Cañuelas: Down on the Farm

For our penultimate adventure Katie and I landed near a town called Cañuelas, about an hour and a half outside of Buenos Aires, at a farm called La Farfalla run by a lovely couple named Matias and Mariana. While I've been using workaway to find my different volunteering gigs, Katie found this farm through WWOOF, the original work-travel site, exclusively dedicated to organic farms. It's pretty much exactly what you imagine a small farm to be like, full of animals, a vegetable garden, fruit trees, fresh air and good food.

We worked for six hours a day, three in the morning before it got super hot, and three in the evening after it had cooled down again. That gave us plenty of time to siesta, read, and generally relax after traveling at full speed for a couple of weeks. During our works hours we did a whole variety of tasks, from preparing new beds in the garden, to putting up chicken wire, to mowing grass, to, my favorite, wildly herding the sheep and chickens from one place to another. Nobody said farm animals were smart.

Another wonderful perk of staying on the farm was eating pretty much exclusively fresh, organic food, often harvested that day. Matias is a great cook, and consistently served up fresh bread and wonderful stir fries. Mariana spent some of the time we were there cooking down the gazillions of apples we harvested into preserves which of course were also amazing. The last day we were there, they actually decided to slaughter one of their sheep, so we had a massive asado which was delicious. Add in the fact that Matias also brews his own beer, and they produce their own honey, and it was some of the best meals I've had this trip. A really nice detox from the diet of carbs paired with ham and cheese that seems to be standard fair on busses and at hostels.

Additionally, while Katie is already a farmer extraordinaire, I as always, found it very interesting to learn some more practical farming skills, and to listen to Matias and Mariana talk about different problems and solutions they've encountered while growing their farm. Also, especially since Argentina has just elected a new president that a lot of people are not happy about, it was interesting to get their take on the political situation as well. The reality of how people feel about it is often at contrast to the dryer news reports.

All in all it was a great place to stay for a week and recharge for the last stop of my trip, Buenos Aires. It's kind of incredible to think that I've pretty much reached the end, but I am looking forward to seeing my family again after six months on the road. Stay tuned for one more city!

Mendoza: The Land of Vino

While we were in Mendoza with the express purpose of drinking wine, it also must be noted that it's a lovely city too. It's hot, but all the streets are lined with huge trees, giving you pleasant shade to walk in. There's five central plazas all will different statues or fountains and a nice pedestrian road full of restaurants and cafes. There's vineyards surrounding Mendoza for miles in all directions but the easiest to get to are in the neighboring town of Maipu, a short city bus ride away. There from a number of competing businesses, you can rent bikes, because the best way to get from vineyard to vineyard for a full day of drinking, or as the sophisticated call it "tasting," wine is careening around on a rickety bike navigating via provided free map that has no concept of scale or street names, right? Right.

Starting out strong 

Armed with our rudimentary map, we set out and managed to navigate to our first stop, a wine bar clearly marked with a gigantic purple bottle out front. There we pretended to know what we were supposed to be tasting and tried five different local wines before being gifted a full bottle of wine at the end. What a great start! From there we biked to a couple of really swanky vineyards, nice enough for us to sufficiently feel like we were in The Parent Trap, and acquired even more wine on each stop. By the end of the day both our bellies and backpacks were full of wine and we only had managed to stop at four places out of about twenty listed on our map. You could easily spend several days biking around trying them all.

After we returned our bikes, we hurried back into the city to catch one last overnight bus! This time we were heading for the outskirts of Buenos Aires to do a little bit of farming in the countryside. The second to last stop is coming up next in Cañuelas!

Neuquén: Another Dinosaur Land

After adequately filling ourselves up with  chocolate in Bariloche, we continued our Northward march by stopping in Neuquén to take a look at the remains of Gigantosaurus, the largest carnivorous dinosaur ever discovered, bigger even than the famous T rex. After a brief set-back where all the tour companies were closed because it was the feast of the Immaculate Conception (who knew?) and we couldn't rent a car because neither of us knows how to drive stick (can someone please teach me?!), we were able to find a driver who would take us out to see the museum with the fossils and nearby dinosaur tracks for a fairly reasonable price.

