La Familia Chilena

Navimag

On Wednesday Nov. 5 we entered Chile from Ushuaia, Argentina, the southern most town of the world except for a small fishing community. We arrived in Puerto Natales, Chile for our Navimag adventure. Navimag is a cargo ship/ferry that starts in Puerto Natales and goes to Puerto Montt or vice a versa.

We boarded at 21:00 on Thursday to leave at 5:30 in the morning on Friday. The first day was fairly simple. We got a briefing on our trip that showed our route and safety rules. To pass time, we watched some movies, one of which was a documentary called Survival Island. It starred the wildlife of South Georgia Island, like penguins and albatross. The scenery was a lot like the west of Washington State, green with vegetation and cold with snow. Something different to Washington were the glaciers that went to the sea. The boat went off route so we could see one closer.

Saturday was similar until we entered the only spot of open sea, The Golfo de Penas, around 16:00. This was the very rough spot of the trip and lasted 14 hours. My mom and Sinclair both threw up but I didn’t, although at times I felt like it. We were sitting in the highest part of the ship, the pub deck, which had some tables that were constantly threatening to take us out by sliding across the floor. Because the ship was rocking too much, we weren’t able to have dinner so they gave us some rapidly made sandwiches. Since there was nothing to do, I slept the most of the time. Luckily, the rough spot ended around 4:00 the next morning. At breakfast the informers informed us that, on a scale of 1-12 for storms, ours was a 7.

The next day was our last day on the boat. Unfortunately mom was still feeling sick but she mustered up enough strength to play bingo and dance into the night. She won a bottle of Jonnie Walker Red Label whiskey and I got a Navimag information book for being the loser. Then we had a dancing fiesta!!!!!!!! When we arrived in Puerto Montt in the morning, we had to get off and say good bye to our new friends, 2 Canadians, 1 New Zealander, and 2 Dutch. For me, I would recommend it and it was nice not to cook or do the dishes. Some people said it was the highlight of their trip. It was fun, but it wasn’t my highlight. -CARSEN

Argentina travels

I’m sincerely sorry for not updating you on our travels and the belated post. My mom has November 5/ 08 when we entered Chile.

When we got to the farm in Argentina we were so exuberant but it turned out to be too intense. We were at loss for the jubilant social connection we were looking forward to. It felt like the only thing we did was work. I goofed off a little with Juan and Luca (Josephine’s son and his friend) and we had some good chuckles together. In addition, we started a relationship with Josephine. It was easier with her because she spoke English. The other people at the farm spoke Spanish, not very clearly or slowly, so it was even harder to have a connection with them. Something else we missed on the farm was group activities. We had our own house thus, we didn’t do much together except eat. We were cooking the meals, or Josephine was, but we would’ve liked to do it together. I guess things were the way they were. On October 24, 2008, we left Chacra Millalen.

Our first stop was Esquel, 2 hours south, where our packages from Grandma were being held hostage in customs. When we went to get them they told us we had to pay the postage and declaration price of the package halved to retrieve them! Over all, it was going to be about $250 (plus the $200 my grandma had already spent to send them). Furthermore, we had to pay for a hostel and food in Esquel. We decided not to take the packages, but to have them returned to the USA. The dreary and boring stop of Esquel was over so we moved on to our next destination – Puerto Madryn, on the coast of Argentina

After arriving in early morning, we found a hostel. Immediately, we went in search of Facturas, the amazing group of pastries special to Argentina. While walking on the beach we got to see a couple of whales showing off their stuff by flipping around their tails in the water. In the evening, we were talking with 2 other travelers at the hostel. They wondered if we worked on a farm in Ecuador with Jane and Rupert. As a matter of fact, we did. We had just met Prue (Jane’s sister) and her friend, Jess! This was not planed nor did we know they were even here, in Argentina. Working and traveling, they have been going for almost 4 years starting in England, and then went to Canada. They are from Australia. With nothing planned, we decided to do some research about seeing the penguins.

We rented a car to go to Punto Tombo where you can see little Magellan penguins. It was cheaper for 5 people to rent a car than to take a bus so we saved some lettuce and drove. The penguins were so funny. They dig holes in the ground and then sleep in them all the time. The ones that have holes in the sun looked like they were dead. We left the little penguins to their peaceful lives and moved on.

