We’ve long been in love with Patagonia’s extraordinary landscapes, but what keeps us coming back time after time are its people. The deep relationships that we’ve built with our friends and partners over the years in Chile and Argentina allow us to show travellers the very best of the region – and we always adore hearing their stories about their love for this special part of the world.
In a new series putting the spotlight on some of those stories, we talk to Mary in Cerro Castillo in Chile’s Aysen region, about how she swapped city life in America for a remote town on the Carretera Austral after she fell in love with and married a local gaucho – and how the two of them offer some of the most authentic horse riding trips anywhere in Patagonia.
Putting down roots in Aysen
Mary first visited Cerro Castillo in 2007 when she was researching her thesis on sustainable tourism and community education. It’s only in recent years that the Aysen region has started to enter mainstream tourism in Patagonia, but 18 years ago things were pretty basic. ‘There was no cell signal at all,’ she recalls. ‘There was just a bed and breakfast in town that had phone booths inside that would connect you to Coyhaique for a phone call.’
Two things particularly attracted Mary to Aysen: the chance to see a region take its first steps towards tourism, and the area’s traditional horse culture.
‘A lot of the small villages had experience with foreigners through these volunteer programs like Raleigh International. But when people thought of tourism it was more to do with the small cruise ships that were coming through Puerto Chacabuco and Puerto Aysen, with day visitors. So there was an opportunity to do things the right way right off the bat. It happened that I also met my husband here, and so obviously there was love involved, but at the same time there was this strong desire to help create something even in a small way.’
Mary’s husband and business partner Cristian is about as far from her roots in Cleveland Ohio as it’s possible to imagine. His family settled in the Ibáñez Valley near Cerro Castillo in the early 1900s. His mother was born on the family farm, and he grew up working on his farm with his grandmother and his grandfather. When he and Mary met, he had trained as a guide but was competing in local jineatadas – bucking bronco contests that have always been part of the local gaucho culture.
‘He’s always been really passionate about his culture, but he’s more of a modern gaucho now, Mary tells me. He’s swapped his bombachas – the traditional gaucho pants – for a pair of Carhatts, but he’ll never let go of his boina, the hat that all the gauchos wear. We’ll be in the US in 80° degree weather and he’ll still have his boina on!’
Cristian has also been involved in the grassroots environmental movement who campaigned against a hydroelectric dam being built on the Baker River. ‘Locals were educating themselves on the damage that these dams could do and forming alliances with gauchos along the Carretera Austral to explain to them what these impacts were going to be.’ Cristian was instrumental in organising a horseback protest ride from Cochrane to Coyhaique against the dam.
Gaucho community & culture
Aysen’s gaucho culture remains at the heart of the horse riding trips that Mary and Cristian now run. Aysen has historically been cut off from the rest of Chile so it has a resilient gaucho culture where communities lean on each other and families live off the land in a sustainable way.
‘There just weren’t roads here for many years. The Carretera Austral wasn’t built until the mid-1990s, so people relied on their horses and the gaucho trails to move from town to town. People really relied on their community – the first school in Cerro Castillo was built by the community because the government believed they were too far away from the urban areas, so the people built it on land donated by a village and they hired a teacher to teach their children.’
Although Aysen is now changing, with the younger generation seeking professional careers, and many people lamenting the rules that now forbid herds of livestock being driven along the Carretera Austral, getting in the saddle remains one of the best ways to experience the region’s culture.
Braulio knows the mountains like the back of his hand: every time you’re on the ride, he’ll say something like, “If you go over that ridge, you can be over in Balmaceda in two days.” Even if you’ve been there 10 or 20 times, he always has something new to tell you.’
‘It’s a way for us to try to honor the gaucho culture that’s so strong here, as well as providing wages for local people. While it will always be me, Cristian or one of our guides accompanying a riding trip we always hire somebody from the local valley.’ Braulio, who often accompanies Swoop’s Avellano Valley riding trip, is one such local figure.
‘He still lives the gaucho lifestyle and moves his animals through the high mountain valleys in the summertime, living a month away from his family at a time in simple huts. When we hire him to be our horse guide, he brings his own pack horses. Braulio knows the mountains like the back of his hand: every time you’re on the ride, he’ll say something like, “If you go over that ridge, you can be over in Balmaceda in two days.” Even if you’ve been there 10 or 20 times, he always has something new to tell you.’
The Aysen riding experience
It’s not just the cultural connection that makes riding in Aysen different. The horses that Mary and Cristian keep are particular to Patagonia. They’re mostly Criollo [pronounced cree-yo-yo], which are descendants from the first horses brought by the Spanish to South America in the 16th Century, and were traditionally used by gauchos working with their herd.
‘They’re not pure breeds, but what’s great about them is they’re very sturdy and have great feet. In terms of stamina, they’re very comparable to the Arabian horses used for endurance.’
Over the years, Cristian has traded horses to increase the size of their stable, rescuing horses that others had seen as untrainable. He now has something of a reputation locally for being a horse whisperer. ‘That’s part of his story,’ Mary tells me. ‘He started off as a jineata bronco rider but was introduced to the more natural way of training horses. He’s very good at it – he can really read the horse’s behavior, and work with them in a way that’s nonviolent or confrontational. He really wants respect from the horses.’
The trust that the horses have in Mary and Christian is immediately clear to anyone who heads out on a ride. ‘These aren’t typical head-to-tail horses, where everyone rides in a straight line and the horses get bored of their job because they do it every day,’ says Mary. ‘We mix out who goes on each ride and don’t use them continually throughout the summer. We also ride the horses that are used for guests – sometimes they’re guide horses, sometimes they’re tourist horses, sometimes they’re pack horses. We’re all interchangeable. And I think that also helps them be happy with what they’re doing.’
With many American and European riders being taller than the average Chilean, Mary and Cristian have been introducing a bit more height into their herd. They bought a Holsteiner stallion, the breed used by the Chilean police force, to breed with their criollos mares, and the first two offspring are now being introduced to their new roles – at the age of six.
‘In general, a six-year-old horse in Patagonia should already be trained, but we only started working with them last year. This spring they’re going to school – it takes up to two months to get them going under saddle, then we’ll use them. And then once that’s happened, we’ll start using them on our trips as guide horses. Only after that are they ready for guests.’
The result is something very authentic – and a world away from the half-day rides often offered in places like Torres del Paine.
‘It’s a true experience,’ says Mary. ‘The only people that use the trails we ride on are the families that are still living in these valleys and mountain areas. They’re not used by a lot of people, so sometimes you’re going to stop in the middle of the trail in the forest and we’ll have to cut branches or clear a fallen tree. Or we’ll have to change the route because the rivers are too high to cross. It’s an adventure! We look for riders who aren’t just going to sit there, but want to be active participants in the trip.’
*
