Zelma’s Trip

On the Wednesday I got up, albeit not at the crack of dawn, and walked down for breakast.  It was the kind of breakfast you always hope that you will get when breakfast is included with freshly cooked bread, eggs, fresh fruit, yoghurt, cereal and homemade preserves and local honey.  I, very nobley it has to be said, tried al the delights on offer!

After breakfast I went for a walk down to the lake.  The lake itself was huge, one of many dammed lakes they seem to have in South America.   That was right wasn´t it?  It looks strange, like it should be damned lake, but I guess not.  Anyway, the lake was beautiful and there were loads of birds including flocks of green parrots.  I later learned that the parrots were burrowing parrots which are plentiful in the area.  This was really exciting to me as they were one of the birds which I had hoped to see whilst with my parents having read that they dive into their burrows at speed, bending their wings back so as not to come to mischief on their way in!

After a few hours I headed back to “Chez L´Habitant” where I had a suitably chilled out afternoon lazing by the lake and reading before a gorgeous home cooked dinner and an early night.

The following day I woke up early for breakfast as I had arranged to go on a full day ride.  We headed out with Christian´s horse in tow, literally next to the car, to get my horse before setting off.  The horses were lovely, forward going and had trekking type, Western saddles which were really comfortable.  They were also very good on their feet with strong legs which was lucky considering some of the terrain we ended up riding over.  After a little stretch on the road we headed into private land along a rocky trail.  Christian had a sat-nav, no that´s not actually what I mean is it?  Actually that would be hilarious, can you imagine the little thing attached to the horses head with an annoying lady´s voice saying, “at the river turn right”.  Yes, what I actually meant was a G.P.S. and he had only figured the routing for this day´s ride out about a week or so before apparently which meant I was the first person he had taken along it.  This did lead to a couple of comedy detours along the way and also a couple of places where I was amazed how trusting the horses were as we pushed them on through acacia trees and the like.  It did mean that it felt like we were riding on virgin territory a lot of the time though and I guess we were.  After a couple of hours we stopped at a farm type place, tied the horses up and went to look down over the lake.  Christian was slightly apologetic that there were clouds over half of it but, in my mind, this made the view even more magical.  When we got back to the farm the farmer had returned with his bulls in tow and we sat down with him.  He was a lovely guy and boiled water on his fire so that I could drink matte (pronounced Matay – if that´s not another Zelma error) which is a kind of tea with energy drink like properties.  You drink it out of a cup with a kind of tealeaf strainer, straw thing.  It was actually surprisingly good.  After a few sandwiches we continued on through more amazing scenery and a couple of rivers until we stopped at another farm.  When I say farm here I´m doing so loosely.  The places consisted of a couple of small areas for a few animals, some “guard dogs” (who normally wanted to lick you to death or mount your leg – or both) and a couple of makeshift type shelters and cooking things.  Anyway, the guy from this one also appeared and was also amazingly welcoming.  He showed us his place where he made charcoal, a kind of mud urn which was actually really complicated in terms of the vents and the way they had to adjust the heat and the fires so that it had consistent all over heat, and offered us bread and tea.

Afterwards we carried on the ride towards a waterfall.  Although the waterfall was not visible from above, the valley was and the views were stunning.  Christian called his father at this point and we headed back to the place where we had picked my horse up and his father was waiting.  All in all it was an absolutely awesome day.  Christian was a great guide, the horses were spectacular, the people we met amazing and the scenery spectacular.

Once back at the lake I had a much needed shower and a similarly needed dinner and early night.

On my final whole day at the Lake I decided relaxation was in order.  I went for a nice walk and did a sketch of the lake.  It was such a quite place and a great area to sit and contemplate the World.  For the rest of the day I pottered around, made half a friendship bracelet (presumably for my half-friend) and chilled out.  I also decided I should take advantage of the amazing homemede food and drink nice Fanta and Coke.