This was the last formal day of the trip and, in the original itinerary, it is left free, for people to do whatever they want. All of Gate1's tours offer optional excursions on various days, allowing folks the freedom to determine how active they want their vacation. For this trip, we signed up for every optional excursion, not knowing when (and if) we'd ever get back. This final excursion was an "all-day Gaucho party," which comprised our driving about 90 minutes outside town to a large Estancia (ranch), where we'd get to "experience" the Gaucho (South American cowboys) culture. Originally the Rieckhoffs had not signed up for this, but earlier during the trip they changed their mind and signed up, along with everyone else in the group, other than the two "girls" from California.
We did not have an early-morning departure, which was very welcome after the very late preceding night. We expected Veni might be moving a little slow this morning, given his apparent birthday celebrating from the night before, but he was charged up and ready to go. As I've written, he is Brazilian, and this day was also the run-off election for president of Brazil, between incumbent Bolsonaro and former president Lula. Veni had shared several times during the trip, in side conversations, his rampant support for Bolsonaro, who is often called the Trump of Latin America. Veni dismissed all of his errant behavior and lying, arguing that things were going well in Brazil, and saying that -- unlike Trump -- he had very competent people in his government who were actually running things well. We also learned that voting is mandatory for non-retired people in both Chile and Brazil. If you do not vote, you are fined, and they do not allow early voting. They give you up to 90 days after an election to vote -- which seems odd -- but Veni wanted to avoid the potential fine, so he went to the Brazilian Embassy to vote in person. We saw him at breakfast, triumphantly returning from the embassy after voting, sporting a Brazilian soccer jersey and with a Brazilian flag draped over his shoulders. He was excited, confident, and ready to go.
Unlike the day before, it was now cloudy with light rain, and the temperatures were in the 50's. A huge change from Saturday's heat. As we drove out of town, we passed the Brazilian Embassy and there were thousands of people in line to vote. I tried to get a photo, but the rain on the windows made it impossible.
The Estancia we visited is a working ranch, but also clearly caters to tour groups. Our bus was one of several, with another Gate1 tour arriving a short time after us. There was a also group from Cosmos -- mostly Canadians -- and a group from Romania. We thought that a bit ironic and odd. We got to walk the ranch, visit the original homestead and chapel, take a ride on a horse-drawn wagon, and watch as they grilled a huge amount of various meats for a lunch. We ate in a very large dining area, with a stage in the center. It was a multi-course family-style affair and the grilled meats were quite tasty, even if we weren't overly hungry. Still, with good food in front of us, we all ate too much. After eating we had, essentially, a stage show, with demonstrations of Tango, Gaucho dancing, folk-song singing, and -- my favorite -- a Boleadora demonstration. There are actually weapons, formed by putting rocks into leather pouches on the opposite end of a rope, which are then twirled and thrown to kill prey. They have also been adapted for use in dancing, and we had a couple of really impressive demonstrations of how they can twirled.
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| Estancia Santa Maria, Outside of Buenos Aires |
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| Caracara Building Its Spring-time Nest |
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| Grilling for Lunch |
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| Parrots Filled the Trees (and Made Quite the Racket) |
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| The Original Ranch Homestead |
To end the visit, we all filed outside to a small grandstand, where we watched them bring out groups of horses. We saw a demonstration of how the horses are corralled and driven. It was the first time I have seen dogs used to herd horses. Two sheepdogs ran like crazy to keep the horses in formation, but it looked so dangerous, as it looked like at any moment they could be trampled. It was not very relaxing to watch. At the very end, we also saw the Gauchos do a "ring competition," which involved the setting up of a gallows-like frame, from which hung three long springs. At the end of each spring, a small ring (finger-ring size) was hung. The Gauchos then galloped at full speed under the frame holding a small stick in their hand. The goal was to stab the ring with the stick, and then present the ring to a woman in the crowd. It looked really difficult and I was surprised how often they were successful.
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| The "Ring Competition" |
With the change in our departure day, our transfer for the airport was to pick us up at 6:00pm from our hotel. I had asked Veni and Max when we should be back, and both said "between 5:30 and 6:00," with no guarantees. To be safe, Katherine and I had packed up our suitcases and they were ready to go as soon as we got back. Not wanting to take chances, I watched the clock closely at the estancia and was glad when we were finally all aboard and heading back to Buenos Aires. Traffic was thankfully light and we returned around 5:20, which provided us some cushion and time to freshen up before heading to the airport. On the way back, by the way, Veni was ecstatic as early Brazilian voting results were coming out. Bolsonaro was clearly ahead at this point and he was over the moon. A few hours later, while sitting on our plane actually, we saw the announcement that Bolsonaro had in fact lost, and we imagined his mood at the farewell dinner, which was underway at the time.
Veni was intent to wait with us in the hotel lobby until our transfer arrived. He was under no obligation to do this, but it was a nice and appreciated gesture. I was a little concerned about the time of our pick-up and departure of our flight to Houston. We were to be picked-up at 6:00pm and our flight was at 9:00pm. I did not know how far away the international airport was located and I didn't know what to expect at the airport. For the first that I can recall, our transfer did not arrive early. In fact, he didn't arrive until 6:05pm, which had me more than a little concerned. Rieckhoffs were to be on the exact same flight the following evening, and their Gate1 airport transfer was picking them up at 5:00pm, so that extra hour had me slightly concerned.
To my surprise, there was little to no traffic on the way to the airport. There was a long line to clear exit immigration, but otherwise we had about 10 extra minutes for a quick stop in the lounge before we headed to the gate. Boarding started pretty much exactly when we arrived, so it all worked out well.
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