Partaking in Patagonia

So, we eventually made it to the tip of South America. After over 100 hours in busses (we´re still tallying up the total, Argentina lies ahead) our asses needed some walking. We went to the southern-most city on the continent, Punta Arenas, to see a penguin colony. From there... treks in Torres del Paine (Chile) and Glacier National Park (Argentina). It is COLD down here, and suppsedly summer. We trekked a total of 200 miles all told, and saw maybe a grand total of 12 hours of sunny skies. Mostly we shivered in freezing rain, snow, 100mph wind gusts, and cloudiness. Walking was our savior, nothing like some body heat to keep the icy grip of a Patgonian summer at bay. I have to admit, Colorado winters are more agreeable than Patagonian summers.

Despite (or maybe partly because of) the weather, our adventures were of course top-rate. Patagonia in one word can be described as BLUE. It is an exquisite glacial/alpine/forest/dry plains environment with amazing diversity within compact zones. For a relatively small area (the mountain uplifts are like islands in flat plains), there exists a multitude of microclimates and ecostysems. That was probably the coolest part, within a 4-hour walking day one can experience all four seasons and various types of ecosystems. It changes fast and abruptly.

Between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes down here lies the Southern Ice Field, the largest expanse of landice and glaciers outside of Antarctica, formed by moist Pacific air and cold temperatures. Brian was in glacial heaven. The water is still potable, you can dip your bottle right in the stream and drink up, as it comes directly from close-by glaciers (as long as you don´t think too hard about the climbers up above peeing and pooping near their snow caves on the glacier above). No, really, it´s potable. Given that our guts now have resistance to almost any foreign attack (we suffered a lot to acquire this ablility!!), we drank without a worry. Hmmmm....so far so good!


Isla Magdalena in Punta Arenas where the penguins live.

There is no zoom here, yup, you can theoretically touch them they are so close. They don´t seem peeved at all by human presence. There is a walkway where visitors are supposed to stay, so it´s not so harmfull to the little guys as far as I can tell. They just stare at you in this cute way with tilted heads and then go about their business.

The island has something like 160,000 penguins on it.

The start of the circuit trek in Torres del Paine.

Wild daisies. Karen, it made me think of YOU!

First view of the Glacier Gray at the top of a pass on the Torres del Paine circuit trek. Brrrr.

Glacier Gray in Torres del Paine. After reaching the pass, you walk alongside the glacier for hours. It´s three miles wide and spectacluar.

Glacier Gray unloading into Lago Gray.

Didn´t I say BLUE?? And windy?

The infamous Cuernos in Torres del Paine. The black is sedimentary rock that has yet to erode on top of the granite.

Cerro Torre (the pointy one), one of the hardest peaks to climb in the world. Only a handfull of people have ever made it, and only about 20 people try every year. It has as 10% death rate. Fun.

Cerro Chaltén (Fitz Roy). The bank of clouds behind it are comming from the Southern Ice Field just behind the mountain. The wind is constant here and you are lucky if you can see this peak for just a few hours a week. We got lucky.

The vast expanse of the Argentine pampa. The Chaltén (Fitz Roy) and Cerro Torre peaks rise up abruptly out of this plain.

Glacier Perrito Moreno in Argentina. It is constantly cracking and cleaving off; you can get a feel for it´s size by closing your eyes and just listening.

Brian´s preppy-trekker hybrid look. I don´t know why Gucci hsan´t found him yet!

Chile Lakes District

So there´s too much to comunicate about the absolute sublimity of what we´ve seen in Patagonia. But here´s five words:

Crystalline
Mystifying
Bursting
Pungent
Benevolent

Does that make things clear? I thought so.

We spent six days trekking in the Lakes District, a glacier-carved region with snowy volcanic peaks, trees larger than life, lakes, rainforests, mud, towering granite walls, rich volcanic soil, and jade-blue water that is crystal clear at amazing depths. I now understand why the term for fresh water in Spanish translates to ¨sweet water¨. It is!! The sun rises at about 6am and it doesn´t get dark until 10pm. Yes, 10pm (sun set at 9ish).

So here´s some pics to help, but as always, they never do justice...


Volcano Osorno on All Saint´s Lake. On the way to a trek with a hot springs at one of the camps. I think it was developed especially for me, no?

Approaching the rainforest through a ranching pasture.

I´ve never seen so many waterfalls - large and small - in my life. Not even in Hawaii.

OK, this pic is blurry, but I had to show it. The hot springs were two carved out tree trunks with the water pumped in from a tube running from the source. It was so unique, and of course, AWESOME!

Sorry, technical difficulty. The trees just BEG you to hug them.

