Huasos, the iconic cowboys and farmers of Chile, work the land between the country’s central and southern regions. Renowned for their skill, few know the ancient mountain trails better than a huaso. This expertise often leads them to a profitable side trade, guiding adventure tourists across the imposing Andes into Argentina.
On my first boat trip across Lago Todos los Santos, I noticed tiny cabins perched high in the surrounding mountains, like specks in a sea of green. With thin smoke rising from their chimneys and no visible roads, these remote dwellings, I later learned, belong to huasos.
Unlike the vast open plains of Argentina’s pampas, Chile’s Lakes District offers few opportunities for a full gallop. Instead, huasos and their horses are mountain climbers and trail runners and despite their pride and showmanship, they seem most at ease in the peaceful quiet of the forest.
You’ll often see them at festivals and local ceremonies however, playing to the crowd and proudly wearing their traditional attire: a short Andalusian-style jacket beneath a silk or wool poncho, a wide-brimmed “chupalla” hat, knee-high boots, and shiny spurs.
One summer, while passing through the hamlet of Cochamó, I encountered a huaso on horseback along a gravel road high above the serpentine Rio Puelo. His horse kicked up dust as it trotted by, and despite the heat, he still wore his iconic poncho. He smiled good-naturedly and stopped to give us directions to a nearby hot spring.—a gesture of the characteristic hospitality of the Chilean countryside.
After kindly letting me snap a photo, he turned his horse toward the forest. Together, they skillfully picked their way up a near-vertical ravine and disappeared into a wall of jade-green.
