ISA plans these great excursions for us (such as Tigre, when all the students returned looking like roasted chicken), and one Saturday, we went to a farm in the country. “El Dia del Campo” was an interesting day, to say the least, but it was filled with delicious food to enjoy and several enjoyable activities. The most amusing part might have been the elderly guests who shared the day with us (the farm has senior specials on the weekends) and their antics throughout the afternoon.
After a breakfast of coffee, bread, jam and dulce de leche (this wonderful caramel creation made by boiling milk and sugar for hours), we were introduced the head cowboy and his lovely mare. He explained to us the proper way to approach the horses and mount and dismount as well as how to direct them while riding. This was something I thought I’d always understood fairly well, but I may need a little more practice. As I was climbing onto my trusty steed, my saddle slid to the side of his belly and I plopped to the ground. My pride was perhaps a little bruised but otherwise functional until some random man started yelling at me from the sidelines about my inability to operate a simple beast of burden. Thank you kindly for your litany of nothing helpful, sir.
I proved to be much more successful after a saddle tightening and a second attempt at climbing aboard. Lucky for me, the other students were much more kind to me. This might be because there were several other misadventures on their parts, including a friend of mine getting whacked in the head by a tree branch when his horse walked him into it.
Besides these precious moments, we survived long enough to observe the games put on by the workers. There was a very odd competition where two selected persons had to race to put on an outfit. The outfit consisted of a wraparound skirt, vest, wig… and plastic buttox and breast ensemble. I have photos. The other competition involved two people carrying cups of flour on their heads and racing in a circle. In both cases, the loser had a water balloon dumped over his or her head or fake snow sprayed on them.
Lunch was an enormous and delicious asado (barbeque) complete with salad bar, juice, soda, water and more bread. (These people love their carbs.) We all filled plate after plate with veggies and meat and were surprised when we were presented with crepes filled with dulce de leche for dessert. Very rich, very delicious.
I must have enjoyed the asado a little too much because in the pool a little later, a crazy Russian woman asked me if I was pregnant. (No, I just happen to have a little “more to love” around the edges and ate too much at lunch, but thank you, Ma’am) I now understand the Cold War a little better… She was a very interesting person. Later, we discovered a little frog hiding in the shade of my bag, and when we told her about it, she tried to smoosh the poor thing. She thought we said “araña” instead of “rana” (spider, frog).
After our swim and playing with the frog, we climbed back on the bus and headed home. We were all in desperate need of a bath and some exercise after the horseback riding and asado, but I’m pretty sure most of us went straight to bed.
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