View from our cabana door.
We woke late to the sound of rain hammering on the tin roof. We both had colds developing and had found the previous day quite tough so we decided to spend the day in our little cabana eating, resting, catching up with a weeks worth of blog writing and playing cards. It was so wet a baby frog hopped under the door for a bit of respite! We worried what state the track would be in the following day but concluded that tomorrow the rain couldn’t possibly be any worse! The wooded slopes opposite occasionally made an appearance between the low cloud and mist but mostly it rained very heavily with the odd power cut. The flock of glossy ibis (on the lawns outside) had a great day though, probing frantically as the rain drummed up all their favourite snacks. During a brief afternoon respite we wandered out in search of a coffee and popped into a lovely restaurant (Las Ruedas/Cerro La Momia) where we enjoyed some fantastic homemade cheese and chocolate cake. The owner chatted to us very slowly in Spanish so we had chance to understand ,which was very kind. She had moved here 7 years ago from the Atlantic coast where she got sick of the hard work, boring pampas and constant winds. So she moved to Rivadavia for a slower and more relaxing pace of life and set up a restaurant and 4 cabanas (which were full when we arrived) on a plot of land overlooking the mountains and the valley studded with lines of poplars and meadows full of cattle and horses. She introduced her 10 year old grandson who invited us to a game of table tennis in his downstairs games room. He was very good and toyed with me like a cat……feeding me easy shots to lunge for and then, just as I thought I might be getting good, smashing or spinning me out of the game. His grandmother sat on the stairs with John and asked about us and what we did at home. We could have stayed there all night (until I won a few points!) but we had to go. Her grandson invited us to see a Pereguin Falcon he had rescued with a broken wing….he fed it every day and kept it in a large cage between their beautiful allotment and a timber food store. The rain had continued whilst we were inside and we dashed back to fix all the punctured inner tubes from the previous day and make dinner. From the sink window we watched a local horseman break in his horse, never looking directly at it and inviting it to run alongside him on a short tether. They repeated the same exercise again and again, slowly building up trust until they both looked exhausted and the horse was let loose. Earlier in the day we had watched the same horse being led by another older horse, ridden by the same man, into the deep water in the centre of the river until only his head and neck were above water. The horseman stood or squatted on the back of the bridled horse for about 15 minutes constantly walking into shallow then deeper water. The cloud started to lift and the mountain tops re-appeared again but the air was a lot colder. We stoked up the wood burning stove and packed ready for the morning.
River at bottom of cabana field.
Las Ruedas restuarant
Downstairs at the restaurant!
The falcon with a broken wing.
