Two Sides to Argentina

The trip begins with a visit to Buenos Aires to explore different types of dramatic lifestyles. Next up is dropping by the Patagonia Plateau in order experience the freedom of Gauchos. You will then understand that the many different faces of Argentina are all connected by enthusiasm.

Tangoist of La Boca—this place is a gathering area for the working class of Buenos Aires.

The first stop: Buenos Aires

High buildings were projected on the beautiful lawn with long shadows. Two horses with well-trimmed horsehair ran out of the shadow and ran into the sunshine of Buenos Aires, neck and neck. The sweat on the red-brown hair was flashy against the rays of the sun.

The Campo Argentino de Polo in Palermo, also known as the “Cathedral of Polo,” is the venue of the Argentine Open Championship, the most famous event in the field of polo. For polo players, this stadium is like the Wembley Stadium for football players and rock stars. But for many people, the most exciting thing comes after the match, when there are many champagne bars and tents on the road between the two courts. At dusk, this place is filled with female polo fans. These tanned women all show their figures and compete with long-legged part-time models. Female models walk around proudly in T-shirts provided by the sponsors, short shorts and platform shoes, while male models wear Ralph Lauren coats, sport shirts, and loafers.

The famous costume once appeared on the cover of Jilly Cooper’s novel Polo. Wealthy individuals in her novel actually exist in this place. Polo is a kind of sport for wealthy people. To participate in a match, a player may use eight horses. Top-class horses are very expensive, with a price tag of more than 150,000 USD. Every year, during the World Polo Tour (held in Britain in spring and summer in the Northern Hemisphere, then in Argentina and Palm Beach in the US), stable equipment and stablemen must follow the players. You can imagine how expensive the sport is.

Carolina Beresford is an insider. She is a reporter of Polo Line, a website dedicated to polo news. She is holding a microphone and is going to interview the winner Alegría. As a blonde of Chilean and Irish descents, she has been living in Argentina for seven years. She is from a well-known family of avid polo players. Her uncle Gabriel Donoso is a famous polo player in Chile, but he was badly hurt during a match. “This sport is very dangerous and very difficult,” she told me, “most of the time, the key of success lies in the horses rather than the players, but it is difficult to take control of the horses. The speed at a polo match is very fast and players have to rely on live horses. Horses are different from cars. They are unpredictable. Players spend more time on horses than on their wives. This is not exaggerating.”

Argentina is different from Britain in that polo is not an exclusive sport for wealthy people. Everyone can come to the stadium, buy a cheap ticket, drink some beer and have some ice cream while holding a flag cheering for their favorite team. “Here top players can be the stars on the magazine covers. Taxi drivers are familiar with their names.” She said, “It is different from Britain. In Britain, polo is a sport just for a few people. People take polo as elite and power.” Argentinean people are kings of polo. Out of eight top polo players of level-ten, seven are Argentinean people. Carolina said, “Horses can be seen more often in Argentina than in other countries. In the countryside, children ride horses after school. They are influenced by horses since childhood.”

“A Gaucho comes to the gate on a horse”

Players and spectators appear on the footpath. The stadium is in tumult. Some players are wearing uniforms. There are some green grass stains on the white polo shirts. Winners can drink famous Chandon, and losers can get a comforting cheek-to-cheek kiss, which is standard practice there. People chat with each other in Spanish and English and when night falls, people flock to the gate of the stadium to take taxis which are painted black and yellow, like bees.

Taxis run along Avenidadel Libertador. Pass by great villas of the colonial period and rows of jacaranda trees with purple flowers, and arrive at Parque 3 de Febrero (it used to be a private garden of the dictator Rosas. His rule was ended on February 3, 1852. Then part of this land became a park and was named after the date). At the park, many joggers, hugging lovers and pasea perros can be seen. These pasea perros are taking many dogs for a walk. The dog chains have knotted. Locals call them Porteños, meaning port people. La Boca is the intersection of Buenos Aires and Riachuelo. Tangoists in this district dance on the street between colorful houses and bars. Travel writer Bruce Chatwin (1940—1989) said, “Buenos Aires is a grand theater.” However, La Boca seems old and shabby, and polo lovers are nowhere to be seen. Actually they would much rather go to Palermo Viejo, which is the most high-end district of Buenos Aires and the best place for nightlife. 9:00 pm is dinner time. Restaurants put tables on the cobblestone streets and customers take their seats. At the small Plaza Cortázar, fragrance of beef from the parrillas spread all over the place. Beefsteak is very famous here. The beef is so good because it comes from Pampas-a fertile grassland in Argentina.