After showing us the hydroelectric dam near the museum (strangely enough the second of my trip) we entered a small, but nicely curated museum. Typically the dinosaurs you see in the museum are replicas of the fossils mounted together so you can get an idea of the size and appearance of the dinosaur all together. This museum had these replicas too, but also the actual fossils of the Gigantosaurus which was super cool! The skeleton was 80% complete when found giving you a pretty good picture of just how big this dinosaur was. The museum also had a whole room dedicated to hydroelectric dams of Argentina in case that's your thing.

A little further from the museum were some fossilized dinosaur tracks which have unfortunately been mostly warn away by the Lake created by the dam. They weren't as numerous or as clear as the ones I saw in Toro Toro in Bolivia, but as always anything dinosaur is worth a look.

From our one day stop, we boarded another bus to bring us up to wine country aka Mendoza!

The Lake District: Argentina Edition

After finishing up our hike in El Chaltén, Katie and I boarded a bus to take us North out of Patagonia and into the Lake District. Though technically Patagonia in Argentina is a region that goes the whole way up to the Río Negro, most guide books separate the two regions out as they have very different characteristics. The Lake District is a more populated region and the landscapes aren't as stark as more Southern Patagonia. There's farms, forests, and of course the eponymous lakes.

Our first stop was in a smaller town called El Bolsón. El Bolsón is known as the town the hippies migrated to in the 1970s and still has a very laid back, crunchy feel to it. It's one of the first places I've come across in a while that actually sorts out some recycling from garbage which has been killing me a little for most of this trip. We also managed to time it so that we were in town for their craft fair that's held every weekend, where more really cool, handmade knick-knacks are sold than you could ever buy, along with a selection of local food and artisanal beer. The town itself is situated in a beautiful valley that has tons of hikes that we unfortunately didn't have time for and a couple of lakes for boating and swimming. It was definitely a place I would've loved to spend more time in, but bizarrely (at least to me) I'm actually working against a ticking clock now as my trip starts to wind down and we had to keep moving to keep to our schedule.

From El Bolsón we took a short bus ride to the better known town of Bariloche. This is the classic Lake District destination, and in my opinion, has suffered for it. While El Bolsón was charming, Bariloche has turned into an urban sprawl, although in a scenic location. Guide books had hinted that it was big, but I hadn't quite expected a full blown city. There was still hints of older charm, some of the buildings were still built in the tradition style and of course there was the main street full of chocolate shops, but it didn't really feel like a place to wander around in. Again, there is supposed to be some fantastic hikes and water sports in the surrounding area but we didn't have time to take advantage of them. I'm sure if we had had the time too, Bariloche would have been a more worthwhile destination, but just the city itself lacks charm.

If you're a faithful blog follower, you no doubt remember that I was also in the Chilean Lake District many months ago now. Of course when two countries have purportedly the same region, you can't help but compare the two. And really in a head to head competition, I think the Chilean Lake District comes out on top. Of course it has the advantage of being on the rainy side of the Andes so it's a lot lusher, and it also has a plethora of volcanos, a cool feature that the Argentinean side is missing. Finally, the old school German influence and charm is much more apparent on the Chilean side, giving it an interesting twist. So if you're ever in the position to choose one Lake District over the other, take it from the expert, Chile is the way to go!

Ushuaia: It's the End of the World as we Know It

And now for a bit of a backtrack to our stop in Ushuaia. After an incredibly long bus ride down from El Calafate that included a ferry across the Strait of Magellan and crossing both into and out of Chile, we arrived at the Southern-most city in the world, Ushuaia. It's where the Andes finally come to an end and it sits right on the Beagle Channel, where Darwin sailed through on his famous trip. It's where cruises to Antarctica leave from if you have a few thousand dollars to spare, which unfortunately we didn't, but it still has lots to offer besides that.

Ushuaia as seen from the Beagle Channel 

Our main goal in Ushuaia was to see some penguin, and to further that aim we booked a cruise of the Beagle Channel that among other attractions, such as sea lions and a light house, brought us to an island that several species of penguins inhabit. We saw a ton of Magellanic penguins and also a King penguin and a Gentoo penguin (all species identification is thanks to the informative guide). As stated before, penguins are the most hilarious of birds due to how awkward they are on land and the way they sleep like little logs. Additionally, it was very beautiful cruising through the channel and pretty interesting to think that the land which looks pretty identical on either side of the channel belongs to different countries (Argentina and Chile). Makes you think about what a human construct countries are really.

