Our last full weekend in Argentina we visited Lujan and a nearby estancia. The only place we stopped in Lujan was a famous cathedral.The cathedral was, as Catholic churches in South America tend to be, huge and beautiful. Outside of Lujan we visited an estancia, or working farm that hosts visitors. There we saw a number of traditional dances and dress and had a delicious meal. I'm pretty certain all of the dances were from Southern Argentina since that is 'gaucho' territory. The gaucho is sort of the cowboy of Argentina. He roams the open plains (Pampa) with only his horse and his knife. Typical dress is boots, kind of balloon like pants, jacket, hat, and belt with knife. He is supposed to be an excellent horseman, hunter, and all around outdoorsy kind of guy.
We were served some delicious meat empanadas upon getting to the estancia and after being welcomed with a dance we were allowed to roam around the estancia to look at all the animals. There were turkeys, peacocks, chickens, geese, a goat, emus, cows, horses and dogs so this kept us busy for a while. We got to take a short carriage ride and do a little horseback riding.
Lunch started off with salad and bread, then chorizo, blood sausage (tried it, not my favorite), chicken and some tasty beef. We were entertained by more dances after lunch and eventually everyone joined in and danced too.
After lunch we watched some games of skill on horseback. A small ring (about the size of a bracelet) was hung on a large metal frame (large and tall enough for 3 on horseback to pass under) and the object was to catch it on a small stick the rider holds. The rider approaches the ring and frame on horseback at a full gallop. Only one of the 5 or 6 riders was able to do it. After each had a few tries at this game, a larger ring was hung on the metal frame and the riders carried much larger poles. The riders didn't have too much trouble with this and quite a few were able to catch the ring on their pole.
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