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Calafate leaf
To eat is to return to
Patagonia

At least that's what Liliana told me!  (although she had nothing to  
do with my pathetic effort at haiku! ) At one point while we were  
riding our fast Chilean horses along the trail, she told me that the  
local lore says that if you eat from the calafate plant (a native  
thorny bush with edible berries and lemon-blueberry tasting leaves)  
then you will return to Patagonia. So we stopped and picked a few  
leafs to eat. And I've been trying to eat a leaf from every calafate  
plant that I see :)

During each one of these trips I meet special people that touch me in  
some way. Lili is one of those special people, we had a terrific ride  
together and I am very please do have met her.  Lili is the grand  
daughter of East European immigrants. The two brothers Vincente and  
Antonio Kusanovic came to Patagonia to take part in the Chilean  
program to develop agriculture in this southern most part of the  
country. The brothers eventually became landowners, after the  
government granted deeds to the land that they worked sheep and  
cattle on. Estancia Cerro Negro is one of the original Kusanovic  
'homesteads' where Lily's grandmother, Amor, still lives, along with  
a constant stream of family members that come and go throughout the  
seasons.

The Estancia is still home, but also opened up for tourists so that  
they can learn of the history of the area, and experience a (still)  
working Estancia, or what we would call a ranch. They run 4000 head  
of sheep on that many hectares of range land. The ranch also has a  
few thousand hectares of forest land and peat. The family business  
continued to grow -  beyond the original ranching operation. Antonio  
also purchased several thousand hectares of land at the base of the  
mountains surrounded by what is now Torres del Paine National Park.   
The love for the land runs deep in all of the family members, who  
continue to expand their business.

Antonio Kusanovic was once quoted as describing the land as
"A landscape painted by God himself, where the silence can be heard".
I can see such a glow in Lili's eyes when she talks about this land  
also.  She said 'it's part of me, I can't bear to be away for long'.

I had the absolutely greatest luck to have met Lili - and to have  
been able to ride with her - on good native horses, over spectacular  
trails - it doesn't get any better! I first met her when we stopped  
at Estancia Cerro Negro on our long journey from Punta Arenas to  
Torres del Paine National Park, where the ride would be held. She  
helped show us around the old house where our group had 'tea' and  
then took us out to the barn where the hands explained the sheep  
operation, and the breeding program they had undertaken to introduce  
Merino genetics into the local sheep in order to improve the quality  
of the wool.  She was also headed to Luis' EnduranceX event, having  
been bitten by the endurance bug the year before when she tried it  
for the first time. She packed into the van with us after the house/ 
barn tour and several hours later we finally landed at the Hotel  
Torres Del Paine (also owned by the family).

The road into the ranch, and to the hotel is pretty amazing. Ninety  
kilometers of dirt/gravel road from Puerto Natales (after 350 km of  
highway from Punta Arenas), then another seven kilometers of bumps  
and holes and ruts, after crossing a very narrow, and fairly long,  
suspension bridge which is the only way across the river into the  
ranch. In order to drive the vans across the bridge, the drivers have  
to completely remove the left outside mirror, and then fold the right  
mirror in, and still there are only inches to spare between the sides  
of the van and the bridge suspension system. A very tight squeeze,  
with the driver leaning his head out the window to make sure he  
maintains that inch of space. We did this in the dark after 5 hours  
of traveling from Punta Arenas, and it was quite the amazing arrival!

I met Luis as soon as we arrived (another special person, mastermind  
of EnduranceX - more on that later), got settled into my room, made  
it to the dining room just in time for dinner, and then finally sleep!

