a game of catch up.

So first let me catch you all up on our daily schedule. we basically have been getting up every morning at about 9. Starting a ride around 11. Breaking for lunch around 2 or 3. Napping for 2 or 3 hours and then riding till 7 or 8. Then dinner is at 11 usually. One place we were allowed dinner at 9 for 2 nights and that was fantastic. Our horses were assigned to us by Jane, the brit who owns the first estancia that organized the whole trip. so we thought there was a systematic way to assign these horses, but it seems pretty random.

I also don't know if I explained who all is travelling with me. ITs a bit difficult to explain to the people here becasue George isn't married to or related to any of us. So George is my mother's friend from dental school and he is a big horse guy. I've known him all my life. Patti rides with us in colorado. George and patti and my mother have ridden together quite a bit. so for the most part we've been getting 2 rooms with 2 beds. so I've been sharing a room with George since my mother and patti are married and it would be weird for them to share a room with george. So I have this black travel bag that has all of my toiletries. I've been hanging it up in every bathroom we've been to. Finally at the third place George says "is that your black bag in there?" I said of course. He said, "I just thought 'how nice for these hotels to have a bag fully stocked like that!" I said, you have to be kidding? you had to know that was my bag. but he wasn't, he really thought it was just a nice bag waiting for us in each room filled with stuff for him to use! and it happened to be the same black bag and same stuff. haha.

anyway, back to the horses. So these horses aren't super trained. You don't want super trained trail horses that are being riden by a bunch of people. However, you do wnat horses that will respond to your cues at least a little bit. so my horse didn't walk as fast ast he otheres. she'd just plod a long behind. For the most part, george's horse was the same way. Mom and patti were alwasy up at front rarin to go. so George and I got tired of walking, trotting, walking, trotting. I hate to trott. SO george and i would hold the horses back and canteur to catch up. It started to be a much better system. And sometimes the guide would get the hint and we'd start singing for a while.

Our favorite ride was actually at cerro De los Pinos, the second place, becasue we got to use their horses and runa s much as we wanted. they were better trained and more responsive to us as riders. Itw as great! It was real dusty and we had bandanas over our noses to keep some of the dust out. So we started to play like we were banditas and banditos! we tried to sneak up on a patti and the guide, but for some reason they wouldn't give us all their money. WE think the main problem was that we had left our guns at home so we were using our fingers...

So today is our last day on the ride. We are taking the morning off and relaxing. i"m actually on a goose hunt for our saddle bags which were misplaced yesterday. Oh I meant to tell you that the estancia was in the parade yesterday. So all the horses ride up to the hotel to pick us up and they are dressed int heir best tack. all the riders were dressed all goucho like as well. they had a sign to name their estancia. They had on goucho belts and goucho nives sticking out the back. it was just like go texan day at the rodeo! except goucho style.

However, all in all, we are not that impressed with thte goucho's abilities with horses. I mean at that rodeo thing we went to, there were more men on horses then their were cows and they couldn't get them from one end of the ring to the other withought them getting away 2 times. So anyway, I do'nt know if they are better horsemen than the texans I've seen.

We fly back to Buenes Aires today. I leave BA on the 21st and arrive on the 22nd.

I like to Sing!

As many of you know, I like to sing, but when I said this to a goucho in spanish he was a bit confused as to why.

So we really like to gallop the horses. and not everyone gallops as much as we do. so after a long gallop a couple of days ago I asked george (our official translator) how do you say I like. I ahd also heard some of the english guides saying a word liek canteur to the spanish speaking guides. I thought maybe it was a spanish word as well and meant the same thing.. So I said to my friend Juan, a true goucho, ¨mi gusto cantuer¨however, the way I said it sounded like in spanish.. I like to sing.. He looked at me funny and the other guide said gallope, so I then said mi gusto gallope. George later informed me that I had said to juan, I like to sing. Wich is true... anyway so now we are always saying, I love to sing! after a nice cantuer.

I don´t have much time so i´m only writing a bit right now.

One mroe thing that´s been a large part of this trip is tasting patagonia. I don´t mean tasting the food of patagonia, I mean as we are riding my slow horse is always in the back and I am literally eating patagonia dust. My face is black by the end of the day and therés so much dirt in my eyes that it looks like I have eye liner on. The color of our boogers has been a large topic of conversation. Its not as bad for my mother because her speed deamon of a horse is always in front. I like my horse though. She´s got quite a bit of personality adn I cna tell she doesn´t really trust my decisions on the trail, ha. SHe´s always looking at me saying what are you doing?

alright ath´s all i´ve got for now.. except I wanted to tell you I wore the heart shaped glasses the entire day on valentines day and people just tried not to stare when they first saw me. The swomen in charge of the new estancia said, that´s an interesting way to see patagonia, with rose colored glasses! haha. It was really weird when I took them off. Everything was much greener.

alright, off to a parade! this week is a festival for the poeple that love on esxtancias that aren´t the owners of the estancias. THeres a bunch of people around wearing traditional wear and you know how I feel about parades!

ciao, ciao!

