Living La Vida Pampa

After the overwhelming Paulista city life and our Bodega night, we felt the need to find ourselves again and to go back to our beloved nature. Therefore, we actually had to solve another primary problem: finding a new volunteering project for Christmas and New Years Eve, where we would get accommodation in exchange of our work (considering that the hostel prices go crazy during holidays time). Who came in our rescue has been the Louzada's, a Brazilian family running their own cattle and sheep farm in the middle of the Pampa. 

Yes, you got it right. We’re not in Argentina as you might mistakenly think. The Pampa is a recognised unique biome, with a surface of more than 750.000 km², extending from South-West of Buenos Aires, covering whole Uruguay and reaching South of Brazil, in the region called Rio Grande do Sul. And this is exactly where we ended our bus ride from São Paulo: in a small city called Alegrete. The bus station was closed, no human life down the streets, even on a Saturday night. What a beginning!

After spending the last week in two huge metropolis, we felt like being catapulted to a new continent again, totally different. Driving to the farm, early in the morning, left us totally disoriented. We were surrounded by vast and endless grasslands, cut in two by the only street present and, in sight, just a few single trees until the end of the horizon. No houses, no cars: only surreal silence and peace, an undeniable treasure.
 

The Pampa is a natural habitat that remained practically untouched through the eras. Probably cows, sheep and horses were already present before human beings and all of these species are useful to this ambient because of their role: they are the natural fertiliser of the soil. Another important key to make the Pampa so fertile and appropriate for agriculture is the regular precipitations, distributed through all the year that permit, especially in the last period, to cultivate large areas with soya and rice plantations. These new productions are much more remunerative and several farmers are choosing them because of their fast profitability, even if they don’t belong to the biome itself and the common usage of chemical products is pretty high.

However, once we set our tent outside in the garden and immersed ourselves as much as possible in this heaven, we realised again how powerful Mother Nature can be. A strong and unstoppable wind started to blow from West and forced us to go to sleep inside the guest’s house.

We later found out that intense thunderstorms are common in spring and summer and is possible to encounter hailstorms, floods and flash floods. The Pampa is among the most frequent lightning and highest convective cloud tops in the world and the most consistently active tornado region outside the USA.

Fortunately this was just a single episode in our stay and nothing bad really happened, our tent was safe. And nothing could really stop us in accomplishing our tasks: working together with sheep and cows, to vaccinate them and heal those which were sick. Painting a house to bring it to a new life. Trying to become, even for short, Gauchos!

It was amazing to have the chance to ride some wonderful horses through this never-ending fields, gathering the animals together and bring them back to the fences. We will never forget the simplicity to have sunsets everyday (sometimes even with a red moon at the same time) and one of the best starry sky we have ever experienced. We were so lucky to see even some wild capybaras in their environment.

To somebody, the Pampa could sound like a boring place with no trees and just massive fields covered by dry and arid grass. But this is exactly what you could call a superficial judgement: this biome is surprisingly full of life, insects, birds, reptiles and plants.

And it’s incredible how strong and deep the attachment and proud of the Gauchos are to this territory which goes beyond borders, with their always present Mate cup, their leather clothing and unique sounds of calling the cattle. The commitment and love they show daily to this land, is something we should all learn from.

See you soon in Paraguay and Risk Curiosity!