Well, the day tour worked out the second time around! I went yesterday, and the arrangements worked out fine this time.

The estancia day was, no question about it, very touristy, but enjoyable nonetheless — except for the elderly tourists from Florida, who kept complaining it was too touristy!!

The place itself is beautiful — lots of big, open sky, palm trees and horses.

One of the highlights of the day was the traditional asado. Here is a sequence showing the fire heating up the coals, then the meat (only a fraction of the length of it) grilling slowly. They explained that the traditional Argentine way of grilling meat is over coals that have stopped glowing red, and the meat is several inches above the heat. This means it takes a long time to cook, but the result is definitely worth the wait! Imagine the job this poor guy has — when the temperature outside is over 30 degrees!

The sequence is that you are served first sausages, usually two kinds, followed by steaks, sometimes lamb and then chicken. Seriously! All with copious quantities of Malbec of course. Then while we were watching the folkloric show, they served us dessert!

We did have some free time to wander around, so of course I took a chance to sit on the grass and sketch. This is actually the museum, but fashioned after an actual estancia house of old. It’s much bigger on the inside than it looks, and could house quite a large family.

It was really too hot to sketch!

They had a gift shop, so of course I forced myself to go inside! This is what I bought. It’s hard to see it here, but it’s a cowskin wall hanging with a depiction of a gaucho at work, and the picture is made of individual pieces of cowskin glued on. I like it because it represents a completely different side of Argentina from Buenos Aires.

For me, the gaucho show was the best part of the day.

These guys are quite something to watch. The horsemanship is amazing. In this contest, each gaucho rides like the clappers towards this long leather string that has a tiny ring on the end. They have to put a stick the size of a pen into the ring and pull it off. When they do, they can present the ring to a lady and she has to give him a kiss. Unfortunately I was not the recipient of a ring — that would have been quite an easy price to pay!

The horses are really beautiful. So are the gauchos.

This handsome waiter served me some fabulous food  — and then morphed into an even more handsome gaucho after lunch!

As I’ve said before, I am not a tourist in Argentina, but a temporary resident. That said, though, there are times when you just have to get into the spirit of the thing and enjoy the entertainment for what it is, and authenticity be damned. I met some nice women from Vancouver, and a woman and her niece from Ecuador, so it was fun to enjoy their company on the day. And as they only had one evening left in Buenos Aires I was able to recommend a great cafe for them near their hotel.

The time is flying by. After my tango lesson today I was booking a session for next week, and realized we would be into March by that time. A few weeks ago I befriended a woman from Switzerland, and she was going home today. She sent me an email saying she felt as if she was being pulled out of the ground like a carrot, so badly did she want to stay in Buenos Aires.

Time, time, please slow down!