No Hunting Dogs Allowed in Room
No Cleaning Game in Room

Uploaded by yabbox

This is a screen shot taken from BBC Series ‘Wonders of the Solar System’ episode ‘Order out of Chaos’.

No Hunting Dogs Allowed in Room – No Cleaning Game in Room

It took me a while to work out what the second sentence meant, then it clicked, no cleaning (of) game (animals) in room.

It seems that the TLC Farmer’s Motel isn’t the only place where hunters get up to strange goings on in their motel room.  Someone called Kay2 commented on the Fodor’s website

Paxson—Paxon Inn/Lodge has a sign on back of room door “No cleaning game in room” made us wonder about the stains in the shower.

BBC Programmes

I passed this Siu Mei (烧味) restaurant in Jordan, in a side street just off Shanghai street. These two pigs really looked enticing, and there were other cuts of meat hanging alongside with lovely looking crackling, plenty of meat and a lovely barbecued flavour-ful skin.

I can’t imagine those burned little pig’s ears would be the delicacy they reputedly are however!

The chef didn’t mind me taking some photos and even tried to ‘pose’ for some shots while at work.

The pork ribs were roughly sliced through the bone and served on a bed a rice with a minced ginger sauce.

My office colleague has borrowed a Canon EOS 400D Digital Camera for her first trip to Hong Kong and so we wonder down to Victoria harbour so she can take her first souvenir shots of Hong Kong.

I’ve been meaning to upgrade to a Canon Powershot G9 or G10 for some time. Now I’ve seen there is a G11 on the market and still I’m managing with my little Ixus 80.

But Zhaonan wasn’t comfortable with the size of the 400D, or with all the options, so we ended up doing a swap. It was good for me to see how I would get on with a bigger camera. The ghost ship (left) was one of my first shots. Not perfectly focused, but it was at night without a flash or a tripod and I like the ghost-like appearance of the red-sailed junk and the reflections of the Christmas lights in the water.

Bamboo Scaffolding
Originally uploaded by yabbox

The next shot was of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and the impressive Bamboo scaffolding clinging to its’ side.  It’s a photo which takes a second to work out because of sharp diagonal line combined with the lighting shining through the trees on to the building and the dark sky.

Funnily enough, apart from looking like a tourist with this clumpy thing around my neck, it gave me more freedom to take photos I wouldn’t normally have bothered with. Not necessarily to experiment more, but to feel more professional, rather than a happy snapper. I certainly wasn’t expecting that.

Now I know I need to upgrade my camera..

Train K26 – Shenzhenxi to Nanjingxi
Originally uploaded by yabbox

My last entry explained my stressful journey from Hong Kong to Shenzhen Xi Train Station. That is where I boarded this train to Huangshan.

Shenzhen Xi is a little used train station in the industrial part of Shenzhen. The K25/K26 train service is a privately run route from ShenZhen West 深圳西 to Nanjing West 南京西. I’ll be travelling as far as Huangshan 黄山.

I didn’t know there were private train lines in China and apart from the branding in the restaurant car, it is little different from any other train journey in China.

My soft sleeper cabin was tidy enough, but the carriage was certainly showing it’s age and not as clean and practical as the modern soft sleeper carriages found on more popular ‘tourist’ routes. Just little things like an electric outlet in the cabin, electric touch open doors, cleaner toilets. But it is quite serviceable and not very busy, so I’m sure the overnight journey will go by without problem.

Train Warnings
Originally uploaded by yabbox

Probably the most interesting thing on the train are the bilingual signs, like, ‘please take good care of your kids’. There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of social guidance popping up in strange places now is there!

It reminds me of other signs I’ve seen on trains, telling you to ‘throw garbage in it’ or to ‘beware of nipping hands on sliding doors’.

I ate in the dining car twice, first for lunch with the rest of the train crew and secondly for dinner, with the rest of train who were mostly army cadets. The food was cheap and spicy. The staff cheerful but sour.

Despite travelling north through China from the relative humidity of Shenzhen to the desperate cold of Anhui, the air conditioner stayed on throughout the night, humming away and keeping the cabin like a fridge.

