Puerto Montt was founded by the Germans in 1853 and is the capital of The Southern Lake District. The population is 155000 people. What a fun port for me. We spent the day at a horse ranch.
After tendering to shore we were met by our guide Orlando. He was excellent and had arranged a marvelous day for us.
First we rode through Puerto Montt, Puerto Varas and Frutillar. We stopped at the Farmacia in Puerta Varas and stocked up on Aspirin, Sudafed and Dr Moms. Jack has the virus now and I'm still not over it!! Then we shopped in the local artisan market. The alpaca items were tempting.... Jack calling them “moth bait” the whole time. I took pictures but made no purchases. The view of Lake Liaguihue was nice …. but we were under fog and clouds all day and never saw the whole of the volcanoes. It was just 60F but the 98% humidity made it feel more like 80.... or maybe I had a fever.... who knows??? The town of roses had a nice aroma.
When we arrived at Fundo Olguita we were treated as guests at the ranch. We toured the stables for the stallions. There were about 20 horses in the stud barn and about twice that many mares in the mare barn. We only saw a few out in the pastures, but with 750 hectares, the mares and colts were somewhere. The horses were all purebred Chilean horses. The were small and stocky. At only about 14 hands they had short legs and muscular bodies. They are bred for the rodeo and working on ranches.
They took us to an open room in the barn where we met the huasos and were shown the riders dress and tack for the horses. Then we were offered wine and empanadas and entertained by children in tradition dress doing traditional dances. The barn dogs were friendly and the retired “trainer bull” roamed free.
Next to the arena for riding skills demonstration and a taste of the Chilean Rodeo. We watched as the riders demonstrated circles and figure eights and walking sideways. Then they brought the bull in and the two riders rode along side of the bull around the ring. Near the end of the circle the bull was rammed up against the rail. This is an event in the rodeo. I never understood the real life purpose of hitting the bull against the padded wall..... Then they ran a barrel race. A little different from what we see in the states in that there were four barrels not just three. During the rodeo we were served MORE wine and two types of appetizers.
Before dinner the children dancers came down to the arena and offered to teach us to do the dances. They were dances that mimic movements in the rodeo called the cueca. We needed to work off some of the wine and food before EATING MORE. Dinner was grilled steak and potatoes with sopapillas and vegetables and, you guessed it, more wine. Dessert was a delicious fruit plate, STRONG coffie and mint or chamomile liquor. If you get a chance to have some chamomile liquor, pass that up. Oh, yeah, there was a pisco sour in there somewhere, too. Even though Pisco is a town in Peru, Pisco sour is the national drink of both Peru and Chile.
As we were leaving the owner called us back for one last toast. He had just received word that his son had qualified for the National Finals Rodeo!!! He was very proud and excited.
Pushing the bull against the padded fences is an imitation of what the huasos used to do hundreds of years ago; when the animals ran free in the fields. Once a year they would arrange this kind of ambush and drive the bulls up to the ranch boarders where they would finally push them against the fences and quickly brand them.
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