A few months ago, my friend Mariana Britto, who also manages my motivational talks in Brazil, sent me an email asking if she could meet me.
A lover of the outdoors and adventure travel, Mariana has worked with some of the top adventurers in Brazil. In her email she explained how she was going to shoot a show pilot and wanted to start with my journey.
“I’m going to start a show where I join different expeditions around the globe and I want journey america to be the first one,” Mariana wrote in her message.
Of course I was super excited and told Mariana to buy her ticket.
Well, on a sunny Wednesday afternoon, a white van stopped on the side of the road and out jumps the beautiful Mariana. I got off the saddle and gave her a big hug! As we held tight a camera man came around to capture the moment.
“You actually came,” I said to her.
I put my second saddle on Cautiva, threw Mariana on top and riding Viejo, Javier’s Criollo, we rode south. We caught up while the cameraman told us to stop and go back and ride through again… and again… and again.
That night we stopped at Daniel Torres Negrero’s home. The experienced and well known horseman, told me about his son’s own Long Ride.
“My son rode from a small town near Paso de los Toros to Montevideo last year,” he said.
Daniel and his wife hosted myself, Mario, Mariana and her camera crew like family and prepared a feast fit for christmas. After dinner, Daniel’s wife, made…and I mean made, Mario and I give her all of our dirty clothes for her to wash.
“I am like your mom here so I make the rules,” she said making us laugh out loud when we tried to fight her on it.
The next morning we were sad to leave our Uruguayan mother behind. Daniel rode out with me, placing his grandson, just 2-years-old in the saddle with him. The young boy held the reins with his little hands and made my heart explode into a million pieces of excitement.
“Having my grandson share the saddle with me makes me so proud, we can’t ever let our tradition die,” Daniel said while we rode south.
Daniel headed back after a few kilometres and once again I was joined by Mariana who rode with me for 2 more days. On our last day together we stopped at the most beautiful ranch ever and were awarded an unforgettable sunset. It was absolutely breathtaking and according to her camera man, “orgasmic.”
“Thank you for allowing me to see your gorgeous world Filipe,” Mariana said before she left.
