Estancia Monte Dinero

At a junction about 15 kilometers south of Río Gallegos, RP 1 turns southeast through an area of rolling pasturelands and, increasingly, gas-and-oil derricks reminding you that Santa Cruz is an energy storehouse. The gravel road is smooth as far as Estancia Cóndor, an immaculate settlement that belongs on picture postcards (though neighboring farmers consider that the Benetton empire, which now owns Cóndor, is at best an indifferent neighbor in what was once a close-knit community).

Beyond Cóndor, the road deteriorates toward Estancia Monte Dinero, a pioneering sheep farm that has also opened its doors to tourists. Some 120 kilometers from Río Gallegos, 26,000-hectare Monte Dinero benefits from its proximity to the penguin colony at Cabo Vírgenes, but it’s also interesting as a ranch that, unlike most others in the area, is subdivided into relatively small paddocks to manage its 19,500 sheep and fragile pastures more intensively. Also unlike other estancias, it trains its own contract shearers to use manual rather than electric shears, pays them a premium to do so, and shears the ewes prior to lambing to ensure a higher lambing rate.

Founded by the Fentons, another pioneer Patagonian family, Hostería Monte Dinero has four downstairs bedrooms, three with private bath and two with shared bath upstairs, while the casco’s former sun porch has been expanded into an attractive and spacious, but not extravagant, bar and dining room. A small museum holds family keepsakes (including a perfect puma skull), and there’s also a billiard table (not a pool table).

Estancia Monte Dinero (tel./fax 02966/428922, tel./fax 02966/426900, int. 23, turismo@montedinero.com.ar, www.montedinero.com.ar) is open October to April. Rates are US$40/60 s/d with breakfast; lunch or dinner costs US$10 additional. Excursions to Cabo Vírgenes cost US$30 pp, and horseback riding is available for US$10 per hour.