Magellanic Penguins hanging out 

We spent another day exploring Tierra del Fuego National Park then flew back up to El Calafate (turned out to be cheaper, not to mention much faster than taking the bus back) to get a bus to El Chaltén as detailed in the previous post. From here were heading North again to El Bolsón where craft markets and artisinal beer await us!

Glacier National Park: El Calafate and El Chaltén

As mentioned in my last post, I now have an awesome travel companion to finish out my trip with. The super cool Katie B. met me in El Calafate and after another day relaxing in El Calafate and arranging logistics for the next few days, we jumped right into what Argentinian Patagonia has to offer, with the first stop being the Southern section of Glacier National Park.

We booked the "alternative" glacier tour to glacier Perito Moreno through the hostel we were staying in. The only alternative part seemed to be driving a different way into the park which allowed us to stop and pat some tamed guanacos and take several very necessary guanaco selfies. Then the real tour got underway with several hours walking along the pathways in front of the stunning glacier Perito Moreno. The pictures don't really do justice to how immense it is and of course can't capture the sound of the ice rumbling and cracking and the thundering noise every once in a while when a large chunk would break off and plunge into the lake below. Currently the glacier has actually reached the whole way across to the peninsula and has blocked the channel connecting the two sides of the lake. According to our guide, one half of the lake is actually six meters higher than the other. Eventually the water will wear away at the ice block which will collapse in magnificent fashion (according to pictures from previous years) and the lake will even out again.

From El Calafate, we took a brief detour the whole way down to the end of the world in Ushuaia (which will be another post) before coming back north again to hit the Northern section of Glacier near the town of El Chaltén. El Chaltén calls itself the trekking capital of Argentina and that claim definitely has some merit. There are a ton of trails that begin right in town, eliminating the need to take a bus or taxi anywhere. Katie and I decided to take advantage of the free camping in the park and spent three days enjoying the beautiful scenery and unnaturally beautiful weather (it was actually warm and sunny for our entire trek!) under the shadow of Mount Fitzroy and Cerro Torre. Treks around El Chalten often get compared to Torres de Paine (probably because a lot of backpackers end up doing them back to back)and while in my opinion, the hikes themselves don't offer the constant gorgeous scenery Torres does, the end points and overlooks of Fitzroy and Cerro Torre equal anything Torres has to offer. Definitely more than a worthwhile stop.

Mt. Fitzroy and it's range 

Lago de las Tres and Fitzroy

Lago Torre and Cerro Torre

Torres de Paine and Goodbye Chile

As I've mentioned before, there were actually only four things I really, really wanted to do during my trip to South America. After trekking to Machu Picchu, biking Death Road, and touring the Salar de Uyuni, the one item that was left on my list was trekking in Torres de Paine. I'm happy to say I checked this last item off my list as my final stop in Chile, and it's definitely going down as one of the highlights of my trip.

Thanks to a generous Dad, I was able to avoid the anticipated and dreaded three day bus slog from Coyhaique down South and flew for the first time in my trip from there to Punta Arenas. After months of buses it actually felt quite luxurious to be in the air again and the airline I went with actually gave me four! choices for my in-flight snack. I passed a pretty non-eventful night in Punta Arenas before catching a bus the next morning up to Puerto Natales, basically the base camp for people going to Torres, in order to get there in time for the well-known info talk at Erratic Rock all about trekking in Torres de Paine. The W trek and O trek in Torres de Paine are some of the more famous multi-day hikes in the world and people come from all over the world to do them. Tapping into this market, a hostel/pub/gear rental center in Puerto Natales gives a free information talk every day, most likely in hopes that people will rent equipment from them. I've been lugging my camping equipment across a continent so I didn't take them up on any of their deals (though looking back a warmer rated sleeping bag would have been quite nice) but they gave good information about logistics in getting into the park and just generally reinforced the plans I already had in mind.

After an afternoon scrambling to buy the endlessly repetitive food I'd be eating for the next few days (it's going to be a while before I can face oatmeal, tortillas, or pasta again), I woke up bright and early to catch the bus up to the park with my new hiking buddy that I had met at the hostel. Despite the early hour everyone on the bus was quite wired and excited to get hiking. Also of note on the way to the park, we saw tons of guanacos, the fourth camelid species native to South America, completing my sweep for the trip! Finally after bussing in, watching a safety video that told us NOT TO SET FIRES OR YOU WILL BE PUT IN JAIL (fair enough since about 5 years ago a tourist accidentally burned down about a third of the park - quite sad to walk through) and taking a ferry across a lake, we were ready to start hiking!