Huangshan Rice Terraces
Originally uploaded by yabbox

I woke up at around 6am the next morning and peering back the curtains of the cabin had a lovely view. It’s not every day in China you see green mountains and picturesque rice terraces. My camera was lying on the coffee table and I snapped this through the hazy window.

Dried Spice
Originally uploaded by yabbox

The train was meant to arrive in Huangshan at 07:33 but strangely it was a little delayed, pulling in to the small station around 15 minutes late. I had an hour to wait for Chris and after checking my bags into left luggage in the main hall (for ¥5!) I set off in search of a bank and breakfast. The Bank of China was on Hehua Lu, and just next door the morning market, which sold all sorts of fun and strange foodstuffs from pickled vegetables like bamboo, seaweed, to fresh fruit, live birds, dried spices, fish jumping from their bowls and more. The staff were all super friendly and welcomed my photo-taking.

Just outside I found a little shop selling some delicious hand pulled noodles in a spicy meaty broth (for ¥6!). A perfect breakfast and a perfect hour killed waiting for the train from Shanghai to arrive. I went back to the station, saw how much of Huangshan is being redeveloped and arranged a taxi to take us to the foot of the mountain…

K26 train route is as follows:
ShenZhen West 深圳西 – Bantian 坂田 – Dongguan East 东莞东 – Huizhou 惠州 – Heyuan 河源 – Longchuan (Guangdong) 龙川 – Ganzhou 赣州 – Jian (Jiangxi) 吉安 – Xiangtang 向塘 – Yingtan 鹰潭 – Lepingshi 乐平市 – Jingdezhen 景德镇 – Huangshan (Anhui) 黄山 – Jixixian 绩溪县 – Xuancheng 宣城 – Wuhu 芜湖 – Maanshan 马鞍山 – Nanjing 南京 – Nanjing West 南京西.

Hong Kong China Border

I wouldn’t normally regale my trip across Hong Kong and through the Shenzhen border, but when preparing for this small trip, I didn’t find any info on the route to Shenzhen Xi Train Station.

I stop by the travel agent in Hong Kong to finalise the next segment of my journey, where I’m handed my train ticket from Shenzhen to Huangshan. Here Kelvin warns me that the train leaves from the West Station in Shenzhen, which is much further from the border than the main station – basically it is in the middle of nowhere.

Route

My route out of Hong Kong should work along these lines …
Take the MTR from Sheung Wan (上环) – Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) – Tsim Sha Tsui East – West Rail Link to Hong Hom – East Rail Link to Lo Wu and the Shenzen border – Shenzhen West Train Station (深圳西) – Huangshan (黄山).

I am told I need to allow one hour to travel across Hong Kong, thirty minutes to pass immigration thirty minutes to reach the train station, I add 30 minutes delay and hope to arrive at the train station 30 minutes before departure. My train is at 12:05, I plan to set off at 9am.

So, that’s my plan. Roll on Tuesday morning. Apart from leaving the flat near Hollywood a bit late, all goes according to plan, but not without a little added stress to make things interesting.

Just arrived in TST East
Originally uploaded by Andreas.

Getting to TST is easy, a journey I’ve done many times before.  I know there’s an interchange at Tsim Sha Tsui and I need to walk between stations but I can’t see the signs. I queue up at the Service Desk, but the one staff member is busy with a queue on the other side. I’m already running late and feeling the strain of my backpack.  She tells me the way and how to follow the signs to East Tsim Sha Tsui. Sorted, but it’s a long walk, along the huge underpass with moving walkways which seem to go on forever. There are very few people in the underpass and I see a nice angle for a photo, if only I had more time to mess around … I eventually arrive at TST East and I had to wait a bit for the West Rail link train to travel just one stop to Hong Hom. But then a pleasant surprise as the East Rail Link train is waiting for me on the opposite platform. That’s all good, saved me a possible 10 minute wait in my schedule. It’s not a busy train so room to spread out and relax. The train departs and is soon overland. The stops go by, Kowloon Tong, Sha Tin (racing anyone?), University, Tai Po Market (shopping anyone?), Tai Wo and passed more green open space, supplemented by tall buildings, busy roads, little mini buses and finally Lo Wu. The train took the 45 minutes as I expected but time is still running short.

In hindsight, I think it would have been easier and quicker to avoid Tsim Sha Tsui altogether and instead stay on the metro to Kowloon Tong and change there to the East Rail Link. I’ll probably find out that the platforms are next to each other there!

