Gaucho Pizza

We are at Los Ombues Lodge, having made it our first stop from Buenos Aires. A lot of our camping equipment was smuggled down here in a friends private jet. Not a bad smuggling vessel. Our pirate friends buried the treasure pending our arrival. We’ve spent the last couple days getting caught up on sleep and re-packing the vehicle. We’re pretty much ready to go.  

Los Ombues Lodge sits on the edge of the Parana River in Entre Rios Province. From the front porch there is a 50 mile view of the meandering, braided River with a labyrinth of hidden channels and lakes. It’s what we might imagine the Mississippi River to have looked like 150 years ago before the prevailing attitudes of the Industrial Age got ahold of it. 

Los Ombues is a deluxe bird hunting lodge where people can hunt and shoot an amazing amount of ducks, Tinamou (partridge) and doves. I’ve been here eight times previously. This is Lynnette’s first. We are in awe of the environment. The air is alive with flying birds of all kinds. We hear their cacophony by day and the frogs and insects by night. It is absolutely delightful. Very quiet.

This property is gigantic, covering about 145,000 hectors of land. Making it work is a staff of wonderful people, including several gauchos who manage the cattle. We were invited to the home of the head gaucho last night. 

Toto and his wife, Julia, treated us to an amazing dinner of a multitude of pizzas and roasted pork cooked over their open hearth kitchen fire.  Their home is simple, consisting of a dirt floor and simple possessions. A pet owl perched on the hearth. Baby ducks peep on the floor. Lambs bleat at the door.  

As simple as this home is, it betrays their values of life: in the middle of the house is an approximate 30 foot table and benches with a bar opposing the hearth so that they may enjoy and entertain their friends.

We asked Toto and his brother what they loved most about their lives. They are very proud to carry the gaucho tradition by the way they dress and their codes of the profession. They love the clean living of the country, they love horses, and they love being in a mix of friends who are all available to gather and help one another to support this simple but rich life they live.  

Go back to the first photo. See if you can spot the pet owl sitting on the hearth.

Saludos.