camping on lago lareco

a nearby creek we chillaxed at

row and meels in front of the creek

katie and amelia hiking up the mountain

where we stopped to have lunch on our hike up the mountain

view from our lunch knook (you can see san martín in the distance)

sunset over the lago , a frisbee throw from our campsite

mountains above san martín de los andes

a patagonian christmas

Amelia made a friend!

Row above lago Lareco

Volcan lanín

mmm...yum stuff....

amelia and kurt grillin it all up

a dirty backpacker´s heaven

Tunuyán to El Bolsón

Alright, it´s been a bit since our last post, so there´s lots to catch up on. First off, we´re back on the road again and team Ka-meal-an is in full force. It was tough getting out of Tunuyán: we´d made such great friends, it was a healthy, productive space to learn and work, and Rowan came down with a debilitating throat infection that required antibiotics, 1000´s of miligrams of IBprofins, and 20 hours of sleep/day. However, we we´re able to regroup and left town for San Martin de los Andes, a cozy little resort town in the Lakes District of northern Patagonia.

As the story goes, several months back in Buenos Aires, Amelia had met a retired American couple who had recently relocated to Bs As. They we´re extremely cool and after getting to know eachother better, the Jubilados (retired folks) invited the three of us to meet them in San Martin and spend christmas with their family. Extremely generous offer, and one that three dirty backpackers weren´t about to turn down. We made it into town mid-afternoon on the 24th. When we arrived, we were warmly greeted by Kurt and Linda Fernandez and their two children Joey and Belén. Their whole family was very international and interesting, each individual leading unique lifestyles. Kurt and Linda have spent a good deal of time in latin america, traveling and living. Belén traveled in Lebenon and is now trying to get a book of her travels published. Joey lives in Fort Worth, Texas and is doing GIS work for a natural gas company. They all had great stories and we spent much of the next few days talking about the world and our experiences.

The cabaña we stayed in was cozy and comfortable. There was a creek that ran through the backyard and a nice sized lawn to relax and enjoy asados. The owner of the cabaña, Hector would take out his fly rod most evenings and catch brown and rainbow trout with every cast. It was a tranquil little slice of paradise. On the boarder of town there is a vast lake, Lago Lareco, with trails that wander all around. It is slightly reminisant of Arcata´s community forest, except no redwoods.

Besides the family environment and the eating, drinking, and happiness, our christmas here in Patagonia was polar opposite to any other we´ve every celebrated. It was 90 degrees and we spent the day lounging around the riverfront BBQ. No carols, no tree, no overt consumerism (although the Fernandez´s did get us some amazing chocolates, thanks guys!). It really was a wonderful day.

The Fernandez´s left town on the morning of the 26th, but before heading out, Joey was kind enough to drive us 3 miles out of town to Playa Catritire. There we set up camp and spent the next few days hiking around the lake, relaxing and readjusting to living out of our backpacks. It was such a good feeling to start cooking our meals with the camping stove again. Everything just tastes so good. On the afternoon of our second day at the lake we decided to hike up one of the nearby mountains. We got fairly high above the lake and decided to eat lunch there under a light rain. When we got back down, we stopped off at a hidden, grassy spot along a creek and did our daily workout. At that point, the sun came out and there wasn´t another spot on earth we´d rather be.

Yesterday we packed up our belongings and hiked the 3 miles back to San Martin de los Andes. By 10:30 am we were on a bus and heading south to El Bolsón. We arrived in early evening and camped at a hostel Katie and Amelia knew from there last time around (about a month ago). We went to their favorite dinner spot, only to find a small rock in the pizza (which sounds horrible, but at first we thought it was a tooth... ummmmm). Any ways, we´re here through new years, enjoying the buena onda and the relaxed pace of life. After El Bolsón we leave the Lakes District and enter the true Patagonia. ¡Que emocionada!

Last Tunuyan Pics

Amelia and Katie in the garden with Margo, talking veggies.
The Herta de Vida crew at the asado.

baño seco

This is how we´re living.

Para los lectores en español

Hola Todos!

Dale, como me pidió un amigo mio que pongamos un post en castellano, ahora (por fin, discupla!) estoy haciendolo.

Algunas novedades....me alegre decir que hoy terminamos con la ultima dia que tuvimos aca en la finca! Fue una experiencia unica (segun los fotos y los otros posts) y aprendimos un monton. En un resumen muy breve, construyemos algunas paredes, clavamos algunos clavos, cortamos algunos palos, plantamos algunas plantas y basicamente vivimos en la huerta muriendo debajo del sol, jaja. Tambien, fisicamente, fue exactamente lo que necesitamos para preparar para los treks dificiles que harámos en unas pocas dias cuando regresamos a Patagonia. Será dificil dejar un lugar tan bonito y comodo como Tunuyan, pero así es la viaje, tenemos que seguir.

En los dias siguientes volverémos a Mendoza para tomar un bondi hasta el sur, con la parada en San Martin de los Andes. Dos amigos (jubilados super copados :) ) de Katie y Amelia nos invitaron a pasar La Noche Buena y La Navidad con ellos y sus hijos. ¿Que me dijieron? ¿¿Que estamos invitados a pasar un par de dias en una casa, con camas, sabanas limpias y duchas con agua caliente?? Claro que estamos!! Chau carpa!

Okay lectores españoles les dejo aca. Fijanse mas tarde con mas posts y fotos. Y perdon a mis errores, es mi segunda idiomaaaa.

Besos!

