Estancia Yvytu Itaty

This posting was mine to do, so a bit late and out of sequence. It follows on from our trip across Uruguay about 6 weeks ago...

A true gaucho...

We hadn't wanted to fly through the back-country without a few days stay to get a better feel for these large expanses of land (which support all those BBQ's we'd enjoyed though Uruguay and Argentina). A visit to an estancia would be a contrasting experience compared to that of urban Buenos Aires and the Uruguayan beaches so far.

Pedro picked us up in his old truck at 9:30pm from Tacuarembo's bus terminal. We rattled along roads out of town for about 40km, and on an unmarked bend, pulled off onto 17km of bone shuddering dirt road to his Estancia Yvytu Itaty (this means wind and stones in the indigenous dialect). By this point it was getting seriously dark with the odd smudge of orange on the horizon from the lights of Tacuarembo and the few villages. The estancia, with only a few solar-powered batteries to light the rooms in the evening, showed no sign either and we only had a hint of the surrounding countryside from the moon.

On arrival, we met Pedro's wife Nahir and his sister Maria Louisa who would cook some impressive meals on a pretty much self-sufficent basis. Most of the food came from their own cattle, lamb and garden produce and so we ate excellent, simple, filling food with the family. We apologised for delaying dinner for our arrival. I thought country life (and lack of light) would have meant a different schedule but it transpired that no, country Uruguayans also ate late. Over dinner and subsequent meals we found Pedro, Nahir and Maria Louisa to be good fun and we managed to discuss their life and our travel plans. We also met Richard and Chris, two friendly English lads also visiting for a few days.

The next morning we'd agreed an easy start with a post-9am breakfast. We thought Pedro was quite happy with that given it was gone midnight when we'd finished chatting - in fact he was still up working his farm at 6am. Breakfast was on the porch and included home-made dulce de leche (a very sweet milk and sugar paste eaten by all on bread in the morning). Home-made it was appreciated whereas I still don't have a taste for the supermarket version.

Pedro took us out for our first ride around the estancia - my first time on a horse in nearly 20 years which wasn't much more than a 20 minute taster. Barbla's horse had recently had a foal who would constantly follow us. Finally a few of the dogs joined us, laden with a weighty collar to slow them down as they stalked partridge and hares in the fields. From the bus, the countryside had seemed to be pretty flat and barren apart from the cattle and a few ňandus (a native bird like the emu). On the horses I realised that small valleys run commonly through the plains with streams supporting the farms and wildlife. In fact the farms wouldn't survive without these. As we were in a slight drought, the rivers seemed bare but watering holes could still be found - and the horses pulled deeply when we stopped at these.

Back at the house we found Nahir and Maria Louisa laughing as ever in the kitchen whilst knocking up a tasty lunch. Surprisingly sitting on a horse gave me a good appetite, and after lunch a comfy bed under a tree allowed a quick siesta.

In the afternoon we headed out on the horses again and herded some cattle - Pedro had spotted two calves with infections from their ear-tags. At first we didn't know quite what was going on but soon worked out we could help Pedro guide them home by riding along the side of the herd watching our two targets. Along the way we were still able to spot a few different types of wild birds and Pedro showed us an armidillo he'd found in its nest.

Successful homecoming

In the early evening Maria Louisa invited us to our first maté drinking session. Maté is a herb drunk by many many Uruguayan and Argentinians who can be seen carrying their special maté cup and flask of hot water everywhere they go. Over this ceremony Barbla talked about the 10 special rules of maté drinking with the family, then explaining to us English. After dinner I tried to identify with Pedro which stars were which. With so little light pollution around, the milky way was very obvious and the sky was blinding full. To top this off we could see impressive thunderstorms on the horizon to the south and east.

On our second day, Barbla and I went off riding on our own - this horse thing seemed easy as long as the horse didn't decide it fancied trotting home of its own accord... The 600 hectare farm turned out to be fine to navigate. If you could see the clump of trees by the house, you could simply follow a fence home. After lunch, where we met some new guests just feeling their way into the family life (I was sure they'd be quickly embraced as we were), Nahir took us to the local bus stop (15km) and ensured we got our bus to the border town of Paysandù.

We were very grateful that we stumbled across Pedro and Nahir's Estancia and how they welcomed us into their friendly and fun home. We wish them well and with a recent entry into the Lonely Planet, it already seems they're increasingly busy.

With Pedro, Nahir, Maria Luisa and their grandson

The rest of the photos are here...