Estancia & Colonia del Sacramento, Blog 7

Estancia & Colonia de Sacramento, Blog 7

What a wonderful day!

We left Santiago at dawn and drove 2 hours to visit an Estancia, a South American ranch.  A young couple  (the wife was from France and her husband, was from South Africa) with their toddler son run a winery, cattle ranch, sheep farm, B & B, etc. 

Although I expected it to be rustic, the B & B and restaurant were very upscale while the ranch was quite authentic.

At the corral they asked for a volunteer to saddle a horse, and I pushed Dan into the center of the ring.  An authentic gaucho helped Dan to do the job.  Next they asked for volunteers to milk a cow.  This tour group does not volunteer so Dan pushed me forward.  I was surprised that it was easy—now I can take cow milking off of my bucket list.  We boarded a horse drawn wagon and a tractor driven wagon to tour the rest of the very large estancia.  I got to hold the reins and guide the horse.  We drove past vineyards and rows of soy beans. It was a glorious not too hot, not too cold sunny day.  After the ride, we had an opportunity to lasso sheep.  If Dan were still working, he would need to keep his day job because he looked like a rodeo clown.  I captured all of our mornings activities on video, which again I’ll share with you if you beg and plead.

A special section was fenced in to contain the animals they are trying to raise:  capybaras, the world’s largest rodent; rabbits, chickens, and rheas, a small type of ostrich.  The ostriches have reproduced, but the capybaras have not.  We only saw one (maybe that’s the problem!) but he was quite tame and I was able to pet his back which was coarse like bristles. 

Finally we had lunch in a beautiful dining room overlooking a swimming pool.  I don’t know how the Uruguayans stay thin because they eat enormous meals of meat.  Before lunch, we watched a demonstration of the preparation of mate, the national drink which tastes like strong tea.  It is more complicated than a Japanese tea drinking ceremony.  Throughout Uruguay people walk the drinks drinking mate, but it is impossible to order in a restaurant.  Mate is made in small gourd cups.  A large amount of mate leaves are put in and shoved to one side.  Cold water is poured in with hot water following.  It is sipped through a silver metal straw-like object, which is shared!!!!   They passed one cup around the table.  Although they wiped the tip of the straw off after each person sipped, it was hard for Shirley, the germaphobe, to take a sip, but I did.  Some people refused to drink from the common straw.

We had delicious homemade bread, salad, roasted white & sweet potatoes, and beef, lamb, chicken and sausage along with their homemade wine.  Dessert was a finely chopped mixture of fruit.

After hugs and kisses, we headed for Colonia de Sacramento, a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Founded in 1680 by the Portuguese, it is the oldest town in Uruguay.  It passed back and forth between the Portuguese and Spanish about 6 times. The Portuguese  constructed the streets out of uneven cobblestones, which had been the ballast for their ships.  These were nothing like the cobblestones of Europe. They were even more irregular and multi-shaped with an indentation running down the street for the rain water and human waste.  Yuck!  The Portuguese buildings are made out of stucco, painted out of pink and yellow and the Spanish buildings out of brick.  Across from the church, a woman with a beautiful voice was singing in Portuguese.  I think we could have all stayed there much longer, but we had to go to catch the hovercraft to Buenos Aires. 

Colonia del Sacramento is on the Rio de la Plata at one of the narrowest parts of the river across from Buenos Aires.  After going through customs both to exit Uruguay and enter Buenos Aires, we bordered a very large hovercraft that probably seated 1000 people with all the seats filled.  Because it was a windy day and I have a tendency to get seasick, I was a little concerned but it was very smooth and in about an hour we were in Buenos Aires.

But first…more about customs.  Before we left the U.S. we had to pay $140 dollars each on-line to enter Argentina.  Dan keeps all of our travel documents except for my passport.  When we got to customs, the agent pointed out that both our receipts were in my name.  Dan had given me duplicates to tuck away, but he stapled two “Shirleys” together.  I thought I was going to have to leave him in Uruguay, but the agent was able to find Dan’s payment on-line because she had the # of mine.  According to Dan, it was all my fault because I didn’t have the copies.

Just as we boarded the hovercraft we heard that a new pope had been elected and he was from Argentina!   Such excitement but more of that in my next blog.