August 27, 2010 La Estancia

I think “estancia” is Spanish for cattle ranch or country estate. Just outside the city, there are some that operate almost as a combination country club and tourist attraction. La Candelaria is essentially that, and NYU just completely took over the place this Friday.

It was about a two hour bus ride. I promptly fell asleep as soon as we started moving. I woke up when the bus hit dirt road. There was so much farmland in all directions! You’d see the occasional horses, but mostly it was just wide open space and trees and fields filled with neat rows of corn. We finally came up on some buildings, La Candelaria, and the bus deposited us in front of a massive, dark green tent with clear plastic sides enclosing a huge, beautiful dining room. Waiters in uniform walked around serving empanadas, which I think all contained meat, so I didn’t have any. There were also apples and coffee and tea for anyone who wanted them.

Inside the tent.

This was taken from the doorway of the dining area looking out.

Finally word got out that we were essentially on our own and free to wander the property in search of the soccer field or bikes or horseback riding or the castle on the other side of the estate. Sarah, Samantha, Magen, and I went for the horses, but by the time we got there, the first group was already heading out. We figured we’d kill time by going to check out the castle.

The first group that we missed.

We asked where the castle was and Pedro pointed in the general direction of these trees. I was thinking, "Um... Okay... I will just walk blindly away from all the buildings and I hope I hit a castle soon..."

Cool trees. :) Also somewhere around this area we noticed these small, bright green, exotic birds flying between the trees. It really surprised us and reminded us that we were in South America, something we seem to keep forgetting.

The castle! And a pretty bridge. 

Samantha and I posing in front of the castle.

Wow, is that not gorgeous?

I think almost everyone who went bike riding eventually ended up at the castle.

Just inside!

This table and set of chairs are so beautiful and ornate...

You're going to see a lot of stained glass in this blog. I will always take pictures of it if I see it.

Heading back to go riding.

When we got back, we just missed the second riding group, so we wandered around a little more and headed back toward the dining hall. I think somewhere between this and lunchtime we managed to miss yet another chance to ride, but we still had fun, watched some people play soccer, fooled around a little on the kiddie playground, and generally hung out. :)

The riding group that we missed...

And Pablo! Pablo was left behind every time groups went out, which he seemed rather unhappy about. Also, I have no idea what his real name is. We felt the need the need to call him something, and I think Magen or Samantha suggested "Pablo." By the end of the day, I caught myself thinking that that was his name.

Look how glum poor Pablo looks!

This was the main dirt road that ran through la estancia.

Adorable cow statue!

Aw, who could ever eat you?

The property's church, Catholic of course.

Then, food! The stage in the dining area made us certain that there would be some kind of entertainment, so we made sure to grab seats near the front. Argentina’s famous asado was served, basically just grilled beef, and there were breadbaskets and a full buffet of rice and pasta and a few veggies. They brought out an eggplant dish for vegetarians, of which I just could not make myself eat more than a bite or two. I just can’t do eggplant in large quantity. The combination of that smell and the gooey texture is too gross. The other food was good, though!

That bit up at the top right corner, kind of hiding behind the big chunk of beef, is part of the intestines! Poor Magen was willing to try it, but every time she tried to cut it, this gross, pink, gooey stuff just oozed out of the end, and she just couldn't bring herself to actually put any of it in her mouth. It was one of my happy vegetarian moments. :) This was the first of two platters of asado that they brought out.  I think the general consensus was that it was a bit more mediocre than everyone was expecting and should be sampled again at a restaurant particularly known for it. I think the biggest hit was the ribs, which came out on the second platter.

We all ate way too much and had just about given up on the stage actually getting some use when the dancers came in. It was really, really cool!! I think the style was a sort of folk. There was a lot of coordinated stomping and complicated footwork (and sometimes whip-cracking!), and then they would transition into dances that centered on just a pair or on three of them, performances that were also playacting. Two of the guys would fight over a woman, or one would chase his partner in pursuit of a kiss. During one of these, the woman ran off stage and grabbed one of the NYU guys from the audience, dancing with him while the male dancer strutted and stomped all jealously.

