As our driver made his way along the roads leading from the town of San Antonio de Areco and out into the countryside leading to the estancia (or ranch), where we would be staying for a few days, the whole world seemed to grow. Endless fields of lush green soja created a gently swaying carpet stretching from horizon to horizon, only broken up by grassy pastures dotted with beautiful grazing horses. Even with Spanish talk radio blaring and the car racing, the world around us seemed to slow down and sigh gently into our ear, whispering, "take a break."
I have to make a confession: we thought that there was a beach in Buenos Aires. A beach where we could lounge in the sand, drink cocktails, splash in the ocean and forget what time it was for days on end. As it turns out (and as any diligent vacationer would have researched), there are no such beaches in Buenos Aires, and so, we instead opted to relax in the country.
We slept in until the sun peaking through the shades forced us to wake and head downstairs to breakfast, and to no surprise, we found ourselves the last guests to partake in the dulce de leche, media lunas and small, but mighty Argentine coffee set out for us. After breakfast, we had the option of a swim or ride before filling ourselves with an asado, a traditional Argentine bbq where there are many varied courses of different cuts of grass fed beef and bottomless glasses of Malbec wine. The only thing to do after such a meal is to head back to bed for a siesta, only waking an hour later to watch a polo match before dinner. As delightful and luxurious as all of this was, there are only so many days we could lay around like this.
On our last day, we woke early-ish to join the polo players on horseback for some stick and ball practice. The speed and excitement of cantering while swinging at a ball is exhilarating. I was amazed to find that I was able to hit the ball while at a gallop on my first time out - especially since while I do have some softball skills, hitting was NOT one of them.
This is the last of our vacation posts, and I hope that you have enjoyed seeing how we kick back when we aren't photographing weddings.
