Back from the woods, smelling like sweat and bananas.

Well, after 5 long days out in the middle of nowhere, I´m back! And what an incredible hike it was...5 days surrounded by jagged mountains, glaciers, and crystal clear mountains streams. It seriously doesn´t get any better.

Here´s the summary:

Day 1: Crossed the Chacabuco in the rain (I got the unenviable task of going first, which meant that I went in up to my waist before we decided we needed to find a shallower spot to cross) after being dropped off by Luigi around 9am. Stopped briefly to change back into our boots, during which time Jon managed to squash the two bananas that were in the front pocket of his backpack. Swearing (and hilarity for Mack and I) ensued. What a start. From there, we followed old gaucho trails/bushwhacked up the El Aviles valley past gorgeous waterfalls and awesome mountains, one of which was (no joke) red. Jon also managed to squash the two avocados in his backpack. Nice work, Jon. Spent a freezing night camped right along side the river.

Here´s the view from near our first camp. Mack informed me, as we were hiking, that just about everything in the US pales in comparison to what we were seeing. Guess I don´t have to take that trip across the country after all...

Day 2: Continued up the El Aviles Valley, spending most of the time walking along the wide, gravelly valley floor. Climbed over a low pass with a sizeable boulder field and down into Valle Hermoso right as the sun was about to set. Valle Hermoso (Beautiful Valley) was, unsurprisingly, pretty damn gorgeous. It was also a welcome relief to arrive there after a pretty long day of hiking.

Here´s looking east up Valle Hermoso.

Some of the glaciers on the west end of the valley.

Day 3: Hiked east up Valle Hermoso under cloudy skies in the morning. Spent a lot of time bushwhacking through dense woods littered with debris before opting for the wide, open, gravelly valley bottom. Arrived at Lago Verde around lunch time. True to its name (they´re so imaginative down here), it´s toothpaste green. Hiked over a low pass and into the next valley over, then onward toward Lago Jeinemeni. I, once again, had to serve as guinea pig/water rat, and got to cross the river connecting the two lakes first. Thankfully, the water was only up to my thighs this time. Less thankfully, it was friggin cold. And windy.

Mack and Jon walking down the valley toward Lago Jeinemeni.

View from our camp on evening #3

Day 4: Followed a pretty clear trail up the San Antonio valley, crossing a small stream 20+ times (thank you, sandals). The trail wound through mature deciduous forests and would have looked decidedly New Englandish if it hadn´t been for the imposing cliffs on either side of the valley. Reached the top of the valley where there were several lakes of various shades of blue/green/brown, then camped a little ways down the other side.

Day 5: Continued our hike down the other side of the valley (called La Leona). Followed a pretty clear trail and arrived on bluffs above the Chacabuco around 3pm, significantly earlier than we expected. Hiked down, crossed the river, waited about half an hour, and then got picked up by Pablo.

Morning on our last day, looking down the La Leona valley.

Our view down to the Chacabuco...almost done.

Jon crossing the Chacabuco in his brightly-colored underpants.

So that´s the brief run through of the trip. Overall, it was the longest and most remote hike I had been on, and an incredibly rewarding experience. The scenery was mind-boggling, and the fact that I was so far from humanity was surprisingly difficult to grapple with. As I think I´ve mentioned before on here, growing up in the northeast has led me to the assumption that there are usually other people/roads/etc within 2 miles, even if there´s no evidence of them. So being out in such remote valleys, where the nearest major ´road´was at least ten miles away and the nearest person even further, was a fascinating intellectual exercise. Thankfully, all went smoothly.

I´ve talked more than enough for now, so here are some pictures!

The condor, from our hike up Tomangito (before we left on our big adventure). It was amazing to be so close to such a huge bird, particularly when we were standing on the ground and it was flying.

View from the top of Tomangito, looking down toward the estancia and the Chacabuco Valley. What´s incredible about this picture is that you can barely differentiate what elevation things are at--in case you can´t, we were really high up (my tired legs can vouch for that)

The estancia! On the way back from Tomangito.

And here´s the pygmy owl that we saw. The fact that I can take a picture like this with the tiny zoom lens on my point and shoot is testament to just how close we got. For scale, this little guy is about the size of a softball.

