Deserts are not what they used to be...

after having spent the night in my private swimming pool, i decided to buy a new tent and the only one i could find in all of cafayate was a massive 4-man igloo tent. since the price was ok, i bought it and my mini-villa now functions as my superspacious bedroom, our common dining room in case of a shower and storage for the saddles and saddle bags. It´s a dream!

anyway, that sorted, and all of us having recovered from our hangovers, we were back on the road again, this time with our new mula, who had already received 4 names: Dibina (her proper name) - Atomica (because of her temperament) - Charquita (in her ´passport´) - Bebe (cos she´s the baby of the group (swopped for the grandma Arty´). our aim was to cover a few more kilometres per day in order to advance a bit faster, but also to spend a bit more time in the different places we get to. so off we went along the main road (the quickest way to advance really), but were quickly (ok, after a few hours) fed up with the monotonous ways of the road...so philippe had the brilliant idea to venture off into the dry riverbed which ran more or less parallel to the road, and something we have done numerous times before. For a long while we enjoyed the proper way of travelling by horse...walking through beautiful landscape, encountering a herd of lamas etc. until we started entering more and more thick forest. to this i have to add that the forest here is not full of nice and green leafy trees, but a maze of thorns from which it is hard to protect clothes, saddles, eyes etc. so there we were trying to get through this until we reached a point of ´no advance´. something that on our maps is called ´íntransitable forest´! there was no, and i mean NO way to get through it whether off the horses, under the horses or whatever other way you can imagine. so, the only alternative was to go into the sandy riverbed. it was a spooky sight: where there was supposed to be water, there was nothing but deep sand. we waded through it for a good while, until we managed to find a bit of more transitable forest and ´fought´ our way back onto the road.

that evening we were lucky enough to find a perfect spot for the night in a little village called El Paso. a guy called juan let us use his paddock and offered us fresh alfalfa, which is the staple diet of the horses here. he is one of the best examples of the people we meet here day by day, people who welcome us with an amazing hospitality, a kindness and warm-heartedness, that it would be hard to find in a lot of places in modern europe. not only do they offer us a place for our horses and us, but juan for example went into his alfalfa field with a machete, cut the alfa for us and then sat down to have a chat in the setting. to describe the people here is not easy, sometimes we are just overwhelmed and are wishing for more ways to express our gratitude than our usual ´muchas gracias´. we had a peaceful night out there and the next morning, getting ready to go (which by now takes us only about 2 1/2 hours (!) including our and the horses´breakfast, taking down the tents, packing all the stuff, brushing the horses, saddling and bridling them and tying the big saddle bags to the pack mule), we received an unexpected visit of a little lama family. The foal (?) was expecially nosy and came up to us really close. They´re incredible soft those animals, especially when they stick their nose right into your face. ;O)

The following day we set a new record which we were very proud of: 40km in ONE day!!! the night was spent in quite an unspectacular way in a dozy little village on the ruta 40 called El Desmonte, but having a more detailed look at our maps we realised that a looong stretch of desert was soon to follow for which we needed to prepare ourselves: 90km of desert road, with, according to our maps, nothing but 3 houses inbetween (remember please that we are travelling with an average speed of 6-7 km!).

