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.
Napping dogs in front of the Presidential Palace.
Presidential Palace.
Catie and I in Santiago.
A splash of color in Valparaiso.
View of Valparaiso and the Pacific Ocean from Pablo Neruda´s house.
After our less than satisfactory experience in Torres Del Paine National Park, we went further south to Tierra del Fuego, and island at the very bottom of South America. Ushuaia is a city on the southern tip of this island and calls itself ¨The End of the World¨although there technically is a small village just across the Beagle Sound (and therefore further south).
As we were standing there admiring the enormous waves (from about 20 feet above the water), one slammed into the side of the boat and completely soaked my friend Becky. As we sat there pointing and laughing at her misfortune, another wave crashed into the boat and soaked all of us. Then as we were running to get to the indoor observation area yet another wave crashed into the boat and ensured that we had no dry clothing on. As fun as it was to get hit unexpectedly with freezing cold water while exposed to fierce wind, it was definitely not fun to sit on a bus for the next 8 hours while soaking wet. We definitely got Magellaned.
Ushuaia provided us with some much needed relaxation and modernity after our disaster in Torres del Paine. Although not a huge city, it certainly has a lot of charm and was well worth the visit. Along with the novelty of being in the southernmost city in the world, it gave us the chance to recharge ourselves, get some time outdoors and just enjoy the last few days that we would be traveling together.
I wish I could tell you that as expected, Torres del Paine National Park was one of the best parts of my entire trip. I wish I could tell you that I spent 10 glorious days backpacking around one of Patagonia´s, if not the world´s most beautiful mountain ranges. But alas, I cannot.
After several group discussions, we decided to pull the plug on the backpacking trip. Rangers had told us that the weather would last for at least 3 more days and that they could not make any kind of accurate predictions after that time period. Although we were very disappointed to make this decision, we all knew that since we were soaking wet and didn´t have the proper gear, it probably would not be the best idea to continue. On top of that, we could not see the peaks of the mountains (or much of anything else either), which was really the main point for visiting the park. Even if we had continued the trip in the park, we all would have wanted to return again in the future to see the park in clear weather (and actually see the mountains that make it famous - the Torres and the Cuernos). We decided that given various time pressures, everyone would prefer to abort the trip and hopefully check out another place in Patagonia with better weather. On the third day, we hiked out via the same 18 km trail that we hiked in on starting at 6:45 am in the dark and in a blizzard, eventually making our way back to Puerto Natales. In a typical sick twisted move by the park, the clouds parted for a brief 15 minute period as we were on the bus on our way out of the park giving us a look at some of the mountains. So beautiful, yet I really didn´t want to look.
After hiking around the northern sector of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, we headed a few hours south to check out El Calafate and the southern sector of the park. The crown jewel of the entire park is the Perito Moreno Glacier, a massive glacier that is 5 km wide, 60 meters tall (at the edge where it meets the water) and 30km long that is accessible by bus. Although it requires no sweat to get there (and is therefore overrun with tourists), it is still one of the most amazing things I have seen on the trip.
A visit to the glacier basically involves walking around to different lookout points getting different angles on the ice. The glacier truly is alive as it is constantly making various noises as the ice settles, cracks and slowly moves into the lake. We were also treated to several chunks of ice calving off the glacier and into the water below. Twice we saw enormous 60 meter tall columns plunge into the lake and several times we saw smaller chunks fall into the lake.
Before actually seeing the chunk of ice fall, we would hear what sounded like a shotgun blast followed by an enormous crash as it splashed into the water, sending huge waves out in all directions. Really amazing to watch, but something that really needs to be seen in person to truly appreciate.
After our time at the estancia was up, we crossed the border into Argentina and headed south through the mostly uninhabited Argentine Patagonia. Many buses in Argentina are equipped with an alarm that sounds whenever the driver exceeds the speed limit. On this overnight trip, we had a driver with a lead foot and were treated to an almost constant loud buzzing alarm all through the night as he tried to drive as fast as possible. Eventually, we arrived in a town called El Chaltén, one of Argentina´s newest towns (less than 20 years old), to hike in the northern sector of Parque Nacional Los Glaciares.
Despite being a very popular tourist destination, the town does not have an ATM. This proved to be very problematic for us as we did not have much Argentina money with us. We had just come from Chile and after getting into Argentina immediately hopped on the bus to El Chaltén. We even had to move out of a hostel in favor of another one that took credit cards to try to make our money last. Luckily we scraped by and were able to make it to an ATM a few hours down the road.
As I said, we came to El Chaltén to get some hiking in. We chose to do a day hike to Laguna Torre (around 18 km round trip), a glacial lake at the base of Cerro Torre. Although it did cloud up a little after we started hiking, it was still a great hike with amazing views (and tasty ice).
Sunset from the front porch of our cabin at the estancia.
Me, Olivia and Becky.
Crossing a river on the way to work.
¨La Juanina¨
Hard at work.
Cooking sheep on a bicycle wheel grill at our hobo camp.
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.
