Had a good ride in sector 3 and got some new flying mane pictures on 17 and N trails. The scent of the wildflowers was a delight, and we got surprised by a deer. 🦌
With 15M inhabitants, Buenos Aires is a major metropolitan city of a similar size but broader sprawl than NYC. Subways, museums, restaurants ad infinitum, and honking taxis define the city. And yet … in many ways its still a jungle out here. I wont bore you with affairs of state, but the currency situation is absolutely bonkers. The highest denomination is a 1000 pesos bill. Its now worth $3 on the blue rate (street) market, which means when I went to buy our ferry tickets to Uruguay yesterday I had to pack a wad of cash so big it barely fit into my money belt. When we went to Western Union (the unofficial ATM/exchange office) to withdraw funds, the stack was so big we could not fold it to put in my husband’s pocket. Good thing he had big cargo pants. He hugged his pocket the whole way home. 😂 The government seems to have zero interest in addressing the situation (see article: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/economy/tourists-pay-with-wads-of-cash-as-argentina-inflati...
Its been a rough go these last few weeks between a significant increase in work, brutal cold snaps, icy trails and skating rink parking lots. Ive only ridden a handful of times on those rare occasions where the universe converged. This has made for a spicy pony and while it makes me more prudent on how I engage in speed when the brakes are fairly absent, it also makes me super appreciative that this spicy horse does keep his excitement under wraps most of the time. Clearly Q is fit and feeling good, and his daily turnout with bestie Chester is absolutely insufficient in expending energy. Especially since these two lazybouts just stand in a corner watching the world go by. We went out today after a little snow fell to cover our thick ice. Footing was good, and it was our first outing in over 10 days. The strategy is always the same: long steady trots for 5-10 mins until Q starts relaxing and blowing through his nose in loud bursts. During the first stretch we kept on trotting throu...
The joys of shorts, sandals, blue skies and bright yellow sun for 18+ hours a day are over. We returned last week after a 24 hour monstrous return, without our baggage because thats the lingering issue of the day in the airline industry, and with a tickle in my throat. 3 days of suffering later, our bags showed up and I finally made it to the barn. Q’s reaction was priceless. As soon as he heard my voice, he flipped around, head in the air and seemed to say: « waiiiit … WHAT??? … where YOU been? » and proceeded to grope me with his nose. He was hot to trot and our first ride out was a bit edgy. We secured some babysitters from the barn to take us out on trail in what was some of the most beautiful winter wonderland. We kept it at a walk those first two days cuz Q was ready to bolt with excitement. Then I played hookie and ran out to the barn early in the morning to see what he had under the hood. Alone and without fear for any other riders or trail users, we tested Q’s energy and self ...
What a funny country. Somewhere stuck with one foot in the past and a delusion of the future. No wonder they have the highest number of psychiatrists per capita in the world. They seem to suffer from fatalism, and its contagious. Being a huge metropolitan city of 15M, public transit (and subways) are the backbone of transportation. While taxis are very cheap (2$ for a 15 minute ride), transit is even cheaper at 0.10$ and abundant for us as we are downtown. With rampant inflation and deflating currency, the government wisely decided years ago to remove cash payment and replace with a transit pay-as-you-go card called a SUBE. That way they could increase prices on a monthly basis and it would be seamless. But finding a place that will sell you the card? Turns out, thats the problem. For locals, its no big deal since they keep the cards forever. But tourists? Good luck. I had heard echos of this problem online, particularly exasperated by the pandemic. But Argentina had also shut down bor...
I may come to regret this, but Im not as prepared for this trip as I was for Alberta’s epic trek last spring. In part because I havent ridden in 3 weeks. 😃 The days will probably be shorter (4-6 hours of riding) and its pretty slow riding because its over glacier rocks …. so maybe Ill be fine? Also looks like its just gonna be me and the gauchos as the other riders had flights cancelled last minute. So this trip will be Spanish (actually Castellano) immersion too. The last few weeks in BA has been momentous, from the run to the final of the World Cup, to the dozens of people who ran in the streets in defense of a small dog in a hit and run, to the amazing fresh fruit and vegetables, to the delicious food and mountains of gelato. BA is big, at times wild, messy and very passionate. I havent found much indifference here. But now, I have to figure out how to get my backpack to weigh less than 8 kg to fit all the clothes I need for weather ranging from polar sun to blizzard. Yes, I have l...
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