The Farmers Who Married Sisters

We climbed a long hill up a rutty driveway up and up and around and up again to the top of a hill overlooking a beautiful lake and huge mountains on either side. We were here to have lunch with Theobaldo Doerno, the owner of a farm that offers ágrotourism´here in Patagonia. Theo came to this place in the 1950s with his brother, the government offered free land to settlers who could clear the land and live in this place where there were no roads. They married sisters and began clearing the land. Today they offer guests these sweeping views and the food that they grow and the meat from their animals.

Theobaldo is a lean trim man who works out by walking the hilly grounds and doing farmwork. He said that they used to be able to cut down trees and burn to clear the land, but now, they need government permits–and since his son is a forest ranger he can´t cut any corners. It rains a lot here this time of year, but they are sporadic sprinkles, not downpours, and the sun often keeps shining while the raindrops fall. There is actually more than one road here in this land; but only one road goes north to south; and everybodys house is off of the same road: