The Argentina ranch experience

November 8

We are up a little earlier today. We have a 1.5 hour drive to a local ranch. As we head down the road the highway turns towards one of the large tabletop mountains outside of town. The “highway” becomes a dirt road. As we parallel the tabletop, we have beautiful snow capped mountains in front of us.

We arrive at the ranch and meet one of our hosts. He leads us to our initial meeting spot a beautiful cabin set up as a café. They have a fireplace going with pastry, breads, and coffee for us to enjoy while we wait the rest of the people. 

The scenery from the ranch is spectacular.

Will be having dinner at this location as well, and the parilla is already underway. The lamb is freshly prepared and roasted next to the dining room.

The ranch is a working cattle ranch within the national park. It is 12,500 acres. Being in the park only 500 cows are allowed at a time. Calf’s and the mother are considered 1 unit up until 8 months by which time they must be sold. The ranch also has approximately 100 head of sheep.

After a quick briefing and our breakfast snacks We headed over to one of the cows that has recently calved and did some hand milking.

Each morning the sheep are released from their pen, and are pushed down towards the lake. Our next experience was watching the gaucho move them out.

Following the release of the sheep 12 of us mounted horses for a ride.  We went to the lake and passed the sheep that had been taken there. We walked along the lakeside then returned to the stables.

Next we watched a sheep shearing demonstration. Hand trimming was done. A professional can shear up to 80 sheep per day with a hand shear, but a professional with an electric shearer can do much more. The record is 500 in one day.

We were given a display of the horse’s agility and speed by two  vaqueros (cowboys) doing a barrel style race.

It is off to dinner. The dinner was fantastic. Salad with fresh rolls, lamb, and a carmel flan with fresh caramel.

We shared a table with Zach and Elle who are on their honeymoon from Philadelphia and Sophie and lizzy two friends from the UK.After dinner our table took a group photo and we offered a ride back to town which Lizzy accepted. (during dinner she had expressed how slow the bus they had ridden in there was on the dirt road).

Alyssa and I finished off the day with a visit to the Patagonia Brewery here in El Calafate.