At the Border

Which kind do you belong to?
Originally uploaded by Winnie Quan

I am at Lo Wu at the Hong Kong / Chinese border. I have 1hr, 10 mins to get through immigration, customs and across to the West Station. I have been worried about running out of time all morning, I really don’t know why I didn’t leave home a little bit earlier, but that’s just not my style is it! What’s worse, if I miss this train there’s no alternative train option to get to Huangshan. I’ll basically be stuck in Shenzhen for a whole day, or mess around flying via other cities and taking train / bus connections to ensure I meet Chris in time for the trek up the mountain. Anyway, let’s not think about that.

Immigration is quicker than I expected, with three channels, for ‘HK Citizens’, ‘Mainland Visitors’ and one other I can’t read on the pale background from this distance. I am a visitor to the mainland, so perhaps that’s me. Nah, I see, the third option is ‘Other Visitors’ so I cut across the lines diagonally and glad I’m in the minority for my chosen route – there are just a couple of Australian women in front of me and some Russians in the queue to the side. I’ve already picked up the health declaration form and immigration form and remembered to have a pen on my person so fill these out as I wait. But there’s a problem. It seems I by-passed the health check, which is only required for foreign passport holders. That holds true, after all I remember reading that Swine Flu was carried to China by the American’s. I hurdle over the barriers to the health check, by this time a little sweaty under the rush and heavy bags but receive the all clear on my body temperature check and have my form stamped. Immigration on the second attempt was easy and the official even stamps by passport on a used page, rather than starting afresh on a big empty page as so often happens!

Customs is irrelevant and I am soon back in China, but with less than an hour before my train leaves. If I had more time on my hands I could have taken the Metro Line 1(地铁1号线) from one end at ‘Luo Hu’ (罗湖), to the other at ‘Shi Jie Zhi Chuang’ (世界之窗) and then still had a taxi ride. Of course, if I had practically any other train ticket, I would be leaving from Shenzhen Heping Station, just a short distance away. As it is I need to look for the taxi rank. A few touts approach me and I successfully fend them off, but can’t find the taxi rank. I approach a police-type-looking-man and ask him for a taxi. He obligingly passes me back me directly into the hands of the taxi tout. With the clock ticking it seems I have no choice and so tell him I have a 12 o’clock train to catch. He checks his watch and takes off at a fast pace across the terminus. Oh shit. I follow behind with my backpack bouncing on my back and leap down flights of stairs after the driver to the car park, where he introduces me to the drivers’ office and piles me into a Buick Station Wagon. No use to barter now, he knows I’m in his pocket so I accept the tout’s price of ¥200. He goes on to explain the high price on the toll roads we’ll take. Whatever. I hand over the cash, he’s not interested in my last HK$ though, but luckily I have some RMB as well.

Fun Taxi Journey

taxi
Originally uploaded by conbon33

It’s now 11.10 and he says it will take around half an hour to reach the station. I know from experience that can easily end up being forty minutes or more and then I’ll be cutting it really fine. He is a good driver, speeding along the dual carriageway and deftly zipping in and out of the assortment of vehicles that take to the roads in any Chinese city – bicyclists, electric cyclists, three wheeled bikes, small tractors, minivans, cars, buses, bigger buses, trucks, container ships, blind people, army battalions. Few of whom who understand the concepts of right of way, or red traffic lights. A near miss as a motorbike contraption with a trailer on the back shoots across a junction with his load of fluorescent tubes piled high and swaying from side to side.

I’m not getting to see much of Shenzhen, except other traffic. But I notice the skies are bluish – relatively clear, the air warm and smelling of petrol fumes.

I need to think of Plan B. I wonder where the first stop is after the train departs Shenzhen Xi.  Maybe it’s worth phoning the Beijing office and have them look into it.  I’m thinking the taxi could drive to ‘insert name of tiny station’ so I can catch up with the train.  I later find out that train stops at Bantian (坂田) and then Dongguan East (东莞东).   I could have taken a train from Shenzhen border (or even Hong Hom?) to Dongguan East and boarded the train there – a whole 1hr15mins later as well.  Now that’s definitely something to remember.  Not that I’m ever likely to take the train from Shenzhen Xi to Huangshan or Nanjing Xi ever again.

