BA to RIO Days 4 - 7 Estancia Stay

Day 4: We caught a public bus again today from Montevideo, a five hour journey to Tacuarembo town in the heart of Uruguay.  (The buses are very comfortable with lots of room and reclining seats).  Here we met Juan, the owner of the estancia, Ranch Panacea, and he transported us all in his old truck/bus to his ranch, another hour and a half away, in the middle of nowhere, in the heart of the Uruguayan countryside.  The estancia was in a beautiful setting.  We were greeted by Juan's wife Susanna and his two young girls and settled in to their big house, we are staying homestay style. We are to experience the real deal on the estancia, spending 2-3 days helping with day to day jobs on the working sheep and cattle farm.  The ranch is 2400 acres and has 1800 sheep, 1100 cattle and 74 horses.  They also have a few pigs and chickens.

We arrived quite late, around 7:30, so ate fairly soon after arriving, Susanna prepared us a really nice dinner, a spicy lamb casserole, gaucho style food!  Being in the middle of nowhere there is no mains electric or water.  Water comes from a well or collected rain water and they rely on a generator for electricity, the generator is only switched on between dusk and 10:30pm, then its oldstyle, candlelight.  We had an early morning dawn chorus from lots of Ibis birds, a change from waking up to cockerel's!   There are also wild Rhea Americana's, a bit like ostriches, roaming on the estancia land. 

Day 5: we are lucky, we arrived at the estancia on the day they started shearing the sheep.  First thing, Juan showed us the gaucho's shearing the sheep.  Two guys collecting the sheep, four guys shearing and two guys sorting the fleece. The four shearing gaucho's will shear 150 sheep a day each, 600 sheep a day in total.   They start early at 7am in morning, just drinking matte then break two hours later for breakfast - grilled mutton, then break again for lunch, lamb casserole! Juan gives each gaucho a sheep/mutton for eating (the ones that failed to produce lambs).  We then went sheep herding on horseback.   A very hands on experience,  we were all shown how to saddle up our horses, a very different style to the English saddle.  In the group were riders of all abilities, half maybe who'd never ridden before.   Once all saddled up we went off on our horses, first herding the already sheared sheep out of their corrals back to the fields, then looking for more sheep to herd and bring in for shearing. We had a lovely bbq steak lunch outside and then it was back sheep herding again in the afternoon, we had to go further afield this time to bring in more sheep from the pastures ready for shearing, separating them from the cattle also this time.  Just before we returned back to the main estancia we past a large pig enjoying a lovely wallow in the mud.  It was an overcast misty morning, still warm, but turned into a very warm sunny afternoon.
It was great fun, more enjoyable than just horse trekking, a real experience.

Day 6: another great day riding out on the horses, first we had to herd up the last of the sheep to shear in a field next to the estancia into a corral then we went off in search of cattle, the young calves needed to be vaccinated against foot and mouth.  The fields are huge, the main gaucho guy though was off and had almost mustered up most of the cattle into a herd before we all got there, we just helped ensure they kept moving and none escaped.  Some of the young calves were only a couple of weeks old so had never been mustered before and were a bit confused.  We got the cattle to the corrals then stopped for lunch. 

After lunch we helped with the calf vaccinations.  In three lots we had to separate out the mum cows from the calves using flags on a bamboo pole to encourage the adult mums out through the animal tube/run whilst keeping the calves behind in the small muddy corral. Then the calves were released into the tube and Juan, also a qualified vet, vaccinated them all plus also castrated a few not already done.  The calves were then released and separated out, the young ones back to their mums and the older ones into a different paddock as they were ready to be weaned.
Once done we had a short drinks break back at the estancia, it was a hot sunny day again, then headed back on the horses.  Just a lovely ride, no animals to muster this time, out across the fields to a hill which had great views of the never ending green Uruguayan countryside, we didn't get back to the ranch until 7pm. In the evening Susanna had prepared another fantastic meal, we ate so well at the estancia.  Unfortunately though in the evening a couple of people got a sickness bug, including our guide Fernanda. Overnight three more of our group were sick too, we don't know what caused it all.

Day 7:  Our last morning at the ranch, no riding today just a free morning to relax. Three more from the group were sick this morning, luckily we were OK and everyone who was sick seemed to recover within 24 hours.  Fernanda, feeling better thankfully, gave us a short Portuguese lesson ready for when we hit Brazil tomorrow.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time staying at the estancia and the hands on experience we had.  Juan and Susanna, our hosts were great, very friendly and welcoming, we felt at home.  After lunch Juan drove us all in his truck, a four hour journey, to Salto.  From Salto we caught taxis, crossing back over the border from Uruguay to Argentina to Concordia, then from Concordia we caught a 13 hour night bus to Foz de Iguazu town the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls.  It was a comfortable ride, we slept well.