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La Choza Blog
On the 14th October I Maximillino and I drove to a farm near a place called Juarez and about 300km from Buenos Aires. We stayed the night in Juarez in a hotel then went to the farm. On the way Maximilliano told me Robert wants to pay me, and to be quite honest I was not sure how to react especially since Robert and I agreed there would be no payment involved, so I will have to wait and see. The farm is called La Choza and is about 4,000 hectares so roughly double the size of all the other Augspach farms in Argentina. Its back to the good old wind and dust and is an all purpose farm, breeding cattle and doing all the processes of the others until they send the fat ones off to Isabel. They use horses and a quad bike to run the cattle, which is fine by me. La Choza is run by another Jose and he lives there with his family (Juanjo and his wife Nancy who is very pregnant) and the other workers. Whereas the other farms are very small numbers this place has loads of people working on it. Sergio (f*** you man), Eduardo (que paysano), Martin (la paciencia), Marcelo (the horseman), Juan, Carlos and Ramon (pendejo). Sergio and Carlos live with their families and Juan with his girlfriend. As well as doing the cow breeding, they also breed horses here. Robert recently bought a cuarto miso padrillo for breeding with the criollos, and the results so far have been good. There are some beautiful young horses, and in about four years they will be swimming in top-notch nags.
My ability has improved out of sight, I did fall off when we had to cross the wire, but it did not really count since the horse was standing still, had to happen eventually. Yesterday (21st October) I managed to round up a solid hundred odd cows on my own. They have me on a white criollo cross with cuarto miso horse. He is very relaxed and unbothered and perfectly good as a tool, although he does lack a bit of speed of the mark, but I certainly cannot complain.
One thing that is brilliant and of course completely different from the other farms due to the number of people is the sense of community. My second night we had a huge barbecue with everyone, it was absolute carnage with little children screaming and running around, and I think I gave off the right impression with my attempts at Spanish. It was Juanjo's birthday and was a rave.
The weekend was pretty relaxed they sort of do some casual work but its very chilled. The 18th was pretty full on, I spent 7 hours in the saddle moving the young cows so we could inspect them for pregnancy and inoculate them. I have invested in a pair of very nice leather boots and some bombachas, so I am looking pretty 'paysano'.
25th October
Its been work as normal for the past week, although the first half hour of the 6.00 am wake up is brutal work is still fun. I had my horse changed a for a day. I was given a criollo that permanently wanted to fly and took the first opportunity to do so. I spent two hours trying to get him to brake by which time he had worked himself up into a white lather. Eventually he worked it out and became a bit more relaxed.
Last weekend (24th) we went into Juarez to watch a horse tournament. It was a load of horseman riding between bollards in a race. It was fun although I was not totally convinced by the quality of the horses, they seemed very jumpy, nowhere near the quality of the ones we have on the farm.
On 26th I went to town to change my boots, which had torn off a sole within the first day of using them, unfortunately they did not have the same light tan boots so I had to go with a slightly more understated pair of darker ones.
Today was (27th) a cracking day. The morning was a bit dull but then in the afternoon Marcelo and I went to (recorrer) look round the farm and check the cattle. It was pretty standard and me and Marcelo talked about horse breaking and the need for patience. Then towards the end he let me ride Alisan, their newest criollo, a small light brown number who was spectacular. The only difference between his gallop and canter was the speed, it was phenomenal!!!! Then we had to round up some cattle and Blanco started to come into his own with rounding up the cattle galloping around sin problemo. My riding is pretty complete now I think. God this is fun.
28th Main thing today was in the morning we woke up especially early (oh joy 5.30) and went to vaccinate some calves which had a type of debilitating disease we rounded them all up into one of the corners of the fields. I had a new horse (Paco, light greyish brown), which was brilliant but had a b**** of a canter, but a pretty good canter. I have worked out that the criollos whilst brilliant have a very difficult stride pattern when they canter. He worked well keeping the cattle in but it was hard work, and my saddle decided to give me gip.
29th Storming day again. The morning we were moving cattle (Marcelo and Juanjo and I), which was pretty simple, Blanco is really starting to get a handle on it and Eduardo reckons he has lost weight and I reckon he is getting a lot sharper. Then in the afternoon all of us went out except for Ramon and Martin, we were separating cattle that had changed fields and also moving the bulls. It was good work and plenty of galloping. My ability is improving no end and culminated in me helping to push a cow into another field, Blanco had a stormer reacting brilliantly. Jose is starting to get the hang of the camera so when we start vaccinating the cattle hopefully I will have some more good photos of me. As long as it does not rain Saturday, Monday and Tuesday look like the vaccination days for all the cattle, so plenty more riding to go.
30/10/10 - 3/11/10
Well unfortunately my last few days were a bit miserable as it rained pretty solidly over the weekend so the vaccination is basically out. On Monday we spent most of the time cutting down a large tree that came down in the storm near Sergio's house. On my last day of work on Tuesday we went to gather up a few groups of cattle out near the puesto it was a hell of a day and I had to use JuanJo's saddle since he broke his wrist unfortunately falling off his horse a few days ago. Myself, Sergio and Juan gathered up various groups and I managed to get my first injury on a farm in Argentina. Riding round a fence post and forgetting I had a right knee, leaving a 3-inch gash along my leg. Fun.