Have I mentioned lately that I love my camera? No one else's pictures of the dancers came out so well. The lighting was bad and there was so much movement, but that was no obstacle for my little, red Canon PowerShot. ^.^

And my blog now has video! Check out this awesome video of the dancing!

Near the end, they started grabbing more of us out of the audience, including me! I was so awkward, but it was really fun. We were kind of sad when they left the stage. It had been a really long performance, but no one would have minded more.

So, so, so awkward. Look at my smiling awkward face!

(These photos courtesy of Samantha.) :)

Then, to console us, dessert! There was flan with caramel and dulce de leche sauce and an amazing apple crumb pie. The crust was so good and really sweet, while the apples were less so. It was sort of inside out because of that, and I think I like this way better. The flan was just okay. I was told I might like it better if it had less of an eggy texture and was smoother. The few bites I had of that were more for the dulce de leche and caramel than they were for the flan itself.

We also tried mate (pronounced “mah-tay”)! Mate is a tea-like herbal drink; picture tea but with even more loose herbs and tea leaves in it than there is water. There’s a ritual to drinking mate. A special mate cup is filled with herbs and hot water, and the first person drinks through a silver mate straw, finishing all the water in the cup (usually with some difficulty since the herbs can clog the straw). The cup is then refilled with water and passed to the next person, who drinks from the same straw. There is no particular order, but only one cup is used, and as people want more, it’s passed to them. The ceremony is a gesture of friendship and goodwill, and it’s not at all rare. I think many Argentines have mate several times a week, and some everyday. It has a bitter, herbal taste to it as you might expect, but the bitterness isn’t overpowering, and I enjoyed it.

The four of us were determined to be the first group to ride horses after lunch, but the male folk dancers reappeared, dressed as gauchos (essentially Argentine cowboys), and commandeered several of them for a show out in the field above the dining hall. We sat on wooden benches and watched them compete against each other in a bunch of games on horseback. Every time one of them won, they demanded a kiss from someone in the audience. (Our take home lesson from this experience was that kisses are pretty much the reason for a gaucho’s existence.) :)

The first game involved a two tiny rings hanging from a wooden structure. Two gauchos raced each other underneath the rings on horseback and tried to hook them with a small stick the size of a pencil. The one who passed under the structure the fastest AND successfully hooked the ring was the winner and got to demand a kiss on the cheek from the girl to whom he then presented the ring.

The gauchos explaining the rules of the ring game.

Now you can actually watch them play the ring game! Isn't video so awesome!? (Sorry, I'm really excited about this.)

At one point there was tie and it was agreed that each gaucho should get one kiss, but they both thought they should get more and went down the whole line of benches getting a kiss from every single female!

There was also another racing game, this time just past and then through a line of barrels. They first had to gallop as fast as they could from the first to the last barrel. Then they had to race back but this time weaving in between the barrels. They also did this one last time out to the last barrel before spinning around and racing normally along the barrel line to the starting/finish line.

The last game they played was a sort of musical chairs… with stumps of wood instead of chairs… and still on horseback. The demonstrated how to play, circling the stumps on horseback until someone yelled “¡Para!” – Stop! Then they jumped off their horses and as quickly as possible sat on an available stump. The loser was the one who was left without anywhere to sit. For the second round, they pulled a Alex from the audience after she said she could ride. She competed against the gauchos and was immediately beaten. For the third round, all the riders were students, including me again! Unfortunately I was the first loser. I was having some trouble actually exerting control because my stirrups were way too long. (I was riding the tallest gaucho’s horse. >.<) Anyway, my horse knocked over one of the stumps and I stopped, expecting someone to step in and fix it, but instead the audience member said, “¡Para!” and I sat there confused for a minute too long while the other two grabbed the stumps. I trotted off to the side and sat contentedly on my horse as the two of them directed their horses around just one lonely stump. When a winner was declared, I finally relinquished my seat and grudgingly handed the reins back to the same gaucho who had grabbed me for the dancing earlier.

