22nd January – Montevideo
A Day in the Countryside
Today our excursion was entitled “A Day in
the Countryside”, which was a trip to Estancia La Rabida, a traditional
Uruguayan working ranch.
We started our tour by driving to
Independence Square and the Congress Building, and in comparison to Salvador
and Recife, this looked to be quite a sophisticated city.
When we arrived at the ranch the family members
rode out to meet us and escorted the coaches to the ranch. After an introduction to the extended family,
we were all given a glass of Uruguayan wine or homemade orange or lemonade
(which was delicious).
We then boarded various hay wagons and had
a half hour ride across the farm, where we saw some beautiful butterflies and
unusual birds (including lapwings) to their own private beach on Rio de la
Plata (River Plate) and this looked just like a sea as the river was some 200
kilometres wide at this point, and on the other side was Argentina.
After more refreshing drinks and a quick
paddle in the “sea”, we boarded the hay wagons for the drive back to the ranch
where a magnificent BBQ (asado) was being prepared. This consisted of pork, lamb., beef, chicken
and sausages and we started with sweetbreads, kidneys and sausages. The BBQ was served with some delicious salads
– an excellent meal.
After the BBQ we watched an authentic
gaucho sheep shearing and milking a cow and fun and games were had by the whole
family. All too soon we had to say our
goodbyes and return to our ship to prepare for our night out to a Tango and
Folklore Show.
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