September 14, 2008

Francisco has the longest eyelashes I have ever seen framing large soulful brown eyes. When he puts on his handspun grey poncho and goat skin chaps and lightly swings onto his steed he is transformed from a skinny kid into a dashing Chilean cowboy.
This handsome gaucho is now escorting me down the gaucho trail from the mountain retreat of La Junta back to Cochamo. We left just after the sun slid into our little valley and melted the frost that crowned the valley floor. There is still some ice on the old alerce wood lining the trail and the horses slide a bit as we descend. Winding through narrow ruts worn deep into the skin of the earth from decades of use the horses heated bodies create little clouds of humidity that remain trapped in the coldness of the trenches as we pass through.