Here are the pictures from Patagonia. Enjoy!
http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff91/jenniferyoung120/Patagonia/
Friday, November 23, 2007
Patagonia
Saturday November 3rd:
Today the group awoke bright and early to hop on a bus that would take them to the town of Santa Lucia. There they would get on a different bus, for eight hours, which would take them to Coihaique for the night. When they got to Santa Lucia, however, they encountered their first real problem of the trip. Their transportation to Coihaique was well, not what they had expected. They were told that there would be a bus, a private bus, waiting for them in Santa Lucia. But, when they pulled into town they saw a small seventeen passenger van, with no luggage rack, waiting for them. And not only was there no luggage rack or trailer, the driver of the van had sold the two remaining seats to some local travelers. The bottom line was; there was absolutely no way that they could get to Coihaique in that vehicle. So, the group waited… and waited… and waited… as Mark tried to get a hold of Daniel to try and sort out this whole mess. Finally, about four hours later Mark, with the help of Daniel and our guides from Futaleufu, had rounded someone in the town with a pickup truck to drive the stuff to Coihaique. So, twelve of them piled in the van along with the two random people and Mark and Eric D. got in the truck with the guy driving the bags. Finally, they got on the road and it wasn’t more than 20 minutes in the van that they passed a broken down truck with two people standing on the side of the road holding their thumbs out! And if there is one thing that stood out to me most during my travels in Chile, it is that everyone on the road is very friendly… it doesn’t matter who you are or where you are going there will be someone around to help you out. So, what did the van driver do… he stopped and picked them up. And once again the van was at maximum capacity. They found out that their new friends were from Oregon and down here on vacation. Fortunately, this would be the last of their troubles for the day. When they arrived in Coihaique they said goodbye to their new friends and went to the hostel and prepared themselves for tomorrow, which would involve another eight hour bus ride to Patagonia.
Sunday November 4th:
This morning the group awoke the same as they did the day before and hoped on a public bus to take them the eight hours to the Baker River crossing. From there the people from Patagonia Park would meet them and take them to their camp. When they arrived at the river crossing the group was happy to discover that their days of being transported by tractor had not yet come to an end! There was a tractor waiting to take them to their base camp. When they arrived at the main camp they were treated to yet another lamb roast, which was delicious. They socialized with some volunteers from Patagonia Clothing Company, participated in a riveting game of soccer, and listened to a presentation about what the point of Patagonia Park is all about.
Monday November 5th:
Today the group prepared themselves for yet another tractor ride! They loaded their things and hoped in. The tractor took them about an hour into the Patagonian wilderness. When they arrived at their destination there was a small cabin with a wood burning stove and their guide Rene. Rene is native to the Patagonia area and usually is in charge of tracking huemules (a type of deer native to Chile) and pumas. They discussed what kind of work they would be doing. The work involved taking down about four miles of fence. They decided that they would work for four days then have three days off and then work until the fence was complete.
At this point I will not detail every day because the majority of the work days were the same….
The work that the group did on the fence was not necessarily hard but it was very time consuming. The job consisted of coiling the row of barb wire, taking every staple out of the stays and support posts, coiling the other six rows of regular wire, filling the holes that were left from the support posts, and packing out everything except the wood. In four days they completed about ¾ of their work.
For their days off the group split up and did several different things. Walker, LB, Casey, and Joe wanted to go on a mountain climb. So, with the help of Rene they did a first ascent of a 6,000+/- ft peak. According to Rene these guys were the first ever to summit this peak, so they named it Gringo Guanaco. Tommy, Jen, and Esther went to the lake on a fishing expedition, which was unsuccessful. However, they did get the chance to see a lot of different kinds of wildlife. They saw guanacos, many different kinds of birds, and they even found an armadillo (but it had been eaten by a fox so only its shell survived). Mark, Albee, and Eric D. went on a fishing expedition as well, only they left a day later. They came back a lot more successful though, they caught eight trout, and all of them were about 20”. Izzi and Josh went on an expedition back to the main base camp where all of the employees stay. They went there on an ipod charging mission and were very successful! Drew and Erik O. stayed at the group’s base camp and hung around there for the three days off.
After their days off they went back to work and quickly finished taking down the fence in just two more days. When they finished they had two more days to just hang around camp until the tractor came to pick them up and take them back to the main base camp. They spent their time playing cards and baseball. They made a bat out of a log and made a ball out of some bones, a bandana, and lots of tape.
Finally their time in Patagonia had come to an end. On the 18th they were off to Coihaique again, which meant another eight hour bus ride. They stayed in Coihaique for one night and in the morning they had a one hour bus ride to Balmaseda. When they arrived they hoped on an airplane and flew to Santiago. There the trip was officially over. They all went their separate ways.
