This big stone wall was a mural for cave paintings. It's not a place you can sleep at every day. We'll live a "gaucho" day. THE GAUCHOS: RIDERS OF ARGENTINA We continue traveling through Argentinian
territory, this time heading south. We're now in Patagonian lands, province of Chubut. Yesterday we landed in Esquel, a small place,
more a village than a city, of 40.000 people in a completely wild landscape
between the mountains. An interesting fact, is that the town of Esquel
and other villages around it, were Welsh colonies people from Wales, that's why
they're used to Welsh teas, also the type of house is different.
Really, the mixture of cultures here in Argentina is at the very least surprising
and interesting, many of them European, as you know. I am at Los Alerces National Park, close to Chile, about 60 km. from the border. We're in the Andean mountain range.
The "alerce" (larch) are millennial trees. I'll explain why I am in Los Alerces Park
and why I'm dressed the way you see now. The poncho, the beret is also
important, can't miss that. Many of you might remember and think now about the documentary I recorded with
the Chagras, this Andean culture very related to horses, who also dress
with ponchos, but in Ecuador. And if not, it's in the description.
The thing is, at that time I spoke about how the Chagras in Ecuador were the equivalent
to the vaqueros in Mexico, the cowboys in the US the llaneros in Venezuela and Colombia,
and the gauchos in Argentina. Not only in Argentina, also in Uruguay,
in the Chilean Patagonia, in Brazil and now you may realize that I am
in Argentina and I'm filming about the gauchos, the gaucho culture. In the case of the Chagras in Ecuador,
we witnessed a rodeo. This time, we'll do that which
we couldn't do with the Chagras, and that I really wanted to do,
a great journey through the mountains. We've been in these cold settings
since yesterday before dusk We were welcome, we cooked
Argentinian meat empanadas, cooked in animal fat, and with
a full stomach and a happy heart, we've been sleeping by the hear of these ranches,
and in the morning, saddling horses with Matías the gaucho who hosted us
and will guide us through the mountains. So now, let me introduce you
to Matías. Follow me! This is a rancher establishment that
my grandfather founded when he arrived década del 30 en el venía de chile es he came from Chile and he was
one of the first settlers in the area
década del 30 en el venía de chile es he came from Chile and he was
one of the first settlers in the area together with families Tardona,
Rosales, Coronado, Alarcón all of them Chilean immigrants who arrived
to this part of the country where there was absolutely anything and here
they started "building the nation", so to speak. I was telling them that we'll travel
through these mountains on horse, we'll meet the horses soon,
but it's not a journey like a stroll, we'll be a part of the everyday of a gaucho meaning you spend your life in
the countryside, completely related to it, you have to move around
the mountains with your cattle there's also some hunting, so it's not a stroll
but rather entirely immersing into a full contact with the gaucho culture. So we'll be leaving soon, right? Yes, we're leaving soon and we'll live
a day like a Gaucho in the Patagonia. Check out the beauty I'll ride with today.
His name is Volcán, and it's the horse that will
join me—or rather I'll join him in these days of journey. All that mountain range over there
is called Cordón Situación. That one, approximately 6, 5 years ago,
there was a fire that burned approximately more than
7000 hectares of native forest. It was spectacular and sad
at the same time because it was burning forest but, at night, it looked like the typical
postcard of the city at night It looked just like that,
the whole mountain illuminated. All the people who lived in the base
of the mountain had to evacuate them. Check out this I'll tell you
that Matías will show us because I find it spectacular.
We're beneath Alero El Chamán, this great rock where we were before, down here
we're a lot more protected it's a protection area for the locals here
because, you'll notice this is a windy area and here we're safe.
This great rocky wall was also a mural for cave paintings which we can
find over here, like this one. This is one of the most noticeable ones. Imagine, about 4.000 years ago, you can
clearly notice the fingers—at least I can. Imagine the man that slid his hands
over here to create this paintings. They even continue down here.
If the cave paintings remaining today are in caves, many of them,
it's obviously because they're in areas that are more protected of the rain,
of the wind, and here it's the same case. The walls that face inside are
the ones that are better conserved. Check out this paint which is clearly an eye:
the borders, the pupil, even the eyelashes. This is an area where, in the past,
hunter-gatherer tribes used to pass who inhabited these lands previous to
the tehuelches and mapuches, which is why they're not identified as a tribe
because these paintings date from over 4.000 years ago. The hunting tribes were
located here to set camps and they also used the height of this wing
to keep an eye on where the packs of animals they used to hunt were. Replicating this habit of the ancient
cultures and tribes of this area, this will be our camp to try and eat. We'll start a fire, away from the paintings
so as not to damage them, of course but here, safe from the strong winds up there this is our area for resting
and eating, so let's go. This wing is called "El Chamán" because Matías' uncle
found the body of one of the area's ancient settlers. In one of the rocks they found a cave painting in which,
according to historians, a shaman is represented. The skeleton of this ancient shaman is still under this rock,
except for his skull, which was taken to a museum. It's weird for me coming from the Basque
region and having to drink this wine. I've done this a few times before. Well... I did alright, didn't I? After the asado and some mates,
it was time to rest for a while, we slept for a while because
tonight will be full of action but you'll see that soon.