Jess and Prue spent a fair amount of time in Wales so they were interested in some of the small Welsh towns in Argentina. While we were down south and with a car, we checked some of them out. The special thing about Welsh towns is the Tea Houses, selling teas and cakes of sorts. They are very high priced so we chose to head back Puerto Madryn where we caught a bus south the next morning.

Jess and Prue were planning to go to El Calafate so we tagged along. El Calafate is a small town that is close to a huge glacier, Perito Moreno. We rented a car and headed up. We stayed there for three hours waiting for the glacier parts to calve. I caught one on video. The unfortunate part was that it was freezing cold so we couldn’t stay there for too long. After our satisfactory calveings we hopped in our compact Chevy and drove to our hostel. We had to part ways with Jess and Prue in El Calafate. We headed down to Ushuaia, the southern most town except for a small fishing community (but that doesn’t count) while they took a 29 hour bus up to Bariloche.

Ushuaia is a popular attraction for travelers because it is El Fin del Mundo. It is a perfect port for Antarctic exploration departures and arrivals. We wanted to go on an excursion but it was uber expensive. It costs $7,000 last minute for a trip or $27,000 for a real exploration. Maybe some other time. In Ushia there is a large National Park. We went to that and on a small boat tour to see different types of birds and Sea Lions. After freezing our buns of in Ushuaia we headed up to our Navimag adventure in Puerto Natales. –Carsen

Chilean Magic

Well, I’ve learned a few things about hospitality recently. While traveling, there are many opportunities to experience generosity and for us, it seems that Chile is a place overflowing with these.

Arriving in Punto Arenas, Chile from Ushuaia, Argentina, we had a few obstacles to overcome. Only 10 minutes before our connecting bus left for the night, neither a Chilean nor Argentinean peso in hand and the money exchange office closed for the day, we were met with the kindness of a fellow passenger who offered to exchange USD for Chilean pesos. Voila! I boarded the bus while it was leaving the parking area (my children had already climbed on, if you’re wondering)!

We spent one night in Puerto Natales then embarked on our 4 day boat trip up the southern island channels of Chile. The highlights: 16 hours of nausea from the Gulf of Penas and a few new friends, one of whom became our impromptu Chilean guide for the week.

Now, we are being hosted in a fishing town, a 2 hour bus ride from our arrival port, with a family willing to absorb us as if we were their own flesh and blood. We arrived, unannounced, riding the coat tails of our nuevo amigo Chileno, an old friend of this family. Within the first few minutes we were eating crab being shelled for us by our hostess and “machas” (a type of clam) from the shell, being served faster than we could gulp them down. After spending the night and most of the next day, we were invited to stay for the week, so our friend left and we remained! We have eaten more machas than we could’ve imagined and experienced our first “curanto” – the Chilean version of a seafood/smoked meat combo, traditionally baked in the ground, but now, often boiled for ease, including machas, clams, sausage, smoked meat, and yes, chapaleles!!! Really, chapaleles are a simple food, a dough made of flour, oil and water, made into patties then steamed with the rest, but the way the word rolls off your tongue, well, it makes you want to announce their arrival with great fanfare.

If things turn out as we’ve planned (Plan Q, that is!) we will move on to the coastal surf town where our Chilean friend grew up, Pichilemu. Who knows what generosity we’ll find there, but maybe, just maybe we’ll be able to extend some of our own. – Cinnamon

Floating Islands: Lake Titicaca

On Lake Titicaca there are about 60 floating reed islands; 40 of which support and are supported by tourism and the other 20 which don’t because they’ve chosen that life. The reed islands are made out of floating reed roots and reeds stalks and they each hold about 4-6 families. To make the base they lash together chunks of root with string, and then they make layers of reeds on top. The root is usually about 3 feet thick and then the layers of reeds make up another 3 feet approximately. This means that the islands are a total of 6 feet deep floating on 45 feet of water. The people on the islands then go on to make houses boats out of dried reeds. Almost every family has a solar panel on there roof that they use to get electricity.

For food they eat the fish from the lake, the birds and the eggs of the birds. To get other things like sugar, flour and fruits they will go to Puno and sell their fish for money to buy other things or they will go to the peninsula and barter for other supplies. The people on the islands also make money from tourism. The men make mini reed boats and the women make tapestries. The women want you to believe that they make all the tapestries by hand but when you see that another women is offering you the exact same one its hard to believe that they are all hand made. It amazes me how these people have taken the resources available and made a life out of it. -Sinclair

Fausto's Farm in Perucho, Ecuador

Over the mountains and through the jungle of Ecuador, there lives a man. A man named Fausto Ayala. Fausto lives on several congested hectares of farmland outside Perucho village. His interesting personality allows him to live a solitary life. On his remote farm, he has a number of different things growing including shade grown coffee. On this visit I learned about Fausto’s way of life and personality.

