Polo day

We were very excited to do the polo day even though we were running on no sleep. We had to reschedule a few times due to the rain and although it was bound to be cloudy, thankfully, it was not going to rain. Our driver, Pablo, picked us up at 10:00am at the hostel. As it turned out, he was not only our driver but our guide for the entire day. We circled around the city picking up four other people before driving the 45 minutes into the country where the polo field and stables were located. We were going to watch a polo match played by the players of the local polo club and then we were going to learn how to play and actually play a game riding a horse! They treated us to wine and empanadas and explained the rules of the game. I had never seen a polo match so I really had to no idea how to play or what to expect.

The game is actually a little confusing. There are four players on each team and each player has a handicap (similar to golf) that is determined based on their age, experience, etc. The game is played by men and women together and there is no age limit. We learned about the mallet they use and how to hit the ball. I assumed that you hit it with the end like in croquet but you actually hit it with the middle like in hockey. Watching the game was pretty funny. We would cheer for them and jeer them when they screwed up. But Pablo made sure our wine glasses were always full, so I had drank almost two bottles by the time we had lunch.

For lunch, we had a full Argentinian spread with tons of meat of course. We got to know the other people on our tour: a girl from San Francisco who does marketing for Google, a doctor from Brazil who works with ozone therapy and a couple from Canada who had just moved to Chile for work. I love the connections we make on outings like these; the intersection of such different lives actually illuminates the commonalities between us.

We then got to try our hand at playing polo. I knew right away when they selected my pony that we weren't going to connect. She really didn't want to play and I could definitely tell, lol. But I decided to give it a try anyways. It is incredibly hard to steer your horse, chase the ball, hit it with the mallet and not cross the "invisible line" that is created when another player hits the ball (sort of like offsides in soccer). I hadn't ridden a pony for two years but I am definitely not scared to do it. Pretty much everyone else was walking or trotting the horse but that made the game very slow paced. I decided I was going to learn how to play while running my horse. I really didn't do too bad, although at one point my horse was running and I leaned over to hit the ball and the saddle tilted to the side making me teeter over to the right off the horse. I spent a few seconds dangling to he side before giving up and letting go which of course freaked out all of the instructors since I was now laying on the ground. I on the other hand, thought this was hilarious. I think my horse felt pretty vindicated as well. After that, she behaved a little better and would run and turn when I directed her to. It was a very fun experience.

Once we were done with the game, we spent some time hanging out on the grounds. The horses were all so beautiful and I loved just watching them. I also loved all of the dogs they had on the property and hung out with them for a while.

We made it back to the city around 9:00pm. Pablo had asked us to go out with him to the clubs and we agreed despite having slept the night before because it was our hostels' one year anniversary and they were throwing a huge party again that night. We showered and headed to Pablos' apartment, which ironically was only a block from our hostel. He lived in a one bedroom place in a 10 story building. It actually reminded me a lot of an apartment you'd find in New York. We hadn't eaten dinner so Pablo made us pasta; he was concerned that we would get drunk too fast on an empty stomach, lol. Argentinians really don't drink much, definitely nothing like Americans. They never really get drunk or crazy but they still stay up until 7:00am partying and hanging out.
Pablo's friend Nacho picked us up at 12:00am and we drove to a club in Pallermo. They had a friend who worked there so we had a VIP table with bottle service. Again, since they don't drink, the bottle was champagne which they mixed with an energy drink called "speed". We drank so much of that energy drink, I thought my heart would explode, lol. We stayed at the club until 5:00am dancing to Spanish house music. I never realized how important knowing a song is to my dancing experience. Not knowing the words made me very sad and when an American song came on, I would get so excited and then they would change it, lol. We had a great night!

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