In the morning I had breakfast with Luis, and Elizabeth Hughes - the  
FEI technical delegate for the FEI portion of the event. Elly was one  
of the first endurance riders in Chile, and she also helped Luis put  
this event together for the first time, five years ago. She helped  
design the ride - course and the trails, and helped improve the event  
over the years - and I can say (now) that it was extremely well  
designed, fun to ride, challenging but not impossible, and incredibly  
beautiful!!  I had lots of questions for Luis (who/how/when,why/etc)  
and Elly was to be the translator. (A sad footnote is that she also  
had to translate 'my' Spanish to 'real' Spanish :)

After breakfast I joined Elly and a couple of the gauchos and another  
reporter from a Chilean polo/equestrian magazine. We took some stable  
horses out for a couple of hours - the check on the beginnings of the  
trails, to check for safety, and marking, etc. GORGEOUS! It was a  
perfect sunny day, with no wind, crisp fall weather, just perfect. In  
fact the entire time I was there the weather was perfect. (except the  
last four hours of my last day there which was also the time we chose  
to do the boat tour out to the glaciers.... that was an interesting  
boat ride - the wind finally kicked in).

After our ride I hung around the stables and saw Lili there. I went  
to say 'hi' and she was bummed because her mare was lame. She was  
pretty sore and my guess was that it was a sore foot - bruise or  
abcess - since I couldn't find any sensitivity in tendons or  
ligaments. Plus - the shoeing here is pretty rough - lots of long  
toes and under run heels, typical for stables I suppose - but I  
suggested to Lili that they bring an endurance farrier in to show the  
locals some basics of managing hoof balance for endurance. So, she  
didn't have a horse to ride for the race and was very disappointed.  
Also - at this point I was still assuming I had a horse to ride in  
the race the next day. I sort of suggested that she might be able to  
take out one of the stable horses, so she could at least ride. hmmm....

Lili's brother  joined us and we talked some more, then had lunch  
together. They told me about their family, the history, the ranch.  
They both have the maturity that comes with being part of a focused  
family - and business.  They are young in years (29 and 30) but  
mature with respect to their responsibility. Luis joined us a little  
later, and through chatting and conversation, it came out that I - 
didn't- have a horse to compete on after all. I had just assumed I  
was there to ride as well as report, and Luis had just assumed I  
wanted to 'write, not ride' . It wasn't a big deal, I've been in  
similar communication disconnects before! But it meant that I didn't  
have specific plans for the next day .... so maybe Lili and I could  
both round up a couple of the stable horses and do the 40km (25 mile)  
ride together, just for fun. Why not!?

So after lunch we went back out to the stable. Lili spends all of her  
summers here, knows all the gauchos and guides, and the trails, and  
the special places to ride, but she didn't know what horses might be  
available - most of them had already been given out to the people  
that came here to race. But Juan said there were two good horses left  
that we could ride - yay! but... why were these two horses not  
already given out if they were good? We were happy to have horses,  
but with this lingering question Lili went back a little later to ask  
again... why were they still available? She was assured that they  
were very good horses, but the gauchos had not offered them to any of  
the other competitors because they were somewhat special horses- a  
little more challenging to ride (a little hard to stop, a little  
spooky/jumpy) but great rides if a person could handle them. Ok....  
what the heck.

It was almost time for vetting in at this point, the gauchos went out  
and found the horses - Mateco (a big black criollo for me) and Vitana  
(a smaller dapple gray for Lili). They said we should go and sign up  
and vet them in and then ride them around some and find saddles,  
bridles, etc. The vetting was slow and it got so dark, and cold (a  
clear sky and the air cooled rapidly) that in the end we decided to  
wait till tomorrow to try them out. Our ride (the 40km) didn't start  
until 11am! so we'd have time before the start to round up saddles  
and stuff and see how they went (I wanted to make sure I could stop  
Mateco :).

Ride meeting, dinner, a lovely evening, and then I spent a few hours  
processing photos of the day, email correspondence, etc. Set the  
alarm for 6am, and finally into bed, very tired and the bed was nice  
and soft with fluffy warm blankets. Music from the cantina faint in  
the background, just right. I went to bed dreaming of the  
mountains, ...and wondering about the horse I would ride!

- later,

Steph



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