Fausto is a quiet, hardworking man, living and working as a caretaker for 100 hectares of land. Over time he saved money and bought 10 of these hectares for his own. He lives all by himself in a three room adobe shack, with no one in sight. Although Fausto does mason work in Perucho and has some contact with people then, he still leads a very secluded lifestyle. When he does have human contact, he loves to talk. Another indication of his remoteness is that he has very little gas and no electricity. He has to carry the gas for 2 hrs on his back over the rough landscape.

The scenery leading to his farm is very amazing. There are small mountains surrounding the farm which makes the hike 1-3 hours from Perucho. We think Fausto scampers because he usually takes only one hour. Once you arrive, every thing is wild. It is more like a jungle than a farm, as you can't see the production until you walk right up to it. One of the cool features that you might stumble across is a waterfall that has so many minerals in the water, leaves and sticks are calcified in time as the water flows over them. The effect is similar to freezing, except it hardens the material with minerals instead of temperature change. All of the fields are weed filled but products are still growing.

Fausto has a lot of production but not much variety. There are a number of coffee plants intermixed with large trees that give shade. Mandarin trees are growing in patches that get more sun. Sugar cane makes up most of the land like a jammed “forest”. Off to the side, there are a few papaya and banana trees, but a type of cat has been eating them so the fruit is scarce. Unfortunately, Fausto does not have a good system for harvesting, storing, transporting and selling his products. As a result, he doesn’t make money off of his farm. Even though Fausto eats what he can from his farm, he still buys other food, like tuna and grains.

I am very impressed by Fausto and his solitary skills. I find it amazing that he can work and live all by himself. The landscape is very beautiful and it is a perfect place to have a farm. However, it is so far away he needs a better system for organizing the sale of his production to get more buck for his bang. After this dazzling visit to Fausto’s farm, I had a better understanding of living by oneself, away from civilization and being resourceful.

Carsen

Chacra Millalen

El Hoyo, Chubut, Argentina. It is full on BEAUTIFUL here!! I’m in love with this place. It reminds me so much of places I’ve been in Washington, Montana or Oregon. The bus ride here from Buenos Aires was across the entirety of central Argentina (most of which was at night) and while some that we saw rivaled the barrenness of central Washington, randomly a few beautiful lakes would appear to spice it up. The last few hours we traveled through beautiful snow covered mountain ranges, again with lakes dotting the landscape.
Now the farm! They have about 15 hectares, part of which is pasture land for 2 cows and 3 horses. The rest is orchard, garden and grounds. Right in our back yard are many snow covered peaks that are just begging us to explore (if I had only brought my skis!!). The place functions as a large garden/fruit orchard and what you might call a small cabin/retreat center /camp / community. Our hosts, Josephine, Fabio and their 14 yr old son Juan, have their own house, slightly separate from the main area. There is a community building with a kitchen and group eating area (for about 40 people) where we have most of our meals, although we are only 5-8 folks right now. Above and attached are 2 separate sleeping quarters and 3 bathrooms they rent out to tourists. We are staying in a small house, fully equipped with kitchen, bathroom, one bedroom and 4 bunks in the living room. It’s very comfortable and so nice to be able to settle in. There is another house that they use for over winter rental and summer per day rentals. Lastly, there is one more sleeping area, for about 3-4 people, above the large cellar/pantry building. Right now, a friend who has been living here for about 7 years is using it until his house is ready on his own property, about 25 km away. All of the buildings have been built and are maintained by Fabio.
In the beginning, they used to host more large groups but now it is mainly used by tourists and volunteers like us. At various times, they have long term residents sharing in their endeavors. Josephine does most of the cooking, but we are getting into the groove of making some meals ourselves. We try to incorporate as much produce from the farm as we can, so although they purchase grains, spices, cheese, etc. Every meal so far has included what could grow over the winter….carrots, lettuce, spinach, leeks, chard. All very fresh and crisp and wonderful!! There are 70 or so garden beds (3-4ft X 25-30ft), tons of raspberries, and fruit and nut trees: peach, apple, elderberry, quince, plum, and walnut.
In the surrounding area, there are cabanas galore for tourism, which seems to be local tourism, i.e. people getting away from the cities to spend a few nights in the country. Beyond that, this area is known for its fruit production. Every few km is another place advertising jams and artisan products. A little like you might find in the San Juans. The farm here is also into that production and one of their main supporting endeavors beyond selling their fresh, organic produce is to sell their jams, vinegars, teas, and essences.
Life here is more developed than other areas we’ve been so far. I’d say 2nd world on the verge of 1st. I’m sure there is still poverty, but far less rampant than Ecuador and Peru. Houses are complete with roofs AND windows!
Everyday so far has been beautifully sunny with the crisp morning air of early spring. We feel very comfortable and at home here – this is definitely a place we were supposed to come! - Cinnamon