Beards!
And here, because all the moms were waiting for them, are pictures of our phenomenal facial hair growth.

Yo.

Jon pensively strokes his red neck beard.

Mack gazes out the window, thinking about how big his mutton chops will be in 3 more months.

Even further into the woods.

The power´s about to shut off, so a quick update:

Spent the last five days rolling fences in the eastern part of the park, 9 miles from the Argentine border. Beautiful valley with jagged, craggy mountains on both sides. Got to live in a house: yeah, you read it: a house. With a kitchen, bathroom, and a BED. It was downright weird to have so many amenities.

Highlight of the week was standing about 5 feet away from a tiny little pygmy owl. Pictures will be uploaded soon. You´ll definitely be jealous--he was a cutie. Oh, and we dissected the owl pellet he threw up. Apparently he likes mouse heads and beatles.

Tomorrow, Mack, Jon, and I are heading out on a 5 day trip to Valle Hermoso. Given that we´re not following any trail and are hiking for 5 days, it should be a pretty epic adventure. It´ll probably (okay, definitely) be the most remote place I´ve ever been.

Another update when I return! Sorry for the brevity.

Detox from the internet lifestyle

Where to start?!


Let me start by saying that I love being away from a computer for a week at a time. Yeah, it makes keeping in touch (and applying for possible summer jobs) exceedingly difficult, but it´s so nice not to have to worry about a phone, e-mail, etc. And it also makes for a very sustainable time period between e-mails--it´s so much easier to have meaningful e-mail conversations when both parties have a week or two of events to write about. So send me e-mails! And more importantly, leave comments! I´d love to know who´s reading this thing.


Last weekend, the whole crew went down to Cochrane for their annual festival/rodeo. It was a smallish affair featuring such events as: shearing sheep, killing sheep, eating sheep, and my personal favorite, riding sheep. Apparently, I now learn, riding sheep is how one gets into bull riding. I´m surprised Scotland doesn´t have more professional bull riders...

There was also quite a bit of wine, which helped to improve my spanish remarkably. Unfortunately, it also limits my ability to talk at length about Saturday evening´s events. Bummer.

We spent both Saturday and Sunday in Cochrane, and then drove back Sunday in the rain. Rain was, unfortunately, a recurring theme this week. We packed up Monday morning in the rain, drove out to our new site in the rain, and set up most of camp in the rain. Got a brief window of nice weather in the afternoon/evening to set up our tents, then a little more rain.

It poured all day Tuesday. Really gross. Oh yeah, and it rained Wednesday afternoon, too.

But besides for the meteorological downsides, our camp last week was the best yet. Both Mack and I had joked that our previous camps felt a little bit too much like New Hampshire. Not this one. The puesto was situated on the banks of the Chacabuco River in Valle Guanaco. All around were some big ass mountains, many of which were covered in snow each morning. Finally, I was in Patagonia.

There was a spectacular sunset on Tuesday evening that turned the whole valley an incredibly warm and vibrant yellow. It was as if, after so much rain, every rock and plant was glowing with appreciation.

One of the best parts about this camp, besides the scenery, was the food. On a few of the evenings, several of us went to a nearby stream (that parallels the Chacabuco) to fish for rainbow trout. On Wednesday, Mack and I caught four (Mack 3, Justin 1) that were fit to eat. They were beautiful fish, and it was really hard to smack their little fishy heads on the side of the bridge. Yes, I am officially a Murderer.

But boy, were they good.

Other notables: On Monday evening, Mack, Jon, and I crossed the Chacabuco and hiked up an overgrown red rock canyon that reminded me so much of the Southwest. Beautiful, but tough going. We were all glad we went on Monday, because the Chacabuco just about doubled in size after all the rain. It was amazing to see just how quickly it grew.

During the days, we worked to destroy a big field full of thistles. Tough, thorny work. But seriously, what´s better than standing in a field of flowers, looking up at a fragile dusting of snow on rocky peaks?

