Eating Guanaco!

Ever since H and I saw the vast numbers of Guanacos at Peninsula Valdes we've had ideas about trying their meat. (Guanacos are related to Llamas, Alpacas, and Vicuñas, but live in Patagonia). 

On Peninsula Valdes we asked the fishermen in the fishing village (where we bought local shellfish), and were told that officially they weren't killed or eaten, but unofficially it might happen when tourists weren't around ;) . 

We asked more times and at another place we we told that the cleaner who came on Mondays could get some for us, but we didn't wait there until Monday. 

Later we were told that the butcher at a wee small place called Cerro Sombrero sold it, but we weren't going that way. 

Finally, we figured that it just wasn't going to happen. And then, we went to the museum Puerto Bories, 5km North of Puerto Natales. The museum, housed in The Singular Hotel, is about the previous use of the site and buildings as a meat processing facility where they used to process up to 250,000 sheep a year for shipping to the UK and Europe. 

The museum entry included a drink at the bar, which gave cause for me to take a look at the restaurant menu. Guanaco! I went back to H and told him it was time for us to dress up and have dinner out. He readily agreed. 

Guanaco is a 'healthy meat'. Like Kangaroo, it is virtually free of fat and cholesterol, but very tasty. We both enjoyed it very much. We asked if there was a butcher in town that sold it (to try cooking it ourselves), but were told that supply within Chile is limited because most Guanaco meat is exported... to Holland! 

Anyway, at least we've tasted it now... I read that you can eat Rhea (a bird like an Emu) in Calafate.... Maybe we can look for it next. 

The Puerto Borries Museum was also worth the visit. The sheep processing numbers were amazing. And just the day prior we had driven through sheep being mustered along the road, after we'd passed through them we paused and asked a helper the number of sheep there... 12,000!