The story
National Puestero Festival in Junin de los Andes
An annual Patagonian rodeo and folk gathering in Neuquén province honoring the puestero, the isolated rancher who tends livestock at remote mountain outposts. Expect bareback jineteadas, roping contests, improvised payada singing duels and chamamé music on a working showground along Route 40, drawing families from the surrounding cordillera valleys.
A puestero tends livestock alone at a remote mountain outpost in the Neuquén cordillera, often days from the nearest town, and the festival named for that figure exists to put a face on rural work most visitors never see.