Week 2

Hello all, I hope that you are enjoying your summers. I am in the process of uploading the pictures from the last entry now, so you should check them out. Enjoy!

The First Weekend- 6/23

What a weekend.

I had a fun car ride back from Esquina on Friday night. Adolfo couldn’t figure out the lights on the truck so we drove most of the way home with the brights on. Every car we passed flashed us. We were laughing and joking the whole time. Finally, he figured the lights out as we turned on to the dirt road to the ranch. Not that it mattered then.

I awoke early the next morning, and much to my chagrin, the weather looked beautiful. I could see every star in the sky. Normally, this would be great, but I had to go hunting for that last duck. Marta won’t cook three of anything it seems. Ducks fly in bad weather, and normally don’t move very much on a nice day like Saturday, which is bad for hunting.

But, seeing as Marta wanted another duck, I put on my gear and went out to the lagoon. I tried a new spot, closer to the water in the reeds that were growing in the mud. As I sat there looking at the empty sky, I absentmindedly brushed an ant off of my chaps. Two minutes later, I brushed off another. As I turned around to see where they were coming from, two ducks flew in from the trees behind me and landed in the water thirty yards in front of me. Slowly, I continued to turn around to see where the ants were coming from, trying not to scare the ducks up until I was ready to shoot them.

It just so happens that I had sat on a pile of reeds occupied by an ant colony, which now proceeded to swarm everywhere. I wasn’t about to start tearing wildly at my clothes, not with that fourth duck within reach. Of course, you must understand that I would never start tearing wildly at my clothes upon learning that I had sat on an ant hill swarming with huge, black, Argentinean ants. Keeping my eyes on the ducks, I started to swipe madly at the seat of my pants. Ants went flying. I got most of them off pretty quickly, but I had these strange burrs stuck to my jeans. Upon examination of one of these burrs in the pre-dawn light, I saw was holding a huge guard ant that had hinged his jaws to my pants. I tried to get all of them off without getting bitten too badly, keeping my eyes on the unsuspecting ducks all the while.

Now that the ants were out of the way, I could move on to my quarry. I took to steps towards the ducks, hoping to spook them. I closed my gun and watched as they uneventfully flew out further out into the lagoon and further out of bounds. Eventually a duck came within reach and I shot it, no big deal. It wasn’t a very productive morning.

Our guests for the weekend, Camille and family and a family friend all came over about midday. I helped Marta cook the biggest beef tenderloin that you have ever seen in the wood oven, and enjoyed a relaxed meal outside with the family.

Adolfo had invited me to go fishing with him and his son during the ride home the night before. He invited me to go Sunday, but because we were having a big Asado lunch on Sunday that Marcela wanted me to come to, she gave Adolfo the afternoon off so I could do both. It worked out great for everyone.

After lunch, Adolfo had the afternoon off, so he invited me to go fishing with him and his son, Negro. We all hopped in the truck with conventional fishing rods and carnecitas, which are basically little pieces of uncooked and extremely grisly garbage beef that we cut up with Adolfo’s machete. After a brief drive to the other ranch that goes all the way down to the river, we had another brief walk through the jungle before we came out onto a beautiful sandy beach.

It was slow at first, a few shakers here and there, until the sun started to get low on the horizon. Then Adolfo started pulling them in. We were fishing for anything that would take the bait, and what we caught were boga, a bigger version of white fish with teeth like a mammal and a strong honking jaw. I found this out the hard way when I climbed down the ten foot cliff to the water to get Adolfo’s first fish. It was about 16 inches long, with big scales and a tiny little mouth. I put my finger in it to grab it like one would a bass and CLAMP, “YOW!” The teeth weren’t sharp, so they didn’t pierce the skin, but I still have a bruise and it is Sunday night. They weren’t too slippery, so I just grabbed them tight after that.

I wasn’t having too much luck myself so I moved down the coast to try to improve it. I cast way out into the river and waited for it to drift into the shallows, just like Adolfo. Negro had already given up and was sitting watching his father. He is thirteen. Anyways, I started feeling taps on the end of my line. I waited for what seemed like forever for him to take it, and then set the hook. “Tengo algo!” The fight was short, boga are not fighting fish. I started to reel him up the cliff, when FLOP the hook came loose. The fish landed on the beach below, which was about a foot wide. Not wanting to lose the fish, I jumped and fell/slid down the cliff to the water, and with the toes of my boots wet, grabbed the fish before it had a chance to get away. That was exhilarating. I threw it up onto the bank to where Negro took this picture. I gave my fish to Adolfo for his family to eat, so he had five fish when we left.



