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Since we had a break after the intensive month and before the semester, some friends and I went north to Salta hoeing for warmth; naturally we got the exact opposite. After my first time in a hostel in which we had to sleep in sweatshirts and coats, we went on a tour to Cafayate. The trip there was amazing. The mountains we amazing and we even got to climb some; something they would never let people do in the states.
On Tuesday and Wednesday we went to visit a family on their ranch in a remote part of the Andes. It took nine hours on horseback to reach the ranch with no electricity or running water… quite the experience, especially encountering a storm and not so happy bull. Later we heard that there were reported wind gusts of 80 mph. Trees were knocked over and we were on horseback be pelted by rocks but there was nothing we could do because we were in the middle of absolutely nowhere and had to reach the ranch before nightfall. Not to mention I had not gloves, hat, scarf, or heavy coat and my feet were soaking from going through the river… thank goodness they eventually went numb!
As we were nearing the ranch, the bull from the ranch was out grazing… right in our path. Being right behind the guide I had a nice view of the bull snorting at us and the guide decided to go around it. Unfortunately the bull decided to accompany us of our trip. Pablo and Raul then chased it up ahead of us back to the ranch until it turned around to challenge us or something. My horse turned around so I couldn’t see what was happening but I could hear them yelling at it and could see the girls behind me in tears because they were so scared. The boys then managed to chase it pretty far ahead of us and we kept going. We got the bottom of the hill/cliff the ranch sat on and the guide told me to go ahead because she needed to help one of the other girls with something. As I neared to top I saw the bull and tried to stop my horse; however he knew he was almost home and was not going to stop, until I found myself on a horse between a cliff and a bull just looking at me. I had no idea what to do so I called to one of the boys to help but he didn’t do anything just looked at me. My friend Meagan told the guide to go up and help me but apparently she just shook her head. Eventually on the boys scared the bull away from me and I could pass through.
We then went into the hut by the fire where they were cooking our dinner to warm up. I think they thought we were crazy because we wanted to dry our shoes so Meagan and I put one shoe by the fire and put one of her mittens on our other foot. Also when we talking about the bull I told them I didn’t like the bull “No me gusta el torro”; I don’t know if I said it weird but they just thought it was really funny and our guide kept saying it. We spoke Spanish for the most part but occasionally we would slip back in English and they would just watch us like they were so interested.
It was very interesting to see how they live everyday and how difficult things are for them that for us are so simple. Like going to get groceries; for us it takes an hour out of our day but for them it’s nine hours on horseback each way.
The next day we were all very tired and decided not to do an excursion. We just hung out at the hostel and met some people who were staying there including a traveling tattoo artist from whom two of my friends got tattoos from. After that we had an asado with them. That night we taught them the American drinking games of beer pong and F* the dealer, quite entertaining. Afterwards we went to probably the shadiest bar I’ve ever been in to play pool. There was a guys sleeping the corner, a random sink, and part of a trailor… que malo!
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