Día de Campo

The ISA-planned excursions just keep getting better and better.
Sunday was our "día de campo" excursion, meaning our excursion into the countryside surrounding the city of Buenos Aires. It may not sound that exciting, but it was a great day.
(not to mention that our group keeps growing as well; a group of about 120 estudiantes estadounidenses crammed into 3 micros for this trip)

Our first stop was the city of Luján, about 70 metros outside of the city. Luján is the most visited city in Latin America, as it is home to an AMAZING french gothic church where millions of people come to worship before the small Virgin Mary statue each year. The story behind the church is that a group of gauchos, who were traveling through Argentina setting up new churches and temples, came through Luján with their animals and packs. As they were passing through, the animals stopped moving.
The gauchos believed the animals were tired, so they decided to rest for a day. The next morning, they tried to push the animals forward, but they wouldn't move. Believing the animals were too weighed down from the packs, the gauchos unloaded all their cargo, including the many Virgin Mary statues. Un-weighed down, the animals moved. So the gauchos repacked the packs differently and tried to push the animals on again.
It turned out, the animals would only move if the statues of the Virgin Mary were left unpacked and on the ground. Taking this as a sign that the land was holy, the gauchos decided to set up a church in this exact location.

We had about an hour to explore Luján, so we all headed directly to the iglesia. There was an actual ongoing mass as we entered, but because it is such a highly visited place, pictures were permitted. Which was great because I'm such a picture fiend :)
I decided to make an offering anyway though, feeling a little guilty about all the shots I was snapping. I would love to attend an entire mass service in Argentina. I'm not catholic and I probably wouldn't catch everything that was happening in a service entirely in spanish, but it would definitely be worth the experience.

After Luján, everyone loaded back onto the bus and we made our way to La Mimosa, an estancia (farm/ranch) a little further away.

We were greeted by the owner of the estancia and workers dressed in traditional gaucho garb who gave us delicious empanadas fritas de carne y huevo (fried, as oppposed to del horno, from the oven). We gathered in what I'll refer to as the backyard of la casa while we ate our empanadas and watched 2 couples perform traditional gaucho dances.
We then had an hour or so to explore the estancia before lunch.

Our lunch was an indescribable experience. An authentic asado, we were served chorizo, salchichas, chicken, and steak from the parrilla, this huge outside grill where we cook watch them as they cooked. Dessert was ice cream with boysenberries on top and, naturally, after-dinner café. After completely gorging (I swear my shorts were tighter) we sat and watched more gaucho-style dancing and then the dancers got everyone else to join in. dance party!

That was followed by a traditional gaucho past time; a game played on horseback that seemed kind of like jousting, but instead of charging another person and trying to unseat them from their horse, the riders charge what looks like a goalpost where a small (and when I say small, I mean tiny) silver ring is hanging in the center. The goal is to grab the ring with the end of the jousting pole. As the game progressed the ring gets bigger, but so does the pole, making the game more difficult.
And I was pretty distracted by the 4 year old gauchito riding around on a pony. qué lindo!

Before we left, we were given even more food. Medienda consisted of a fried torta (with sprinkles!) and an infusion of mate. It wasn't technically authentic mate, because we were drinking it without the herbs still in it, but it was delicious nonetheless.  And cue more dancing :)

Being on a beautiful farm outside of BsAs was like being back home again. There were cows, chickens, horses and soybean fields; dad would have been in heaven. Little things like this make me miss the rolling hills of Kentucky and the peaceful serenity of our log cabin, but I know I'll be there soon enough and missing Buenos Aires.