After a week of settling in and handling mundane tasks like shopping for school uniforms, we were excited for our first “mini adventure” a visit to La Sofia Estancia.  Estancia in Argentina is best translated as ranch and there are both working estancias and tourist estancias for folks like us (and even locals) to go for the weekend and unwind.

Kate and Jake were pretty excited about going.

At the tourist estancias, they feed you well and promptly after we arrived around 1pm we were greeted with a feast of traditional asado (barbecue) from the parilla (grill).

Asado is a multi-course carnivores delight consisting of various types of sausage, including my favorite morcilla, ribs, flank steak, pork and every other possible animal part you could considering throwing on a grill.  After a few hours to digest, we went on our first ride.  As a suburban kid from New Jersey, I’m naturally an extraordinarily talented equestrian and feel right at home on a horse.

Definitely my new Facebook profile picture.

Fortunately, my kids have had a bit more exposure to the equestrian world.  Kate has been taking riding lessons for a couple of years and is very comfortable on a horse and Jake has been on a couple of rides before so he was game as well.  They had a great time riding around in the wide open fields.

Off they go

Kate’s favorite thing was that she was able easily outrun her Dad.

The audio at the end is worth a listen

Well, that and the fact that we found a frog in the swimming pool.  That was another highlight.

One of the special things about La Sofia is that, the owners use it as a place to train polo horses.  As a result, the animals we were riding were simply magnificent.  It’s a bit like asking a beginner to play on a Steinway grand piano, but even we could appreciate what amazing animals we were riding.  We even got a little polo lesson.  It’s pretty tricky but after a while we got the hang of it.

I really hope she doesn’t end up wanting to play this game

Overall, it was a terrific weekend get away.  Just being in such a beautiful and peaceful place was just what we needed after a couple of hectic weeks of moving and getting settled.

It felt odd coming back “home” to our apartment, but we are all happy to be back and preparing for the first day of school tomorrow.