The hike was 5 days and 4 nights. Much like Northern Patagonia it's hard to describe how beautiful it actually was, so you'll just have to admire the pictures posted below. It was a very fun experience, we were hiking a bit before high season, so while there were a fair amount of people, the trail rarely felt crowded and it was fun to see the same faces every night while relaxing and cooking at the campsites. My hiking buddy and I also met an English couple on the bus into the park, and while out hiking itinerary didn't totally match, we did hike 3 of the 5 days with them which was fun. We spent days admiring glaciers, snow-capped mountains, turquoise lakes, and streams with water so pure you could drink right out of them. It's really like no place else.

Glacier Grey with real live iceberg

Not a bad place to camp I guess 

#nofilter

Blowing snow in the mountains 

While the entire hike was amazing, the real icing on the cake was having a clear view of the namesake Torres the last morning to watch the light from the sunrise make them seem to glow. We had arrived at the campsite about an hour from the lookout the afternoon before and had gone up to see them but it was too foggy and gross to really see anything. Hoping it would be worth it, everyone set their alarms for 4 AM and were rewarded with a clear morning and an incredible show. A great end to a great hike.

The Torres 

Hiking buddies!

After relaxing for a day back in Puerto Natales and overcoming the inevitable post-trek blues, I caught a bus across the border to El Calafate in Argentina and, after almost three months, left Chile. We'll see how Argentina treats me, but at this point I think Chile has been my favorite country this trip. It didn't have the lows that Bolivia gave me, and while Peru also had stunning scenery, it just wasn't playing in the same league that Patagonia is in. Not to mention I consistently met wonderful Chilenos who went out of their way to show me their country and make me feel welcome. I had a super great time and will definitely be back. This actually ends my solo trip as the wonderful Katie B. is meeting me here in Argentina to travel with! Don't worry, I'll write some sappy post reflecting on what I learned traveling alone at a later date, for now new adventures await!

Coyhaique: Beer and More Beer and Some Alright Scenery

As mentioned previously, and also as a generally known fact, I like beer.  And I don't mean I like swilling Bud Light in large quantities - I go for the more hipster approach of enjoying craft beer, the smaller and more obscure the brewery the better. So of course when I saw an opportunity for a Workaway volunteering at an artisanal brewery in Coyhaique, Patagonia I jumped on it. What better place to get some hands on experience learning to brew beer than in one of the most scenic places in the world?

This was definitely small scale production, the owner/host Mario has set aside a few rooms in his house for brewing and does everything by hand: washing recycled bottles, brewing the beer in small batches, filling the washed bottles, labeling them, and delivering them. You can't get much more hand crafted than that. He was very welcoming and happy to explain all the steps and different techniques used to brew different kinds of beers. The process really isn't that hard and there's so many places you could make it unique that I definitely want to give it a try myself when I get home. I'll be accepting applications for assistants/taste testers come January.

I helped make this

While the North of Chile is all about their wine, and rightfully so, there's quite a large brewing scene down South - my guess is it's that German influence coming through again. One weekend when I was here, there was a beer expo that was attended by 10 breweries all from right in the area. I helped Mario set up and was briefly and somewhat hilariously in charge of the whole stand when he went to buy some food. I guess my Spanish and beer knowledge was good enough since everything was still standing and I hadn't alienated any customers by the time he got back. The upshot to the whole thing was I got an official badge for entry into the event and got to sample all the beer from the different vendors. And honestly, I thought the beer I was helping make was some of the best beer at the event which was pretty cool.

When not drinking free beer, I took time to explore the area, which, as one would imagine, is stunningly gorgeous. All of Chilean Patagonia is pretty remote and isolated so there's miles and miles of uninterrupted mountains, and forests, and streams. I know I keep saying it but it's amazingly beautiful. A lot like how I imagine Middle-earth. There's a pretty large Nature Reserve right on the edge of Coyhaique which has some nice hiking and I took some trips farther down the Carretera Austral to enjoy even remoter areas: the Marble Caves at Río Tranquilo and the Cerro Castillo Nature Reserve. I seem to be over using the words beautiful, stunning, and gorgeous but there's really no other way to describe the sites. They say a picture is worth 1000 words so I'll substitute those in for any description I can write but it still doesn't do it justice. You'll just have to take a trip to Patagonia and see everything for yourself.

