by Maegan Aldous, University of Vermont
For the past five days, the ten of us students have been living on the campo (farm in Spanish) for our homestays, completely immersed in the gaucho culture and practicing our Spanish. We had a blast and experienced the gauchos’ (“farmers'” in Spanish) lifestyle, family dynamics, traditional food, and farm work. Many of us helped make cheese, jam, prepare a sheepskin rug, crochet hats, milk cows, build fences, chop down trees, tend to sheep, chickens and other animals. We also had an amazing opportunity to practice our Spanish, and if our Spanish wasn’t so hot, hand gesturing and charades usually did the trick and got the point across to our host families. Our Spanish improved overall after the five days, even for some of the French speakers in our group! When we all came back together after the five days and shared experiences, we were surprised at how similar everyone’s were. However, the stories varied from day to day farm work to whether or not everyone had fresh sheep meat for every meal. My experience on the campo was one of the most memorable and eye-opening experiences of my life, making me reflect on my lifestyle and how cultures may be drastically different. However, there are some things that all families partake in that reminded me of my childhood, like playing with the hose on a hot summer day and getting yelled at for running around barefoot. The homestay has been one of my best experiences in Patagonia thus far, and I am so lucky that I am able to share this little slice of the lives of my amazing gaucho host family with you all.
To get to the campo, we drove about 2 hours from Cochrane on the Carretera Austral (Southern highway in Spanish) and took a bumpy dirt back road through the mountains to get to where Nano, our host grandpa, picked us up on the side of the road with his two horses. We then loaded our bags onto one of the horses and followed Nano on a dirt path through the shrubland/forest down to Río Maiten and crossed it (the water was very cold and went up to our thighs) and then hiked another 20 minutes and arrived at the campo.
Nano leads the horses to our home for the next five days. Photo by Cormac Quinn
My host family consisted of 5 members, all equally kind and friendly. The head of the household, Nano who is 70 years old, runs all of the sheep operations on the campo and is the traditional gaucho, riding his horse everywhere and herding sheep. Nano told me that he has been working on the campo for over 40 years and grew up on this very campo he now runs. The 7 extremely friendly sheep herding dogs that my host family had followed him wherever he went, whether by horse or on foot. Unfortunately, it was very hard to communicate with him because he spoke “gaucho Spanish,” (his son told us this) meaning that he sometimes used gaucho words instead of Spanish words while also not saying the last half of all the words that he said, so I was lucky that by the third day, I could half understand what he was saying to me. His wife Janet on the other hand was very easy to understand and she spoke very clearly and slowly for Cormac, Emma, and I, which we were very thankful for.
Amaro on one of his grandfather’s horses playing with Janet, a big happy smile on his face. In the top left corner is the water structure we helped make the first day. Photo by Maegan Aldous
Janet did all of the cooking for the household and made bread and sopapillas (little pieces of bread slightly fried in vegetable oil, commonly served in Chile) every day. She also cleaned all of the dishes after every meal and even when I offered help to cook or clean, she would politely decline. Janet also enjoys crocheting and she showed me how to crochet a little bit one afternoon. Nano and Janet’s son, Manuel, who is 29 years old, does all of the manual labor on the campo whether it be fixing a cupboard door that his 2 year old son broke, to chopping trees into lumber with a chainsaw, to digging holes to make fences. He would always tease us while working or crack a joke and we called him chistoso (joker in Spanish). Manuel also knew some English phrases that he would say to us while we were working including, “Ready?!”, “Yeah buddy”, and especially, “Never give up!” Manuel is also the best whistler I have ever heard (I told him he could make money by recording his whistle and selling it to Disney for cartoons and he didn’t believe me). Manuel’s wife, Noelia, and their 2-year-old son, Amaro, live on the campo with the rest of the family during the summer, but in winter, they both live in town due to Noelia’s job. Amaro was a joy to be around, always giggling, smiling, and wanting to help Manuel, Cormac, Emma and I with our daily farm chores. Many times, while Manuel was cutting down a tree or doing something dangerous, the three of us kept him occupied by playing with his water gun and saying, “peew peew peew!” We also chased him around the fields and taught him what a zombie was. I would go up and say, “Soy un zombie! Arrrrrrh!” And I would put my arms out and growl toward Amaro, who would try to “peew peew peew” me with his gun and then run away screaming and laughing. Amaro would then chase me saying “Soy un zombie!” Amaro also loved Spiderman, and one night the new “Spiderman” movie came on TV and his dad said, “Amaro, Spiderman (pronounced (speeeederman) es en el tele!” And Amaro would come running in his Spiderman sweatshirt and sweatpants, super excited. Moments like these reminded me of my childhood, how excited I would get when my favorite movie would come on, like “The Lion King,” and Amaro’s excitement made me realize that even though I grew up on a different continent, Amaro will grow up with many of the same joys that I had.
