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John and I arrived at Miguel's early this morning, in time for the morning
workout. We left Saladillo at 5:30 am, Easter morning - dark, but the full
moon was still shining. From Saladillo (actually the teenie town of Alvarez
de Toledo - where Mercedes and Eduardo have their rancho) one has to take
several dirt lanes to get to the highway. It was pretty - full moon on the
pastures and croplands. We scared up a rabbit with our headlights, he darted
back and forth before making a fateful decision to dart back in front of our
car. A little thump, we both winced... a few minutes later John murmured 'I
hope that wasn't the Easter Bunny'. :(

Nice easy drive from Saladillo to Escobar (Miguel's city home) - 2 lane road
till we reached Buenos Aires, straight like all of the roads here in the
pampas, a few towns along the way, roadside businesses, farms. Stopped for
coffee at one of the petrol stations. I ordered coffee and crouissant (media
lunas) -to go -  and actually understood every word that the guy at the
station said. progress! even better, he understood my spanish! great
progress... We navigated Buenos Aires with no problem, not much traffic
early Easter morning and arrived at Miguel's in time for breakfast before
riding.

Miguel and I headed for the barn and John stayed at the house (to set up the
wireless internet bay station - so we can all work off the same cable
connection- everywhere we go he sets up a techie trail...). Miguel and
Celena live in a gated community - sort of a country club setting about 40
km outside of BA. There's a barn and stable, arena, driving (carriage)
course,  and the obligitory golf course. A quiet and safe neighborhood. And
he can keep several of his horses here. Miguel's daughter Carolina and
son-in-law Pablo also live in the neighborhood (as well as a brother,
another son, a nephew, etc...). It's pretty nice.

We met Pablo at the barn, saddled up and took the horses out for a workout.
Miguel's maravilloso stallion - Moro Tigre, Mora Austria (another great
Pavlovsky horse - she is being prepared for our mutual Belgian friend,
Leonard), and the horse I will ride (insh'allah) Mora Afamada. All wonderful
horses. Afamada is tall - probably 15.2 - and a nice strong ride. She's not
tremendously fit (she's being brought back after a year off) but getting
fitter all the time. I rode her 80km three weeks ago at Pinamar - I think
she'll be a good solid ride for the PAC.

We'll stay here for a while now with Miguel and Celena - help train the
horses, get some work (computer) done. Do some Buenos Aires stuff - still
haven't really been tourists there, and it's a beautiful city. All of our
stuff is with Mercedes and Eduardo in Saladillo, and we'll bounce back and
forth a little between the two places until the PAC.

After the ride in Pinamar (3 hours south of BA) we went to visit Claudia
(owner of Mercedes' horse Kasal) for a couple days... and ended up staying
for 2 1/2 weeks. A beautiful Estancia, very peaceful and private. And a
beautiful stretch along the beach 6km from the house. The kind of beach
where one hears the waves breaking before you can see the water. Pretty
wild. It's on the piece of Argentina that bends back in after the big bulge
(pretty technical geographical terms...) so it's actually facing south
rather than east. I think it gets rougher seas - coming up from the south,
Tierra del Fuego and the Falklan (Malvinas) Islands (the ones that Argentina
and Great Britain fought over - battleships and all - a couple decades ago).
There's a creek that runs through the Estancia and empties into the ocean,
forming a pretty pampas grass lined lagoon after cutting through the dunes -
lots of shore birds, cormorants, ducks, gulls - and then fanning out into a
sandy delta. Pretty cool to see the fresh water flowing into the ocean,
confused ripples.

Claudia's son Sergio is managing the forests there. Several stands of
Eucalyptus and poplar in the main ranch area, and then acres of pine trees
along the coast. Some older plantings that need to be thinned and limbed,
and some newer ones, finding footing in the dunes. All of the trees of
today's pampas have been introduced, 100 years ago it was only grass - the
only natural 'tree' - actually more of a shrub - is the ombú tree. Thick
pulpy trunk, short, many branches - grows in a hummock manner. It's a
beautiful tree - some of the old towns have their ombú trees planted in the
parks, lot of low limbs and twisted trunks for kids to play on.

It was a great visit with Claudia and Sergio. Good food, good company, very
pleasant. We went to a 'country' wedding on one of the weekends. Miguel and
Celena's Estancia is close to Claudia - and Miguels' main gaucho's (Hugo)
son (Hugito) was getting married.  Weddings here in Argentina are a very big
deal - a very big party. They had a nice church ceremony - tiny little
church in a little town near the Estancia. Lots of people, the church was
standing room only. Not only all of the local friends, and Miguel's entire
family (formidable numbers right there) attended, but also a lot of the
Endurance community. Hugo and Hugito have been riding for Miguel since he
started Endurance, so have made lots of friends outside their normal gaucho
circle. It was a nice group, a fun mix of people. After the ceremony
everybody went to the local club house for a full night (literally) of food,
wine, beer and dancing. John and I pooped out around midnight, but the party
didn't end until dawn. A big fire outside, roasting all sorts of meats, plus
salads, deserts, etc. All night long. It was very sweet. Hugito and his
'new' wife Nadie have been together for a few years already, and have a
little boy  'Hugotito' who looks just like his grandfather. Hugotito rode
Hugito's shoulder most of the evening. Very sweet.

Tomorrow - up early to go riding again. Time to get back in shape! I had the
treat of riding RAS Kasal a couple mornings ago. Went out on on a training
ride with Mercedes, and the two 'chicos' that ride for her. We did a 40 km
loop, along the sandy Saladillo roads - perfect footing. Nice ride. Kasal is
one of 'those' horses. Amazing - forward, eager, strong - could care less
about the other horses, just wants to go. Doesn't spook, no silliness, his
ears are always pointed forward - his whole attitude is foreward. A real
pleasure. John and Eduardo followed along for a while in the truck, taking
pictures. Late summer fields - corn stalks getting brown and crackly in the
wind, sunflower seed heads full and droopy, ready for harvest. And a field
of pumpkins. Hard to imagine that it's springtime in Idaho...

Steph







Steph


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