Day 8 - Gaucho time

The squad waved goodbye to their hosts from St Matthews College and travelled and hour and a half to the Estancia de Areco, a working ranch, where they would be entertained for the day. The first obstacle was a very muddy mile or so of road after overnight torrential rain. 4x4s came to the rescue and the squad endured a slippery journey to the ranch. Once there they were met by saddled horses and off they went on an hour long trek. This was at times exhilarating and also hilarious as some of the boys struggled to control their trusty steeds - imagine the faces of the props as their horse responded to an unintended dig in the ribs and sets off on a short canter! After this we enjoyed our favourite food so far - empanadas - before an outstanding Gaucho horsemanship show which included the Gauchos attempting to spear a tiny ring whilst at full tilt on the end of what looked like a toothpick, a traditional game called Pato -a combination of rugby netball, polo and WWF and eventually one of the horse whisperers demonstrated how he controls a horse with ‘love’ not force - this was stunning and he had the horse in his complete control for at least 10minutes. Another Assado followed and the boys left extremely satisfied. A folk show with traditional songs and dances - which involved our boys of course- rounded off an outstanding day which was slightly soured with a 4 hour trip back to hotel due to protests in the city centre as the nation voted on the abortion laws. A pizza and an early night were the perfect finishing touches and we move on to match day 3 tomorrow against St George’s College.