Back home, I helped clean the fish behind Adolfo’s little house, and then went to have cocktails and play cards with the guests. When we finished cards, I went to go have some fried fish and flatbread fried over a stove made out of a metal garbage can. We ate with our hands on stools and it was delicious. I went back to the house and had hand-made gnocchi with meat sauce and we were served red wine. We ate with silver on white linen placemats and it was delicious. It was interesting to go between the two worlds. I enjoy them both. The ranch heands have really taken me in.

6/24

I woke up really late, at almost ten, and lay in bed for a while. I had had more dreams of people from home and was trying to be rid of them. I took a lukewarm shower and went outside to see everyone having tea on the lawn.

I had two and a half mugs of my usual earl grey tea and started to wake up. It was midday, after all. We sat and talked waiting for the asado to be ready until we all had to go put on something warmer. I wore long underwear for the first time down here today and I was still cold. The weather has changed. It has gone from the 60s with 85% humidity to the 40s and 50s with 35% humidity.

We went to have our asado in the Quincho, a room with a big wooden table with a wood oven and grill built into the wall. The room was filled with the smoky and appetizing aroma of the specialty of Argeninta- grilled meat. We sat and talked and drank wine for hours, eating chorizo, salchicha, and the best cut of pork that you have ever tasted. I don’t know what it was called, but it was amazing. I do not know if I have mentioned it, but all of the conversing that I do down here is in Spanish, with the exception of when the boys or Marcela speak to me. Even then, Marcela speaks to me in Spanish half of the time and I am trying to teach the boys some Spanish.

We ate for two hours, and I ate about a kilogram of meat. That is a little more than two pounds. I felt like a lion after having gorged on a wildebeest. I asked to be excused, as they were talking about old family arguments, and went to my room to go back to sleep. It felt like I didn’t sleep at all. I could not stop thinking about Olivia. I love her and miss her. I got out of bed after an hour, and I wanted to go for a ride.

I went out with Javier to go get the horses from the field, and we found them pretty quickly. We herded them back towards the ranch house and into the corral. Negro came out to join us and put a halter on a big beautiful dark brown horse named Oscura, which means dark. Javier grabbed me the slow horse that Liam rides, explaining that if you whack him hard enough, he’ll go. I helped him saddle the horse up, and I was going to go out into the campo, or the country, as opposed to the road when Negro’s sisters, whom we refer to as las chicas, came out to join us. Cynthia is 12, shy, and scared of everything and Joanna is 11 and adventurous. She is perpetually smiling. They both look and act at least 14. They and Negro all wanted to go riding with me for a couple of hours. I was quite happy to hear that, and I waited as they saddled up. They rode over to the gate on the main road and Negro and I went by the lagoon. My stirrups were too short, so I coerced my horse to a gallop and rode to the front gate without them, where I traded horses with Cynthia whose stirrups were too long.

I had never seen the horse before. I found out later that his name is Rosillo. He is the best horse that I have ever ridden, he is very responsive, has a smooth gait, and can run like the wind. Negro wanted to race me, and I started to say that I could never win, that he is so much more experienced, but then my competitive side took over. I said okay. Negro had to stop to tighten the cinch on his horse during the first race and we tied the second race. We took a break and let the girls catch up, and we all talked and joked and laughed together until we had to turn around.

I had been reigning Rosillo in slightly on the first two races, but for the last race, I let him loose. I did not know that a horse could run so fast. I could barely see for the wind in my eyes. I passed Negro, who had started ahead of me, with ease. The wind howled in my ears, and Rosillo’s hooves were thunder on the hard dirt. I swung my free hand up in the air and yelled with excitement and urged the horse on. Eventually, I started to reign him in. He just kept accelerating and the girls were far behind us. Negro passed me soon enough and I told him that he won, because I don’t want to embarrass him. Riding is second nature to these people. I was very proud as we walked towards the ranch and the sunset, all four of us in a row. We talked and laughed some more before herding some stray bulls out of the front lawn area in the twilight. We circled them all and whooped and hollered them out the gate.

