travelbroadensthemind: Estancia Candelario

The second part of the horse journey was cold, wet, windy and pretty miserable, I was on a white horse as my brown horse had gone off into forest to graze and not returned. However although bigger he was just as easy to ride and control. Tony's Oscuro had had such a great time in the woods he had worn himself out and had eaten some delicious shrub that gave him terrible wind.
The Chilean passport control is just up the track from Candelario so off we dismounted - frozen to the core and stumbled into meet the police. General chat was going on - during the chat I heard the words 'no barco - mal tiempo' ( no boat - bad weather) my heart sank - I was looking forward to a shower and change of clothing as we had slept in our clothes the night before. I was correct - no boat - but there would definitely be one the next day, which was a relief as we had a bus booked for the next leg, which only went twice a week!
Ricardo just said - you will stay with us. So again all taken care of. What a relief.

We arrived at Candelario, one of the extremely isolated Estancias in this region.

Ricardo's grandfather came here in the 1930's and started the farm. It is still in the same family, but Ricardo is trying to run it on his own. His Father is 96 and his Mother 83, they still live in the main house and Ricardo has built himself a house next door. All his Brother's and sisters have left for the big city. His Mother still runs the house, baking bread in the wood fire oven and milking the cow in the mornings.

They have a generator for electricity and a huge TV! Communication with the mainland - a 2 1/2hr boat trip away- is by radio. The farm is practically self sufficient, but is slowly dying because Ricardo cannot manage on his own. He has 20 horses that he uses for tourists like us and 150 cattle,which he sells for meat. Life is very hard. They made us very welcome and treated us like royalty. The weather was bad so we could do little exploring except the farm. I was't hard to see that at one time it had been a really self sufficient farm.

Proof of this is in the photos.

The original water powered generator is a work of art, made from wood.

The wheel from an old cart wheel.

The paddles from bits of metal.

and the spindle from goodness knows what!!

water still poured down the gully, but the wheel didn't turn any more.

Sheep farming is not profitable any more,

but are kept for eating and as Ricardo said souvenirs!

their skins are dried as well.

Other skins are kept,

the cow barn housing all sorts of things, delectable and not so delectable.

The cows and bulls are free to wander the countryside unless needed for branding.

Chickens are definitely free range!

Meat is still stored outside in the meat larder.

We weren't invited to eat this - thank goodness!

Milk from their cows is still used to drink.

and cheese homemade.

And rice and flour stored in a separate cabin.

which used to have a fire in it!

At one time there were huge vegetable gardens, but now they are covered in weeds and the only viable one is under plastic - they even grow corriander!!