyable after a while. After lunch we had to give only the lambs worming shots which involved us chasing the lambs around the holding pen and holding them while the ranch manager gave them their shot. Was great fun. We released the sheep and rode home.
Day 2 on the ranch and again we decided to work so it was back on the horse, though we swapped horses from the previous day to make sure we didn´t get comfortable with one animal. Today was cows and we set out to round them up in the morning. After yet another amazing lunch, we gave the calves worming shots in similar fashion to the sheep but using a holding pen rather than wrestling them. After the work was done, it was time for a little fun so we learnt how to throw a lasso. After several poor failed attempts to lasso the post, I was given a shot on a running cow. I got very close with my first attempt and on my second, I actually lasso´d it!! Unfortunately I didn´t let go of the rope quickly enough and got rope burn for my troubles. However, i was awarded best gaucho and given a free bottle of a grappa/honey uruguian drink for my efforts.
Awaking from night 3 on the ranch, today was a travelling day. First we spent 4 hours in the back of the ranch manager´s truck driving to the Uruguian border town of Salta. There we stocked up on picnic food and had a picnic by the lake, before going to a water park for a bit of fun. We then crossed in Argentina and picked up an overnight bus, which took us 13 hours up to Foz de Iguazu, where we then met another guide who took us over the border into Brazil.
I´ll post more about Brazil separately.
Ciao for now.
Dave
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