After crossing the boarder with Paraguay under torrential rain, we were happy to see Gaston arriving at the international train station in Posadas. He drove us to the next destination of our journey – courtesy of our friend Santi – a beautiful estate called Rincon Chico, located in northern Argentina, in a region called Mesopotamia.
After 30 kilometers on a dirt road, well actually a very muddy road, we arrived to this beautiful countryside property surrounded by nothing but open fields, cows and horses.
After an epic lunch consisting of Milanesa a la napolitana, we relaxed a bit before Gaston and his daughter, Clara, took us out duck hunting.
We were driven to the rice fields, where the ducks tend to hang-out this time of year, however, given the extremely high recent rainfall, the ducks were much more scattered and we only managed to locate a few flocks.
Ed, either weighed-down by the enormous lunch, or simply out of politeness to our host, did not hit anything and we returned empty handed. Gaston was full of praise for Ed’s efforts and went on to present him with a framed picture of a duck. Ha ha…!
The next morning we saddled-up and headed out into Mesopotamia, lead by our resident gaucho, nicknamed “Chiquitin” (essentially meaning “the small one”), his son Rolan, along with Clara and her older sister Felicitas. Despite our enthusiasm for horse racing, neither of us was terribly accomplished on the back of a horse, although Ed did break into a trot every now and then (clearly unintended!), much to everyone’s amusement!
After leaving a dense forest, which was populated by some extremely noisy monkeys, we turned for home and noted a sudden increase in pace from the horses, who clearly sensed their hard work was just about done for the day.
We returned to find our first outdoor asado being prepared by Gaston and his wife Veronica. We feasted on choripanes (sausages in a bun), asado de tira (short rib), a delicious homemade onion tart and apple crumble. Incidentally, we’d been warned by Santi that the food would likely be so good that we’d probably put on 2kg in 2 days – we begun to understand that he really hadn’t been joking!
Full and extremely grateful for our hosts’ wonderful hospitality we returned to the house to plan our assault on Buenos Aires – the next leg of our trip – and contemplate how we were going to eat an entire chicken for dinner…
½ a chicken and some deep sleep later we were again out in the field for round 2 of Ed’s duck hunt. This time Chiquitin was our guide and we set about exploring more of the estate in search of some ducks. Unfortunately (for Ed) we only managed to glimpse ducks from afar, so, yet again, returned home empty handed. However, the experience was amazing and the 2-hour safari did not disappoint.
That afternoon, our fabulous chef Betty kindly invited us to her house to meet her family and drink pineapple cider, which was the perfect way to conclude our 48 hour stay on the farm.
Extremely well rested and somewhat heavier than when we’d arrived, we left for Posadas airport and our (delayed) flight to BA. It was another fabulous experience and made even more enjoyable by the wonderful people we met along the way. Thanks Santi!
Next stop: Buenos Aires, Argentina…
Highlights:
- Horse riding and living the gaucho lifestyle…in 5 star luxury!
- Generosity of the people we met – you know who you are, thank you
- Ed particularly enjoyed the duck hunting, albeit unsuccessful, we still managed to see a falcon close-up
Gastro highlights:
- We ate splendidly – those homemade empanadas were epic
edandlolotravel 