Wild Horses

The weather is now very Patagonian. We abandon any hope of a trek and sail towards the next stop. The next stop is a hacienda  - a sort of farm house - where I'm given the hope of  "asado". We land to find the crew of another boat there, unfortunatley - they've already laid claimed to what might have been my asado. Asado is essentially just a barbequed lamb - salt, garlic, pepper, oil. I do get enjoy watching the gaucho hacking up the lamb with a machete and a saw. Three well training dogs wait patiently, but very anxiously for bones and scraps, which they're eventually thrilled to chase out the back door. At this point I'm quite hungry. So much so as to be jealous of dogs. Even at the best of times, I'm not above gnawing at long finished bones.

Photo: Frithjof Behne

The hacienda sits isolated in some 30,000 hectares of land, and is occupied by just two. The gaucho is a locally born and bred guy. This life is probably all he knows, other than what the sail boat visits brings. He's employed by an American, who owns the land. The gaucho's job is specifically to kill all the cattle and horses that occupy the land. Those animals aren't native to Chile, and once complete the land is expected to be returned to the Chileans to become a national park. I'm not sure of the American's motivation. The second resident is very different. She's a Belgian who, at thirty, sold her business in Antwerp, bought a boat and sailed off into the unknown, then sold the boat to live life on this hacienda. This is interesting, but probably an extreme compared to any fanciful ideas I have. The scenery here, as for most Patagonian scenery, is epic. Almost, as good as High Def' TV.

Photo: Frithjof Behne

We return to the boat and I am well fed as usual. We eat extremely well on the boat, thanks to Pascale, who is a jack of many trades. However, perhaps we don't eat as often as I'd like. For some reason, I'm constantly hungry these days.