We had an action-packed few days on the Panagea Ranch near Tacuarembó - a first-hand experience of the life of the gauchos (cowboys). The owner of the ranch, Juan Manuel, is undoubtedly one of the funniest men I have ever met and he made our stay very enjoyable. Despite his pains to stress how basic the accommodation was, it was perfectly comfortable and relaxing and the food that they served up was great.

When we arrived we were a bunch of nervous horse-riding novices but, with Juan Manuel's guidance, we were soon competently and confidently riding around, herding the cows and sheep. At the same time we were able to enjoy the beautiful landscapes of rural Uruguay and we were very lucky with the weather.

We were picked up from Tacuarembó bus station by Juan Manuel and sat in the back of his pick-up truck for the hour-long drive to the ranch. In the open truck we watched the sunset and the rise of a huge orange moon, while swallowing the dust from the dirt track!

After dinner Juan Manuel explained the plan for the next day. At the ranch they only have electricity from a generator between 7pm and 10pm each day so after that we sat out on the porch and chatted by candlelight until the early hours. After a great deal of effort and confusion, Bernie managed to open a bottle of wine with the corkscrew, only to discover it was a screw-top bottle - hilarious!

In the morning we donned our riding boots and cowboys hats for the first time and Juan Manuel assigned us each a horse for the day. He showed us how to saddle them up and then we had a go ourselves, with help from the friendly gaucho, Bilingo. Once everybody had saddled and mounted their horses we rode out together through the fields, rounded up a herd of cattle and brought them back to a pen near the house where we helped dip them for ticks.

When the morning's work was done, we returned to the house to enjoy a barbeque in the sunshine and a siesta in the hammocks in the garden. However, we couldn't find Bernie anywhere in or around the house and a mini-panic broke out. Juan Manuel decided we should give it a couple of hours to see if she turned up before launching an all-out search. Julio had a flash of inspiration about where someone might fall asleep in the shade if they were walking about the grounds and, right enough, he found her there napping under a tree! Panic over.

In the afternoon we went out on the horses again to return the cattle to their field and then rode up to a nice lookout point where eagles were nesting in the trees.

After sweltering in the heat all day we jumped at the offer of a swim in the river in the evening - it was rather colder and dirtier than anyone had imagined though! It turned into a bit of an adventure - all good fun.

That night's dinner was followed by a lot of wine and jokes and laughs, everyone was very relaxed and having a great time.

The following day we saddled up again, on different horses this time, and headed to muster some more cattle for dipping. After lunch we changed horses again and went to herd some sheep into paddocks for drenching and treating infections.

Julio's horse, (which was the one I'd ridden the day before), went totally crazy - it was galloping wildly and uncontrollably - he fell off and luckily wasn't too badly hurt but the saddle was broken and he couldn't carry on so had to walk back to the house with the psycho horse. It was pretty terrifying to watch and the crazy horse had run through the rest of the group on its rampage, spooking the other horses a bit, so I felt quite nervous for the rest of the afternoon.

At this point we realised that Bernie wasn't with the group any more - we had lost Bernie again! Although we knew she had left the paddock with us, we couldn't see her anywhere now. When we arrived back at the house later it turned out that her horse had stopped moving shortly after leaving the paddock; she couldn't make it start again and was too scared to get off on her own so she had been sitting still on the horse on her own for about 40 minutes until someone came along! Obviously I felt very sorry for her but I couldn't help but laugh at the image, poor Bernie was not having a good couple of days!

Some of the guys played volleyball in the evening (I just watched). That night was a quiet one, early to bed after the previous nights fun and frolics. During the night there was a massive thunderstorm - I could feel the whole building shaking when the thunder cracked, I was actually a bit scared!

After breakfast in the morning we had to pack up and bid a fond farewell to Panagea Ranch. Juan Manuel drove us to a rodeo where we watched gauchos competing to lassoo wild horses, cheered on by enthusiastic crowds all decked out in traditional cowboy gear. Around the main arena were huge barbeques with massive slabs of meat and lots of little souvenir stalls selling cowboy hats and suchlike.

We then drove on to Salto for all-you-can-eat lunch before crossing the border out of Uruguay and into Argentina to catch the bus to Iguazú.

It was fun and interesting to see real-life cowboys who genuinely live this lifestyle - a great experience and a highlight of my trip.