Cerro Castillo - Pic doesn't at all do it justice 

Some of the Marble Caves on Lago General Carrera

Farmland near Coyhaique 

Lago General Carrera 

Chaitén: Welcome to Patagonia

Patagonia is the end of the map and feels it. The road ends soon after leaving Puerto Montt and when it picks back up again as the famous Carretera Australia after a couple ferry rides, it winds through forests, over turquoise rivers, and by snow-capped mountains, at time barely better than a gravel path. It's a region disconnected enough that entering it feels a little like stepping back into the past, where people were more trusting and the pace of life was slower. It's a place where people invite you to stay in their house without even meeting you and hitch-hiking is an accepted form of transportation. Yes, that's speaking from experience.

Sailing into Patagonia 

Like I've mentioned previously, making friends while solo traveling is a lot like making friends in kindergarten or the first week of college aka instantaneously. During the day long bus/ferry ride I made friends with the other three travelers on the bus (we're pretty easy to pick out) and while two were getting off a few towns ahead of my stop, one guy, Franz, was taking the bus the whole way to Chaitén, the first major town in Patagonia, meaning it had over 2000 residents. He had a friend he had met in previous travels who lived in the town and had invited him to come stay with them once he reached Chaitén. After consulting with a wonderful old man named Nicolas who I had been told by other friends to find since he knew about everything about the town and the region, and of course having a 30 minute conversation with him while standing there with our big bags getting heavier and heavier, we were pointed in the direction of a hospedaje for me and my new friend's friend's house.

Upon meeting back up with Franz, he told me that his friend Tommy and his wife Lotta said I could stay with them too, they had the space and knew all about traveling on a budget. After considering it for a second (do I want to stay in the house of a couple I've never met at the invitation of a friend I've made today??) I gladly accepted which turned out to be a great decision! Not only did I get to stay in a real house, a plus after months of hostels, Tommy and Lotta were absolutely lovely people, so kind and welcoming and made me feel right at home. They had moved to Chaitén to start a tour agency and a café in a converted bus - super cool. During the next few days, they showed us around and included us in their life: dinner at friend's houses, a  Chilean barbeque, kayaking, and even let us do laundry (after this trip I'm never taking clean clothes for granted again)! The people you meet really are the best part of traveling.

Mirador of a glacier in Parque Pumalín 

Natour converted café bus run by Tommy and Lotta

Another interesting note about Chaitén, it used to be much bigger before a lot of it was destroyed in a volcanic eruption in 2008 (Chile's pretty big on natural disasters). About half the population has returned from where they were evacuated, but there's still a section of town where the houses are all still buried in ash. It's really a modern day Pompeii and Tommy took the time to show Franz and me around. It's sad to see the ruins of people's homes, but again an awe inspiring reminder of the power of nature.

Some of the remaining houses buried in ash 

Unfortunately, going along with the small town rural feel of Patagonia is the fact that there is very limited busses going through town, especially in the off-season. Because I actually had a deadline for once (I needed to be in Coyhaique by the 21st to start my next workaway) I had to leave a little early and get on the one bus that was definitely, not potentially, (again all info from the wonderfully informed Nicolas) heading south. This left me in La Junta, where I ended up stuck for a day waiting for the one bus that leaves from there to get me the rest of the way to Coyhaique. However it was nice to sleep and read my book before continuing on to my next adventure - brewing beer!

Chiloé: But Actually Yes, the Island of WInd and Rain

Chiloé was very wet. It's an island south and west of the Lake District so it's surrounded by water. But beyond that, there were also scattered torrential downpours the entire time I was there. Definitely got my money's worth out of my raincoat and rain cover.

Being geographically isolated definitely gives Chiloé a different feel than the mainland. Unlike the Lake District where a lot seems to be aimed at tourists, you can tell real people actually live and work in Chiloé, mostly as fishermen along the cost but the interior is all developed farmland. That being said, there isn't all that much to do there beyond walk around and admire the old fashioned houses built on stilts right on the water and the historic churches.

I also got out of the main town of Castro and hiked through part of the Chiloé National Park. Parts of it were quite beautiful as the trail went right along the beach, but parts wound out of the park and through farmland, which is scenic in its own way, but not quite what I was hoping for. The aforementioned torrential rain was also a deterrent, but during clear periods I was able to snap some pretty pictures.