The daily life of the campo consisted mostly of the following pattern: work, relax and drink mate/eat, work, relax and drink mate/eat. Each morning Cormac, Emma and I would come into the house from our tents outside in their yard and Manuel was always there, sitting next to the wood stove on a stool drinking mate. Most often Janet was also awake or Nano, but everyone else was still sleeping. We then drank mate while Janet put out sopapillas, jam, butter, and cups with hot water for instant coffee for breakfast. Only the three of us gringos (a Spanish slang word for non-Chileans) would chow down on sopapillas and Manuel always teased us and said, “A real gaucho doesn’t eat breakfast.” He might grab a sopapilla or two, but I noticed that our host family didn’t really eat breakfast or if they did, it was like a snack.
A typical lunch on the campo. photo by Maegan Aldous
After breakfast we usually drank more mate with Manuel and then he would say, “Vamos!” and we would go out in his 1997 Toyota diesel-running huge pickup truck that could withstand any kind of bump/log he ran over (he always sped up really fast and slowed down quickly near the house since that was the only flat area). Sometimes we would drive down to a far field with many downed/not healthy trees and Manuel would cut down some with a chainsaw, whistling the entire time with a cigarette in his mouth. The three of us would then load the lumber into his truck and make multiple trips to bring the lumber (madera in Spanish) to the field where he was building a 150-meter fence to make a new grazing pasture for the animals.
A lot of people would say I like trees more than the average person, so seeing all of the trees he cut down and how unhealthy the other ones were around it (many had no leaves on the top half of the tree), was sad to watch, but I understand: this is the gaucho way of life which revolves around the amount and availability of wood and sheep you have, and it is how his family has survived for generations. Out of curiosity, I asked Manuel why the trees looked so unhealthy. He told me that they have been like that for as long as he could remember, and that they don’t get enough water since it has been getting drier and drier where they live. However, he said, there are healthy ones up in the mountains. I asked Nano later on and he gave me a similar response. Many times, when Manuel would cut down a tree, he would just look around, whistling, and just pick one, like he was in tune with how the wood would be like from just looking at the tree. It was amazing to see how efficient he was in cutting them down as well. Usually we would work for a few hours (from 9am-12pm) doing this, building the fence, or helping Manuel out with other manual labor farm work. Then, Manuel would ask us the time and if it was around 11:30am-12pm, he would say, “Time to relax!”
And we would pile into the truck and go back to the house for mate and lunch. Whenever we returned from work, I would always see Janet cooking/preparing our next meal, cleaning the table or dishes, or not far from the wood stove, maybe watching tv. A few times when we came in early from working before lunch, we helped Janet make bread, kneading it until she said stop.
Emma helping Janet knead bread to make sopapillas! Photo by Maegan Aldous
She taught us how to make sopapillas from the dough we made (flour, a pinch of salt, sugar, yeast, and warm water mixed together) and often we helped her cook them in vegetable oil while she prepped lunch. We had sopapillas for every meal except the last lunch and I ate way too many of them because they were so delicious. We would then have lunch, which consisted of some variety of sheep meat, pasta, potatoes, corn, carrots, and other vegetables in either a soup or mixed together with a sauce. After lunch, we would sometimes drink a little mate and then most of the family would take a siesta for two to three hours, which means Cormac, Emma and I would do our readings for class during this time or nap.
Around 4pm, we would return to the house and see if anyone was around to start our evening work. Usually, Janet pulled out some sopapillas or milk and rice for a snack (and drank mate of course) and then Manuel would say, “Vamos!” and we would continue building the fence or help him out. A few times in the evening, Janet and Nano needed help tending to the sheep or doing a deep clean of the barn (which hadn’t been cleaned in a while because we found a dead kitten under some rubbish and Cormac, Nano and I got stung by some bees that had a nest under some cow hide). Nano and Janet told us that they always need extra hands in cleaning the barn so we were happy to help. Also, almost every evening, Nano’s brother would come riding up by the house and stop and say hello, coming back from herding his sheep on a far field. He was always dressed very nicely, so the three of us always wondered where he went besides herding his sheep
After helping Nano and Janet or Manuel, we would come inside for dinner and occasionally mate. For dinner (around 8-9pm), we had a variety of similar foods we had for lunch, including sheep meat, potatoes, some of other vegetable (carrots, corn, sweet potatoes, etc.), buns/sopapillas, and one night we had orange juice and Shepard’s pie (Manuel tried to convince us it was coffee through testing our Spanish skills but we knew it was orange juice). After dinner, we would play with Amaro for a little bit and the family would talk to each other about their day and the three of us would chit chat with our host family. Many times, they asked about different things we do in the US, like what we did during school, what we are studying, what different holidays the US celebrates, etc. We always had a good conversation with our host family after a long day of work with them trying to understand our butchered Spanish and us trying to keep up with theirs.
