Day 1: Montevideo – Tour of the capital city & Port Market

Today is set aside to relax and explore the coastal city of Montevideo. Guests are met at the Carrasco International Airport and driven along the wonderful coastline called “Rambla” to the downtown hotel.

After Check in, your guide will help you discover the charming and quiet city of Montevideo, its museums, street markets, nice restaurants and friendly people. We will enjoy lunch at the lively Port Market before returning to the hotel located in downtown Montevideo. L.

Day 2: 18th century Fortín de San Miguel

After breakfast we will be driven to the Brazilian border and into Rocha, arguably the most beautiful province in Uruguay with pristine beaches, emerald shores and a great network of lagoons. We will visit ‘Chuy’, a very curious town straddling the border where guests can step into Brazil and hear the locals speak a strange language made of a mix of Spanish and Portuguese.  As we arrive at the hotel, built in the same stone as the nearby Portuguese fortress, we can admire the views out across an enormous stretch of fresh water – one of the largest fresh water reserves of South America, the “Merín Lagoon”; we are right on the Brazilian border. After lunch we will meet the gauchos and horses to ride around the rolling hills of San Miguel enjoying a wonderful panoramic view of the area from the top of the boulder covered ‘Cerro Picudo’. The view across the flat lowlands and the huge lagoon provides a very different landscape to the following days’ rides. We can smell the sea and on clear days view the coast. This area is home to a wide variety of birds and we will see many different native trees and bushes. We will also have the chance to see the Cimarron cattle – the first cattle, introduced from Spain in the 17^th century. We will stay at the “Fortín de San Miguel” Hotel where guests will be able to enjoy the gardens, swimming pool and the relaxed atmosphere. AB, L, D.

Day 3: Barra de Chuy beach – Brazilian border & a ride along a pristine beach.

After breakfast, we will be driven to our horses (5 min. drive) where they will be waiting for us ready to start a nice 3-4 hours ride towards the coast!

After a special picnic lunch, riders may have a pleasant “siesta” discovering that gauchos’ saddles are so comfortable to ride as to sleep! In the afternoon, we will enjoy a fast-pace ride along the wonderful, isolated ocean beach of ‘Barra Chuy’. Visitors seldom reach this beach so we can enjoy a long, exhilarating canter with no signs of habitation as we ride across the pure white sands alongside the Atlantic Ocean. We arrive 22km (12 miles) further south to “La Coronilla” and stay at small beachside hotel. AB, L, D.

Day 4: Santa Teresa national park, dolphins & shipwrecks.

Today we will ride south alternating beaches, sand dunes, pine forests and coastal hills where we might see dolphins feeding before getting to the immense Santa Teresa National Park. The center piece of the park is a fort started in 1762 by the Portuguese to defend the edge of their territories then completed by the Spaniards who took it by assault just a year later. This was just the start of a succession of conquering, loosing and reconquering the fort; it was not until 1825 that the newly forming ‘Uruguay’ finally captured and held the fort.  The fort is surrounded by 3000 hectares of forest containing over 2 million trees, most from other parts of the world. After a picnic lunch we will enjoy riding along the forest trails and down to the beach and we will pass a shipwreck buried in the sand, one of many along this treacherous coast; indeed, Cabo Polonio (where we ride later) is named after a Spanish galleon that went down just off the point. Luckily ‘Beagle’ with Charles Darwin aboard did not succumb to this fate and Darwin spent quite some time in Uruguay collecting species and most likely starting to formulate his theories of evolution. After a traditional picnic close to the fortress or on the beach, depending on the weather, we will continue along the coast towards the lovely town of Punta del Diablo. Afternoon drive to “Estancia El Sauce”, where we will enjoy dinner and spend the night. AB, L, D.

Day 5: El Sauce, an authentic estancia – ‘mate’ tea & the gaucho life

We wake up at “El Sauce”, a working estancia run by its owners where we will enjoy a full day riding around the crops and the very varied vegetation of the area. The estancia, built in 1920, is very comfortable –it is not a hotel but a family house where we have been invited to stay as guests of the owners, offering us an incredible experience and a very special insight into the life of the countryside. Guests will be able to taste the ‘mate’ sipped hot out of a dry gourd; the gauchos and their mate are inseparable and a ceremony has developed around this drink.  In addition to the cattle grasslands, this estancia has a large area of marshlands and rice crops both of which are teeming with bird life (more than 400 species) making another very varied ride and giving us the chance to see the graceful black-necked swan (largest population in the world found here), the rare white goose and many ducks and other birds such as the largest bird in South America- the ‘ostrich-like’ “ñandú” (American rhea). Otters, coypus and capybaras inhabit the marshlands and streams. At several points on the trip we will see the pink flamingo – a species of flamingo with very bright pink pigment, quite common in Uruguay. Overnight at this authentic working estancia.  AB, L, D.