Look, there's me playing the musical stumps game! Wow, none of us look like we have the slightest amount of control of our horses, with the possible exception of the rightmost girl. (Photo courtesy of Sarah.)

There was one last round of musical stumps, and then a long rope was tied to one of the horses’ saddles. This rope was attached to a thick piece of cowhide that the gauchos asked one of us to sit on. Then commenced a tubing-like activity – just with grass instead of water, the cowhide instead of a tube, and a horse instead of a boat. Three got to try, and it was so crazy looking! The hide actually sort of flipped over on the last guy, Duke.

After the show, I headed right down to the rest of the horses, but I was too late again. I decided to just plant myself there until they came back. I pulled out my little laptop and journaled at a tiny table nearby. My wait wasn’t in vain! Both Nikki, who just barely made it back from taking pictures at the castle, and I got to go. The guide took us on a really pretty trail down around and behind the castle. I think most of the group didn’t really have any riding experience and were really freaked out when he started us all trotting just as we entered the really forested area. I had a blast, though! Our guide spent most of his time at the back of the line trying to get the slowpokes moving, and I trotted up to the front and eventually way ahead of almost everyone else. It felt so good to ride again!

I love how serene I look in this picture. Poor Nikki felt like she had been bounced around a bit much and would have preferred more walking to the trotting, but I just feel so relaxed on horseback.

Back at the dining hall, they covered the buffet table with what was to be our second dessert. Thin layers of pastry with dulce de leche between each, shortbread and dulce de leche cookies, and oh, it was so yummy. But way too much food! Why did they not stop feeding us?!

I think pretty much all of us fell asleep on the bus ride back. We were so unbelievably groggy when we finally made it back to the city and the NYU building. Once we finally shook off the effects of our nap, though, we felt really awake, and plans were made for a group of us to go to a bar in Palermo later that night, after we all had a chance to go home and eat dinner with our host families or at the Masters Residence where non-homestay students dorm.

The Thelonious Jazz Club (http://www.theloniousclub.com.ar) was a really neat place but very small, and there was a line to get in. Also, a much larger group of us than expected showed up. We stood outside for a while debating and finally decided that there was no way we would all fit into this bar, maybe even any of the bars nearby, and therefore we’d need to split into groups. The line for Thelonious shrank pretty rapidly as a show ended, and Nikki, Sarah, and I ended up staying there while everyone else looked for other alternatives. We were even lucky enough to find a tiny little table for three, which was good since the place was pretty packed and having to stand wouldn’t have been very fun.

There was a cover charge of $10, and Nikki and I each ordered one drink, costing around $20 each. Overall, it was a really affordable night out when you figure that that’s $7.50 USD. My Long Island iced tea was absolutely terrible, though! Mixed drinks in Argentina are notoriously strong, but this just wasn’t good.  I could taste all the different types of alcohol and the coca cola, and it was too much. Long island ice teas are supposed to be a little dangerous because they don’t taste very alcoholic, but this bar didn’t really get that memo. It essentially just served the purpose of something to sip at while listening to the music, rather than something to enjoy, but the atmosphere of the place was cool enough that I forgave it. I would definitely go back – and order something different.  We had a really nice time. We sipped our drinks, listened to the jazz performance, relaxed. Very low key, but nice. Nice place, excellent company. 

I once more have to give a shout out to my camera. These were taken in an incredibly dark, smoky bar, but I adjust a few settings, and all of a sudden the PowerShot can see the room better than I can!

A sample of the music from the club for your listening pleasure. :)

Waiting for a taxi to take us home. Sarah is the one to the left and Nikki is on the right. I'm wearing my "Must Not Blink When the Camera Flashes" face, which is why my expression is kinda surprised looking. ^.^"

I think we headed up to Palermo sometime around midnight and we were back and snug in our beds 3ish, so it was a fun, short, relaxed evening.