Tuesday,
15 January 2013
Because I was so tired last night, I had to upload
my pictures this morning. When I went to
check my e-mail, I discovered that I didn’t have the internet connection. I called the desk and asked them to recycle
the router and all worked. I then went
down to breakfast. There was no rush
since we were leaving at 10:00 am for Estancia Santa Susanna. The drive was about an hour and half as
advertised, but we did stop midway at a gas station that had a shop. I was hoping to find something for Hermie,
but no luck. I did see a poncho, that I
liked but it had orange and I don’t buy things with orange. We arrived at the ranch and we were served
empanadas with wine or juice. I stuck
with the wine. I took the carriage ride
which wasn’t very exciting, but I did enjoy it.
I had elected not to go horseback riding. I then went to see the original ranch house
which was interesting. I had Victorian
era type furniture and decorations. Next
I hit the gift shop, but their prices were ridiculous. They wanted $20 for some books. I probably would have bought one or two at
$10. I saw a wallet that I would have
liked, but NOT $80 worth. There was
nothing there that I could buy for Hermie, which was disappointing. If all else fails, I’ll probably buy him some
t shirts in Brazil.
Carriage Ride
Horses on the Pampas
Note coins on the belt - This is how gauchos used to store their money
People off for horeseback ride
Tango Dancing
Folk Dancing
Trying for the silver ring
Trying for the silver ring
Trying for the silver ring
Riders who tried to get the rings
Avenida 9 July - Widest bouelvard in the world - 10 lanes in each direction
Lunch was served.
There was a lot, but I was not impressed with the quality. There were some salads, beef sausage, blood
sausage (which I didn’t touch), steak and a pastry for desert. You could have all the wine, beer or water
that you wanted. Lunch was followed by a
show. They did a tango demonstration
followed by a folk demonstration with singing in between. While I would not try to put the show on
Broadway, it was very pleasant and I enjoyed it. Next we went out to see a demonstration with
the horses. There was some demo
indicating that the horses always followed their leader, but so much dust was
raised that I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Then the gauchos rode at full gallop towards
a stick with a ring hanging off of it.
They were carrying a stick and the idea was to get their stick into the
ring. If they succeeded, they would
select a woman from the audience and give her the ring in exchange for a
kiss. It was interesting. Then two of the gauchos had woman ride behind
them on their horses. Obviously I wasn’t
one of them.
At about 4:00 pm, Alex signaled up that it was time
to go. A lot of us fell asleep on the
bus. I had asked Carla, our local guide,
to find a Jewish book store for me. I wanted
to purchase a Spanish/Hebrew Siddur. She
gave me the addresses of two book stores that she had found. As soon as we pulled up to the hotel, I
hopped in a cab and had Carla tell the driver where I wanted to go. He got me there before 6:00 pm and I was able
to purchase the Siddur. I think that it
is a Spanish version of the Art Scroll Siddur.
The shop owner asked me which hotel I was at and how I planned to get
back. When I told him cab, he insisted
on telephoning for a cab for me. We had
to wait a while, but I was in no rush since my mission had been
accomplished. It was interesting, his
cab driver ran up a fare of about 25 pesos while the other driver ran up a fare
of about 35 pesos.
After I got back and rested a while, I decided that
I wanted to get a picture of the Avenida 9 July. I ran into Margaret in the lobby. Mark, her friend, wasn’t feeling well and
didn’t want to go out; consequently we went out together. I got my picture of the street which is the
widest street in the world and then we went for dinner at 1234 Santa Fe, where
had eaten the other night.
I came back to my room, uploaded pictures, wrote my
blog and then collapsed.
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