Christine

Favourite holiday!

This has been my favorite holiday so far.

Also, for those of you that don't know, I LOVE valentine's day! We started to celebrate it this evening. My mother and I bought heart shaped sparkly rose colored glasses to wear all day tomorrow. We started already! A brittish man tonight told me why we no longer use the ou in words like cloured and such. its not that interesting why, so i"ll spare you the details. I just wanted to tel you that I have been meeting a lot of brits since my stay here in argentina. mainly older brits.

Let me just tell you, they are not nearly as much fun as texans! I wnat to write a bit, but its late and we are riding a long distance tomorrow. Today was alazy day at a new estancia. WE rode our best ride yet and then had a leisurly afternoon strolling aorund the property and napping. We all got massages. the people we meet are all much odler than me and confused why george is travelling with us and not my father, but its fun to explain and everyone seems to like us. Well, we seem to think they like us, ha.

Happy Valentine's day to all! and as a brittish man told me tonight after he took a picture with me and our sun glasses, "You're a pretty young girl, I hope you can find a younger man than me in the states!" I hope you all get a little lovin on the day of St. valentine!

Muah, Bisous, Beijos!

Christine

Gouchos and Gouchas!

We had our first full day ride today! One of our guides looks like a real goucho and i fit in with my new leather flat brimmed hat! My horses name means white cloud in english. I have no clue how to spell that in Spanish. I'm learning more though. I learned the word for female goucho... Goucha! that's what I am, ha.

So we arrived yesterday via a very long drive from bariloci throught the seven lakes. Its was a very beautiful drive, but it took longer than planned and it was a bumpy gravel road the entire way. I liked the views. Bariloci is a ski resort during the winter and the views were gorgeous. each lake was clearer than the last. It was a lot of vegetation near the lakes, however its much more arid here. the dust is rediculous. while we were riding last night and today I just had to shut my eyes some times and hope the horse went in the right direction.

My horse last night was much more concerned abotu eating then about where we were going. She was also really rough and named Whitch in spanish. I decided to trade since there were 80 horses to choose from. White cloud today was a great horse. She's got a little spunk to her, however none of these horses have a lot of spunk to them...

We've already been repremandid by the extancia owner. She told us this morning that we were not to run in front of the guide and that if we do then the guide is no longer responsible for us... At one point during the first ride we all took off running and the guides were stoped for some reason... Whoops! haha. so we were good today. Hopefully we wont be repremandid tomorrow.

The woman who owns the estancia is Brittish and a little tightly wound. We'll see how she takes our laughter and joking... we made a few jokes last night that she didn't think were too funny. My mom got in a political debate with a woman from massechusettes and before she started talking my mother locked up her mouth and gave george the Key. However, we think she didn't lock it ver tight because she had trouble shuttin up, haha. It was entertaining.

We're having a grand ol' time. We are laughing constantly.

Vamanos!

Acts of Love!

We are here at Iguazu falls. The story goes that there was this large snake that lived in the river and the native people of this area would sacrifice a maiden each year to appease this snake. Then one year a man fell in love with the woman to be sacrificed. he took her away into the jungle to hide. Suprisingly the snake was not very happy about this decision and with a crack of his back snapped the river into what is now the falls. The hair of the girl makes the falls and the trees above make the fingers of the man. The snake hides in the devils throat to keep them seperated. However, you can often see a rainbow bringing them together just for a moment.

Natives in love often die and get stuck in some landform. I guess its a good way to be immortalized??

anyway the falls were beautiful! we had a great time walking around. We took a Grand Adventure! tour of the falls. So we took a hot jeep ride throught he sub tropical jungle. The guide pointed out plants and told us about animals that we probably wouldn´t get to see... She did stop by a Palmito! and told us that they only grow inthis area and produce heart of palm. However, they can{t harvest the heart of palm anymore because they are important to the survival of the animals in that area. It looked a little different than the palmettos of south carolina...

We then took a boat ride up the river and towards the great falls! we had brazil on our left and argentina on our right. I waved to brazil a few times! ha. Then, they drove the boat really close to the waterfalls and we got soaking! It was so fun. It was alittle terrifying but all mom and I could do was laugh! the cool thing about these falls is that there are so many of them. Its not just one drop. Its so m any drops youc an{t see thema ll at the same time. Its pretty powerful and we went right up next to them!

