A frontier is a place that’s both physical and metaphorical. Our ongoing series, Dispatches from the Frontier, shares encounters and insights from life on the ranch, where the inner and outer wilderness converge.
Dispatch from John Hauf, Founder and Director
The first ranch I lived on in Patagonia was named Las Vertientes, or The Springs. It was 11 kilometers of messy dirt track from the town of Coyhaique, a place where horses and cattle roamed the streets, usually in the company of their Gaucho owners, sometimes not. Departure south from that modest settlement entailed an abrupt transition to open countryside with just three other ranches scattered along this adventurous stretch.
By chance we lived across the way from Julian Villegas, a widower in his eighties, and Sra. Luisa, who’d been taken in as a young child by don Julian and his wife and had remained as family. They worked their ranch and a large fruit orchard and were as generous and welcoming as one could possibly imagine. I learned a lot from them.
In the early 1970s they were living on a different ranch when a young man from the area showed up at their door one night with an ox cart loaded with wooden crates. The fellow explained how he would be traveling abroad for an unknown period of time and needed a place to store his possessions. Could they help him?
Twenty-five years and two moves later our neighbors answered another knock on their door. A man in his fifties explained that he lived in Canada and had returned to Chile for his first visit in decades. He’d tracked them down to say hello.
Not recognizing the visitor, don Julian asked for his name and upon hearing it invited him to come inside. In a small storage room just off the entrance a blocky, canvas covered pile sat in the corner. “Welcome home, neighbor,” said don Julian, “Here are your belongings, all ready for you.”
WE ARE CURRENTLY BOOKING TRIPS AND ENROLLING PROGRAMS FOR THE 2022-2023 SEASON AND INVITE YOU TO GET IN TOUCH TO PLAN YOUR ADVENTURE.
John Hauf founded Patagonia Frontiers in 1999 to connect people with wilderness through education, conservation, and adventure. From our wilderness ranch home, Patagonia Frontiers offers multi-day trekking, horseback trips, mountaineering, and education programs in the heart of Chilean Patagonia.