{"id":203309,"date":"2025-09-05T11:29:38","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swoop-patagonia.com\/blog\/?p=203309"},"modified":"2025-09-05T15:11:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:11:53","slug":"love-and-horses-marrying-into-chilean-gaucho-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swoop-patagonia.com\/blog\/love-and-horses-marrying-into-chilean-gaucho-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Love and horses: marrying into Chilean gaucho culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We\u2019ve long been in love with Patagonia\u2019s extraordinary landscapes, but what keeps us coming back time after time are its people. The deep relationships that we\u2019ve built with our friends and partners over the years in Chile and Argentina allow us to show travellers the very best of the region \u2013 and we always adore hearing their stories about their love for this special part of the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a new series putting the spotlight on some of those stories, we talk to Mary in Cerro Castillo in Chile\u2019s 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 \u2013 and how the two of them offer some of the most authentic horse riding trips anywhere in Patagonia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putting down roots in Aysen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mary first visited Cerro Castillo<\/a> in 2007 when she was researching her thesis on sustainable tourism and community education. It\u2019s only in recent years that the Aysen region<\/a> has started to enter mainstream tourism in Patagonia, but 18 years ago things were pretty basic. \u2018There was no cell signal at all,\u2019 she recalls. \u2018There was just a bed and breakfast in town that had phone booths inside that would connect you to Coyhaique <\/a>for a phone call.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Mary in the Avellano Mountains in Aysen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Two things particularly attracted Mary to Aysen: the chance to see a region take its first steps towards tourism, and the area\u2019s traditional horse culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018A 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.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary\u2019s husband and business partner Cristian is about as far from her roots in Cleveland Ohio as it\u2019s possible to imagine. His family settled in the Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez 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 <\/em>jineatadas <\/em>\u2013 bucking bronco contests that have always been part of the local gaucho culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Cristian riding on the trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018He’s always been really passionate about his culture, but he\u2019s more of a modern gaucho now, Mary tells me. He\u2019s swapped his bombachas \u2013 the traditional gaucho pants \u2013 for a pair of Carhatts, but he’ll never let go of his boina, the hat that all the gauchos wear. We\u2019ll be in the US in 80\u00b0 degree weather and he\u2019ll still have his boina on!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cristian has also been involved in the grassroots environmental movement who campaigned against a hydroelectric dam being built on the Baker River. \u2018Locals 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.\u2019 Cristian was instrumental in organising a horseback protest ride from Cochrane to Coyhaique against the dam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaucho community & culture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Aysen\u2019s 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\u00a0 live off the land in a sustainable way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
At gaucho hut with local guide Braulio on a horse trek across Aysen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018There just weren\u2019t roads here for many years. The Carretera Austral<\/a> 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 \u2013 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.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

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.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It’s a way for us to try to honor the gaucho culture that\u2019s 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.\u2019 Braulio, who often accompanies Swoop\u2019s Avellano Valley riding trip<\/a>, is one such local figure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018He 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.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aysen riding experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just the cultural connection that makes riding in Aysen different. The horses that Mary and Cristian keep are particular to Patagonia. They\u2019re mostly Criollo [pronounced cree-yo-yo<\/em>], 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Mary (centre) with members of the Swoop team<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2018They\u2019re not pure breeds, but what\u2019s great about them is they’re very sturdy and have great feet. In terms of stamina, they\u2019re very comparable to the Arabian horses used for endurance.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. \u2018That\u2019s part of his story,\u2019 Mary tells me. \u2018He started off as a jineata bronco rider but was introduced to the more natural way of training horses. He’s very good at it \u2013 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.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trust that the horses have in Mary and Christian is immediately clear to anyone who heads out on a ride. \u2018These aren\u2019t 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,\u2019 says Mary. \u2018We mix out who goes on each ride and don\u2019t use them continually throughout the summer. We also ride the horses that are used for guests \u2013 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.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Freedom to ride<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2013 at the age of six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018In general, a six-year-old horse in Patagonia should already be trained, but we only started working with them last year. This spring they\u2019re going to school \u2013 it takes up to two months to get them going under saddle, then we\u2019ll 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.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is something very authentic \u2013 and a world away from the half-day rides often offered in places like Torres del Paine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It\u2019s a true experience,\u2019 says Mary. \u2018The only people that use the trails we ride on are the families that are still living in these valleys and mountain areas. They\u2019re 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\u2019ll have to change the route because the rivers are too high to cross. It’s an adventure! We look for riders who aren\u2019t just going to sit there, but want to be active participants in the trip.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve long been in love with Patagonia\u2019s extraordinary landscapes, but what keeps us coming back time after time are its people. The deep relationships that we\u2019ve built with our friends and partners over the years in Chile and Argentina allow us to show travellers the very best of the region \u2013 and we always adore […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":203343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,311],"tags":[50,138],"class_list":["post-203309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aysen-2","category-stories-and-inspiration","tag-aysen","tag-horse-riding"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLove and horses: marrying into Chilean gaucho culture - Swoop Patagonia Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How an American women married into Chile's gaucho culture, and swapped city life to create some of Patagonia's best horse trekking adventures.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swoop-patagonia.com\/blog\/love-and-horses-marrying-into-chilean-gaucho-culture\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Love and horses: marrying into Chilean gaucho culture - 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