Añelo, a once forgotten town 600 miles southwest of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is now in the middle of an oil boom as a result of the discovery of the Vaca Muerta shale field. My first experience there, in February 2014, was terrifying, and it plunged me right into Añelo’s way of life. Añelo has an unusual and sharp geographic slope that splits the town into two areas with different altitudes. The industrial park and the new urban development are located on the high plateau. By the time I first visited the town, the upland was already cleaned of brush, smoothed and divided into lots for several oil companies that fenced in their areas where trucks and cranes operated. Signs along the side of the road pointed to exploration areas in Vaca Muerta, the world’s second largest shale gas reserve and fourth largest shale oil reserve.