On Horseback Through Patagonia: Day 1 – Getting to Know You

(Monday, November 19, 2007; 35 Kms. Cochrane-El Manzano)

I meet La Coneja.  La Coneja, the name of my horse, is a beautiful, strong, young yegua (female horse).  She is supposedly “muy manso”, which means very calm; and, the keeper of the horse is a nine-year old girl.  This fact should have assured me that riding her would be manageable, but it didn’t.  Although La Coneja seemed very gentle, when I looked her in the eye, she gave me an intense stare.  Perhaps she sensed my fear that her name, which in Spanish means rabbit, reflected the rapid pace at which she would move.  She was right- for the first 12 KM of the trek I ended up walking.  After all, wouldn’t any born and bred New Yorker have done the same and prefer to walk on her own two feet?!     

We started the cabalgata with a momentous parade through the streets of the town of Cochrane located 2,000 kilometers south of Santiago where we were warmly welcomed by school children, families and public employees.  All of the 35 jinetes (horse riders) who started the cabalgata from the beginning rode with pride and determination through the streets shouting out against the dams.  There were cameramen and press to greet us as we embarked on this nine-day journey.  It was quite a sight to see three dozen horses cavalcading through the streets.  We created much noise to boot!  You could hear the clippity clapping of horse hooves and the shouts and protests from the people for blocks.  All of this noise came to halt for a brief moment when Marco Diaz, one of the key organizers of the cabalgata and the President of the local group La Agrupacion de Defensores para el Espiritu de la Patagonia, called for a minute of silence as we passed in front of the HydroAysen* offices.  (HydroAysen is the joint entity between electric companies Spanish Endesa and Chilean Colbun that has proposed this megahydro project in the Patagonia region.) The controlled and unified stillness resonated with the determination of a group of people who will do whatever they can to prevent this ill-conceived hydro scheme from coming into fruition.

Even though it was just the first day of the cabalgata and most people did not know one another, we were held together by a shared goal.  The unity of such a group of people that had just met provoked a sense of strength and confidence in me and the others.  On this day I realized beyond a doubt that the dam project was NOT going to move forward!  I am so delighted to be here, taking part in this momentous step in the campaign and having the opportunity to get to know those who are at most risk.  This is the first time since I have been working on this BioGem campaign (http://www.savebiogems.org/patagonia) that I could feel with certainty the extent to which stopping these dams really matters to the people living in the region.  Although Patagonia is not an extremely populous region, a rich pioneer/gaucho culture and community is at great risk.  This cabalgata will be an historic event for the region of Aysen (where the proposed dams would be located) and the country of Chile.  It demonstrates a growing movement that reaches beyond geographic borders and those of age and economic class.