Best of all, yesterday, Mack, Jon, and I hiked up Tomangito. It was a six hour hike from the estancia up to the peak, and it was hot. It was a great hike though, and the views from the top were absolutely spectacular. Nothing like a 360 degree view from above the treeline. I´ll try to upload the video panorama I made next time I´m at the estancia.

The coolest part about being on the top of the peak, though, was that we were about 40 feet from a full-grown Andean Condor, flying. I think he could tell that we were tired, and most likely was hoping that we would keel over and die. He checked us out for about 5-10 minutes before flying off in search of less lively prey. Just awesome (in the true sense of the word).

So, in summary, Life Is Good. I´m so happy to be here, and feel so lucky that I can be having this experience. I do miss you all, though, and hope that things are well wherever you may find yourself.

Until next time!

Pictures! (with Abby Esparza captions)

The view from our most recent camp, taken from the little canal where we caught rainbow trout for dinner. Just spectacular.

Some crazy little kid riding a sheep at the rodeo. Hang on, buddy!

Our last morning at Camp 3. Have I mentioned that the lighting here is always dramatic? Seriously, it´s like living in a National Geographic.

The lake that we hiked to from Camp 3, led by Rene the puma-tracker. Spent the afternoon basking on the beach in the sun (which eventually came out).

Caterpillars! Thankfully we´ve managed to avoid them recently, but they were all over the place at Camps 1 and 2.

This is a view down to the lake where we had our second camp. You can actually see my tent (it´s in the lower right hand corner). This camp was pretty rustic--no building, and only a log seat for a toilet. That being said, it was nice to be able to swim every day after work. I managed to stay significantly cleaner because of it (which my co-volunteers likely appreciated).

Camp 3. This was one of two different buildings on the site. We made and ate most of the meals in this one. Mack, Jon, and I found a sweet place to pitch our tents with beautiful, thick grass. It was almost as good as a real bed. Kind of.

Here´s everyone rolling up fences. With 20-something volunteers, we made crazy progress on the fence and finished sooner than expected.

Mack, Jon, and Jey looking out across Lago Cochrane. A beautiful afternoon hike up the ridge from Camp 2, in which Jey decided it would be a good idea to wear sandals. The stick in the foreground is the same one (above) covered in caterpillars. The little buggers were everywhere.

Check out Mack´s blog for more pictures! A longer update is coming soon!

Back to "civilization"

I´m back at the estancia after another long week working out in the middle of nowhere. This time there was a much bigger group, which changed the atmosphere pretty significantly. Gone were the days of the five of us cooking manjar pizza and playing games around the stove. In were the days of getting as much food as you could, whenever and wherever possible. It was like dinner with a ginormous familly comprised of 20 ravenous 20-somethings. We ate a lot of food.

Since I last wrote, we´ve worked at two different sites. The first was a pretty bare bones camp (read: the toilet was a hole in the ground with a log for a seat, the stove was half an oil can with a pathetic excuse for a chimney, and the "hut" didn´t have walls or a roof). So it was pretty much camping, pure and simple. We did have a beautiful lake right next to the camp, which meant that I managed to remain significantly more clean (ie- still Very Dirty).

Work consisted, of course, of rolling lots of fences. Made a lot more progress with 20 people, though.

On one of the evenings, Mack, Jon, Jey, and I climbed up the nearby ridgeline. Absolutely spectacular views down to the lake, to Lago Cochrane, and to the Northern Ice field (pictures coming soon). The craziest part about the hike were the caterpillars...they´re everywhere here, very similar to when tent caterpillars take over the northeast every few years. The only difference is that these babies sting. Poor Jey made the unfortunate mistake of wearing sandals--there were so many ´pillars that he couldn´t stand still.

The second camp was significantly more posh--two shacks, a stove, and an outhouse. Rolled fences for a day, collected bunchgrass seeds for another day, and took an awesome hike up the valley to a much bigger lake. We hiked in silence because Rene, one of the staff here, was trying to take radio readings of the pumas in the area. Totally awesome to know that there´s a mountain lion 1500 meters ahead of you, heading your way.

The day to day, as you can tell, is pretty monotonous. It consists of waking up, devouring breakfast, rolling fences, devouring lunch, rolling fences, and waiting anxiously for dinner. And then trying to eat as fast as possible in order to get seconds. And then hanging around for a bit before going to bed.