The next day, I left the city and drove 97 km towards the northwest. On the road, the plains were boundless. Taking a look around, I saw yellow plains interspersed with some green soybean fields, peculiar trees, and Hereford or Black Angus cattle walking on the pasture. La Bamba de Areco was established in 1830. It may be the oldest pasture. Its name comes from “rest area” in Celtic. The buildings have a traditional colonial style. They look beautiful, like red and warm lighthouses. The windows and archways are painted white, which are conspicuous. A Gaucho comes to the gate on a horse with a key in his hand to escort visitors on the boulevard of oriental plane trees. On the way, one can hear the doves warbling.

In 2007, a billionaire bought the pasture and he wanted to form his own polo team, therefore now La Bamba only raises horses for polo match. The wife of the pasture owner is an interior designer. After the buildings were renovated, a luxury atmosphere is formed. The pasture is only open to visitors who pay. On the pasture, signs of countryside life can be seen everywhere: Portraits of horses on the wall, leather products and silverware on the table, which are made by San Antonio de Areco, a craftsman from a neighboring town. Guests can ride horses on the pasture, or watch locals train horses in the way of horse whispering (cultivate emotions with horses, communicate with horses in a natural way instead of training horses in a strict way).

During lunch time, Asado, traditional barbecue, is placed on porcelain tableware and served at the table. Guests enjoy it under the pergola of honeysuckle flowers. Although it is enjoyable, it is just a small part of the Gaucho lifestyle. To further learn about the lifestyle of Gauchos, one needs to go to Patagonia Plateau in the south.

On La Bamba de Areco, the 19th century doesn’t seem remote.

Two: Patagonia Plateau

Luis Arratia got down from his horse, leaving it to graze under the shade of Chile pine trees, while he strode towards the fire. The charcoal on fire was sparkling. A whole sheep was being roasted on the large metal rack from that morning, like a cross. Luis took out a facón (large utility knife) from his waist bag and cut off a small piece of meat to have a taste. He said, “Okay, it is ready.” Luis’s wife took out the bread. Other Gauchos waited patiently. Luis told those novices how to do it. He took the bread as an oven glove, gripped the meat with his teeth, and then cut off one piece with the facón, and then chewed the meat. The ribs is the most sought after part. Fatty meat from the ribs and Argentine chimichurri are a perfect match. There are no tables, chairs, or plates. The salad is put in a large bowl, so that people can eat it with a fork, but usually the Gauchos don’t eat it.

Employees and guests of Estancia Huechahueeat barbecue together. Today, an Estancia Huechahue person who lives in Spain came to the pasture to learn about the skill of horseshoe making and fitting from the farrier of this pasture. At lunchtime, he mentioned how bad European barbecue is, making everyone laugh. “Gauchos must know how to kill and cook a livestock”, horse breaker Luis told me, “of course they should also know how to find a missing cattle and train horses.” The painstaking process starts from staying with newly born ponies for about a year. It is worth noting that, when Luis made a list of his skills, he didn’t mention horse-riding. For him, riding a horse is just like walking, and it is a skill he is born to have. I asked him when he first started to learn how to ride a horse. “I was born on the horseback,” he replied.

