After climbing Fitz Roy and seeing the Perito Moreno Glacier, Toti and I felt refreshed and ready to tackle our final 400 kilometers of Argentina’s mainland. I was extremely sad to have lost Dude, but tried to remain positive remembering the good moments I shared with my little Mustang.
We left La Leona with the wind blowing uncontrollably once again – what now became the norm. We fought our way south until we arrived in the small town of La Esperanza. A couple of Kilometers before town we found refuge in Estancia La Esperanza.
“You guys are lucky I didn’t shoot your dog,” Frederico, the worker of the estancia said when Toti and I made our way to the house.
Butch Cassidy made his way down the small hill to the ranch before we did. And out here, a random dog wondering means danger for the sheep. If a worker sees a dog that doesn’t belong on a ranch he shoots first then he asks questions. The owner of the ranch, offering a hefty amount of cash for every dog killed.
“I noticed he was too small to be a wild dog eating sheep so I called him and he ran to me,” Frederico continued.
Feeling lucky Butch was still alive, we got to know our host who allowed us to rest our horses at the ranch for a few days.
Frederico, whose first baby boy was born only days before our arrival, had us over for dinner every night. He was a tremendous host who told us about his hard life in the north of the country.
“Before I came down to the south I couldn’t find any work where I’m from in the north. I used to cut wood and sell it in order to be able to feed my family,” he said.
The night before we rode out, Dannie Fernandez, the owner of the estancia arrived for the next days’ sheep shearing. He invited us to eat dinner with him and promised to take care of us when we arrived in Rio Gallegos, 150 kms to the south-east, where he lived.