Not knowing what these houses were we started enquiring about the inhabitants of those places who are loco enough to live out there in the middle of nowhere. it turned out that one of them was a small farm, where at least it would be possible to get water for the horses. everything else we would need to carry with us. knowing all this, we decided to do just 10km the next day, to the last village before the big stretch: Punto de Ballasto. there we took the rest of the day for preparations and planned to have an early night for a veeery early departure the next morning. again, we were lucky enough to be housed by a nice argentinian gaucho david, who offered us a paddock for the horses and for us to sleep in his house to get a proper sleep. we had mate with his family in the afternoon, he showed us a REALLY good knot for the big saddle bags, which takes exactly 5 mins and is 100% trot-proof and we had a great afternoon at his place. the alarm clock for the next morning was set for 2 am in order to leave at 4 and avoid the midday heat and guess what: it was f... raining!!! having already woken up we decided to leave anyway and were startled by the darkness of the cloudy desert landscape. it was a bizarre experience...a bit scary and thrilling at the same time to ride through absolute darkness relying on the horses´eye-sight. by 6:30 am the sun was supposed to come up, but as were lucky enough to be in a desert with clouds above it took a bit longer for daylight to break and only then could we enjoy the views across the wide open plains... most of the morning was spent walking and trotting through the sand and after a few hours the clouds lifted and we were blasted with 40-degree-desert heat. by midday we finally reached ´La Casa de La Pampa´´ (its really the name of the place – now i know why we use the word ´pampa´ in german), one house in the middle of the desert with a whole family living out there. again, we were greeted with open arms: the horses were given the little bit of alfalfa the family had and we were offered a little bus-stop-like concrete cabin on the side of the road for the night as they were expecting rain storms(!!!!). we had a mini-siesta and then started preparing for the next day, which again would require an early departure. this time we set the alarm clock to the slightly more humane time of 3 am and guess what was going on outside: a revival of this year´s irish summer - rain rain rain! being hardened by the previous night we got going anyway and it turned out to be a beautiful day with beautiful landscape and sunshine later on. it ended in a little oasis-like place called Hualfin, a picturesque village on the edge of the desert in which we, totally exhausted asked for a place and found something we wouldnt even have dreamed of: a big green field of alfalfa for the horses and a tranquil spot beside it for our tents. we were surrounded by trees and all this green, the life in it, was a very pleasant change indeed. the horses being superhappy we decided to treat ourselves a bit as well and went for a meal in the local eatery. and what a treat it was: the steak sandwich we had gave me diarrhoe that has lasted until today!!! i didnt close an eye-lid all night, jumping out of the tent every half an hour, having the shakes, bouts of fever and sooo regretting not being a vegetarian! ;o) luckily we had decided to stay the next day anyway and caro and philippe went for a ride to some thermal baths in the area while i sulked away in my tent tending to my up-side-down-bowels.

The next morning, after countless imodiums and black teas, we decided to move on and after about 40km reached a small village called, eeerm, i cant remember right now, sorry, but what i do remember is the family who were our hosts for that night: 3 generations living under one roof and the grandma being a corazon (heart) of a person! We put the horses into their paddock and enquired about the availability of empanadas (have i explained them before? – kind of mini-calzones with all kinds of fillings – super-yummy!) in the village and promptly the grandma offered to make some for us. This turned out to be an evening-filling activity as 6 of us created at least 50 of these delicacies. We sat around the table, me making a fool of myself trying to form these so simple-looking dough bags in front of everyone and all had a really enjoyable time, the grandpa showing us his wool-weaving skills, the mum presenting the various products from her veg garden etc. The only thing that wasnt so smart that night was me not being able to resist the deep-fried emapanadas and promptly being forced back to a diet of imodiums, dry biscuits and water. :o/

Yesterday then, we followed a 15km long stunning canyon along the riverbed and here we are now in a biggish town called belen. on the way into town we met a man on a bike called juan, who has been nice enough to let us pitch our tents in his garden with the horses in a field just beside it. and since we are now able to do about 40-50km a day we decided to spend 2 days here and enjoy the luxuries of civilisation once more...well, for me at the moment that still means dry crackers, rice and black tea, but this morning´s poo was of acceptable consistency and i think i´ll be able to try some more adventurous food tonight, hehe. (ok, enough of my bowel conditions, i promise!). ;O)

so, this has been a brief summary of the last few days...all in all, a big adventure, never boring and always full of stories to tell...

there are more pictures to come, but as usual the internet connection is very slow and as juan has invited us for dinner we are going to finish today´s work tomorrow...

all the best to all of you...hope you´re enjoying the mulled wine and x-mas markets!

Comments

[Piti]

Hola!!!!!!!que tal estais??i see that really enjoing your time!!!!it was just a quick email to send u a big kiss to the four of u!!!!And Myrna don't turn into vegetarian in a place like argentina...mmmmmhhhhhh....que rico esta todo!!!!!un besazo enorme and keep sending news!!!!MUAC!!!!!!