I was originally going to take a ferry right from Chiloé over into Patagonia, but the one ferry of the week left at three in the morning, which I wasn't really feeling. As such, I backtracked up the island and across to Puerto Montt to treat myself to a clean, warm, and dry nice hotel for the night (Thanks Dad!) before setting off down the Carretera Austral into Patagonia aka living the dream. Part one of Patagonia will be up next!

The Lake District: Pucón, Puerto Varas, and Frutillar

Quick! What has lakes, mountains, cake, and artisanal beer? If you guessed Jenny's ideal environment you'd be correct, but what I was actually describing was the Lake District down in Southern Chile. I've spent the past week in a couple different towns here, and it's been one of the most beautiful places I've been so far on this trip.

My first stop was Pucón, a tourist town on Lake Villarrica. I had taken the night bus out of Valpo, and when I woke up I wondered whether I had somehow accidentally gotten on a bus back up to Vermont or maybe the German Alps. There were mountains covered in snow, a sparkling blue lake, and trees! After about two months of desert and other such arid landscapes it was lovely to see something larger than a foot tall coming out of the ground. Even better, the buildings were all wooden and adorably built in an old German-like style - all the better to illuminate the delicious treats displayed in every window: fresh bread, pies, cakes, and strudels! All my downfalls, luckily there were enough outdoor activities available I probably about equaled out the calories I consumed by kayaking, biking, and notably climbing a volcano.

Definitely earned after a 30 mile bike ride 

Yeah, those mountains I mentioned earlier - they were actually volcanos, some more active than others. For example, Villarica billowed smoke the whole time I was there, and at night you could actually see the glow of lava. Don't worry - I didn't climb that volcano, that's the one people do climb typically, but I guess it's still a little too active after its eruption this past March to allow hordes of tourists to go trekking up it. Instead we climbed Quetrupillán which gave us a lovely view of Villarica and the other volcanos/mountains all around. It was a hard hike, mostly because it's early enough in Spring here that the volcano is still totally covered in snow - meaning the summertime four hour hike to the top was just a little under six hours up. However, the upshot was that we hiked up with gear to sled down the volcano! It was the best way to get down a mountain, especially for a girl who's sled hills never seemed big enough. Can't get much bigger than a volcano!

All ready to sled down! 

After spending an extra day in Pucón to exhaust all the fun activities to do there, I hopped on a bus to Puerto Varas, basically just a larger, less touristy version of Pucón. Puerto Varas is also on a lake, Lake Llanquihue, and also has beautiful snow capped volcanos in the background. I didn't climb any here - it's not really something you need to do twice in one week, but instead enjoyed the view of them as I biked to another adorable German town, Frutillar, where I once again enjoyed the view while enjoying some strudel - which a 30 mile round trip bike ride definitely entitles you to.

I've definitely enjoyed my time in the Lake District, and I'm glad I'm here now, before high season hits because apparently tons of people come here in the summer. I can clearly understand why, but it probably ruins the charm a little to have people swarming in your scenic views. Also it's nice to be back in a familiar environment, as I was biking along I had to keep reminding myself I wasn't back home in New England. In any case, I still haven't run out of South to go, next up is the island of Chiloé!

Santiago and Valparaiso: A Study in Opposites

Contrary to most people's recommendations, I actually liked Santiago much better than Valparaiso. Despite being just an hour and a half apart they have very vibes. Valparaiso does have character - colorful houses all in a jumble on the hillside, street art (official and otherwise) everywhere, and views of the bay around every corner. However, it was also rather dirty and there wasn't really a ton to see beyond wandering around enjoying the architecture. Santiago, on the other hand, felt very liveable. It had clean streets, a metro that brought you quickly wherever you wanted, and lots of parks to run in. Also lots of museums that were free! Always a plus for budget travelers. It was the first city I've been in that I actually could see myself living in.

Sculpture outside the Museo de Bellos Artes in Santiago 

Pictures of some of the victims of Pinochet's dictatorship at the Museo de la Memoria 

Winery store near Santiago 

Street art in Valpo 

Generally they were both interesting places to visit but I'm excited to be back in nature and finally down in the South of Chile. Up next, Pucón and the Lake District! 

