DEEP, GRUNTING voices echo across the Estancia, followed by thundering hooves as the herds are rounded up from their free roaming among the hills into the corral. The life of a gaucho is often isolated and quiet, gritty and raw. Faded boinas bring shade to weathered, bearded faces while swords lie across saddles and long knives (facónes) stay tucked into rawhide belts. There’s a leather whip, the rebenque, in hand and always a lasso on the saddle. The men take great pride in their masculinity. Female ‘gauchos’ simply do not exist; there is no word for them. It’s a tradition that has remained mostly unchanged for 100 years until recently when tourism became integrated into the life of many estancias.
A stay at Estancia Los Potreros in Córdoba (where friend Madeleine Bunbury was artist-in-residence) followed by a Jakotango Riding Safari in Patagonia, run by Jakob von Plessen, offered me the opportunity to discover not only the culture of these Argentinian cowboys but to revel in the country’s extraordinary landscapes. We would start in the north
