Far from roads, cowboys thrive in Brazil wetlands
‘It’s better to guide the herd when it’s raining’
CORUMBA, Brazil, June 12: Greener pastures grow under water in the Pantanal de Mato Grosso do Sul, an immense area of wetlands in western Brazil.
On his feet hours before sunrise, 66-yearold Joao Aquino Pereira readies the horses and wakes up the herd of oxen for a new day in the three-week pilgrimage in search of grass to graze.
“Today’s going to be one of those days,” says the old cowboy, forecasting the weather by looking up at the red skies. “It seems like it’ll be a hot one and we still need to prepare the cattle to go across the river.”
The crossing of the Taquari River requires all the skill Pereira has amassed in decades of experience. Along with five other mounted cowboys, he’ll have to line up and guide 520 oxen through the depths of the overflowing river. Each day, the men and animals traverse about 11 miles (18 kms), from dawn until 3 pm, in temperatures averaging about 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) during the day. At different moments during the trip, the men cross paths with macaws, deer and pit vipers, all seemingly unfazed by their presence.
Dressed with leather chaps on top of their jeans, Stetson hats and machetes attached to their waists, before setting off the men finish their breakfast with terere, a yerba mate tea served ice cold from a cup made out of an ox horn.
Working as a cowboy is still a way of life in rural areas of Latin America’s largest nation. While ranchers on the coasts can transport cattle with trucks, the excess of water and the shortage of roads make that impossible in the biggest floodplain in the world.
Ranchers here contract out the grazing business, and being a cowboy is reasonably well-paying for the region. Cowboys earn an average of $18 dollars a day, and the leader of the group can earn as much as $285 per day.
Rene de Almeida, 70, has been leading groups since he was 25.
“It’s better to guide the herd when it’s raining,” he explains, adding that once he led a group for 97 days straight. “During droughts, the land is too hot and the oxen get tired and thirsty.”
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NEW HAMPSHIRE: Charles Montgomery welcomed the challenge of hiking the steep terrain of the Connecticut River headwaters in remote northern New Hampshire, admiring the birds, the plants, the woods. He also loved the opportunity to pray.
For four days, the 82-year-old retired doctor was part of the first leg of a 40-day pilgrimage of canoeists and kayakers along the 400-mile river, New England’s longest. The group traded cellphones for paddles to partake in a journey, the first event of its size on the river, which flows from the Canadian border to Long Island Sound.
“You begin to let go of stuff,” said Montgomery, of Walpole, New Hampshire.
The Episcopal dioceses of New England and a group called Kairos Earth organized the “River of Life” pilgrimage connect with one another and with nature, and have fun.
“It’s become something far greater than I had imagined,” said Hirschfeld, who traveled the first leg and plans to get back on the river with his daughter next week in Hanover, New Hampshire. There are times, he said, when all you hear is the sound of loons and paddles hitting the canoes.
Nine people started the first leg of the trip on May 31, hiking where it was too shallow to paddle at first, before venturing into bodies of water that eventually fill into the river.
Participants, led by several guides, average about 10 to 12 miles per day, rain or shine. They set up campsites and explore a different spiritual theme each week. The focus of the first part of the tour was people’s connection to the wilderness and water.