The driver is soon driving down the fulou and makes a sharp u-turn. It seems he has tried to make a short cut and ended up in a new car sales centre. As much as I’d like to buy a new Peugeot, I’d rather take the train this time thank you very much. But this industrial lot is, apparently, as far as I’m going to go. The low shed like building behind the bus depot is the West Station. Relief. It’s 11:50 as I bid farewell to my driver and walk towards the station entrance. Very few passengers around and I’m humoured by the sign informing all that ‘gates close 5 minutes before departure’. Plenty of time then.

I deposit my bags in the Soft Sleeper waiting room and buy some drinks for the journey.  I even have time to go in search of an ATM. Unfortunately it doesn’t accept foreign cards.  I head back to the waiting room and soon the gates are open and I board my train.

So, one segment of my journey is complete, the next is to survive 19 hours on a train with only HK$ in my wallet!

In Hindsight

Although untested, I think the following route would have worked much better …

MTR from Sheung Wan (上环) – Kowloong Tong – East Rail Link to Lo Wu and the Shenzen border – Local train from Shenzhen Heping  – Dongguan East (东莞东) – K26 to Huangshan (黄山).

My first view of El Silencio Estancia.
Picture postcard. By Yabbox

As I travelled further south along the coast of Brazil my desire to escape further from the other backpackers grew within me and making my next move into Uruguay seemed like the best option. Other people I had met in Ilha Grande and Curitiba would be travelling west to experience the awesome pull of Iquazu Waterfalls and apart from acting like sheep, this would also take me further away from Uruguay.

I found this typical working farm near Durazno, which geographically was ideal as it’s just a couple of hours bus journey from Montevideo and on the way to Tacuarembo should I join up with the others later at the Estancia there.

I am met at the bus station and it’s an exciting feeling to be driven to the estancia, through open countryside (and the largest cattle refrigerators in Uruguay). The estancia is gorgeous, first impressions of wild birds fleeting around and wild flowers carpeting the grass gardens.  There are big communal areas and nice cabanas. There are lovely fluffy clouds in the blue sky and old ‘working‘ ornaments dotted around, a plough, a Fordson tractor, an arbor. I can’t speak .. arrgggh.  There are lots of staff to meet and a huge lunch served as soon as I arrive and there is a promise of caballero later.  What a good start …

WOW  So far, so good, even better.  After a heavy lunch, I read, rested, wandered around the house and gardens and then helped ‘sty’ some calves for daily inspection, as they have eye infections.  I learn later that Uruguay has had the worst drought for seventy plus years and so the cattle are being fed grain, so instead of the hectares of lovely grass for them to wonder around, they bunch together near the feed troughs and infections are spread by flies.  I was ominously given the cattle syringe which looked like something out of a schizophrenia movie, but luckily I wasn’t expected to fill it or use it on the poor calf.  And it was just the one of them that was given the treatment and spat and tried to extricate itself from the stocks.  I don’t blame her.

I was then shown my horse, no introductions made, nor questions of my previous experience or ability asked, nor methods of mounting explained!  I approached my horse and thinking back ten years to the slightly smaller cousins in Mongolia, I went to the left side and jumped on.  There were some adjustments to the stirrups made, I pulled too hard on the reins and the horse walked backwards.  I began to get a feel for it, began to feel more comfortable, not least because the sheepskin saddles are so much softer then the Mongolian wooden style!  But I need to learn another style of riding, that’s not to say I’m a master of the other!

Off we walked, through fields of cows, opening gates with an interesting hinge mechanism and mustering the cows together with the help of the Gaucho’s poorly looking dog.  I was given the line down one side of the field to stop them running back around.  I have a feeling I wasn’t that necessary!  Well maybe once!  But it was definitely a good start.

I think cow’s are actually fairly intelligent and once we had directed them through one gate and into a holding field, they came back around on themselves and walked through another gate next to the first.  I was thinking why didn’t they just wander into the open field, while they were thinking why don’t they put a gate in the other fence, so there’s just one gate for us to walk through!  Basically they had a choice of two gates; they all went right, i.e. not back through the gate and back into the field they had just come from. I wandered why we didn’t close the gate on the left but there was no need.  Whether it was intuition, brains, or just routine I’m not sure.  Maybe they could smell the new grass.  Maybe they also had their evening meal in this field.  I wish I could speak to ask these little questions.

