The path goes up, leaving Tatón and the Abaucán valley below. And it goes back up even higher. A trail that until recently was only suitable for mules, which collapses with the summer storms, becoming passable only for baqueanos and their horses.
On the journey we can find Elba Araya, carrying a tired goat on his chest. She and her family herd goats and goats to sell in Tatón, by mule, walking, as in the old days in the present times. A whole morning. It's sad, but that's how her grandfather and her grandparents' grandparents survived for generations. There, up on the hill.
We can meet Pedro Morales carrying a freshly butchered goat for Silvestre Suarez to take to town to host a party. He climbs it from the post of Don Gregorio Suarez, La Aguada, a climb between stones that emerged from the bottom of the ocean millions of years ago, crumbled by storms, with the energy of a puma, barely over breath. Don Gregorio Suarez solitary stall.
On the path, with views of the mountain range, the memory of a relative, a friend, who is greeted as he passes by and is left with flowers to remember him, and money to buy wine.
Se sigue subiendo y al final del camino, allá abajo, entre las montañas, asoma minúscula la alameda de Rio Grande. Al acercarse la alameda crece y dentro de su muralla incompetente contra el viento las casitas de pirca, caña y barro construidas alrededor de la Escuela.
"Before we had twenty-four students," says the principal, Doña Elida Morales. She used to get on a mule. And now also when the storms collapse the road .
Only eight families still live in the village. Although scattered in positions two, three, or nine hours from "La Escuela" as they call downtown Rio Grande.
The grandfather Don Antonio Suarez and his grandson Silvestre show us that spinning is not only a women's thing. The grandmother Dona Angélica Tolaba gives the bottle to the guachitos, the orphaned or abandoned goats. Florencia and her son allow themselves to be photographed in the schoolyard. And the teachers discreetly covered, according to the regulations.
Don Angel Sandón and his wife, Marta Suarez, invite us to spend the day at their El Pozo post, a three-hour walk from “La Escuela”. It's time to milk the goats, make cheese like every day when the good weather comes. After the task, mate, homemade bread and artisan cheese. Later, the roast goat.
And back, the long and winding road to the valley.
