February 28, 2011
Last night, the 24th, there were a couple of “fiestas” with some students and professors from my school! It was a grand adventure! It was the 28th birthday of one of the school administrators, and the last night some long term students at the school were in town. So, we went to the students’ house for a while then out to the birthday celebration. We all got home VERY late and were late to school. Funny thing is that the professors didn’t really care. I think they expected it!
During the weekend (the 26th and 27th) another student from Germany and I went on a two day excursion into the mountains to ride horses. Our first day was full of adventure!
When I awoke it was early in the morning and I had to wait for a taxi. I didn’t want to wake up the family in my house so I decided to wait outside the gate. In Mendoza, the neighborhoods are set up a little differently than in the States. The property begins with a tall gate at the street that locks, and behind the gate is the house with a yard. It’s kind of cool because you don’t have to lock your house at night, just the gate. Anyhow, I walked outside the gate, locked it and waited for my taxi. While waiting a car drove up and the driver yelled out to me, “Let’s go” (in Spanish of course). I didn’t think the car looked like a taxi, but also thought it would have been a strange coincidence that I would be waiting for a taxi while another car pulled up on my quiet street early Saturday morning when everyone was asleep. So, I looked closer. The driver was a male, and asked me where I was from in English. I told him the states. I stood up and looked at the car again and the driver was drinking and driving and there were two other guys in the car. He proceeded to tell me he was from Nashville (with his broken English and thick Argentine accent) and that I should go with them. I told him I didn’t need a ride because my taxi was on the way. After a while he gave up and drove on…hopefully safely to his house!
On the way out of town about 45 min. into the trip, our bus broke down. Unfortunately 3 of us ladies at the time needed to use the bathroom and went with one of the guides in search of a facility on the side of the road. Some gentlemen at a lumber company agreed that we could use theirs. We were very happy we did because our 1 ½ hr trip to the mountains turned into 4 hours with the bus problems and the new driver who took the long route or drove slowly… not sure which!
However, our tour guide was very apologetic and had a special snack fixed for us at the ranch. We ate our snack and began the day’s ride in the fields of the mountains. The ranch was called “La Alejandra” and was amazing! From this ranch there are tours on horseback through the Andes Mountains all the way to Santiago, Chile (which is 6 or 7 hours by bus and a week by horse!)
Wow, that would be a painful undertaking. As saddle sore as I was after 7 or 8 hrs of riding, I can’t imagine 7 days!!!
My horse unfortunately had a curse word for a name…”______Face”! I felt sorry for him, but at the same time he was so stubborn he often refused to follow my commands. Instead he was constantly eating. He especially liked to eat the potato plants out of the neighboring farmer’s garden. (He was not allowed to do that, but did it anyway) But, he also liked to eat purple flowers. He didn’t eat the yellow ones, just the purple ones. Maybe he was a TCU fan?
Others didn’t fare so well with their horses. One of the guys from England (Kevin) was riding for the first time ever. During the beginning of his ride the horse had a digestion problem, and left green horse manure all over the pasture. During the middle of the trip, his horse sat down on all 4’s. Then, he proceeded to roll over with Kevin still on his back! Kevin quickly dismounted and the horse “played dead” for a few minutes. All of us laughed hysterically, then stopped with the thought that the horse could be hurt. The trainer rushed up to him and did horse rehab for a few minutes, then all was back to normal. Well, except that the rest of the trip was like a Ren and Stimpy episode between the horse’s noises from the tail end…I think he really was sick!
We were fed an amazing lunch, then went to our Estancia for the night. Our Estancia was in San Antonio, Argentina. I asked our chauffer what the population of San Antonio was, and he said “Now, it’s 4. You two, me and the person running the hotel.” Wow, a bit smaller than San Antonio, TX!
We had a cozy dinner by the fire and I wrapped up in 3 blankets to go to bed because it was freezing in the mountains! The next morning we went riding horses again through the mountains and had an amazing view!!
Wow, I'm so glad you get to do this--all of it.
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