Juan, the gaucho, gave me a little whip – you’re not a gaucho without a whip in your hand apparently!  My white steed, who I named Peter, or Pedro, after Peter the Great (no idea where that came from), was a little lazy under my early command.  I now found out, perhaps a bit too early on, how to gallop (galopa!), and from then on it answered to my ‘spurs’ of encouragement or more accurately stroking of the whip across his hind.  Now I understand the term, ‘showing him the whip’ – I didn’t actually need to use it most of the time, just wave it near his vision and off we went.

Juan then left on another job and I was left with Gonzalez, the owner, across empty grass fields without nothing man-made (save a few fences) for miles around to survey his lot, with a capital A.  On the way back we did a little more herding.  Weren’t they the ones I pointed out we had left behind at the start?  This time, without Pinta the dog I felt more of use.  We finally arrived back at the farm buildings and I was left to dismount my tired steed and de-shackle the saddle with little guidance, then told to throw water over her sweaty back before letting her off to rejoin her friends for the evening.  I now realized my horse was more of a Patricia than a Pedro!  I’m impressed with my own comfort and ability around the horse and Gonzalez seemed positive at the end of the first day too.  I am also impressed by the ranch – its size, its beauty, its order and patron’s kindness and directorship.

What an amazing first day, if it continues like this my little notepad will soon be full.  I just wish I could speak some Spanish to converse more and ask questions.  We then went for a drive, to the broken bridge and further down the road to see his sheep.  With my hands now free I could use the dictionary to find words like zorro (fox), and cazador / furtive (poacher) although checking again now it proves what a terrible memory I have!  We continued into town to pick up Mariella, his wife, who is very pleasant and speaks English.  Then back to the ranch for a lovely dinner with the family.  Mariella has ok English, wants to improve, but is lovely and seems genuinely interested, so maybe I’ll learn some Spanish after all.  The problem is, I’m terrible at learning and I need to get the basics like alphabet and sentence structure before I can even start.  Learn to crawl before trying to walk, or perhaps more appropriately, learn to trot, before galloping!  Interestingly, an English guy called Ross and only 23 years old, lived on the estancia the previous year, self-studied, learnt the gaucho life and apparently now works on an estancia near by.  Maybe I’ll hang around and learn some Spanish after all!  Happy first day, Buenos Noches.

Without a decent guide book to Argentina I was under the impression it was a short hop, skip and a jump from Concordia on the border of Uruguay and Argentina to Mercedes and the gateway to the Esteros Del Ibera. By the way I’m loving the names of these towns in Argentina. I think I’ve under-estimated the size of Argentina compared to the trifling 68,000 miles² of Uruguay. It took us a long eight hour bus journey across beautiful but rainy North-East Argentinian countryside. Katherine couldn’t help but walk into the first styling gaucho tienda she saw offering all manner of saddle and horse paraphernalia in polished silver and leather. The friendly staff in this small town quickly found the local accommodation listing and recommended Silvia Lacour B&B, just two blocks from the main square.  It was definitely the highlight of this small town (save the triendy restaurant and it’s Chablis and cold cuts!) The rooms were well furnished, nicely decorated and very comfortable, the communal garden very tranquil with a hammock and more loungers in the shade, but it was the hostess and her family that made the stay at this Bed and breakfast in Mercedes so special. The rooms are ARG Peso 160 per night (April 2009) and included breakfast.

Silvia Lacour B&B, Belgrano 520, Mercedes Corrientes, Argentina

Idyllic terrace at Silvia Lacour B&B
By Yabbox

Within half an hour of arriving at Silvia’s house, she had invited us to her family estancia in the open countryside for an Easter party. And what a party it was, to give you an idea of what we were to expect, their private drive was about one mile long! A huge main building the main focus of which was the main hall with wooden bar, stage and dj booth and a huge asado (barbecue) with a couple of lamb roasting away. Wine flowed freely, the lamb was so tender and some of the guests rather eccentric – perhaps par for the course for an Argentinian with an Eton education! At one point the host drove through the main hall on one of the housekeepers motorbikes, before whisking her away to, well who knows. We were given a small tour of the estate, including the new tower with English library on the fifth floor. Really quite bizarre and reaming of old-school money. Plenty of wine, whisky and hand-rolled cigars later and some various attempts at flamenco dancing I secured a lift back home with promises of polo and croquet the next day!

