Azul means Blue in Spanish, and sometimes those blue magic days just happen when you least expect it.
Our family calls this "trail magic".
On this day, we had been talking about the gaucho (cowboy) hat that is so common in northern Argentina, and also in Brazil and Bolivia. The hat is made of felt, and looks like a French berret, but is larger to keep the sun off. It is worn in about three different ways depending on the weather and the owners desires, and it also comes in every colour of the rainbow.
One asked a local in the gas station that we had stopped at, where we could buy such a hat, and he told us about a rodeo that was on, right now about 5 km away. We had to see this! So we drove over, to witness the most fantastic carnival. Initially it was the show parades for groups to dress up in their cowboy finery and included tours by boys and girls, men then women and other contraptions such as horse drawn carts. Some of the saddlery and bridles were incredible, most made of leather but some of long chains of gold and silver, often more than 150 years old.
Of course food was a big part too, with "asado" carne meat cooked over an open fire in many kilograms of all types of meat, beef, chicken, pork, lamb etc. Then the crowd turned up in large numbers, and cars were four deep around the arena. The competition started and included what we would call buck-jumping - these young guys and girls were exceptionally good at it too.
Evening, we stayed in a very smart hotel made for conventions, just outside of Azul. Willy took us into town in the truck and we had the best steak and fine wine that we have had on the trip. Thank you Jeff!
The taxi home was driven by a man from "Deliverance" and he took us to the wrong hotel, but a few pesos fixed that and we ended up in the right place, just before a huge lightning storm lit up the sky for most of the night. The next day is somewhat delayed, and not only by the terrified dog that took refuge in my room!
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