A country house with horses

There was no better way to spend the New Year's weekend than at La Salamora, way up in the sierra about 2 hours north of Montevideo, near the town of Minas. Bigger than rolling hills, smaller than mountains, la sierra is the perfect landscape for any western film; gorgeous grassy rises as far as the eye can see; horses, cows and sheep free ranging all around. It's idyllic. Mild temperatures and periodic rainfall all year long to allow the animals to be outside and live off the grass land. Imagine, no cleaning out the stalls.

La Salamora sits up high on a hill, a lovely country lodge, Alicia our host is involved in a variety of projects to restore bio-diversity and uncover the historic significance of this very special landscape.

It was great to be breathing country air , feeling the very cool breezes,( yes a jacket might have been good), walking, riding, exploring. The sunsets, the big sky, the clouds, the quiet.

We slept very well and very deeply. This was a perfect introduction to Uruguay, over dinner we heard about growing up during the dictatorship, the new education innovation where 400,000 free laptops were distributed to elementary school children and town squares were all equipped with WiFi. The Uruguayan people who drink yerba matte all the time see themselves as very distinct on the continent. Being such a small country of about 3 million people they begin every conversation by establishing friends or relatives in common.

We rode to the castle of the alchemist and spied on the house way up in the hills, where Tibetan Buddhists, with a little help from Richard Gere, have built a temple on a power spot. There is an old lime oven on the land, that provided tons of lime to build Buenos Aires and to aid with burials. The ovens used hectares of wood to process the lime and so explains the lack of trees on the windy hills. It was a very special place that could serve as the setting for any magic realism novel.

Around 11, New year's Eve, a neighbour came by with two llamas in his truck , he needed help dropping them off , so, after settling in the llamas he joined us for a lovely meal and a toast to the year and the extraordinary full blue moon. We won't have another moon again on the last day of the year for 28 years.

A new addition to the ranch was Lola, a puppy that appeared on the land at christmas. Lola was probably part of hunters' dog pack. They hunt that really scary wild pigs that are an unfortunate cross between boars and domestic pigs that live in the forest and only come out at night; what would a perfect landscape be without something scary! Anyway Lola reminded me so much of Mackenzie when she came to us , perhaps I should bring Lola home to trade for getting Mackenzie back.

We returned to Montevideo, from Minas on the oh so efficient, comfortable, air-conditioned buses that leave and arrive exactly right on time and are happily ensconced in the Sur Hotel. The cab driver that dropped us at the hotel got out and gave us both a hug to welcome us to Uruguay; he was so happy we were from Canada, such a beautiful country, and that we were spending so much time here.

http://www.lasalamora.com