Mercedes is a small town and so quite a suitable place to recover from a hangover on a Sunday afternoon and take a lengthy siesta like the rest of the population. It is however, a good starting point for trips to the Esteros Del Ibera wetlands marine park two hours to the North, which we’ll go to later in the week ..

Memorial to Gauchito Gil

Gauchito Gil Yerba Maté for sale
By Yabbox

Just out of town is also the quite bizarre ‘Memorial to Gauchito Gil’. The revered Gaucho Gil is a sort of Robin Hood character who transcends all barriers throughout Argentina. Hundreds of Argentinians come to visit this memorial everyday and leave their thanks and ask their saviour for safety in the years ahead. It was quite a surreal day out and apart from lots of red flags, red candles, cigarettes, licence plates and various other red icons to the saint, there were bundles of country folk enjoying a fun holiday Monday out; eating and dancing. The two things Argentinians arguably do best!

And yes, the local buses were supplied by Mercedes.

We saw two ostriches (or Rhea) yesterday, while we were on horseback, I had forgotten.  Today nothing happened until el patron came back from Montevideo around 10am, with another member of staff, or a friend.  We then went off to survey his land by ute, thus going further than on horseback, which I’m kind of glad about as my lower back is quite sore, aching.  I think extensive horse riding has got to be good for some with back posture issues, like myself!  We went to his ostrich farm first off!  Yes really.  Twenty or more of them roaming around the fields freely.  I remember the ostrich farm in North Korea.  These didn’t seem quite so big, but we didn’t get quite as close.  For sure these ostriches, like the citizens of Uruguay, are much freer.  But these ones ran away from us – probably because they could!  We stopped down by the river (I forget the name, but it borders Flores e Durazno province) which is so tranquil e peaceful and no crocodiles apparently!  He keeps Holland cows as well as Hereford / Hertfordshire? and more and they are all castrated apparently.  Perhaps that’s why they cry and not because they have horrible eye infections (at least a couple of them anyway).  I’m at a cross-roads, they seem to live a pretty organic and happy life, for it’s a massive estate with that much livestock per acre, but the animals are scared. That’s natural I guess, but the ones with bad eyes, it turns my stomach.  You don’t eat the eye do you.  And I can imagine Aunty Anne producing a lovely rare rib-eye (no pun intended) on a Sunday and me feigning not to want any – yeah right!  Let alone what my Dad would think, vegetarianism is not for me. There are plenty of sheep grazing on the same land, I believe they are five or six years old so I wonder what their purpose is, surely too old to eat?  Mutton?  Surely there is a higher price for lamb and less time looking after?  Well, I’m no farmer.

We then passed a dis-used but not in too bad a shape cottage e barn (on his estate, near the river, about one mile from the main house) and it got me dreaming, living there .. it had power, it once had a lovely garden, great potential.  There was a large iguana (lagoda?) which wandered across and into the barn, adding to the abandoned but surreal feel of the place.  To live on his land, to renovate the house, make it into a sellable plot, or a tourist estancia.  Even advertise for help (builders, plasterers, carpenters), even film it for tv.  Live on the main site (early stages at least), get to horse-ride in the afternoon in return to their work in morning, or something.  Mountain biking, canoeing, horse-riding, cattle-herding, etc. etc.  Only dreams though.  As I said before, I’m no farmer!  It could work if I had a live-in 21 year old Spanish teacher though!

So that was all in the morning and I’m glad I wrote it up after lunch as loads more adventures to remember in the afternoon.  We went on horseback along the dirt road with Juan the gaucho, as well as el Patron and trotted the whole way down the road and some, further than I’d been before and I wondered why we were going so far on horseback. It was quite hard work as well, my stirrups weren’t quite right, probably because I don’t have proper gaucho boots and my shoes are not ideal to say the least.  My shins are getting a bit sore from the stirrups.  But more worryingly, my shoes keep falling out of the stirrups as we canter along.

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 21^st 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)?!