Valverde

As Spain does not have enough holidays where everything is closed for celebration, there just happened to be another holiday on Thursday. I can’t tell you the name of this holiday, but the university was closed so no classes. Jesus referred to it as Valverde, so that is what we called our day at the ranch. Our group was scheduled to go horseback riding at a ranch. All the Madres were coming too bringing food, so we could have dinner at the ranch. All the Madres and hijos took the bus, a larger Los Tres Pillares, which left from the Plaza G. G. at four in the afternoon headed for the ranch. It took about half an hour to get to the ranch. We were divided into two groups because there were more people than horses. I was in the second group, so I waited while the first group got situated on their horses and went out for their trail ride. It was obvious some people were not comfortable on horses. I on the other hand am a huge fan of horses. I just think they are so elegant and beautiful. I waited patiently for an hour and a half for the other group to return, so we could have our turn. Finally, I could here the sound of clopping huffs coming into the stable area. It was mine turn with the caballos!!

I was put on the horse that Danny had. Which was fine, but I asked the guy for a caballo animado. I never got a chance to ask the name of my horse. My horse was anything but animado. I kept kicking him, but there was no budge. He just stayed at the same pace slowly plotting his way along the trail avoiding the stone path and walking only on the grassy sides. I think the horse forgot that I was on his back sometimes because he would always walk on the side of trail by the trees. I would have duck from all the branches to avoid being whacked in the face. Along the trail ride we saw several farm animals. There were thousands of pigs. Big surprise there, Spain loves their jamon. We also saw cattle, goats and other horses.

As soon as we started heading back to the stable, my horse started picking up pace. This was shocking because the whole ride I had been kicking him to go faster and now I could not get him to slow down. He was almost in a full trot by the end of the ride. I guess he was just ready to be done giving rides for the day.

The Madres had dinner all set up for us when we returned. The other group was hungrily awaiting our arrival, so when we all got in we entered the restaurant and the feast began. The amount of food was incredible. There were Spanish tortillas galore, hornazo, pasta salads, empanadas, mini bocadillas, all different kinds of rice, cheeses, and of course several massive plates of jamon and sausage. Needless to say but nobody touched these plates jamon. I was stuffed after the dinner, but it was far from over. Jesus came out with tray after tray of chocolates and pastries. My favorite where these little frozen chocolate coated balls filled with ice cream. Jesus called caca de caballo, which is horse poop. They did in fact resemble poop, but they tasted infinity better.

After dinner everyone got back on the bus. We had a real treat on the bus ride back. All the Madres serenaded us with traditional Salamantino songs. We decided we should return the performance, so we sang Ain’t no Mountain High Enough. The Madres told us we needed to sing in Spanish. Unfortunately, we did not know any Spanish traditional songs except for the pop ones that played in the bars. We started singing Tenia Tanta, but only made it through the refrain before the Madres started belting out another song.

When the bus got back to Salamanca, Escoli, Alex and Colleen’s Madre offered to take Sarah and I out for drink. I was so stuffed I did not know how I was going to fit anything else in my stomach. The whole time we were out Escoli kept looking at me and saying habla, habla, habla. After the drinks we all headed back to our houses for the night.