Taltal: Where Everyone Knows Your Name

So I almost didn't go to Taltal. It would probably have been the biggest mistake of my trip. I had been hanging out in San Pedro working on my grad school applications and trying to get this workaway set up. It had all sounded positive but then I never got the final confirmation from Héctor. Discouraged but antsy to move on, I booked a bus ticket to La Serena only to get a call from Héctor an hour before I was supposed to leave, apologizing and saying the email got saved in drafts and was never sent, was I still coming? I told him I'd think about it because it would mean either changing my plans and losing the bus ticket I had bought, or backtracking North 10 hours from La Serena. Remembering that my friend Bob from Oxapampa had highly recommended this workaway, I decided it was worth the backtrack and so after a couple days in La Serena and the Valle Elqui I headed back up the coast. I was immediately glad I did.

Street art in the Valle de Elqui

First of all the school. Héctor has started a free English schools for people of all ages. Basically whoever wants to learn English is welcome. That means there was a variety of classes every day, ranging from 4 year olds at the daycare to 50 year old ladies with all ages in between learning English. Héctor is a super enthusiastic teacher and very obviously passionate about his project. And all the students seem to love him. The town itself is also super lovely. It's small, around 11,000 people live here, and it's definitely got a small town feel. It's almost impossible to walk around without running into somebody you know, and even if you manage that, don't worry you'll definitely have a 20 minute conversation with the shopkeeper of the store you're walking to. It's the kind of town where you know the owner of the coffee shop and they know your order. It's also the kind of town that's small enough that everyone knows your business: ie. "You're the girl that runs in the mornings! Do you run by the ocean? You should it's very pretty!" Pretty funny.

Church off the main Plaza

But most importantly everyone in Taltal is incredibly nice. Just wonderful, welcoming people. Héctor knows just about everybody in town and introduces you to everyone. So immediately upon arriving, you have a whole social group to hang out with and drink with (Chileans are big on alcohol and late nights - neither of which are my favorites as you all know but I played along pretty well). And as much as I felt incredibly fortunate to be here and so welcomed and included, the students (mostly the adults) were just as grateful the volunteers were here as well. It was actually pretty humbling to be told by one of the students that the presence of the volunteers, all foreigners from other countries, had totally opened his mind and made him realize that people from everywhere were still just people and still very nice. He told me that he used to not like the United States or the people from there or anything, until the volunteers started coming and he realized that the people were not the government. That the people were just like any other people. That's the whole point of traveling, it broadens not only your mind but the minds of people you meet.

Even though I was TAing several classes a day, I still had plenty of time for adventures. The most notable of course was when the magnitude 8.4 earthquake that hit down farther South triggered a tsunami warning. One of the other volunteers, Kate, and her boyfriend and I were sitting in the hostel eating cake (the third that different students had gifted her for her birthday - repeat, everyone here is so nice) when we heard alarms going off. We were unsure whether it was a drill or something until Héctor knocked on the door and told us we needed to evacuate, meet him at the meeting point, did we remember where it was? Yelling yes, Kate and I bolted out the door, not bringing anything while her boyfriend paused for his laptop. Of course there was no real hurry so it was just us two gringos sprinting through Taltal while everyone else strolled.  Silly gringos. Of course we didn't actually remember where the meeting point was so we just hung out on a high enough hill for a while until we started to feel a little silly and headed down to look for Héctor who of course had been asking people whether they had seen any gringos. The owner of the hostel we were staying in let us hang out at his house with his very nice family until it was determined that there was no real danger here. Unfortunately there was more damage farther South, the town next to La Serena, where I had just been, was pretty heavily damaged, the other two volunteers that arrived when I was here had been staying near there and were amazed and saddened by the damage they saw.

This alarm was nice the first time, not the following 50 screeches 

I also happened to arrive in Taltal just in time for their Fiestas Patrias, their national holidays. This was a four day long event here, and we were roped right in. I was informed I was going to be in a parade which was just fine with me. The daycare the school works with was marching and they needed all the hands they could get to help herd the children along. Everyone had traditional Chilean dress on and there happened to be extra dresses for Kate and me. One of the students braided my hair and extra traditional shoes were supplied. It was quite funny to march across the plaza while I'm pretty sure some officials from the military? inspected us. Good times.

Kate and I all dolled up for the parade 

We had lots of other fun activities too: kayaking on the Pacific, barbeques, watching the lunar eclipse, and lots of late nights laughing and talking. It would be so easy to stay and it's another place I'm quite sad to leave. I was sent off with presents, drinks, and lots of hugs. I'll definitely miss this place but time to get on the road again.