Macchu Picchu

Friday the 29 of August 2008: We woke up at 4:30 so that we could feel at least a little less touristy by walking there instead of taking the bus. So at 5:15am we began our journey to Machu Picchu by climbing at least 500 stairs. At the beginning of our hike it was still dark out and it would have been beautiful to watch the sunrise from the hillside on the stairs if it hadn’t been so foggy. It took us an hour and a half total to make it from Aguas Calientes (the small tourist town in the valley) to the gate at Machu Picchu. When we arrived at Machu Picchu it was still foggy and it stayed that way until about 9:30. As we entered, we were confronted by a guide offering his services to us, so with him and a few other people we began our tour of Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu is amazing. I can only wonder how these people came up with the ideas for construction and how they made it happen. The thing I found most interesting about Machu Picchu is that it was never discovered by the Spaniards. At Machu Picchu there are multiple temples because the idea of Machu Picchu was a religious one and it was all about worship and connecting with Mother Earth. My favorite spot at Machu Picchu is this room with tons of trapezoidal cubbies in the walls. These cubbies were for holding idols. If you stick your head in a cubby and someone else sticks their head in another one and you both make and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh sound at the same time you begin to hear the other person’s voice through the stone between the cubbies. It was very weird. Sinclair

Cusco Macchu Picchu

Cusco is a tourist mecca for all those seeking access to Machu Picchu. I find it overwhelming that within 2 blocks you can encounter up to 15 store fronts offering treks to the jungle, rafting trips, mountain biking and something involving small reptiles resembling crocodiles (caymans most likely). 5 minutes after being let out of the taxi we met our first person offering all sorts of services. At that moment, not having any clue about a hostal, having a son about to pass out from a combination of altitude and having thrown up in the airport in Ecuador at 6:00am and a daughter recovering from the same the night before, wegladly accepted his guidance. It was only several hours later after he was still hanging around the hostal that I realized he was waiting for a tip. Dumb gringa! And while I was grateful that he directed us, I soon was wary of the cheap trips he was offering us as being those that are so discounted it means you are sacrificing your experience, but they are not telling you about that!
After the gut wrenching experience of committing to spending hundreds of dollars, we decided to go to Macchu Picchu on our own. In the end, we found a couple of cheaper hostals than I expected so the whole journey was not as painful as it could have been. We stopped over in the small town of Ollantaytambo (one of the hardest names in Spanish for me personally to prounounce). There is a small site of ruins there and while interesting, I now realize that once you have Macchu Picchu’d you can never go back. While I maintain I am NOT like other tourists, we swarmed with the masses over the wonderous site of these amazing ruins. Trying to transport yourself back to that time…..when community was key, organic farming was the norm and people who were lazy got beheaded. Ahhhhh….my kinda livin’!! Cinnamon

Michael´s Farm

Michael was our host on the first farm we visited. It is his father’s farm and he is working to make it a certified organic farm. He will get the permit in Septmeber 2009. He has two pieces of property. One is behind his house and the other is a ten minute walk from the house.
“The Backyard Farm” is a plot small plot of land that was, and still is, overgrown in some spots. When we got to the farm there was a small plot that had already been dug out and shapped for irrigation and was ready to plant. We think that the other volunteer cleared that out the week that we weren’t there(lucky him). There were a couple of compost heeps and another less overgrown plot that was behind some trees. The rest of it was over grown and out of shape. It looked like we were some of the first people to weed in a while.
We only went to the other plot of land one day. That land was more like an orchard. It was pretty overgrown too. There were a few distinguished paths but that was all you could really see. There were some coffee trees, an avocado tree,a chiramoya, and mandarins, but otherwise it didn’t have that much. There was a farm right next to this one that had mandrins. They were all in rows and you could tell some hade put some work into it. Overall, Michael’s farm was overgrown and a small production. Carsen

