El Silencio Estancia
25th March 2009
I’ve been a right proper farmer (exaggerate the ‘ar’) today, been on a tractor and all sorts! Eggs and bacon for breakfast – a farmer’s breakfast! Out on horseback, but my stirrups weren’t so comfy today and here was the surprise, El Patron gave me his horse – no beginners stock on this ranch then! The brown was more comfy, especially on the trot (I didn’t want to use that word yesterday!). I’m not sure if it’s adjusting to the different diet, or my stomach being loosened up on horseback. We surveyed the land and his cattle again together with el gaucho but didn’t do any herding in particular. We were back on the ranch by mid-morning and I took myself off for a stroll. I’ve only been here 24 hours and my muscles can feel that morning ride for sure. The purple daisies (marigolds?) were out again, it seems they curl up to sleep overnight. There is still some dew on the ground too. There are some amazing birds around, nothing big, but so colourful and with ‘bits’, like crowns and that and boy, do they know how to sing. Another hearty lunch and I had built up an appetite today too. It was only after lunch I went for my walk, I thought it best after I’d stuffed myself with locally produced and cooked food. Gaucho was teasing the electric fence earlier, it really scared the horses so must be quite a current. It was a bit horrid really, but it sure made the birds flee their nest. We came across some lovely ‘wild’ horses too, which Gonzalez had let run wild. They were very friendly, rubbing noses with Gonzalez and very photogenic too, with deep shiny coats. Gonzalez was off in the afternoon, he was driving to Montevideo to see their daughter on her 21st birthday. She is the youngest of three, 33, 32, 21, agro-engineer, architect, vet student, respectively. So I went off with Hector, the cook – come house-boy-servant and the farmer on the tractor to collect and distribute some cattle feed. We stopped by a derelict outhouse and wandered down to a large, slow river I hadn’t seen or heard before. There were even more birds chirping away down on the river banks and in the woods. Pinto is a friendly dog and a big softy. I sat on an easy chair in the sun and read some until the sun went down. It was just myself for dinner with Hector trying to be friendly. How can I learn the basics of Spanish when I can’t even remember any words (even numbers – I think I was a bit better at Portuguese)?!
