El Galope

Based on a recommendation from a fellow traveller we met weeks earlier on a bus, we headed to El Galope, a quiet hostel/horse hobby farm in the lovely rolling hills and pasture lands of southern Uruguay. What a great place Uruguay is - similar to Chile and Argentina, but more laid back, more comfortable, better organized and usually more picturesque.  Who knew?  And why weren't we informed of this earlier?

The hostel advertises its quietness.  No TV or internet.  They provide tasty homemade meals if you want, which you'll probably need since the nearest town is 7 km away.  (You can rent a bike - calling a cab is possible but pretty lazy.)  You can go horse riding, or go for a walk to nearby artisanal cheese making farms (Swiss people settled the area and it is renowned for its cheese - unlike everywhere else we've been in South America).

Hostel building

Owner's house.  Thatched roofs are big in rural southern Uruguay

Two extremely friendly boxers (and a German shepherd) come with the hostel experience

 

Yep, that's quiet and relaxing

And there's horses.  With young foals!

Here I am doing some foal-whispering

Sarah had never ridden a horse (I've only ridden maybe 3 or 4 times, the last being about 20 years ago).  Not only that, she wouldn't even feed a horse or get anywhere near one last summer when Jim, Stef and I were feeding horses.  But she agreed to try riding this time.  Together with a Dutch and a German guest, we did an "intro to riding" for about 1.5 hours.

Sarah actually brushing a horse!

The foals were very young and very curious.  They liked to investigate things and nibble/nip them - including clothes and people.  They were really interested in one of the patient boxers, and rubbed against him and nipped him - and not very gently.  The boxer was so confused it made us all laugh - he liked the attention from the horses and thought maybe they were playing, but the nips also hurt, so he ended up frozen in place, not sure what to do, while they continued to nip him and make him jump.

The riding crew.

Miguel, hostel co-owner and expert horseman.

Here Sarah is gracefully mounting the large pony (only a little assistance was necessary - in the form of a big push from Chad).  The pony is smaller than a normal horse, doesn't like to be washed or brushed, and is willful, so they named it Napoleon.

Sarah looks like she might be having fun on that gaucho-style fur-and-rope-accented saddle, right?  Wrong.  Napoleon didn't follow directions well, and all we heard from Sarah was "help... help... help..." from the moment she got on.

Miguel decided to lead Sarah and Napoleon for a bit, but Sarah wasn't liking the experience and soon dismounted for good. [Sarah: I know it's shocking to those who know me that I wasn't a horse whisperer.  But at least I tried it!  And to be fair to me, Napoleon was in a bad mood that day and later tossed Miguel off his back].

Meanwhile, I managed to get a photo from horseback while riding in formation, thank you very much.

That's right, just me and ol' Betsy.  (Betsy is not the name of the horse, which is in fact male.)

The obligatory gaucho pose - on horseback with a mate gourd.

I had a great time riding, and even managed a brief canter or two which was a first for me.  Miguel encouraged me to ride more, since I seemed to "get" riding well enough.  Cowboy Chad!

Then we went on a long walk to the artisanal goat cheese maker.  We're so country.

Inspecting the crops - but I'm not sure what I'm looking for

North America or South America, when you walk by cows, they stare at you as if you're a stranger from the big city and they're watching you from their front porch rocking chair with a shotgun across their laps - "Not from around here, are you son?  That's it, just keep on walkin'..."

Victoria used to work at a bigger cheese maker, but now has a very small herd of goats and makes a small amount of cheese for the local market.  She's extremely welcoming and happy to show you how she makes cheese.

And she has a bunch of new kids!  So cute.

The cheese making room.  She had a super-soft and a semi-soft cheese (both tasted like tart whipping cream, mmm), but I bought the aged hard cheese.  Finally, after nearly two months - real cheese!  Excellent stuff, with a slight coconut flavour.

Gotta admit, that's some nice traditional farm country

We walked in a loop that took over 2 hours - which was plenty for me, since I already had the beginnings of saddle soreness from the morning's ride.  Then a meal of cheese fondue and homemade wine from one of our hostel owners' nearby friends (formerly a professional winemaker from Spain with 30 years experience).

Uruguay just keeps getting better!