La Primera

OK-so I got you all excited by saying we had a blog, and THEN, there was nothing on it! How clever of me. We actually have been away from internet for several days so I have an excuse. Our 3 wks in Ecuador has rapidly come to a close, so it seems somehow appropriate that I am just now writing a post from the Quito house of our host Michael. I´m not sure I´ll post pics yet, so you´ll have to be on the edge of your seat for that. The farm is the family farm that belonged to his father. It is right in the center of a little town, Perucho, about an hour and half away from Quito. His family is one of the orginal families in town, so he jokes about being related to just about everyone, unless they´ve moved to town in the last 20 years. The surrounding area and other towns are all farming communties, often negotiating terrain that is so steep you can hardly imagine the dirt doesn´t all run off with one big rain storm. He has about 2 hectares of land, enough to produce some food to sell at the Quito farmer´s market during the height of the season. Unfortunately, because of an extremely wet rainy season, not much was growing when we got there. We did eat a lot of good vegetarian food, but not as much was provided from the farm as we had hoped. However, rice and lentils DO taste better on rural land in Ecuador! Apparently, we missed the Chiramoya season, which is supposedly one of the best fruits on earth, creamy and sweet. Michael is in the process of getting his farm organically certified. While doing that, he is also trying to convert some of the other farmers. We helped work on several other farms, all belonging to relatives! That´s one way to start a revolution I suppose. The biggest polluters in the area are the flower farms. While they employ several hundreds, they do not use safe pesticide management procedures and their use of pèsticides is extremely high. As you might guess, the US is a huge import of Ecuadorian roses, so think twice before you buy that next bouqet. I guess I could write for days, so I´ll try to stick to the highlights. Some revelations - they shovel shit in Ecuador just like in the states! Our most ¨exciting¨ opportunity to experience this was a chicken farm. We got dropped off, just us gringos, and embarked on the task of cleaning a 15´ by 40´ building of slopping wet, 8¨ inch deep chicken business. Oh yeah, there was a handful of dead chickens to boot. After one of the volunteers puked, he ran back down to the farm and told Michael about the conditions. We were NOT required to finish. Yes, we are paying to have this volunteer experience!! I joke, but it has been wonderful. We enjoyed a trip to the coast to an Ecotourist farm called Rio Muchacho. It was interesting because it was a completely different set-up from our host farm. Much more established and because it catered to tourists, there was this strange mix of tourist, volunteers, Ecuadorian staff, and students for a permaculture class. I spent a fair amount of time trying to figure out everyone´s role. And, yes, we had another opportunity to move some poo! This time horse and cow. This farm was particularily interesting because they have several active waste reuse systems - grey water, methane gas collection for the kitchen, and various different composting systems. Randomly one afternoon, while Ramijio (Michael´s cousin) was driving us around in his flower farm transportation bus, we stumbled upon a small yogurt and cheese making factory in one of the towns higher up in the mountains. We were so excited we took a field trip back 2 days later to check in on Raquel milking her 11 cows, then helped start to process the yogurt and bag some cheese made the day before. Oh this cheese!! It is called queso fresco and I´m not sure if we can get it in the states. It is wetter than Cotija and more of a fresh mozzerella consitency. Our volunteer teams have eaten 1 to 2 bricks of this a day!! Carsen endured a 7 hour night bus ride where we were stuck in the last 3 seats on the bus with a raging fever. Luckily, that was the ONLY symptom! The busses drive CRAZY fast here and I woke up several times thinking ¨Don´t look, you don´t want to know!¨ When one passed on a hairpin turn I realized praying might be a good practice after all. The the last 2 days saw his fever arise again, followed by me getting it and Sinclair getting a stomach bug. We´re flying tomorrow, so I hope we are all feeling better. Fortunately, we have not had any problems with ¨the travelers plague¨ (you know what I´m talkin´about!) but we´ve had a very conscientious host. Traveling on our own in Peru might present us with some different circumstances! We´ll have more to say about it on the next blog......