For now, we woke up and saw one of the most spectacular sunsets of
my whole life while we collect a lot of firewood for the whole night
because we'll sleep right here. We'll use the saddles to build a bed, as it is customary for the gaucho
to sleep in the saddles and we'll set that up here where,
most certainly, the last ones who slept here were the aboriginal people who came here.
This place just is accessible for paleontologists,
archaeologists and my family too, so it's not a place
where you can sleep everyday. First of all, we'll leave the spurs
on the side, close by so they not get lost. The saddle,
called "cangalla" will be our headrest. The "mandiles" will be our mattresses with the sweatshirt and the poncho as cover.
That's the bed for the gaucho. Gaucho bed. Check out the setting.
Some night we have today! For long time the people
have been telling stories about appearances of unknown people,
never seen animals lights and that's given because of
the history this place has. Because of the shaman they found here.
The shaman was the person who was the most related to
the spiritual in the tribe, that's why everything supernatural is given to this place.
The "bad light" is a story or a myth that many people have seen.
It's a light that wanders the countryside alone that is, it's a light in itself, and,
from what they say, they call it "bad light" because it's an omen. If you
come across it, it's a bad luck omen. Yesterday we split into two teams, two groups. We stayed here resting and checking the fire and the horses, who have been
pasturing and resting all night on the forests down here, and four others,
we went out hunting. After preparing some "mates" to be
very active at about 1 in the morning. We were up several hours, long kilometers in a complicated
terrain, full of branches. We walked in paths through the forest. And we came back exhausted,
hours later, almost at dawn and empty handed. It is what it is.
We were searching for the wild boar they are around these lands,
but probably what happened was as Matías told us, even though
it's the summer, usually these mountains are snowy, and in the last couple
of years it snowed very, very little. That doesn't allow for the wild boars
and other animals to climb higher to the high parts of the mountain
where they're even safer because less people get there and there's less snow
so they can get move around easily. There's a reason for this being a National Park
where wild boar hunting is allowed, and there's no problem and that's because
it's an introduced, invading species in this area. So it's not protected.
Here the gauchos, Matías for example, just had a knife and two dogs, Chicho
and Morocho, who do the tracing but yesterday they didn't even find
any traces at any point during all those hours, where they
would've pressed the wild boar and he would've killed it with the knife,
but we weren't lucky. Luckily we have a food reserve for
these days, now we have to ration it so we're preparing some more "mates"
to activate and we're on the move. Today has been a tremendous day.
I mean, the sunrise and being able to do this journey to the lake called Futalaufquen
Lake. That's in the mapuche language and it means "large lake".
They didn't think hard for that name. It's a tremendous lake, fresh waters, and it's been one of my most special
swims in, at least, this year. Also, on the way to the lake
we found sprayed graffiti by mapuches on signs and even on the road protesting. You know, and if not, I'll tell you know,
they're heavily persecuted manhandled socio-politically...
They're being pressured for their lands. The mapuches both in Argentina and Chile.
There's a lot of racism to these two ethnicities that, in the end, they
are predecessors in both Argentina and Chile. I don't live this in my country,
there are no indigenous people in Spain there aren't any, but it makes me
sorry and I can't understand how there could be racism towards these people
when... well, it happens in many countries, racism towards the indigenous people.
Anyway, I hope the mapuche situation in both countries improves
because it's not fair at all. In this case, in fact, it was because
a policemen had killed a mapuche in one of these rivers,
for no apparent reason, just because of the lands.
I'll try to explain it now. What happened was that Matías' father called saying that we needed to
come back quickly with the horses. That's why we had to abandon the journey
we were going to do towards the mountains the highest ones that go to Chile,
we were even going to sleep around the mountains, we had to
leave that track and detour over here to the house of family Cárdenas. Why was this? Because these
are not touristic strolls, this is not a horse company.
We came to a ranch settlement. We're here with the horses
of the rancher family. What happened was that on some estates
70, 80 km away, some cows escaped and they had to quickly pick up
the horses to go look for them and gathering them before
the disaster is even worse. So, obviously, not to disturb,
we came here quickly with the horses and left them so they
can take them to work. Now it's time for the daily task
which is gathering the sheep so they can spend the night calm.
Here there are a lot of red-haired foxes which is, perhaps, sheep's main predator.
