estancia time!

We spent several days in Mendoza, the lovely Argentinean wine country. It was the most relaxing part of our adventure, we really took advantage of the European cafe culture-- long lunches of pizza and empanadas (ok, usually chicken for me) with lots of wine outside at tables with umbrellas followed by siesta time, a practice we just must adopt! Mendoza was also where we visited an estancia of sorts. Come to find out, most of the ranches that are open for visiting were much more about these guys--

But alas, after a very long and dark "sunset" horseback ride at the base of the Andes (don't get me wrong, it was pretty incredible), we were fed an overwhelming meal prepared by this guy--

I must say, I am very grateful for the experience! The dudes on the ranch were really cool and the meat abundant, but it really was not very tasty. Perhaps this was because every time the meat tray came around, we got what was left on the board, which was, at best, grayish mystery meat (retired horsemeat?!) and at worst, some sort of tough, gnarly pig skin. Eek.

I guess I was hoping for something more like this--

...but the only places these were spotted were in windows at restaurants in Buenos Aires, enticing tourists to try their "authentic" Argentinean cuisine. Aah, well. I suppose I'll have to wait for that until I get my job for the travel channel!