Our record stream-crossing in one hike: 5. Water is everywhere. This was a pretty mellow one.

There´s a ski resort behind that mountain.

Second trek: Cochamo Valley, dubbed the Little Yosemite of Chile. But that does not do this place justice. One of the most spectacular hikes we´ve ever been on. Trekking, fishing, climbing, kyaking - and almost unknown among tourists.

One river crossing was on a pulley system.

Beautiful u-shaped carved ¨hanging¨ galcier valley.

A natural rock slide. The video of the whole slide is below. Good times, good times.

We also had a very long conversation with a local rancher that piqued my interest, as I found threads that can be weaved throughout rancher/farmer society in all the world; and probably since the beginning of our sedentary way of life. It went something like this:

Us: So you own the land around here? (observing his ranch by a lake)

Rancher Sebastian: Yes but the Forest Service is always trying to pressure me and tell me what to do, and the government has forgotten us country men.

Us: What do you mean?

RS: My family has been here for generations, I have no income aside from what I can make the land produce. If I can´t make it produce it has no value to me, I have nothing. What do I have if I can´t make the land produce?

Us: Nothing...

RS: Exactly. Then come the capitalists, those large investors, and government, driving up the cost of the land so I can´t expand and telling me that now I´m bordering a National Forest and I can´t cut trees. So how then can I survive if I´m not allowed to clear land for my cattle and for firewood for cooking? We´re too isolated here (no roads, you can only arrive by road and then boat or horse) to get enough cattle to market to compete. And what does the government do to subsidize us ranchers? NOTHING. The government favors the international investors with the money. They squeeze us out of the market, and now I´m not allowed to cut the trees down.

Us: We saw lots of similar things happening in the mountains of Peru. The farmers cut the forest to make land for crops, but because they don´t have the knowledge base for sustainable land-use, they just have to cut more forest after their first plot stops producing. They have no native forest left, less water every uear, growing economic pressures, and are very isolated from a central government that favors large foreign investors.

RS: Forest conservation?? That´s easy, I clear the forest on all of the rich protions of land that produce good grass for my cattle, and leave the steep rocky places alone.

Us (clearly seeing the irony and not commenting): And what about the tourism brought by conservation efforts such as National Forests?

RS: I can´t make a living off of that. What can I do? Take some tourists to see a puma? Let them camp on my land? I get enough money for a few days. The tourists only come here a few months of the year. It is not a source of income for me.

Us: What do ranchers need then?

RS: Politicians who care about us and support what we need. They nitpick us about cutting trees, yet the city is a shithole. They give us nothing.

And the conversation continues...eventually ending on a ¨well you have to press on and be happy¨ note. The truth, a really friendly and smiley guy, but just fed up with the constant conflicts of interest.

The things he said are endemic problems with an agriculturist society. We need land to produce, to give us things. But in order to do that we must manipulate, control, and change what is naturally there for maximum production. Land no longer has value in itslef. Yes, there are sustainable ways to make money off of the land. But the structures needed for it to happen don´t exist in most places.

Environmentalism, capitalism, and globalization (among many other things, but sticking to the topic at hand) have all changed the world, and nobody feels it more than the impoverished and those who still depend directly on the land. Ultimately, our current system of government and economic structuring would have to be fundamentally changed for these conflicts to go away. And we don´t like change. We don´t like restrictions and pressures. People Who Have will always fight to keep it. The rancher saw the government as a puppet to the capitalists of the world and completely negligent to the needs of the small family ranchers and farmers. As for environmentalism, well, it just doesn´t make sense to him.

I understand why people protest the idea of globalization and the World Bank. I´ve seen how these processes can enslave and entrap less fortunate people – and governments – in vicious cycles that they can´t break out of. But I´ve also seen how attracting foreign investment and capital can change people´s lives for the better. Like everything, there´s a little bit of truth in all perspectives.

The rancher is doing what he knows how and sees any impediment or redirection as a personal attack on his ability to make a living. He´s not wrong and he´s not right. Will we all get it right someday??

Chile - San Pedro de Atacama

Each day the equator pulls further away
In this new land the volcanoes hold sway
The driest desert in the world we roam
The landscape seems to hold whispers of home
Geology, aridity, salinity, and fire
Not far underneath churns the Earth´s raging desire
Salt flats, flamingoes, vicuñas, and geysers
Hot springs, cactus - a land without wires
The magic of the desert is palpable and real
For all souls who visit a very fine meal



I´m swimming in a salt lake on the salt flats of the desert, produced by groundwater accumulated from the Andes high above. It was impossible to sink my head or feet because of the density of the salty water. It was like having floaties on! Brian swam too...
Another salt lake. The whole area is actually a national park in Chile in part to protect the flamingoes that are here year-round.
Some awesome geysers at 13,000ft above the desert basin (8,000 ft).

