A day on a ranch in Uruguay

Our ship docked at Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay and the only city. The name Montevideo means “I see a hill”. The dock is on the River Plate, at Montevideo Bay, not really the ocean. It is a really wide estuary. The River Plate can be seen on this map flows south towards Buenos Aires.

I had chosen to spend a day on a ranch, La Rabida. We drove through and out of Montevideo and along the highway.

Estancia La Rabida is huge, 3650 acres, with English Hereford and Angus cattle. Whilst waiting for everyone we had a look at some horses and cows before getting a welcome drink

The father and daughter then told us about the farm and their life, then we went over to see some Criollo (Crioulo) horses with are used as they are obedient and hardy, better than Arabians. On command they all lined up. Then one was used to show us how it is saddled and how all the saddle parts are used for the gaucho to sleep on.

We then went for a ride (hayride) around some of the ranch, there was a variety of transport including sitting on hay bales on trailers pulled by tractors and even an old car, there was an A Model Ford and horse drawn buggy. Hats were provided for those who wanted protection from the sun.

 

We saw a group of steers, they are bought at 200 kg, fed on grass until 400 kg, then fed on cereal (?) till 600 kg. Cereal gives more fat in the meat. Much of the meat is exported, most to China. The ranch also grows soya beans. We stopped and walked down a cobbled path to a beach on the River Plate. It was hard to believe this was a river and not the sea.

Back at the ranch we were told about the aquifers,  which can be used in drought. Uruguay sits on 2 big aquifers. From Wikipedia : "Uruguay shares one of the largest groundwater reserves in the world, the Guarani Aquifer, with Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay. The Guarani aquifer covers 1,200,000 square kilometers and has a storage capacity of 40,000 km3".

We saw a “black man’s ear” tree. I think this is Enterolobium contortisiliquum, the pacara earpod tree. 

Two more interesting trees, one that grows on another rather than having roots in the ground, and also a tall tree that produces enormous cones, Bunya pine, actually a conifer not a pine.

Finally it was lunchtime. An asado (Spanish) is the traditional technique and social event of having a barbecue in various South American countries - Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. An Asado consists of beef, pork, chicken, chorizo, and morcilla (black pudding) cooked on a grill, called a Parrilla, or an open fire.

First we had some sausage and grilled veg which was lovely. I tried not to eat too much as I wanted to save plenty of room for the main meats.

For the main meal, we sat on hay bales in the dining area. There was salad and meat – beef, chicken and pork with potato. Needless to say I had seconds. The beer and wine was free flowing. For dessert there was rice pudding and dulce leche with cheese squares. Dulce de leche, also known as caramelized milk, milk candy or milk jam in English, is a confection popular in Latin America prepared by slowly heating sugar and milk over a period of several hours.

Some people had a go at milking a cow, then 2 calves came and drank. Then we had a go at sitting on a cow hide and being pulled by a horse, which was fun.

Sadly it was time to go. We were given  a delicious biscuit then headed for the coaches.