At the Estancia

September 27, 2008
The glacier tour was certainly more than enough to make an exciting day, but our group then continued on to the estancia “Al Galpon del Glaciar.” An estancia is an estate devoted primarily to sheep farming. This particular estancia does some sheep farming, but it has also been converted into a bird sanctuary and they do ecotours. As shown in the photos we saw a "gathering of the flock" by the kelpie dog, followed by a guided walk of the nature reserve where over 40 migrating birds can be seen. We saw lots of upland geese, which look similar to Canadian geese (except the males are white) and they mate for life. The middle photo shows the steppe, which has little vegetation due to the strong winds and the damage by the sheep. The top photo shows the gaucho who performed the sheep shearing. If I have not mentioned it before, Argentina is definitely not a PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)destination! After an afternoon of embracing nature and the sheep in particular, we were served lamb for dinner! This "contradiction" is exemplifed by their puma-catching law--the puma is protected by a international agreement--however, one can get 200 Argentinian pesos (approx $70) for bringing in a dead puma! The gauschos told us that many people upplement their income in this way.