Vicuñas are the wild versions of the domesticated alpaca and llama. They´re so friggen cute, but my cheap camera does not zoom well at all. Their wool is the second-finest natural fiber in the world after silk.



All of my close-ups of the flamingoes are fuzzy, my camera sucks. This will have to do :)
The Atacama desert.
Slat flats of the desert.
Kind of like Moab, no? Except for the volcanoes in the background. One is still active and you can see it releasing gas in the morning hours.

Master Of Prevention

CLASSIC Brian!!!

Fin

So the end is here: too soon, finally, unexpectedly, and not quick enough. Time’s humor is ironic: it escapes you and simultaneously drags you along; but in the end it weaves with space to help us be human. Two years abroad was barely enough time to get over the things I missed, situate myself, make a life, and become at one with it. Only in the last couple of months here have I begun to embody this odd sensation of bi-culturalness. I finally feel Siccheñan in some ways, just in time to experience yet another loss upon leaving something that I have become a part of. It’s an odd sort of liminal space, your identity and your heart realizing themselves in two very different realities. I can only begin to imagine what refugees, migrants, and immigrants feel; those who experience such things out of necessity and not out of choice.

And it’s time to go? Yes, it IS time to GO.

The Siccheñans are not making it easy for us though. There’s too much love for it to be easy. Just like the countless people through space and time who have left one place for another, a piece of us will always abide in and with Sicchez. Here is where I learned about the true nature of generosity. And that home is everywhere I step. And that service sometimes means just doing something to be nice, even if it’s not ¨sustainable¨, even if it doesn’t fit the parameters of ¨international development¨. When Siccheñans speak of our service, they mention the extrinsic impacts of trash management and improved cooking stoves, but they really smile and speak with heart when they talk about our friendship.
So we said goodbye the best we could, knowing it’s most likely forever and that we won’t be able to communicate with them. We threw a going away party for the town at the church on a Sunday night with coffee and cheese sandwiches. We visited families and showing a nature movie with popcorn to the elementary kids. Anything we could manage to show our gratitude. There were buckets of tears, moms bringing cookies to our house, women gifting us things they sewed, and people wanting to drink the last and final beer together.

Hardest of all were the goodbyes to our family. My body felt full of rocks that were streaming through my organs and blood. I couldn`t sleep at night. It was awful. Even more difficult was that our grandpa died on the same day we left. Words cannot describe the experience, you can only imagine. How in the world did we manage to give that last hug to a family who has looked out for our wellbeing with never a hesitation? Who took the risk of opening their humble lives to strangers? A noble family indeed, we will sorely miss them.

Emphasis fails me when I try to put into words how much Brian shaped the positive aspects of our experience here, but I owe it to him to try. Those of us who love and know him well understand the breadth of his impulse to realize any and all potentials within his grasp. Brian was the one to animate me when I wanted to sulk in my room, to bend over backwards for someone when I lost my patience, and to go above and beyond all normal expectations. He reliably kept a level head and somehow let the small things roll off of him like the trillions of raindrops that rolled off our roof. Admirably, he has an uncanny ability to always keep people laughing, and I was constant witness to the extremely high esteem that those around him harbored for him. To me, he became the embodiment of true service: Brian does all and everything he can for others just to be nice. Because it will help. Not in the name of ¨international development¨ or ¨sustainable projects¨ (too-often heard lingo in the Peace Corps), but because it`s just a nice thing to do. And he does it most of all when the rest of us would think we had done enough. What Brian knows deep down is that what people really lack is compassion and equal treatment. That they can overcome anything when they are loved and respected because that`s when they develop the self-esteem they need to overcome obstacles. Being nice to them is the best way to help them overcome the challenges that face them. And that`s what Brian did every single minute he was in Sicchez.

So thank you Sicchez, and thank you Brian. May we all try to stretch our hearts towards infinity.

Sicchez has gone international yet again!

To celebrate the 50th anniversay of the Peace Corps in 2011, a returned volunteer from Jamaica, Steve Sitler, (who is a photo journalist by profession) is embarking on an adventure to capture the lives and deeds of volunteers around the world. His goal is to make a photo documentary in the form of a book with pictures from all regions of the world. Brian and I were selected to represent Peru. Here are some of his amazingly talented pictures and a link to his website. He's doing this all on donations, so if you have something to spare, check it out.

http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/making-peace-with-the-world