Barrio Chino y Estancia!

So Caitlin missed her flight for the weekend, making me very very sad! :( But I rebounded to the best of my abilities.

On Friday during the day, we went to get our yellow fever vaccines. I guess I never realized I was in a 3rd world country until I went to the public hospital's vaccination clinic. It was a little scary and I guess we will just have to wait and see how it works out for me. But I am vaccinated against yellow fever! YIPPEE.

On Saturday, we went to Barrio Chino (the China Town) here. It is very pequeno (like 4 blocks) and very cool! There are lots of delicious little stands, cool little stores, yummy restaurants and chinos. Chinos here, in a what I assume is a not racist way, means supermarket. All of the supermarkets are owned by chinese people so, supermercados=chinos aca. We had lunch and made probably the most important discovery thus far on the trip. Not only does barrio chino sell peanut butter like I expected, they also have a WHOLE MEXICAN SECTION, SIRACHA, and NUTELLA. So that is where I will be grocery shopping from here on out. I've been sincerely missing spice in my life, which was unexpected.

Today was AMAZING! We went about 2 hours out of the city to a ranch (una estancia) that was one of the best experiences I've had to date. We got there around 11:30 and were welcomed with a house tour and some empanadas. After that, we took a little horsie ride. My horse was named Canario and he was beautiful and well behaved (ideal).

                                                           (My main caballo Cana)
After that little ride, we had a traditional gaucho asado. Asado is a way of grilling here and always means disgustingly copious amounts of meat are coming your way. I'm still full 9 hours later. While eating/ taking coffee we were serenaded by an adorable old gaucho named Oscar who was incredibly talented and sweet. The next activity was a horse show from the young, attractive Pablo the Gaucho. The gauchos here learned their tricks from the Indians, who obtained horses by luring them away with their gentle nature. Here is Pablo and his horse life-mate being adorable.

And then we got to pose with his horse life-mate. I really should work on my body positioning for pictures.

After the horse show, we went for another, longer ride. I didn't get Canario and got a really grumpy caballo, which wasn't that awesome but still very fun.

I haven't been feeling well lately so I'm hoping that I'm not getting sick! It was definitely worth powering through today to do such an amazing thing!