Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
descended, we set up our camp at a
puesto,
a small ranch that serves
as the home for rugged livestock ranchers who raise sheep, goats,
cattle, and horses. This particular
puesto
was owned and managed by
Dona Dora, a tough but friendly seventy-year-old native of this
region, and her partner Don Jose. Along with Dona Dora's grandson
Josecito and a handsome young gaucho named Juan, they tended
herds numbering several hundred animals. Their generous hospital-
ity and good company would prove essential to the success of our
expedition.
Occasionally, we would buy one of their goats or sheep to cook
slowly over a bed of coals as part of an Argentine
asado.
These were
special occasions that often turned into raucous parties with Dona
Dora and her family. While we ate our dinner that night, stories
abounded about other places we had visited to collect fossils and
events on their
puesto.
Life on the
puesto
is difficult. Resources are scarce, and each
member of the
puesto
family, including the dogs that help tend the
livestock, bears heavy responsibilities. The dogs were clearly not pets,
and our crew had to be careful not to become emotionally attached to
them. One had an adorable litter of puppies soon after we arrived.
Later, when we returned from a day of prospecting for fossils, we dis-
covered that Dona Dora had drowned them. Her motive, as she
explained, was simple. There wasn't enough food to feed them. Dan-
gers lurked among the ridges and ravines of the ranch. We were
amazed by a story Dona Dora told about clubbing a puma to death in
self-defense. Luis encountered his own brush with disaster one day as
he was returning to camp. The gauchos had just finished castrating a
bull as Luis approached, and not seeing Luis, they turned the bull
loose and ran for cover. The bull, noticeably irritated at the treatment
he had received, arose to see Luis ambling peacefully toward him.
The bull then charged, and Luis's only means of escape was to sprint
for a hedge of thornbushes that formed the fence of the corral. He
leapt into the wall of thorns as far as he could. With the bull snorting
at his heels, it was a narrow and painful escape, but far preferable to
the alternative.
Our dinners with Dona Dora's family typically lasted late into
the evening, and the evenings were spectacular, with crimson sunsets
followed by starlit skies accented by an occasional streaking meteor or