After thanking Rosillo and putting him out to pasture, I said goodbye to the guests, who were on their way out the door. I had a pear and an orange for dinner and laughed with Marta and Sandra, in the kitchen before retiring to me room. What a weekend. I want to ride Rosillo again tomorrow.

6/25

Man I’m sore. My legs are fine, but my lower back is killing me. I think I turned all of m vertebrae into pancakes yesterday. I am stretching my hamstrings, which should relieve everything. I’ll feel better tomorrow.

I realize that I might not have painted a good picture of a typical day here at Carmen. I usually get up around 8:30, get dressed, and go get some breakfast, usually eggs, fruit and Earl Grey tea, from Marta in the kitchen. If I want to go hunting, I get up at 7. No one else is awake. The kids usually get up and are ready to be tutored at 11. I tutor Liam for 1.5 hours by reading with him and doing basic math and English exercises, and I tutor Sean for .5 of an hour, working on letter recognition and writing letters. Then we go eat a hot lunch at 1 and go horseback riding. In the later afternoon, I go hunting, horseback riding with Adolfo’s kids, or hang out in the kitchen with Marta. Then when the sun sets and the generator goes on at about 6, I go back to my room and write the blog, letters, and anything else that comes to mind. We eat dinner around 8 or 9, and I usually go to bed about 10:30 after making a fire and reading.

6/26

It looks like London outside. It is 45 degrees and raining. I went out duck hunting late, at ten, but didn’t get anything because all of the ducks were already done moving for the day, thought there were many on the water. Nevertheless, I froze for over an hour, crossing my fingers and waiting. I couldn’t feel my hands anymore, so I tried to jump the ducks that had already landed. As I approached the water, they all flew over the water with the piranhas and crocodiles in it. No point in shooting them over that. I couldn’t have pulled the trigger more likely than not anyway as my hands were so wet and numb.

6/27 – Orange Trees

Today was a great day. I got up at the nine, took a freezing cold shower (I could see my own breath in the bathroom and the water was room temperature at best), and went to have breakfast. I had a breakfast of toast with walnut butter, which is just like peanut butter. I mashed it myself from some raw walnuts yesterday. The cold front has passed us by. It was in the upper 50s and sunny all day.

I got the kid’s tutoring done early, then went out and herded the horses in from pasture and into the corral on foot. Rosillo let me put on his bridal without a problem. Normally, it is a pain in the butt to get the bridal on the horses. Getting them into the corral is the easy part.

I mounted him and rode him around bareback for a while as I waited for the others to come out of the house to go riding. Riding bareback it really fun. I galloped for a while, then got down and taught the horse to go through a tall gate that he was balking at. I led him through the gate twice, then mounted him and rode him through without a problem. I was very proud of myself.

Finally, Negro and Joanna came out of the house with Liam, and I went with Negro to go get some more horses. Negro got Oscura, and I got Liam’s slow horse that he likes to ride, which I have nicknamed Caracol, or snail. Liam wanted to take us to his “secret spot” out in the campo. Of course, it was an eight-year-old’s “secret spot” so it was really just anywhere in the general direction that he pointed. We found an old overgrown road, and followed it all the way to the end of the ranch. There we dismounted, hopped the fence, and proceeded to relieve the neighbor of some of his oranges and lemons, which were growing on trees around the crumbling ruins of a small brick house.

The oranges there were juicy and sweet, whereas the oranges near Carmen are dry and bitter. Negro climbed the tree and threw the oranges down to me where I caught them and put them in a pile. We ate a couple each and decided to bring the rest home. We did not have any bags to bring them home with so we improvised. Negro left for the ranch while I was helping Joanna and Liam onto Caracol, and they left as I mounted Rosillo. Alone, I galloped him fast all the way back to the ranch along the overgrown road. I did not see the others in the brush until they caught up with me at the ranch. Negro said he tried to catch me, but that I was going too fast.

This is a picture of how we improvised. It is a funny sensation to have oranges bouncing around in your shirt.


For dinner, I prepared some doves that I shot for Adolfo and his family. I marinated them overnight in olive oil, white wine vinegar, and chimichurri herbs. I had had some the night before. They were delicious.

I am pretty sore again after riding. I will stretch now and then go to bed. We might go to Esquina tomorrow. If not, I look forward to going hunting with Negro in the afternoon.