Me (Maegan) holding the leg of the sheep helping Manuel and Nano wrestle sheep. Photo by Emma Gwyn
Here are some highlights of the fun things we helped out doing on the campo:
Sheep: the heart and soul of a gaucho
Each day was similar in some ways, like the building the fence, but in many cases, we did some other labor that was a very enjoyable and were new experiences for me. The first night after dinner, Janet asked the three of us if we were ok with seeing an animal being killed. I was hesitant at first, but then I got over it and told myself that I was here to experience their way of life and this is something they do, so I got over it. Manuel and Nano brought us to the back of the barn where the sheep were kept and Manuel grabbed one sheep by the leg and dragged it to a small hole in the ground. The dogs surrounded Manuel as he slit the sheep’s throat with a huge gaucho knife. He then let the sheep blood drain into the hole in the ground that the dogs happily lapped up, including one chicken and one of the barn cats. This chicken was the same chicken that we saw walking around our tents earlier today, and from then on, we had a running joke about the blood-thirsty chicken.
Emma and Cormac helping Manuel skin the sheep and prepare to be dried and butchered. Manuel is teaching Cormac an easier way to skin the sheep. Photo by Maegan Aldous
Manuel and Nano then asked me to hold the kicking leg of the sheep while the rest of the blood drained out, and the wool was soft in my hand against the tensing muscles of the dying sheep. After the sheep stopped moving, Nano took out his gaucho knife and cut open the sheep, Manuel broke each leg off it, and started to peel the wool and skin off the sheep. Manuel asked Emma to hold the already peeled skin/wool away from the sheep so it was easier for him to do and then asked Cormac to do the rest, like a real gaucho.
Cormac cutting off a slice of sheep meat for lunch the second day. I am not a big fan of meat but it was delicious! Photo by Maegan Aldous
After skinning the sheep, Manuel cut up the internal organs and gave them to the dogs to eat and then Manuel and Nano hung up the sheep carcass on a tree to let the rest of the blood drip out and for it to dry to be butchered the next morning. Manuel told me they only kill a sheep every 15 days, so we were very lucky that we got to see this side of gaucho life!
The hanging of the sheep carcass ready to be butchered! Nano is putting away his big gaucho knife. Photo by Maegan Aldous
Sheep Wrestling!
The fourth day in the evening after siesta, Nano and Janet came up to us and told us we were going to help with the sheep. I was excited because usually, we didn’t work with the animals and only helped Manuel do physical labor. They brought the three of us over to the sheep pen and Janet brought a can of red spray paint with her. We then herded the sheep from a medium sized pen into a small pen, and Nano began to explain to us how to catch each sheep so Janet could mark their heads with paint for which ones they will shear in April. The gaucho technique to catching a sheep is to grab its back right leg with your right hand, yank it toward you, and then grab its front right leg with your left hand and flip the sheep on its side and pin it down with your right leg. This worked successfully for me a few times, but it really hurt my hands to grab a squirming sheep. Cormac was very good at grabbing the sheep and impressed Janet and Nano.
Cormac and I successfully wrestling a sheep while Nano spray painted its head. Photo by Emma Gwyn.
As we went along (we had to mark at least 40 sheep), I decided to try a different way to catch the sheep. I walked up to a sheep, sat on its back, and then it started to run and try to get away, but instead it collapsed under my weight a few steps in and was still. I tried this a few times and it was so much easier than the way Nano taught us. Nano and Janet laughed and got the biggest kick out of me “riding” the sheep around the pen to hold them to be spray painted. Nano asked why I did it this way, and I explained to him that it was hard for me because I have weak hands, and my way is more fun! Nano then laughed hysterically. It was like we were wrestling the sheep, holding them down and rolling around in the dirt (no animals were harmed though). Afterward, when we were dripping with sweat and exhausted from our sheep wrestling, Janet told us that Manuel and Nano could do what we just did in half the time and not even break a sweat. Cormac and I looked at each other, dumbfounded and laughed with Janet. Afterward, Cormac and I had scratches on our arms from all of the burs that were in the sheep wool, and when we got back to Cochrane, everyone teased us and said we had “sheep rash.” This was the most fun farm work I did!
