Argentina - El Ombú de Areco
They say when in Rome, do as the Romans, so our short trip to Argentina had to include horseback riding at a traditional Gaucho style ranch. Horses and cows are everywhere. The animals and their caretakers are central to the Argentine culture and economy. There are actually signs on the side of the main highway leading to the international airport that says no horseback riding. After less than 24 hours in Buenos Aires, just long enough to do some shopping, we left the city for a ranch - Estancia el Ombú de Areco.
The ranch, Estancia in Spanish, was located about two hours outside of the Capital on an expansive slice of pampas (prairie) with over 70 horses and innumerable cattle, sheep, and dogs. All of the animals were running free on wide open yet loosely fenced expanses of land. Except for the birds, there was no wildlife. Everything depended on their human masters. But theses animal were more free than anything I had ever seen.
The message was load and clear, happiness is running free. That is what we did for three days. The boyz ran around like the other animals except for the two times a day that we rode the horses. During the hot hours of the day we played in the swimming pools. The rest of the time they entertained themselves with the trees, imaginary enemies and zombie invasions. They found a huge bush that they were able to hide under and they turned that into their secret hide out. For the first time in six weeks Janette and I were able to enjoy a long relaxing lunch without any rush or distraction.
The Estancia was a perfect way to end our trip. Interestingly, it was also the part of the trip that I had been most concerned about. The boyz had never ever ridden a horse and that was the big activity. Also, there was very little to do at the ranch if the weather was bad. We were very lucky. We had perfect weather and Elad absolutely loved riding. He developed an unexpected bond with his horse Gonazalito and was almost crying when he had to say goodbye the last day. A trip back to Argentina is definitely in our future.
Here is a video of the highlights. Enjoy.
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