Monday 2 June 2008

The Estancia

I arrived in Zapala, early on the morning of April. 17, and went to Hotel El Coliqueo, where I was supposed to be meeting the volunteer coordinator of Estancia Ranquilco. I quickly and easily found Ashley, a Californian man in his fifties that bought the 100,000 acre estancia 30 years ago with his first wife (supposedly, according to a somewhat sketchy source, at the time she was the richest women in the western hemisphere). With a warm smile and firm but kind handshake, I instantly got good vibes from Ashley. Soonafter I met Brett, a quiet but extremely kind and wise 33 year old that teaches an experiential education class 3 months out of the year in which kids from all over the US come to the estancia to take courses in geology, botany, and natural history. I quickly jumped into a net cafe where I emailed my family to let them know things were A OK and then waited at the car with Brett for Ashley to take care of a quick errand. He returned and thrusted a plastic bag into my hand containing a can of Quilmes, the popular Argentine beer, and a Milanesa sandwich (typical Argentine food, usually consists of breaded beef with ham, cheese, tomatoes, and lettuce. So dank). "Welcome to Patagonia," he said, and it dawned on me for the first time that I was finally in Patagonia, about to spend a month at an estancia in the middle of nowhere...

Let me step back for a moment. An ´estancia´ is the Argentine equivalent of a ranch. Vast amounts of land where cattle, goat, and horses are raised. Back to the story...

That night we drove to Estancia Colipilli, the winter estancia. I was sad to see that there was a road running through the land, but not to worried, knowing that we were leaving the next morning. Ashley, Brett and I had a nice asado (Argentina BBQ, in which absurd amounts of meat, we usually had goat which is SO GOOD, are heavily salted and cooked over an open fire) along complemented by some delicious red wine. The next day we took care of a few errands (picking up supplies, dropping of things for various people in El Huecu, the town that is closest to the estancia) before driving to Buda Majin (not sure about the real spelling). Buda Majin is the closest place to Estancia Ranquilco (the summer estancia) that can be reached by car. As we drove in, Brett and I talked about how the rock formations, mountains, and numerous volcanoes in the area came to be. From Buda, we loaded our stuff onto the pack horse and began the 3 hour ride to the estancia. It was amazing. We arrived at Estancia Ranquilco right at sunset, and that night I was invited to the `big house` (house where Ashley, his girlfriend (now x girlfriend returned to the US), and paying clients stay) for an awesome meal. After the meal, I retired to my humble quarters and hit the sack early.
Before I go into life at the estancia, I am going to take a moment to talk about the estancia and the people that were there at the same time as me. The actual estancia (where the houses are) is in a valley surrounded by mountains and dormant volcanoes. There is a beautiful, curvy river right next to the estancia that has huge rock faces along it`s sides. The estancia itself has poplar trees (which, during my stay, went from bearing bright yellow leaves to having no leaves at all) all around and is quite the spectacle. This is definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever lived. Now, lets turn to the people I was living with. I have already introduced Ashley and Brett. Next, there is Sky, Ashley`s 19 year old daughter that has grown up spending half her time at the estancia and half her time in Colorado. Sky is probably the oldest and definitely the most hardcore 19 year old girl I have met. Next, there is Juliana, Ashley`s 21 year old daughter from Colorado that grew up with her mother and was visiting Ashley on the estancia for her first time. She left to return to the US about 2 weeks after I arrived, and for those first two weeks she was the person I spent most of my time with. Next, there is Stefan, Ashley`s girlfriend (as previously stated, now X), a women from southern California with a huge dog Dude. Apparently, the two met, fell in love, and decided to grow old together on Ashley`s estancia. Stefan ended up leaving after less than 2 months of the estancia. Don`t ask me what happened though. Next, there is the Meyer`s family, who, for my first two weeks, were my only fellow volunteers. The family is from Colorado as well, and coincidentally Dave, the father, taught Juliana for a year at the boarding school where he teaches. There is also Shannon, the mother, and the two kids, Toby and Cassidy, who are 6 and 3, respectively. Dave, being a teacher of American history, and I had many interesting conversations about politics, history, and god knows what else over shovelling up dirt in the garden. Next, we have Peter, a 20 year old kid from MA, who arrived at the estancia 2 weeks after I did. Like me, Peter is taking a year off after high school but, unlike me, he is doing it through a program that is giving him college credit. Really cool kid, and we got along really well (he was my roommate and after his arrival we did almost everything together). Last but certainly not least, we have Manuel and Horacio, the two gauchos working at the estancia. Manuel is about 50 and has wife and 2 kids, but, like many gauchos, he lives apart from them at the estancia and sees them only for a couple days out of the month. He also is the only person that stays at the estancia year long, enduring the cold, hard winter by himself. A solitary but kind man, Manuel and I got along well. Horacio and I also got along very well.
Phew, that took a while. So, part of my experience was dealing with dissapointment and realizing that the experience would be totally like what I expected. I went into it with picture of myself, decked out like a cowboy, cruising around on a black stallion every day after work. In my month there, I only rode 3 times. When I found out I wouldn`t be riding much, I was very dissapointed and in my frustration even considered leaving. But it was wrong for me to assume that I would be able to ride as much as I wanted, and I`ve learned that things hardly turn out as expected.

