Valle Chacabuco, Chile (March 7-March 30, 2008)

Sunset from the front porch of our cabin at the estancia.

The first week of March I met up with a friend from my two summers working in Glacier National Park, Becky. Knowing that I was going to be traveling for a while in South America, she invited me to join her for 3 weeks of volunteer work at an estancia (ranch) in Patagonian Chile. After a few days hanging out in Coyhaique, Chile, I met up with Becky and her friend from home, Olivia, and we took a 6 hour bus ride to a crossroads in the middle of nowhere. After nearly an hour of confusion and not quite knowing what to do, someone from the estancia finally arrived to take us the 20km or so to where we would initially be staying.

Me, Olivia and Becky.

The estancia where we were working was called the Estancia Valle Chacabuco and comprises about 185000 acres of land. It was purchased a few years ago by an American named Doug Tompkins (founder of The North Face and Esprit) and his wife Kris (former CEO of Patagonia Clothing Company). Doug has purchased large chunks of land around Chile and Argentina with a goal of preserving the land as natural areas. In fact, he has already opened one of his land holdings to the public (Pumalin Park). He has received some resistance from locals, as many don´t really believe that an American would want to come in and buy such huge chunks of land for purely conservation purposes. The fact that he has tried to hand over these lands to the Chilean government so that they can indeed be opened to the public has allayed some of these fears.

Crossing a river on the way to work.

Our job for the three weeks was to help, along with a group of other volunteers, remove fences from the estancia. The old fences from when the estancia was an actual working sheep and cattle ranch impede the migration patterns of the local animals (mainly guanacos and a type of deer called the huemul) and also detract a lot from the aesthetics of the landscape. Removing the miles and miles of fences truly did transform the landscape and hopefully will help restore some of the original wildlife migration patterns.

¨La Juanina¨

The first part of our stay at the estancia took us another 50 km into the ranch where we stayed at an old cabin with sweeping views across an amazing valley. The cabin, called ¨La Juanina,¨ did not have electricity nor did it have running water in the bathroom (we did have a spring which fed into a sink in the kitchen). It did have a wood stove in the kitchen which allowed us to make hot meals and further provided us with much needed heat. Baths were taken in a nearby stream which was some of the coldest water I have ever experienced. I have gone swimming in some very cold bodies of water including alpine lakes in Glacier National Park and the north shore of Lake Superior, however nothing compared to the truly icy feel of this stream. Baths were short and to the point and always full of dread, however very refreshing once they were over with and we were back near the wood stove.

Hard at work.

Our days at Juanina consisted of getting up around 8 am for breakfast and hiking up a nearby mountain to a fence line about an hour away. Once at the fence line, we would divide up the labor, some people clipping wires, other people rolling up the sections of fence and others removing the sturdy fence poles from the ground. The work, although not terribly exciting in itself was enjoyable because of the incredible mountain surroundings we were in as well as the amazing work crew we had. There was a also a great sense of accomplishment and I think we all felt pretty good about the work we were doing and how it would help turn the estancia into a giant public park. We would usually end the day between 4 and 5 pm and hike back to the cabin where we would prepare dinner and spend the evening sipping boxed wine and reading. I should also mention that one of our staple food items was sheep. When the estancia was purchased, it came with thousands of sheep. One way to get rid of the sheep is to feed the employees and volunteers lots of sheep. Every so often, someone would come visit us and drop off a huge chunk of fresh sheep meat. Absolutely delicious, especially after a hard day of manual labor.

Cooking sheep on a bicycle wheel grill at our hobo camp.

After finishing up our time at La Juanina, we were moved to a place where we had to camp for several nights. This place was a newer chunk of property that had just been acquired a few weeks prior to our arrival. As such, there was a lot of general cleanup work that needed to be done in addition to the usual task of fence removal. This part of our time was fun because we set up a nice little hobo camp. We constructed chairs, tables, grills and water collection devices out of random materials found on the property. Because we made everything ourselves, we had a great sense of pride in our new temporary home and thoroughly enjoyed our time here.

We also had a few other random days of work that involved driving a large dump truck around the estancia picking up rolls of fence and fence posts to take them to their disposal site. Another day we were working to remove a fence that went through a swamp. Despite having rubber boots, there were times when I was up to my belly button in swamp scum. Part of the fun I guess.

On our second to last night at the estancia, we were treated to an incredibly rare animal sighting. We were driving along a road when all of a sudden about 25 yards off the road we saw a puma (mountain lion) walking away from a fresh guanaco kill. Many of the rangers at the estancia, despite having been there for many many years have never seen a puma as they are incredibly elusive creatures, very rarely putting themselves in a position to be seen by humans. It was really amazing to actually get to see such a beautiful animal in the wild with my own eyes. The picture above really doesn´t do it justice as this is taken in poor light, through glass and with a really basic camera. Please trust me, it was awesome.

My three weeks at the estancia really flew by and I am really anxious to come back to visit to see the progress that will be made over the coming months and years to prepare the park to be opened to the public. I also met some really incredible people who were also volunteers and am really glad to have been able to spend so much time with them in such a beautiful setting.

View hiking back to ¨La Juanina¨ after a day pulling fences.