Port of Call LAST UPDATE April 26, 2009
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March 6, 2009 Ushuaia, Argentina – The Gaucho Cowboy Culture is Kept Alive at El Relincho
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Two men on the gaucho ranch of El Relincho
The mountains that tower over the horizon in Ushuaia, an Argentine city on the island of Tierra del Fuego, are some of the most beautiful in the world. Their perfectly pointed peaks covered in patches of bright snow evoke a feeling of permanence and resistance to change. In contrast, the city surrounding the mountains has changed drastically over the last hundred years. Internet cafes and souvenir shops have sprung up everywhere in the town, whose claim to fame is being the southernmost city in the world and the last stop for most people sailing on to Antarctica. Though tourists from all over South America and beyond walk the streets nowadays, in the past Argentina was home to a different kind of wanderer: the gaucho, a South American variety of cowboy that, just like his North American counterpart, lived a hard but proud life of isolation at the mercy of nature’s whims. Gauchos have largely disappeared due to the commercialization and development of the 20th century, but Argentineans are proud of their legacy and have kept aspects of the culture alive. When Peace Boat moored in Ushuaia, participants were invited by the two families who run El Relincho ranch to experience the heritage of the gaucho lifestyle.
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Participants, many for the first time, ride horses at the ranch
On the way to El Relincho, participants tried the strong, slightly bitter tea called yerba mate, still drunk today by Argentineans all over the country. In the past, the tea provided caffeine and nutrients to gauchos who had to stay up long into the night herding sheep and cattle, and whose diet consisted mainly of beef. After arriving at the ranch, participants tried their hand at riding horseback. The gauchos were proud and extremely skilled horsemen; because of their nomadic lifestyle, one’s horse was usually his most valuable, if not only, possession in the world. For most of the participants, this was their first time atop a horse. Guided by Marcel Muiñoz, the head of one of the families who started El Relincho, the horses gently led the participants around the ranch’s pasture. Occasionally, the horses decided to wander off course or pick up the pace, and participants let out squeals of nervous surprise. But the ride gradually smoothed out into a quiet exercise in relaxation among the serene and powerfully beautiful landscape of southern Argentina. As participants breathed the cold autumn air and basked in the silence of the mountains, it was clear that gauchos must have lived a life of spiritual contemplation and peacefulness. But as the silence wore on and the sense of isolation deepened, participants also understood that gauchos could also have easily fell victim to angry weather, intense loneliness, or endless boredom.
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Participants receive a lesson in traditional gaucho dance
Gauchos didn’t spend all their time out on the range; Mr Muiñoz soon turned us over to Angel Zepanta, the other owner of El Relincho, to give us a taste of the cowboys’ lively social life, focusing on dance. Mr Zepanta’s family have been dancers for generations, and he started the first dance school in Ushuaia, called Ballet Folklorico Cruz del Sur. Some of the best of the Ballet Folklorico’s 190 students performed for Peace Boat participants. The young men and women used traditional dance techniques to act out typical gaucho scenes like cooking, hunting, and even arguing over girls. The dance, called el gato, focuses on the skills of the men, whose billowy, knee-length pants tucked into tight boots were perfect for showing off their quick and intricate foot movements. Similar to Argentine tango but even more showy, the young men of the Ballet Folklorico Cruz del Sur incorporated traditional gaucho tools like the lariat and leather whip. To the audience’s trepidation, they also performed highly skilled, hit-or-miss maneuvers with the boleadora, a traditional tool that consists of three rocks tied together on a long leather strap. Whipping the boleadora around their bodies in spirals and figure-eights, the dancers seemed just seconds from smashing someone or something with the rock-weighted straps, but they pulled off the performance with beautiful precision.
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Peace Boat thanked Angel Zepanta of El Relincho by giving him traditional Japanese festival wear
Participants found themselves unable to resist trying to copy the dancers’ footwork after the performance, and they lined up to get a personal lesson from the dancers themselves. Of course, it wasn’t as easy as it looked. Led by Mr Zepanta and accompanied by the young men and women of the school, female participants learned the how to make the flirty, delicate circles around the men that el gato calls for, and male participants learned how to stomp their feet in flash-quick, ankle-breaking displays of traditional macho power. Though they didn’t quite work their way up to the dancers’ level in the 40-minute lesson, they did work up quite an appetite, and next on the agenda was learning how to make the two very popular Argentine foods called empanadas and pasteles, one a savory beef snack and the other a fruity dessert. Lastly, after experiencing gaucho culture through every one of their five senses, participants shared a bit of Japanese culture with the Argentineans. Participants sang a traditional Japanese song and presented Angel Zepanta, the dance teacher and one of the owners of the ranch, with a blue robe and headband called happi worn at summer festivals in Japan. Everyone at El Relincho enjoyed the song and appreciated the gesture. “So many tourists from so many places come here,” said Mr Zepanta, “but only the Japanese on Peace Boat really want to learn about the gaucho culture instead of just eating and dancing.”