So, as you might imagine, life at the estancia was, like many of the things I`ve experienced on this trip, unlike anything I`d previously experienced. It was simple. No electricity, no gas (however the big house had both of these luxuries). All of the cooking (yes, the majority of the time I had to cook for myself, and yes, I suffered at first) was done over a wood stove (very time consuming). Not only this, the available ingredients were slim, to say the least. Most of our meals consisted of meat, sometimes cheese, some base starch, maybe tomato sauce, and onions. In order to get meat, all I had to do was walk out to the meat locker (a room slightly undergroud and covered by a big mound of dirt) and cut myself a peice off of a whole leg or other animal part. But, I discovered these meals that I painstakingly cooked myself were so much tastier and satisfying than store bought meals, even though they were usually very simple. In order to take a shower you had to start and maintain a blazing fire for around 45 minutes. This lead to a huge decline in my cleanliness (because of all the day to day activities were so time consuming and making the fire for hot water was just another big thing on the list), and in the month I was volunteering there I believe I took 4 showers (best, most satisfying showers of my life). If I wanted hot water for a mate, I had to make a fire. If I wanted to make bread (one of the most time consuming tasks, and yes I can now make awesome bread), I had to make a huge fire to heat up the traditional wood oven. If I needed hot water to do dishes, I had to make a fire. If my room was freezing cold and I wanted to warm it up a bit, I couldn`t just turn a knob or push a button. I had to make a fire. And now, as expected, I am happy to say I am a professional firemaker. This simplicity was the most valuable part of the experience. Not only did I pick up many practical skills like cooking and firemaking, I`ve developed a higher level of appreciation for the luxuries we take for granted back home. I was almost always busy at the estancia because, as I said, the simple day to day activities just took up so much time.

So now, to the work that I did. The work aspect of the experience was not nearly as organized or structured as I thought it would be. I didn`t have anyone running around to make sure I was up in the morning and getting ready to work. If I wanted to work, the only person I`d have to answer to was myself. And at times there wasn`t much work to do and it was very difficult and frustrating but I made the best of it. I did a huge variety of jobs. I made a long trail through thick, thorny bushes, I helped collect firewood, I loaded and unloaded stuff (mostly fence posts) onto and off of the tractor, I moved fence posts from one spot to another, I helped slaughter a cow, I greased saddles and riding equiptment, I helped put down and bury an old horse, I chopped weeds, I dug holes and put in fence posts, and I moved huge adobe bricks among other things. Unfortunately, at Estancia Ranquilco I didn`t get to work much with the gauchos, but this was another dissapointment I had to come to terms with and make the best of the situation.

My last week, I stayed at Estancia Colipilli. Very different experience that Ranquilco. Allthough it wasn`t quite as beautiful as Estancia Ranquilco, it was still awesome. And Colipilli was much more hardcore. Upon arriving at Colipilli, Ashley showed Peter and I our rooming options. A tiny room full of tools that would hardly fit the two of us, or the barn. We were in the beginning of winter, and being adventurous fools, of course we chose to sleep in the barn. But after we got in bed (I had on a winter hat, long johns, pants, a thermal tee shirt, sweater, jacket, poncho, and I was in my sleeping bag), we decided to drag our beds out of the barn so we could enjoy the stars. It was incredible, dozing off under the sky in the freezing cold. After that night we ended up moving in with Sergio, one of the gauchos working at Colipilli. Colipilli was great because the time spent with the gauchos was much higher, and the immersion was much more. I slept in the same room with a gaucho, cooked with the gauchos, and worked with the gauchos. My spanish improved significantly more in this last week than it did the previous 3.

Now I am sure there are quite a few things that I missed. But, it would be very hard to get everything and I think I have more than sufficiently covered this month. All in all, it was an excellent final volunteer stay. I did so much, learned so much, made great friends, and had a good time. I`ve done quite a bit since then, so hopefully I`ll have the time for another update in the next week!