It can easily be said that everyone had an amazing experience, while some had a different experience than other it is truly something that they will never be able to forget!
Today the group awoke bright and early to hop on a bus that would take them to the town of Santa Lucia. There they would get on a different bus, for eight hours, which would take them to Coihaique for the night. When they got to Santa Lucia, however, they encountered their first real problem of the trip. Their transportation to Coihaique was well, not what they had expected. They were told that there would be a bus, a private bus, waiting for them in Santa Lucia. But, when they pulled into town they saw a small seventeen passenger van, with no luggage rack, waiting for them. And not only was there no luggage rack or trailer, the driver of the van had sold the two remaining seats to some local travelers. The bottom line was; there was absolutely no way that they could get to Coihaique in that vehicle. So, the group waited… and waited… and waited… as Mark tried to get a hold of Daniel to try and sort out this whole mess. Finally, about four hours later Mark, with the help of Daniel and our guides from Futaleufu, had rounded someone in the town with a pickup truck to drive the stuff to Coihaique. So, twelve of them piled in the van along with the two random people and Mark and Eric D. got in the truck with the guy driving the bags. Finally, they got on the road and it wasn’t more than 20 minutes in the van that they passed a broken down truck with two people standing on the side of the road holding their thumbs out! And if there is one thing that stood out to me most during my travels in Chile, it is that everyone on the road is very friendly… it doesn’t matter who you are or where you are going there will be someone around to help you out. So, what did the van driver do… he stopped and picked them up. And once again the van was at maximum capacity. They found out that their new friends were from Oregon and down here on vacation. Fortunately, this would be the last of their troubles for the day. When they arrived in Coihaique they said goodbye to their new friends and went to the hostel and prepared themselves for tomorrow, which would involve another eight hour bus ride to Patagonia.
Sunday November 4th:
This morning the group awoke the same as they did the day before and hoped on a public bus to take them the eight hours to the Baker River crossing. From there the people from Patagonia Park would meet them and take them to their camp. When they arrived at the river crossing the group was happy to discover that their days of being transported by tractor had not yet come to an end! There was a tractor waiting to take them to their base camp. When they arrived at the main camp they were treated to yet another lamb roast, which was delicious. They socialized with some volunteers from Patagonia Clothing Company, participated in a riveting game of soccer, and listened to a presentation about what the point of Patagonia Park is all about.
Monday November 5th:
Today the group prepared themselves for yet another tractor ride! They loaded their things and hoped in. The tractor took them about an hour into the Patagonian wilderness. When they arrived at their destination there was a small cabin with a wood burning stove and their guide Rene. Rene is native to the Patagonia area and usually is in charge of tracking huemules (a type of deer native to Chile) and pumas. They discussed what kind of work they would be doing. The work involved taking down about four miles of fence. They decided that they would work for four days then have three days off and then work until the fence was complete.
At this point I will not detail every day because the majority of the work days were the same….
The work that the group did on the fence was not necessarily hard but it was very time consuming. The job consisted of coiling the row of barb wire, taking every staple out of the stays and support posts, coiling the other six rows of regular wire, filling the holes that were left from the support posts, and packing out everything except the wood. In four days they completed about ¾ of their work.
For their days off the group split up and did several different things. Walker, LB, Casey, and Joe wanted to go on a mountain climb. So, with the help of Rene they did a first ascent of a 6,000+/- ft peak. According to Rene these guys were the first ever to summit this peak, so they named it Gringo Guanaco. Tommy, Jen, and Esther went to the lake on a fishing expedition, which was unsuccessful. However, they did get the chance to see a lot of different kinds of wildlife. They saw guanacos, many different kinds of birds, and they even found an armadillo (but it had been eaten by a fox so only its shell survived). Mark, Albee, and Eric D. went on a fishing expedition as well, only they left a day later. They came back a lot more successful though, they caught eight trout, and all of them were about 20”. Izzi and Josh went on an expedition back to the main base camp where all of the employees stay. They went there on an ipod charging mission and were very successful! Drew and Erik O. stayed at the group’s base camp and hung around there for the three days off.
After their days off they went back to work and quickly finished taking down the fence in just two more days. When they finished they had two more days to just hang around camp until the tractor came to pick them up and take them back to the main base camp. They spent their time playing cards and baseball. They made a bat out of a log and made a ball out of some bones, a bandana, and lots of tape.
Finally their time in Patagonia had come to an end. On the 18th they were off to Coihaique again, which meant another eight hour bus ride. They stayed in Coihaique for one night and in the morning they had a one hour bus ride to Balmaseda. When they arrived they hoped on an airplane and flew to Santiago. There the trip was officially over. They all went their separate ways.
It can easily be said that everyone had an amazing experience, while some had a different experience than other it is truly something that they will never be able to forget!
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