Argentina Polo Day

We spent our last day in Buenos Aires with the fine people of Argentina Polo Day.  I found this little outing completely by accident, surfing the internet for other things to in BA that I might not have heard about.  I think I said to myself, "Isn't Argentina good at Polo?" and then somehow I was making a reservation.  Our reservation was actually for Monday, which was the rainiest of the rainy days and so we ended up rounding out our trip to the big city with a little paseo in the Argentine countryside.

Argentina Polo Day is run by a couple, Celia and Ruben, who pride themselves on sharing the game of Polo with the less informed. In addition to the day for tourists, they buy half-trained horses and train them, host Polo Events and honestly, provide a place for polo players to come have a good time.

Here is the run down of our day:

1. They picked us up from our apartment and on the 45 minute drive to the country, we watched a short little video with a prickly British woman about some basic Polo knowledge.  It was here we learned that the reason Polo is not an Olympic sport is because ALL of the decent Polo players are actually Argentine.  Apparently, Chile won the last World Championship, a fact that when we said, "whaaaa?", we were quickly informed was because they had all Argentinians on the roster.  (There is a little rivalry between the two countries.  Not sure why... Argentina is better at all things athletic.)

2.  We arrived to the property where we were greeted immediately with glasses of wine and fresh off the grill empanadas.  That wine glass would never again be empty throughout the day.

3.  Celia explained some basic rules to polo, for example, the imaginary line you can't cross, the uniform, the equipment, the bumping, etc.

4.  The Polo match began and we could kind of follow what was going on.  They let us do the throw ins, and showed us how they change the horses every chukker (time period).  The reason Polo gets so freaking expensive is that you have to have so many horses to play a match.   Between chukkers we practiced hitting the balls with short, practice mallets, without horses.  Admittedly, I may have had a glass of wine in one hand and a mallet in the other.

5.  We cheered and then we ate.  We had an asado of Argentine glory with meat, veggies, and of course more vino.  Also, there was good conversation.

6.  We got sweet helmets and then we got on horses.  (Nope, it isn't lost on me that this happened AFTER all the wine).  Michael and I being from Texas were automatically more experienced than the Germans who had never been that close to a horse much less atop one, therefore, we did not get the kiddie horses but a couple with a little bit of personality.

7.  They gave us giant mallets and we tried our hand at swinging and hitting and riding and trotting.

8.  We played an actual match alongside some of the guys who played earlier.  They were helpful, but also still competitive.  I scored once.  It was awesome.  It must have been all the cheers of "Vamos Mega!!".  (Seriously.. my name is impossible to say).

9.  We celebrated our triumphs and then they took us back to the city.  I give this thing like 6 stars out of 5.  If you are ever in BA and you have a day, it is unmissable.