Friday – October 19, 2007

Friday – October 19, 2007

Exactly a week ago, Allyson and I headed to El Encuentro (where we do horseback riding) to get started on our cabalgata (trail ride) from Tucumán up into the jungle. We ended up riding with Silvina and Juan. Silvina works at El Encuentro, and Juan is a friend of Marcos. Marcos, Silvia’s (not Silvina – Silvia is our riding instructor) husband, organized the entire trip.

We left for Tucumán around 11:00 am. It was a looooong drive, but we made a lot of stops to drink coffee and refill our maté thermos. Do you know they have hot water dispensers at the gas stations here so that you can refill your thermos with more hot water to keep drinking maté?

The landscape was amazing. As we left Córdoba, we got to see a lot of the Sierras Chicas mountains, which pretty much look like mountains out west: a lot of dust and scrub grass. Then we got to see salt flats, which look like the ocean from far away and like snow up close! As we got further north, the scenery changed to sugarcane fields and banana trees.

Then we stopped in some little town to buy provisions... It was definitely an adventure! But we finally got everything we needed. Except the goats. We ate regular beef asado instead, because we couldn’t find any cabritos. Too bad, I’ve still never tried one...

We finally got to the ranger station in Tucumán. They opened the gate for us and we entered the jungle in our trucks. We drove up a long dirt road to a small cottage and unpacked everything. Silvina, Allyson and I made salad and prepared sandwiches for the next day while Marcos and a few other guys who had come with us in the first group prepared the asado. About 2 hours later, the second wave arrived. We were about 22 people in all!

We stayed up late, eating asado and introducing ourselves. We finally went to bed – most of the girls got to sleep inside rather than in tents. Allyson and I shared one of the twin beds, and Silvina and Edi got the other one. There were also random assorted mattresses, beddings and tents everywhere.

The next morning (Saturday) we got up, loaded our saddlebags, ate some bread and butter for breakfast, and waited for the horses. The horses finally came about 2 hours later. Allyson and I and a few other people picked from the ones that came with saddles – pretty much everyone else brought their own tack. But it was great! I liked my horse. He was kind of dumb but also calm and pretty responsive.

Then we got started on our LONG ride! We went through some pretty pastures, pieces of jungle, and through a HUGE dry riverbed. The river fills up during the rainy season every year, which starts in about a month here. It was full of giant rocks and tree trunks. One of the horses got his foot caught between two rocks and we almost had a very bad situation, but he worked it out.

That afternoon, we stopped at a small house to warm up and give the horses a break. That was the end of the easy part of the trail. The next part was all rocks and mud, with very steep inclines. It was also pretty cold and rainy, which was not fun. There were definitely points at which I could not feel my fingers. But we made it!

We finally got to our camping spot in a gorgeous valley at around 6:00 pm. We went ahead and pitched our tents before it got dark and took a look around. It was still cold and rainy, but some of the guys decided to go fishing in the “Laguna de Tesoro” – Treasure Lake – which was right next to us. It wasn’t very pretty then, and we weren’t very impressed. Little did we know...

The lake has a legend something about some Incas wanting to hide their treasure so they threw it in the lake... Apparently no one has ever been able to measure the depth of the lake, it’s so deep that the measuring devices don’t reach the bottom! But then again, you also can’t get to it except hiking or on horseback, so that probably limits the measuring devices that reach it.

We started on dinner around 9:00 pm – we made chicken and rice in a huge pot, and it was utterly delicious. The skinniest dogs I have ever seen were following the horses all day, so they polished off the leftovers. Our guides were serious Argentina gouchos... Can you believe this picture? It looks fake! But I swear it’s not.

We all hung out around the fire in the little shack and told stories and talked. I added my initials to the wall... They have a bunch of initials from people who have visited there. The guides told us stories about some of them!

The next morning (Sunday), Allyson and I went with Leo, who is a big hiking adventure person and had been to Laguna del Tesoro before. We hiked up to the tip of the valley, and had a gorgeous view of the whole thing! It was a really nice, sunny day. Then we hiked back down to the lake, which had the most amazing reflections I have ever seen! They look like the sky, like the mountains, pure...

(I also found out my camera is freakin amazing and can do some really awesome things!)

Then we got back on the horses and went up the steepest, muddiest, scariest mountain I have ever tried on horseback. The views were absolutely incredible though! Too bad the clouds and fog came back before we made it all the way to the top, so we didn’t get the whole view, but it was nice anyway. Then we went back down the same way we came, which was even worse. The trail was broken up between steep, muddy switchbacks and short, flat valleys.

About halfway down, in one of the valleys, almost half the group decided to just tie up their reins and let the horses walk down on their own. They were all sliding around and slipping in the mud. I decided to let mine walk down and hike back with the others. At the bottom, the people who were still on horseback caught the horses and waited for us.

We went back to our campsite and ate some locro – it’s a typical Argentinian stew with cow stomach, pork parts, corn, squash, and God only knows what else. I ate it though! It was nice and warm, and not too bad if you didn’t think about what was in it... Then we packed up our stuff (and took a nice siesta on some plastic tarps).

Finally, we headed up a different mountain, back the way we had come yesterday. It was rainy and foggy, but at least it wasn’t cold. I had so much fun that afternoon! I went with Caro and her husband and we did some nice galloping down one of the straight trails. Then we decided to try to wrangle some cattle! Caro grew up on a farm, so she actually knew how to do it, but her husband and I were just pretty much running around. But it was really fun! Then they practiced shepherding cattle between their horses – with mine in the middle! (Since we didn’t manage to catch any of the cows.) It was so fun!

We finally got back to the same little cottage where we had been the first night. We made dinner, another asado, completely delicious. We were all pretty tired from the horseback riding, so we ended up going to bed pretty early.

Monday morning we left for Córdoba around 9:00 am in the trucks. On the way home, we stopped to pick up some caña – unprocessed sugarcane – which they peel (with machetes) and suck the juice out of. Just like the sarsparilla root we tried at Colonial Williamsburg that time, but with a different flavor. They would pass around little sticks of it about the size of French fries. I found it highly entertaining.

We finally got back to Córdoba that afternoon with very sore legs and a lot of new friends! Clara (the one with the curly hair) owns a horse at El Encuentro – and he’s absolutely gorgeous! Hopefully she is going to go one of the one-day cabalgatas with us one weekend!

Santiago and his father Luis live about 5 blocks from us... We rode home with them! Santiago is 23, and he is very nice. He and Allyson have exchanged phone numbers, so hopefully we’ll see a lot of him!

Tuesday started class back... This week was pretty average. I got my midterm back in Technology – I got a 10! One of only a few in the class. I was excited about that. I have to write two essays by Monday – Literature and History. (What a great weekend.) I finished my Typography project, that has to be turned in on Monday as well. Tuesday night I went to Bible study at 8:00 pm and stayed at Lu’s house until 11:00 pm talking! Wednesday night Tae Kwon Do and Kung Fu!

Then on Thursday, Lu made homemade empanadas, so I went over there. I learned how to make empanadas arabes! (That’s what the pictures are from – Empanada Night). Lucia and Ivana both live at the apartment where we do Bible study on Tuesdays (about 5 blocks from my house). Lucia is in med school. Ivana I think is studying Business Admin. Vale, who also comes to Bible study, is a doctor – she’s already graduated from med school or is doing her residency, I’m not sure. Lucio wasn’t there, but he usually comes too. It was his birthday the other week. Paula was there – she was the first one I met! She is SO sweet. I also met a few new girls: Ceci, who studied in California for a year; her sister, who sings at church; and Lorena and her too-cute daughter Coco. Check out the pictures! :-)