On the Farm

Our friend Isabel was concerned that we would find her country house too rustic. After the earthquake in February of 2010, her 100-year-old adobe house had fallen, and she and her husband where living in the as-yet-unfinished new house. She should not have worried! With a warm welcome, good conversation and beautiful surroundings, it was just fin - we loved it!

We had met Isabel on our February cruise to the San Rafael glacier. We were traveling with my mother who spoke no Spanish and Isabel was traveling with her granddaughter and relished an opportunity to practice her English. At the end of the cruise addresses were traded and invitations were extended.


Isabel & her husband Jaime's ranch is about an hour southwest of Santiago in Paine de Valdivia (nowhere near Torres de Paine). This painting shows the house before the earthquake. The ranch has chickens, sheep and dogs, but the main purpose is the horses. Jaime is a former top-ranked rodeo competitor who breeds and trains Chilean rodeo horses. (Rodeo is to Chilean what riding to hunt is to the English, a sport with country roots and moneyed participants.) We counted 16 horses that Jaime either owns or boards.

Within hours of arriving at the ranch, Roberto had struck up a friendship with the son of a neighbor, also named Roberto. The two Robertos made big fun of shooting water at the hapless chickens and then each other. One thing you can say about our boy, he has mastered the vocabulary of dirt, mud, play, chase, water, throw and all other things of boy outdoor fun.






The gringos got a lesson in Chilean Huaso culture. A huaso does not wear blue jeans or a baseball hat. A huaso is chivalrous to women, be they young or old. There is not much around the ranch that a huaso cannot do, from preparing an asado for 30, to building a house, to killing the chickens for la cena, to absolutely anything that involves a horse.




Mike tried on Jaime's best huaso poncho and hat for a photo by the saddle in the living room. Lisa thought he looked handsome enough that if we were in Chile another year Mike would have his own boots, hat and huaso outfit. (Mike thinks he's not fooling anyone.)

At night the temperatures dropped to close to freezing just to remind us that these beautiful clear days were still wintertime. Mike ducked out to get a shot of the sunset colors reflecting off the Andes across the central valley.









The next morning was foggy which made the horses galloping about look all the more beautiful.

While Berto was catching frogs, sliding down dirt piles and chasing chickens, Gabi was charming Isabel and Jaime's niece. In fact on our third and last day, Arriana come over with her son Cristian. I think she might have been hoping that Berto would give Cristian an opportunity to practice his English. Ooops, given the choice of playing or teaching, Berto would much rather run about. We'll have to send Cristian down some English books for practice.


As the day warmed up, Gabi had fun throwing oats and hay into the corral for the horses. Lisa got to hold the halter of a horse while a neighbor put new shoes on the gelding. For someone who has been on a horse, not counting fair pony rides, all of 4 times; this was a thrill. It doesn't take an expert to see why these horses are so prized throughout Chile.

Since Lisa was not up to speed to ride spirited rodeo horses, she contented herself to checking out the chickens with an eye for a Cambridge campo. Jaime had the usual mix of red, white and brown black chickens pecking about. But what caught our attention was the flock of all white birds with exceptionally large crests. They looked like cartoon chickens come to life. Jaime explained that the breed is an old one and not very common in Chile anymore. I did not quite follow the rest of his explanation of the big-cresters' uniqueness.

For midday dinner we enjoyed a pair of the common birds in a cazuela. About the connection between lunch and yard fowl: Gabi was clueless, Berto was mildly curious, Lisa joined in the plucking, and Mike studied Jaine's technique. Hey, if we are going to have backyard birds in Cambridge...

Thursday evening as the sun went behind the Andes, we said thank you and goodbye, piled all six of us into Jaime's king-cab truck for a ride to town, and caught a taxi and the bus back to Santiago. The next morning Berto declared at breakfast that he wants to be a farmer because "I like the sound of the animals". There's your answer, Isabel: the house and the campo are just perfect!