More Gaucho living....

A couple of days after the horse ride to the mountains, I decided to head back to Chicoana to hang out with Roeth and Rachel. After calling them to tell them when I'd be arriving, I headed to the local 'remis' to catch a lift. A remis is basically somewhere where you can cget a lift in a car going in the same direction as you for about £1 - kind of like organised hitching. Anyway, when I got to the remis the queue was massive and, having never done this before, I wasn't really sure what was going on. I waited until past the time I was supposed to arrive in Chicoana and was about to give up when, finally, another car arrived and, because I was alone, I managed to jump the queue a bit to squeeze in.

They'd almost given up on me when I arrived in Chicoana about an hour later. After dumping my bag at the hospedaje, we headed over to Rachel's friend's house. Kiki is the local ´leather man´, making belts, chaps, hats, lassoes etc. His house was full of leather with tools hanging all over the wallls. After a cup of tea, and some bread with dulce de leche, we decided to have and asado that evening. Carlos headed out to stock up on meat and wine, and the rest of us continued chatting.

When he returned, the fire was lit and Roeth salted the beef and Kiki made some decicious salads. Whilst everything was cooking, I practiced my Spanish by chatting to Carlos - although we spoke a bit of English too. When the food was ready I was amazed that the meat tasted even better than the asado we'd eaten on the mountain. Cooked to perfection and really juicy - I'm amazed at how much steak I can eat now. When it tastes this good, however, it would be rude not to!

Later that evening we headed back to Tiempo Mio, the bar in Chicoana. When we arrived, Tono saw that some of his band mates where there. Despite there being only two other groups of people in the pub, they started an impromptu gig that went on until three in the morning! The music was great, and all the band members kept swapping instruments.

After a late start the next day, and breakfast at the Panaderia, Roeth and I headed out for a walk around the town. Having walked around a few fields, we stumbled upon Alberto, a lovely old guy who lives by the river in a tiny hut. He was keen to chat to us, and show us his piglets and his shrine to the plain crash on the mountains.

At a loss for what to do next, Roeth and I bought a bottle of wine and some snacks, and headed off to find a picnic spot. Once settled, we both got on with some work (I had my first piece of freelance work!) and relaxed for while.

On Wednesday it was the full moon, and the chance of a full moon horseride was too good to resist. I headed back to Chicoana and off we went. When the moon rose from behind the mountains, it was in partial eclispse. As it rose higher in the sky, the eclipse passed and it lit our way through the canyon. We rode to the house of Hipolyto (a gaucho who lives in the canyon) where we lit a fire, drank wine, and ate traditional food - Tamales and Empanadas. I also got the chance to cuddle Hipolyto's kittens!

As we got on our horses to ride back, the moon was covered in clouds. As soon as we started riding, however, the clouds cleared to leave us with a beautifully clear night. Even thought the moon was full we could still see loads of stars.

Friday 17th June was General Guemes day so, on Thursday night, there was a big gaucho party with a production of the story of General Guemes. All the gauchos stayed in groups from their town so we found Kiki in the Chicoana group. He walked us round the other groups where we chatted to gauchos he knew and shared rum and maté. I had forgotten to put my memory card back in my camera, so no pictures of this I'm afraid!

The next day there was a huge procession of gauchos past the General Guemes monument. it was interesting to see all the different types of gaucho dress, and also really young gauchitos on horses!