The first time I successfully wrestled a sheep to the ground the gaucho way! Photo by Emma Gwyn
Fence making:
One afternoon, Emma and I drilled 2,400 holes into 400 fence posts for Manuel with a hand drill (6 holes per post). We were drilling for almost 4 hours and only had 12 left when Nano came out and told us that it was too late and we needed to stop. I asked him if we would finish the job tomorrow, and he said that he wasn’t sure. I was very surprised because usually when you start doing something, you finish it. However, in the gaucho lifestyle, things don’t get done because they need to be quickly, they get done to complete the task at hand. I quickly realized that the gaucho lifestyle is not centered around things getting one quickly so we could move onto the next task. It is about doing it right the first time and trying new techniques out and waiting before you finish something. The next day, I asked if we were going to finish the drilling the holes in the few posts that were left, and Manuel said, “Esta bien.” (nah, it’s ok). I was shocked. I then realized that he could easily finish that task when we aren’t here, and he is probably trying to make the most of us helping him out. I wanted to finish the task I was given, and couldn’t believe that he didn’t want us to finish. It was so different than anything I have ever learned back home: once you start something, you finish it. But as a gaucho, everything will get finished at some point, just how and when depends on the priority of the project.
A photo of me drilling holes into the fence posts to finish the fence for the next day. Photo by Emma Gwyn
An early morning horse encounter…
One time in the middle of the night, I woke up to the sound of chomping and stomping to what seemed to be right next to my head in my tent. I then immediately thought it was a cow, since they let them go all over the place on the campo, and a rush of fear went through my mind: My head is going to crushed by a cow. I decided not to make any sudden movements because I didn’t want to startle it and have it break my tent. I was lying there in panicked silence when I heard Emma roll over in her tent. I then quietly said, “Emma, I think there is a cow right outside my tent and it might step on me. Can you check? I don’t want to make sudden movements and disturb the cow.” Emma then said sleepily, “Maegan, it’s the horse, and it knows that your tent is there, so you aren’t going to get stepped on. Horses aren’t stupid. Now, I am going to sleep.” I then realized that I did see the pack horse eating grass around our tents during the day, so it made sense that it would be there at night. The next day, we told Janet and Nano, and they laughed. Nano explained to us that cows sleep at night, but horses don’t because they are hungry all the time. Thankfully, I came back to Cochrane in one piece and wasn’t stepped on by a horse, even though its chomping and stomping woke me up every night after that.
The horse that munched all day and night and woke us up every morning to the sound of chomping and stomping. Photo by Emma Gwyn.
Final thoughts:
Although I only experienced gaucho life for five days, I feel that the memories I made and life lessons I learned will last far beyond my trip to Patagonia. Manuel told us that gaucho isn’t just a word or being a farmer, riding horses, and raising sheep.
Being a gaucho is about your service to the land and others. Being a gaucho is about being kind and helping anyone in their time of need and treating others, your family, and the land with respect.
I thought this was a great message that Manuel told us, and it made me realize that the gaucho way of life may be a simple one, but its values are true, and I think that the American culture could learn a lot from the life of a gaucho in the middle of nowhere in Patagonia, Chile. Overall, I would say that 60% of the day was dedicated to work, whether it be cleaning or manual labor, but another large portion was solely dedicated to sitting around, talking, and spending time with family. Since so much time is spent doing this, it makes sense that mate is a part of the gaucho culture since it is a social event that connects people together, even if they participate in very different roles on the campo. Overall, my host family didn’t spend that much time on electronic devices, and when they did, it was together, as a family. Our culture in America is focused around the fact of always needing something to do, rushing to get things done, and our electronics. We are so connected to the internet and social media that we are missing out on basic human interactions with our families and friends that are so much more valuable than checking your Facebook feed. I understand why drinking mate isn’t part of our culture in the USA because we don’t have the time (or make the time) to sit around and talk to family at leisure, especially when everyone is somewhere else besides home during the day. Our culture in the US is shaped around a fast-paced way of life, meaning that electronics fit in our cultural niche, just as mate fits in the gaucho culture. Electronics help us do things faster and enhances our fast-paced way of life. Mate drinking doesn’t do that: it encourages a social, face to face interaction between individuals that I think is slipping away from American culture. I had a hard time at first adjusting to waiting to do work and socially interacting with my host family and drinking mate; this slower-paced way of life. Yes, it may be difficult to be in isolation from the world, but Manuel and Nano are some of the happiest and proudest people I have ever met and have been working on this campo for their entire lives. Manuel told me that he hopes Amaro will take over the farm when he gets old enough. Their culture is centered around the family unit and due to that, they live a much more relaxed lifestyle with much social interaction, that made me reflect on my own life in the US. After the first couple days, I realized one doesn’t need to always be busy doing something. I wasn’t waiting to do work, I was simply enjoying conversing with my host family, relaxing and enjoying their company, and that was just as important as tending to sheep and building a fence, and in my opinion, something we can all learn from the life of a gaucho.
From left to right across: Noelia, Amaro (on top of Manuel’s head), Nano, Janet, myself, Cormac, and Emma.