3/11/10 - 7/11/10
Spent seven hours in a bus today getting to Buenos Aires, which was fun. I spent one night in my last hostel because they were booked out the next day. I moved on the Thursday to a hostel that was unbelievably sociable from the first few minutes. I arrived and was immediately invited to look round Buenos Aires with two girls (Alec and Sarah).
The next few days were pretty chilled, met up with Sam Mustafa, Hannah Masters, Luz and my new friend from the hostel Cyril. It was a good laugh and was brilliant to see the guys.
On the 6th I went out with Luz and her friends, which was a laugh and some of her friends were stunning.
Then on Sunday myself and Cyril took the over night bus to Iguazu (Las Cataratas).
8/11/10
Well we arrived at Puerto Iguazu and went to our hostel. Within minutes we were booked for a trip to Iguazu that included, a raft trip, jeep and then a boat. It was seriously impressive, no wonder its called La Garganta del Diablo. The raft was nice and I played translator for the Canadians in the raft. We saw the edge of the cataratas and the various wildlife.
The jeep was pretty dull as we only drove through the forest to the boat. The boat was staggering an hour looking at the falls, including going under Las Hermanas one of the biggest. It was all the words you can imagine, majestic, picturesque and phenomenal. Unfortunately we did not go into the main waterfall but hopefully tomorrow we are going to go and have a look at the viewpoint tomorrow.
12/11/2010
Well my final day in BA was absolute hell. I had to do loads of admin including buy a new hard drive, which meant travelling into the middle of BA, which was fun. It then did not work at the photo shop and so Michele (hostel boss) fixed it for me. I had to buy a new knife, which is a stormer, chunky and stays sharp which is good. I also had to book my flight to Rio, which meant that in total I had to spend large amounts of money. Painful.
13/11/2010
I caught an unbelievably early bus back to Juarez and arrived mid afternoon, to be told that Nancy had had her baby at 7.30 that morning. Thank god.
14/11/2010
Today (Sunday) we went to the Jineteada, which is a rodeo. So basically, crazier men riding even crazier horses for 14 seconds. I got some good photos despite the s***ty weather. I went with Sergio and his family and saw Eduardo and Juan as well, so it was a nice get together. They basically tie a wild horse to a post with its eyes covered and the rider gets on and then they take the blindfold off and all hell breaks loose for 14 seconds. I bought a falla which is a material belt, in this case blue and white.
16/11/2010
Well today it pissed it down most of the day so the work was fairly relaxed, which was nice as I was feeling knackered. Today was out and about day. I got a new horse, which was old and slow to react and very twitchy, but I think I've got used to it. It did rain a bit but was still good. Carlos was back out as well having recovered from his leg problem.
17/11/2010
Today was an awesome afternoon. Myself, Carlos, Sergio and Marcelo went out to separate some of the fatter cattle into another pen. We spent a few hours separating them and it was awesome! I finally managed to achieve something brilliant chasing several cows and knocking one over with El Blanco, who lent into it perfectly. s*** it felt good.
18/11/2010
Got a new horse today, El Rosillo. Fiery as hell, constantly wanting to go but my god when he went he was perfect. His gallop was smooth as you could want. Same thing as yesterday really except we did a fair bit of work in the manger and I am really getting to grips with it now. Working in the corral was a dream to do when I first arrived and I have done it and done it well. The horse was reactive and whilst he had a lot of head tossing going on, he was brilliant and accelerated perfectly without any encouragement. We then brought the cattle into the silo area near the estancia and yet again the horse was just a dream. I really feel I'm one of the boys now.
19/11/2010
One of the best days so far in Argentina. The morning was standard myself and Carlos went for a recorrer in the morning. Then the afternoon I achieved one of the main goals in Argentina. Jose took some brilliant photos of me. Marcelo, JuanJo and I went to separate some fat cattle however unfortunately they managed to destroy the Molina where we were keeping them so not brilliantly successful. Then the big one. We went out to bring in a few novicios that had moved fields. Jose was there taking photos and first we changed the cows over fields. Then we went after one particular one that had changed fields. Jose got some brilliant photos of me in the water with the cow. It was the ideal photo and I'm so pleased about it. Over the moon.
20/11/2010
We went out to fix the molina in the morning. We then separated a few terneros from one of the fields. In the afternoon, we dug a large trench for a water hose, I managed to spectacularly f***ed up my hands with the spades, blisters like goddamn plasters all over my hands. I then put alcohol on it to clean them, which stung like a f***er! Went for a barbecue in the evening with some friends of Jose.
29/11/10
Well my last few days in La Choza were fun as always, we did a lot of work in the manger, which was boiling hot.
3/11/10
I finished in La Choza and took an overnight bus to Pergamino. I spent a day in the office meeting the secretaries Mariela and Griselda and then me and Mauricio had dinner at his house. The next day we went to La Gloria for two days which was fun although the horses are just nothing compared to La Choza.
6/11/10
El Castillo is a bit dull although very relaxed, Eduardo is here so I am not totally alone. Mum has planned an Amazon trip which sounds amazing and all is winding down so Brazil has to be planned out a bit more.
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