For my whole life since I can remember, I've had a dream, and it looks like this: I'm in a field, and the grass is not not too high, and I'm on a horse, and we are galloping, with mountains surrounding us, across this plain. Not toward anything, just running. It is the speed that intrigues me.

Until this trip. More on that later. This trip refers back to Patagonia, which we are working on sharing more of at last here.

Our guide for about a week at the Awasi hotel, Diego, would recommend each day what to do the next, and on several occasions, suggested horse rides. His suggestions were always spot-on, so of course, we took them. One day, he recommended a ride with Estanica Lazo. As we had never been there, we had no idea what to expect. But driving into the ranch was both stunning

And exciting. Gaucho in action! 

Our second ride of the trip, we were gaining confidence, 

and easily mounted our horses, Piscola and Atuelpa, along with Walker's dad.

Diego spoke to the gaucho leading our ride and must have told them we were ok riders, because we were off!

Granted, I do not have good form and so my bones were jolting along with each gait, over the rivers,

and through the woods.

As most places in Patagonia, the winds were strong and the horses independent. I had to hold those reins with everything in me to stop Piscola from darting. She was antsy.

As you can see, we are also sporting the 5-layer look thanks to the winds.

The views were too blue to be real, including Lago Verde whose aqua presence infused the whole ride.

We gained some altitude climbing, the horses mounting with ease.

Our main gaucho mostly trusted us, but he is definitely looking at me suspiciously because at one point, Piscola hit a patch of open field, and took off. I was sure I was going to fall off and started screaming (mildly), and he had to race in front of me to stop Piscola. And then Diego gently told me that screaming is not a good way to get horses to slow down. Right. Both Diego and the gaucho were excellent riders, and had the whole situation well under control, despite my lack of skill.

As I said, the horses were on the wild side, and at one point, we heard an 'oh no!' and saw Walker's dad on his back on the ground. After we realized he was still breathing, our horses sensed the excitement in the air and also started bounding ahead, racing after the free roaming one. I had to use everything in me to reign her in.

Meanwhile, the gaucho went to find the free horse. Thankfully, Walker's dad had slid off without any damage, and was laughing it off.

Needless to say, we stayed in a tighter line after that.

Sorry for the large photo-to-copy ratio here, but the photos so perfectly capture the space, that I just want to look at them instead of telling much more.

We met back up with Walker's mom and her guide, Katica, and Diego and Kati pulled a huge surprise, and cooked us a hot lunch

in this lodge! They pulled a whole picnic out of the back of the car and gave us course after course of fresh lamb, salads, and even dessert.

This guy was jealous.

Every day in Patagonia filled us with such life and the winds blew everything but awe from us. Thanks, Kati and Diego, for showing us all this beauty.

Literally, the most beautiful.