A then there was Juanina

The last three weeks seem like a lot to sum up in one go. So I'll simply say that I've been having a fabulous time in Valle Chacabuco. My job still hasn't really gotten up and going, so I've been taking the time to enjoy all of the wonderful things this place has to offer. My spanish is slowly becoming used to crazy Chilean slang and words like "po" are common place in my vocabulary. I found out today that one of the workers, Pablo, who grew up in the valley has been attempting to confuse me for the last month every time he talks to me, peppering in a litany of Chilean-isms just to see if I would understand. This explains why I had almost given up hope of ever knowing why he would talk to me for a while and then laugh for just as long. I rode in the car with him today back from the eastern side of the park where I've been for the last week and he informed me of this fact, saying that he thinks it's pretty great that I understand what I do understand of their gaucho spanish. I think instead of trying to go for a long period of time summary, I'll just tell you what I did this past week. Last week at some point, I got an e-mail from the woman in charge of the volunteer program, Paula, asking me if I'd like to go out with the short term volunteer group for the week to the eastern part of the park, a place that I hadn't been yet. I was incredibly stoked on the idea and jumped at the opportunity to not only see more of the park but spend some time with the awesome people who came from far and wide to give their time and money to the park. With me, we were a group of 12 people and instead of camping for the week, we got the incredible opportunity to stay at an old gaucho post called "La Juanina." The house is a rambling assortment of rooms, the best one being the kitchen which had in it a wood fired stove. The volunteers (and I) were pretty stoked about not having to cook dinner out in the cold and having a constant heat source. During the day we worked on fence removal, which is actually a quite fun and fulfilling job. My job was to wrangle long strings of wire into circles that we could carry down. Sounds easy until you realize that this stuff doesn't really want to be in the shape of a circle, it would prefer to whip around, taking pieces of your flesh with it, or if you're me, it'll come back and snap you in the nose if you're standing too close to an Aussie named Joe who lost control of his wire briefly. Luckily, we're all outfitted with gloves, are wearing our toughest jackets, and most importantly have eye protection (that's for you, mom).

The BEST part of the fence removal was getting to take down a section of old old gaucho fence that is mostly made of huge tree trunks piled on top of each other and lanced together every 8 feet or so with two upright tree trunks tied together with the same unruly wire. Liz, a gal from St. Louis, Andy, from Colorado, and Joe, the Aussie, and I all attacked a similar section of this wooden fence together. There is a super satisfying crunch that occurs when you lift off a tree and throw it to one side. Liz and I agreed that it was the best workout we'd found yet and you got the final reward of the fence being down. The idea is to scatter the trees as best you can around the area so that they are touching the ground, hence making them easier to biodegrade. We spent an entire afternoon demolishing a fence that spanned across a good size field. All of this with a view of the snow covered mountains looming in the background made for a pretty awesome day.

The following day, we went with Luigi, one of the gauchos who is in charge of the short term volunteer program to Lago Cochrane, to pull some fence there. Luigi has an incredible spirit and is always in the mood for a chat about life at the estancia, his hopes of where the project will go, and to top it all off, he's got a hilarious sense of humor that leaves my cheeks hurting for smiling. Luigi is really passionate about maintaining the gaucho culture in the valley even after it is turned into a park. He thinks it's important that people who come to the area to learn about the wilderness and the beautiful things it has to offer also leave understanding the traditions and hearts of the people who have worked the land for generations. He seems to be on board with the conservation efforts as a whole, but hope they will also try to teach people a bit about local culture as well. His heart is always with the horses it seems. He led us down the hill on a trail that is barely a trail, blazing through calafate bushes that stick you in the legs if you aren't wearing your gaiters. We arrived to a beautiful view of Lago Cochrane (Lake) and pulled fences for the morning. After a lunch with delicious bread made by one of the volunteers, Jamie (a park ranger from Joshua Tree), Luigi informed us that we had the afternoon to hike down to the lake and take a swim before we met the car in the evening to take us back to La Juanina. That afternoon hike is probably one of the most special things I've done here at the park. We picked our way down to the shores of the lake, taking about an hour to drop down from where we were working on fence. At the bottom, big pebbles make up the shore and from one side you can see Tamago and Tamaguito, the two mountains that are right next to the estancia headquarters, from a distance of about 40 kilometers - pretty awesome! A bunch of us stripped down to our skivvies and enjoyed a quick swim. Sara, from Scotland, was paddling about in the water as if it were the middle of summer in the Caribbean. The rest of us got out quickly and dried off in the sun, warming ourselves like lizards on the shore. Directly across from us was "Isla de Puma" where apparently one of the pumas likes to cross the water swimming to look for prey on the island. It would be silly to see a puma swimming I think. The hike back up was a bit longer and harder, but worth the effort for the gorgeous views.

Back at Juanina, I had some of the best food I have had in a long time. The combined efforts of the group produced a beautiful pizza topped with local mushrooms (morels) collected by some of the workers during the day who graced us with their welcome and hilarious presence for two days. These same workers also made us sopapillas (the reason I'm not getting any skinnier here) and gnocchi (made from potato flakes... AMAZING). The sopapillas are this type of fry bread that is absolutely and completely terrible for you and thus tastes incredibly amazing. Especially if you put manjar on it (dulce de leche). Wow.

And that pretty much brings me to today. Back at the estancia. Checking my e-mail and finding some lovely notes from family and friends to remind me that while I get to be here in this beautiful place and that I get to appreciate it for a time, there are also so many beautiful things back home waiting for me to appreciate there as well. Today is one of the interns birthday, a wonderful guy from Santa Cruz named Justin. He takes care of the greenhouse. The whole place is a buzz with excitement for his party. And with that, I shall leave this blog to my room and go outside to enjoy the dropping sunshine and impending dinner.

Pictures coming soon!

With love!

People People Everywhere

A lot has changed since I last had time to sit down at a computer and write something. The day I ran out to the crossroads was the last quiet day until today. The day after that almost all of the interns arrived as well as the volunteers. This is the best explanation for why I haven't been particularly in communication... lots of people dropping in and out with a variety of distracting things to do. The interns (of which there are now 9 total) will all be here for at least 3 months, some for quite a lot longer. There are trail builders, landscapers, volunteer leaders, and an english teacher. The "volunteers" will be here for about a month and their main task is to remove fences and invasive species (my favorite code word for weeding). It's been a good change of pace to have a lot of people wandering around equally lost for words in Spanish and trying to sort out their job responsibilities.

We also had our first guests to the lodge, which threw my normal life schedule completely into the wind. Instead of late breakfasts and tromps in the woods, it was up at 6:30, work until 12:30 then back again at 3:30 until around 11:00pm... These guests only stayed 4 days before being whisked away in one of the private planes used in the area. They were a lovely group of travel agents though and it was nice to have Spanish speaking guests at the lodge. As soon as they left, a family from Britain showed up and they are absolutely delightful. They are pretty much self sufficient though as we just had to make them one dinner and one breakfast and they are taking care of themselves for the rest of the time.

I've still been going on some lovely walks and my spanish is improving... no complaints!