The particulars, though, are spectacular. Hiking down from the ridge as the sun was at its warmest and most dramatic, illuminating beautiful lakes, cliffs, and mountains. Diving into the lake after work, feeling like my lungs had collapsed from the cold. Coming through a narrow valley and getting our first view of the big lake (the one that we took the day hike to), then spending the afternoon lying on the beach. Watching the full moon rise over the ridgeline through a worn wooden window, its light illuminating the marble white cliffs below.

And then driving back to the estancia yesterday afternoon in the back of a caged-in pickup truck. I thought you only got to do that in southern Arizona...

Off to work again.

We´re headed out this morning for another week of work, this time with a much bigger group (16 or so volunteers, versus 5). Hopefully there´ll be more time for photos and updates when I get back!

Hope you´re all doing well!

Ahora mas sabor!

Translation: now more flavor! (This title goes out to Mack and Jon, who have had to deal with just how bad I smell after 7 days without a shower)


Wow...I have not had nearly enough time to catch you all up on the trip thus far. Last time you caught up with me, I was sitting in an internet cafe in rainy Coyhaique. Quite a bit has happened since then, so I´ll try to fill you in on all the highlights.


Coyhaique to Entrada Baker



The bus trip from Coyhaique to the park didn´t look too far on the map, but the whole trip followed the Carretera Austral--a tiny little highway running through Patagonia. I use the term highway pretty loosely, because about an hour into the trip, the pavement disappeared and the road got sketchy. Think narrow dirt road twisting and turning through the mountains, often with precipitous drop offs on one side or the other. It took us 7 hours to arrive.


The Park


The bus dropped us off at a road junction in the absolute middle of nowhere. When you don´t speak Spanish and haven´t ever been to a place before, this can be a little disconcerting. Particularly when the nearest town is at least 18km away. Thankfully, shortly after we arrived someone from the park came to pick us up. On the ride in, we saw our first herd of guanacos and a baby skunk waddling alongside the road. He was pretty adorable, and probably smelled better than I do now.



Work

You can barely make out our camp in this picture.

Shortly after arriving, the park staff drove us further into the middle of nowhere to our first work camp. It was a quick turnaround, and I wish I had had more time to relax and decompress after arriving. The lack of decompression time was made up for by the fact that, as soon as we arrived at camp, the staff put on the first of what I hope will be many asados. For those of you that don´t know, an asado is a traditional Patagonia BBQ. In short, they build a big, smokey fire, and skewer a whole lamb carcass in front of it. The lamb slow cooks over several hours, and the result is absolutely DELICIOUS. You can see a picture on facebook.


Our camp was a grassy clearing in the middle of an open hardwood forest with an outhouse, the smokehouse, and a roughly 10´x30´shack, furnished with a cast iron stove. We carried water from the stream a few hundred yards away and cooked all of our food over the wood-fired stove. In short, it was Life, Little House on the Prairie style.


Work each day consisted of taking down and rolling up miles of fences. Taking them down isn´t the hard part; it´s rolling them up that kills you. Try rolling something, made out of heavy wire that doesn´t want to be rolled, over difficult terrain. I am going to have massive forearms by the end of this.


Highlights

First of all, it´s amazing to be in a place that is so far removed from humanity that you can´t hear cars or even airplanes. I struggled with the fact that I was in Patagonia at times, just because there were so few indicators to clue me in to that fact. The forest we were in looked remarkably like the northeast, the folks we were working with were mainly english speakers, and Mack was there (and Jon is here now). But then Mack and I went on an awesome day-long hike, and it became pretty clear that we were in Patagonia.

Other highlights: they have parrots here! Crazy green parrots that flew around our camp every morning, and foxes, skunks, and guanacos. And apparently that only scratches the surface of the area´s fauna. The group of 4 others that I worked with for the past week have been fantastic, and the food (albeit cooked over a cast iron stove) has been delicious.

Life is pretty darn good. I´m trying to figure out how to share the photos that I´ve posted on facebook--hopefully those will be up soon.

And thanks for leaving comments! It´s really great to hear from you all.