The sheep is an animal that has little to no defense
against predators, that's why everyday through the year we have to
gather them in the afternoon and early morning releasing them
so they can pasture. Do you have trouble with pumas around here? Yes, that too. Being close to
the mountains, especially in the winter, the puma comes down to the lowlands
and sometimes a female puma comes along and teaches their cubs
how to hunt and they leave behind about 20 dead animals a night when they come. Yes, the puma is an animal that
does a lot of damage, unfortunately. It's a native animal but it's a problem
that farmers have to deal with. This has really surprised me.
I hadn't seen it before, not that I have experience in the field,
but Mati told me that sheep love salt! Not just sheep: farm animals, like cows. It's like giving candy to a child.
So it's very useful to tame them, so they get used to you, and they come back
because they can't find salt anywhere around here! So they always come back for the salt. In fields where the salt is incorporated into
the soil, you can toss a bag of salt and they won't even smell it. Good day, people.
Yesterday we fell in love with this lake. Futalaufquen Lake, large lake for the mapuches.
We decided to contact the superintendent of the
National Park to help us explore it. Traveling Futalaufquen Lake we arrive
to the Strait of the Monsters, which connects it with Lake Krüger,
which is right behind me. The first question I did:
Why is this called Strait of the Monsters? I'm sure you're also making it. It's because of
the enormous fish that are found here in this strait, so a few more meters and we'll be in Lake Krüger These lark forests are the most ancient
in the world, there have been registers some larks of more than 4000 years of age.
We have one here of over 2600 which is often a reason for visits, but
we have also registered in other areas a 3800 year old one.
Here in this park is 36% of all the larks existing
between Argentina and Chile, in this park is 36% of that community. Behind me, a place known as Frey's Wreckage. It was the year 1889 when, in an expedition
organized by renown Perito Moreno there was a wreckage in this place.
It was a wild, unknown river. The goal of this sailing exploration
was to limit the border between Argentina and neighboring country
Chile, which, as you know, is a few km. away. Now, before wrapping this up,
I wanted to speak more about the gauchos, some things I found very
interesting but I hadn't mentioned. Since they're very concrete terms
and I don't want to make mistakes, I'll read them from my phone
where I have my notes. After some research, I wanted to speak
a bit about the etymology of the origin of the word "gaucho".
This is an opinion that has gained much strength in recent years.
Both the word "guaso" and "gaucho" would have Hispanic roots, namely
in Andalucía, in the south of Spain, where the lack of grace is called "guasa."
When someone is not very funny, they're a "guasón" and the "campesino",
who also is the origin for "gaucho," is called "gacho." The combination of these
three words: "guasa," "guasón" and "gacho," would have been the origin for the word "guaso",
which in Chile means "man of the countryside". And that would be the origin of the word
"gaucho".
Anyway, I can't say farewell from this documentary video without speaking
about the figure of the gaucho's woman. Imagine short women, dark hair,
braided on each side also dark, large eyes, basically other indigenous cultures from the Andes in Bolivia, Peru and
Ecuador where the presence is similar, but in this case they would ride horses.
Now, since they wore skirts, the didn't ride with a leg on each side like men,
but rather they kept the pace like men but with both legs on the same side
of the horse and they would ride like that. Here in my notes I also have the terms
they were and are known for: the gaucho's woman is known
as "china", "guayna" or "paisana." All these are terms that come from these
indigenous cultures, languages and dialects They were also associated with
sympathy and sweetness. Sorry that I make this even longer but
I have to tell you this story because it was amazing for me.
Today, traveling through the lake, close to the lake we walked past
a plant very similar to bamboo. In fact, it's family of bamboo.
These plants live about 65 years they flower and they all die together
afterwards, they all have the same life cycle. When the flower falls down with
it's seed, that's rat food. It's all filled with food, so that's why
thousands upon thousand of rats appear. All this is filled with rats!
So, before saying goodbye, I've shot some pictures with my polaroid.
You know, when I find cultures I'm interested in, people
I felt a connection with, I do it. So I'll give them over now,
because they were just taken and this is goodbye, let's go! - A little instant photograph memory.
- Oh, man! They're awesome! They're amazing, so great! Thanks a lot. Thank you for everything for this video.
I'll surely be back because I missed Los Alerces the journey through the river, I still have to
see these mountains covered in snow and the gaucho journeys,
so really, thanks a lot. We'll be waiting for all of you in Patagonia the land of the gauchos, so at La Girasola we're here for any traveler that wants to come visit us. Thanks, Matías thanks to the Cárdenas family,
and that's all for us. We're on our way down south
to Ushuaia, and from there we start our reports straight from Antarctica. Bye bye!
our reports straight from Antarctica.
