When I arrived at the ranch Mario found for us to spend the night, dusk was settling in. The elderly couple that owned the place had a little makeshift grocery store so we bought ham, cheese and some bread. We cut everything up and made a nice little entre accompanied by a bottle of Johnny Walker Gold Mario was carrying with him.
“Even in hard times we live well,” Mario said adding another log to the fire.
It was a chilly night so the alcohol helped warm our bodies. We talked to the elderly couple for some time before they retired to bed and we did the same. The next morning we continued south.
It was a five day ride to our next major city, Paso de los Toros, and every night we were hosted by a different ranch family.
On our third day on the road the universe helped us immensely! When Mario arrived at the only ranch in a radius of 20 kms to ask to spend the night, the owner turned to him and said, “If you had arrived one day earlier or later, you would have found a locked gate,”
Turns out the owner only came one day a month to check on his cattle this time of the year. And we had arrived, asking for help, exactly on that day.
Not only did this amazing man allow us to spend the night, he cooked us dinner and opened a bottle of wine to celebrate our arrival.
“I like horses so much that if I spend a week without riding, I literally get sick,” he told us over the delicious pasta he prepared.
The next night we were hosted in one of the most beautiful ranches I have ever ridden into. A dirt road snaked around tall trees towards a large house built next to a sparkling pond. Green pastures flanked the road on both sides all the way to the home. Big white-puffy clouds sat low over the ranch of my dreams.
“You know I have worked here for 2 years and have never seen the owners spend a night here,” one of the workers told me while we chatted.
It broke my heart. The family that owned the property lived in Montevideo and never came to this little piece of heaven.
“If this was my place I wouldn’t leave… ever,” I told the worker.
That night we watched Uruguay beat Venezuela for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers on a small television in the worker’s home. The next morning our hosts butchered a lamb and gave us a piece to BBQ that night. They also gave us two wild-ostrich eggs.
“There is the equivalent of 12 chicken eggs in here so be careful how much you eat,” one of the workers warned us before we left.
The Pampas continued taking my breath away with its beauty! But as I neared Paso de los Toros, the landscape was altered by large wind farms. The tall wind turbines cut through the air with their sharp blades, the size of a bus, in unison with one another. It made for an interesting site, but it changed the natural landscape I had enjoyed since leaving Rivera.
