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| Day 15: January 5, 2006 - El Calafate, Argentina |
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When we came down for breakfast,
we were informed that as part of our room package
we were also entitled to the excursion that takes
place at the estancia. Our itinerary said that we
were supposed to have a day of leisure around El
Calafate. Not knowing what else to do, we choose
the morning excursion.
Everyone gathered in the attached restaurant around
10am. Busloads of other people were arriving to
participate. First there would be a sheep shearing
demonstration, then a display of herding sheep with
Kelpie dogs, then a walk around the grounds viewing
the flora and fauna. The excursion is topped off
with a barbeque and dance review.
The sheep shearing took place in the barn next to
the restaurant. We heard explanations of how the
shearers banded in groups and go from farm to farm
during the shearing season. These shearers are hearty
souls, but because of the work, their backs are
shot by 40 and they have to find a new line of work.
Our shearer took about 3-5 minutes to shear the
sheep and was able to only have 3 holes in the wool.
A real shearer would do this in approximately 1
minute, have only a single hole, and move on to
do 250 sheep in a day.
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Sheep shearing |
Scavenger bird |
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Once the wool is sheared, it is sorted, cleaned
and pressed to remove the lanolin. The wool then
goes up to Trelew for the market. On this farm,
the sheep are mostly kept for tourism purposes.
However, the owner has another farm in Ushuaia where
he has 21,000 head of sheep.
We went outside for the herding demonstration as
it started to drizzle. A gaucho came over the hill
with 3 dogs and about 20 sheep. We watched as the
dogs moved the sheep through various obstacles designed
to show their abilities. One of the dogs, named
Max, only had 3 1/2 legs, but he was still out there
helping to confuse and stress out the sheep.
It started to rain a little harder as we went for
our flora and fauna walk. There are a large number
of gulls, geese and ibis that inhabit a lagoon on
the property. Along the way, the guide pointed out
the calafate berry which looks like a blueberry.
Despite being told that it was not ripe, Dad tried
one anyway and spit it out - it was very bitter.
The calafate bush has a local legend around it.
One day a group of Welsh people were passing through
and one of their members was sick. She was rumored
to be some kind of witch, but the Welsh tradition
was to leave the sick behind. She became so lonely
that she turned herself into a bush. The birds liked
the bush because it protected them from the wind.
However, there was no food to be had in the area,
so they went further south. The old woman was alone
again and decided to provide food for the birds
when they returned. One year later, the birds discovered
the berries and the old woman had company forever.
The walk ended on the shore of Lago Argentina, the
largest lake in Argentina. We walked along the beach
and found volcanic stones - remnants of the volcano
from thousands of years ago in this area.
Then it was time for lunch and a show. The staff
knew that Robin was a vegetarian so they provided
a plate of spaghetti for her. The sauce looked dark
and tasted funny. When we inquired, it sounded like
the chef took the meat sauce and ran it through
a strainer! We got her another helping with a true
tomato sauce.
After lunch, two dancers danced native dances in
typical gaucho costumes. They were pretty good and
we were amazed that the male would land on the side
of his feet for some of the steps.
The music ended and so did our "excursion".
We decided to board one of the buses for a ride
into El Calafate proper to shop and see the town.
It was raining harder as we looked into darkened
stores - they were all (well mostly) closed from
2-4 for lunch. We killed some time and then did
some shopping before returning to the estancia.
We ordered our boxed lunches for the next day and
wound down with a nice dinner. |
Sunset over Estancia Alice |
Sunset over the cerros |
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