Day 6: Cabo Polonio – shifting sands & sea lions

The day starts with a drive to the ocean coast. We will meet our horses and ride into the desert! We ride through the area which has been declared a natural animal reserve and a Biosphere Natural Reserve by UNESCO. We will ride to Cabo Polonio, a charming fishing village which can only be reached by horse or four wheeled drive. The fascinating part of the area is the huge area of shifting sand dunes, as we ride through it is possible to imagine that we are right in the middle of the Sahara. After lunch at a typical restaurant on the beach we will see seals and sea lions that populate the small islands and make up one of the largest populations of seals in the world; very occasionally we spot a migrating whale. Riders can swim in one of the most beautiful beaches of the country. After this ride full of surprises and diverse scenery, we will stay at a lovely and charming working estancia in the area. AB, L, D.

Day 7: Cattle and ship work with the gauchos on the estancia

The day starts with a lovely breakfast of homemade bread, jams and cakes, admiring the views of the countryside. A wonderful day working alongside the gauchos and their trusty dogs as they tend to the cattle and sheep on this working ranch. The work varies depending on the time of the year, but the gauchos always welcome a bit of help checking and moving the stock or putting animals in the corrals. Sometimes a lame animal has to be caught and tended to. The wonderful, friendly gauchos with their berets, ‘bombachas’ (riding trousers) and with their knives tucked into their colorful belts all seem to have been born on a horse and it is a delight to be riding with them. Their dogs are very much work animals and it is an amazing sight to see four dogs working in unison moving a herd of cattle. The dogs unfortunately cannot count and that gets very tricky for us, especially with the sheep, a recount often being required! A game of armadillo jumping often inadvertently gets underway as the little armor-plated animals make a dash for their holes as the horses approach. After lunch we will ride to the nearby wetland area hoping to see some herons or other migrating birds. In the evening, we will enjoy a typical “cordero asado”, specially cooked for us by one of the gauchos! AB, L, D

Day 8: Return

Depending on the return flights, we will be able to enjoy our last morning ride to say goodbye to our lovely horses and after a quick lunch, we will head back to Montevideo – to the airport, port, the city, or to start an extension tour. AB, L.

Important note: In the case of small groups (up to 4 rooms), we will stay at Guardia del Monte Estancia, located on the shores of the Castillos Lagoon during the last 2 nights instead of Estancia Charabon   

SUGGESTED EXTENSIONS:

Extension 1: Balcon del Abra, rolling hills of Lavalleja Province

A lovely extension tour to the rolling hills of Lavalleja Province, where guests will be able to ride for an extra two more days surrounded by a completely different landscape. Located in the small town of Mariscala, the cozy and charming countryside inn of “El Balcon del Abra” offers great comfort and great horses. Guests will discover wonderful trails to ride around the hills, along the countryside and across streams including the fantastic Salamanca Grottoes and lovely rides to nearby estancias. After 7 days riding in the east, this extension tour can be the perfect option to ride some extra days combined with some relaxing quality time in a beautiful spot in the middle of the hills.

Extension 2: The wetlands area and palm forests of Rocha

An unforgettable extension tour to one of the prettiest areas in the Province of Rocha with outstanding landscape beauty, important ecosystems and a great variety of birds and native scrublands; this area has been declared Natural Animal Reserve since 1996. We will have the opportunity to visit the forest of Ombúes; the Ombú curiously rarely grows in groups of more than 2 or 3 and the forest of Ombúes that we visit is possibly the only one in the world. Each tree has its own wonderful shape with thick, twisting roots spreading out over the ground some of which are over 500 years and have a diameter of 2 meters (6 feet). We will ride into the Castillos Lagoon, along the estancia fields and to the nearby unique palm groves; despite a number of stories, no one knows how the 300 year old palm trees got here. They are not native but they give the landscape a very exotic look.