Then Luis and his beloved horse rode off slowly against the broad prairie under the blue sky, leaving some dust behind. They passed the neneo, which is a common plant in the Patagonia Plateau. On the way to the hillside, the wind blew over, making the grass bend down, like an invisible hand touching animals’ fur. On the mountaintop, one can see how magnificent the scenery is. The prairie stretches to the Andes Mountain Range. Not a single building or road affects the view. With a large area of 400,000 square miles (1,035,995 square kilometers), Patagonia Plateau is located in Argentina and Chile. Its area is more than four times the size of that of Britain. Because of the large area, horses introduced by the Spanish become necessary tools for local residents. The climate here is harsh, so crops can’t grow so well, therefore farmers live by raising livestock and relying on strong horses to gather these livestock. Those horses are raised and trained by Gauchos. From the early 19th century to the late 20th century, Sheep herding was a well-developed skill here, attracting thousands of people to move to Patagonia Plateau. Wool is highly profitable it is also referred to as “white gold.” Due to the increase of meat consumption around the world, many people start to raise beef cattle.

The neighboring Junín de los Andes holds cattle shows every year. Such rural fairs provide pastures with an opportunity to show their best products. Gauchos come here all dressed up. Some vendors sell new fangled clothes, including knickerbockers (loose trousers with tight ankles), broad brims, ties, belts, and cloaks.

Inside the pens, animals are taken care like they are beauty queens. Someone grooms a calf with scissors and another person styles a black ox with a circle on its nose with a hair drier. It made evasive moves every time hairspray was used.

Yalatiya (left) and a Gaucho Claudio Inal crossed Patagonia Plateau. The back is Volcano Lanin.

“Find more things on the horseback”

Cattle are quite expensive, so stealing is inevitable. The best way to safeguard against stealing is to brand the livestock. Therefore, livestock must be branded are gathered on Estancia Huechahue. Gauchos gather the livestock with gestures, shouts, and whistles. Luis chased several cattle on a horse. He easily hitched them with a rope made of animal skin. Back to the compound, he asked me to practice, and put several calves in a small railed pasture to improve my success rate. Even so, it is difficult to throw the rope, let alone catching animals with it. I spent half an hour hitching the ankle of a calf. The little achievement made Luis smile.

Gaucho culture is manly. Amelia Mera is a guide of Estancia Huechahue who calls herself “a female Gaucho herd.” She wears knickerbockers, a beret, and boots as others do, but she matches them with a colored shirt. “It is special,” she exclaimed while saddling my horse. It was a white mare named “Patagonia.”“I don’t know other female Gaucho herds, but I grew up on the pasture and I love work related with horses. Everything seems natural. It is a wonderful thing to be able to do what you love and get paid,” she added.

Amelia is familiar with the whole 60-square kilometers of Estancia Huechahue. “Even if I ride a horse on a same road ten times, every time is different,” she said, “Maybe the light is different, or I’ll find some different animals.” She told me, among the hills, there are some caves for burying ancient Mapuche Indians. She advised us to ride a horse to go to her favorite place on the pasture: a high observation stand on the prairie. She guided us along the river bank. She controlled the horse just by pulling the rein gently. We climbed onto the hillside. On the way of crossing the shrub land, we saw some fantastic treasures in the long grass, such as ivory white sheep skeletons or antlers. Amelia pointed at a guanaco. This animal with erect ears is a distant relative of vicunas. Previously when she rode a horse, she saw little American ostriches, which are similar to ostriches, armadillos, and cougars. She said, “You can find more things on the horseback. It is different from walking when you need to lower your head from time to time to look for a foothold.”

Gradually, the land became flat. The snow-covered Volcano Lanin appeared in the horizon. This volcano spans over the border of Argentina and Chile. Amelia’s grandparents crossed the border in the early 20th century and occupied the land. “In Patagonia, people are from everywhere,”Amelia said, “Maybe because it is spacious;it gives people the feeling of starting anew.” There is still the pioneering spirit—no one can deny that there are many possibilities in this place.

Aora Thomas has been expecting to go to Argentina for ten years. She got this idea because he was inspired by two literary works: In Patagonia and Polo.

(This article is translated from Lonely Planet. Story by Orla Thomas and photos by Estancia Huechahue. Do not reprint it without permission. For more information, please visit WeChat: lptraveller.)