So we got of the boat completely soaked. We wer only staying one night so I did not bring much extra clothing... Luckily my shorts pretty much dried as we walked around the rest of the park. It was Beautiful! there were also these little animals that are related to racoons but look like ant eater/ lemurs/ racoons. they were pretty cute.

So the hotel we are staying at is in the national park. Its sort of resort living so we had messages last night! I had a hot stone message. It was wonderful. Then they give you hot tea. We had dinner at the normal argentina time of 10ish, but apperently that was pretty late for the hotel.. I guess mainly old people stay here.

We are leaving today to go back to Buenes aires. I{m going dancing tonight with patti´s daughter Durban, shes my age, and her roommate. They are both living here and looking for jobs. They were the ones that showed us around the other day. Theya re really cute and fun and its intersting to hear about them trying to get a job in another country and all the work it takes to get a work visa. Its a contrast to hearing about fullbrighters who come for a definite time period and have a goal at the end of their stay. They just picked up and moved here for an indefinite tome frame. Its like moving to any city adn just looking for a job once you get there. Except once you find the job you ahve to get a work visa... They ahv e few months till their travelling visa expires, so thats nice. They{ve only been here a few weeks. I can{t wait to see the nightlife of buenes aires!! I bought new shoes, woop woop!

Sunday we leave for the horseback ride! George and pattis hould be there when we get back to buenes aires. I{m anxious to see them! its been a while! I[m also anxious to get on a horse, its been too long!!

ciao! (they say that here too, its awesome. Oh, they say it because it was largely colonized by italians as well as spaniards, so I get to have good italian food along with good beef!)

Hola, thats spanish for hello (thanks Nick)

Hola from Buenes Aires-

We made it alive! mom and I are having a blast! we rode fist class and i´ve never been fed so much in my life! we had a multi course meal! Sadly though, I didn´t get that good of a nights sleep. Its hot here! its got a nice breeze so its better than houston, but its still HOT! we dont leave for the horse back ride until Sunday. so we´ve been walking aorund the city. when we arrived we took a nap and then walked through a botanical gardens put there by a french man.

Apparently argentina was populated by a lot of italians so theres a large italian influence. So traditionally they are known for their meat like other south american countries, but they also have a lot of pasta and pizza and what not. I really like italy, so that bodes well for me liking agentina! ha.

So today we slept in, mom´s getting over a cough, and thenw e met up with Patti´s daughter durban who moved here about 3 weeks ago. we shopeed and had lunch. It was great. I got some fabulous shoes and what not. the shopping here is wonderful! when patti gets here we want to go to florida street. there´s supposed to be quite a bit of leather goods.

So I know vrey little spanish and i´ve been in so many countries recently that i´ve been saying things in different languages. you always learn the key words when you are in a country for a little while. things i make sure i learn are 1 or 2, hello, good bye, do you have?, I want, things of that nature. so I was starting to get by pretty well in Italy, well for knowing 0 Italian... so a lot of the words are similar but with a different pronounciation, so I keeps aying things the italian way likie grazie instead of gracias and duo instead of dos. i mean its not a big deal, but i just keep kicking myself everytime. I¨m dtermined to learn as much spanish as I can while i´m here. maybe our tour guide on the horseback ride can help us. Sometimes I understand people, but most of the time I dont. However I must look at them lik eI understand becaue they keep explaining things to me in spanish... Its prety funny. I usually just start laughing.

So Its nice to se a contrast between argentina and europe. There´s a lot thats similar, but a few differences. I mainly notice similarities. However, I´m not really continuing my history enthusiasm. theres a lot less historical monuments tucked throughout the city as with a greek city, ha. but its more a city you enjoy the culture in, not the historical significance. we are going to go to a tango show onc everyone else arrives. the women are very chic and gorgeous and theres as many men clothing stores as women. so I definitely feel inferior on the fashion world, but i´m hot so I don´t really care what i´m wearing. I did learn about the disappeared and how their mothers march in some plaza in protest of their lost loved ones. we arén´t sure which dictator stole all these men and probably killed them, but I know it happened in the 70s. Its similar to the guy in chile.. i don´t know how to spel his name...

tomorrow we go to Iguozu which is a plane flight away. there´s an amazing waterfall and its supposed to be breathtaking. We will get up early tomorrow and fly there.

so, i hope all of ya´ll are well! I´ll write when I get back from iguozu. Oh and this keyboard sucks so please excuse missing letters. ciao!