Fun Pics

Katie holds a two-dimentional toad. Why? Amelia makes friends with the baby horse, only hours old.

Sunset on Huerta de Vida.

Madre Tierra Pictures

Rowan and Katie in the huerta.
Katie got suckered into digging a swimming pool with Paloma and her friend. Good luck!

Katie and some plums for a jam.

Madre Tierra Pics 2

The natural building kiosko at the entrance to the farm. The parts that look like holes are actually wine bottles that are enbedded in the barro.
Vida´s farm with conch shaped building in back.

Amelia working on the baño seco.

the farm has been berry, berry good to us!


Rowan and his long lost french relative, Paxkal.


The volunteer cabaña on the farm.


Amelia and Katie riding to the next winery on our wine tour in mendoza

Viva la Vida

Tunuyán is an interesting town. You won´t find it in any of the lonely planet travel books because it´s not a common tourist destination, but it´s still incredibly beautiful; tucked into the foothills on the eastern (rainshadow) side of the andes, about an hour south of Mendoza. We were blown away to learn that 40,000 people live here, because it has the feel of a much smaller town (like Parras de la Fuente for all you gringos out there that were in that program with us). It´s the apple capital of Argentina, however there seems to be a solid niche for other forms of agriculture. Which, is where we fit in, as we´re here for over two weeks of WWOOFing (world wide opportunities in organic farming).

It´s now been over a week since we´ve arrived at Madre Tierra, and while we´ve fallen into a general routine, everything is still slightly choatic. The farm is run haphazardly, at least from a western, production standpoint. Many plants are burried under chest deep weeds and the food coming from the over 20 acres isn´t enough to feed the family of four and their volunteers. A young orchard is in place, but they will be waiting between 5-7 years for the produce to emerge. In addition, there´s 80 chickens, but only half of them laying eggs at this point. The main income for the family right now is the mom, Azucena´s weekly local cooking TV show in Mendoza.

A geneal weekday on the farm starts around 6:30 with a light breakfast in the cabaña with the other voluntarios (which has ranged from 4-7 people, mostly from the states but also France). After a quick stop off at the baño seco, we´re in the field by 7:15 hacking away at weeds and mulching the plants with cardboard. This is a highly effictive technique if done throughly, but Jorge only expects us to clear around the crops and then simply walk over the weeds inbetween. This is the number one reason that the farm is destined for perpetual toil, as the malas hierbas continue to rebound througout the year and drop seeds for next year´s laborers.

By 11am we´re back in the cabaña to relax until lunch. Azucena, a strict vegetarian, usually whips up some amazing dishes using an horno de barro (earthen oven) and amazing cooking skills. There is no doubt that we´re eating some of the most delicious and healthy food we´ve ever incountered. Before arriving, we´d heard horror stories about WWOOFers being underfed, however the opposite has been our experience.

The siesta continues until 4pm after a group maté, when we shake off the lethargy and head out for another project. Usually we´re not in the fields for the afternoon. One of the best afternoon projects we´ve worked on so far is building onto the baño seco and other structures using a fermented clay mixed with horse crap. While it smells a little foul, the clay is strong and drys solid. The original structure is made of intertwined alder branches, so it´s basically a waddle-and-dobb style of natural building (for all you appropriate tech geeks).

As these projects wind down we turn our attention to getting the chickens in, feeding them, moving the horse and giving her water (she´s expected to give birth this week, so that could be crazy) and other farm chores. We usually don´t finish working until after 8pm, where, at that point we begin lighting a fire for hot showers and sometimes walking to the kiosko for a cold drink (non alcoholic, cuz it´s not allowed on the farm) and maybe something sugary. Dinner might not be served until 10pm, which is typical in the Argentinian culture, and could easily last for an hour. Because Jorge and Azucena (in addition to their children Nacho, 5 and Paloma, 10) only speak spanish, that is what is spoken around the dinner table.

After dinner, it´s just the volunteers in the cabaña. The other volunteers all bring a unique and interesting dynamic to the group and we have definetly stumbled across some lifelong friends. After reflecting on the day, everyone is pretty much spent. We head out to our tents and crash out before starting the whole process over again in the morning.

While the methodologies seem strange and counter-intuative to us, what the farm lacks in overall food production it makes up for in natural beauty and tranquility. Jorge is a Yogi and brings a calming approach to life and his practice. There is no doubt that we´ve encountered an amazing place, but due to it´s lack of agricultural direction and ability to teach us new skills and practices, we´ve decided to take our servies next door this week to another WWOOF farm: Huerta de Vida (Vida´s Field).

We´d actually been in contact with Vida regarding WWOOFing, but had initially decided on Madre Tierra because of the family dynamic. Since the two farms are literally 3 or 4 frisbee throws from eachother, we´ve had the opportunty to see how she conducts business and know that it´s a better fit for us right now. Her farm is much smaller (maybe only an acre or two) and is only in it´s first year of operation. However, her systems are thoroughly thought out and maximize the space in a sustainable, multi faceted way. In addition, a house is being built on sight for her mom, Margo, who also lives on the farm. It´s an amazing structure shaped like a conch shell. The skeleton is made of wood, with caña bamboo and alder incorporated in all non load-bearing areas. These will mostly be covered in barro. We´ll share the details once we have a better idea of the process and product.

Any ways, we´ll be here for at least another week. After that we´re headed back through Mendoza and then to spend Christmas with some american ex-pats in San Martin de los Andes. Random, but it should be a blast.

Country Livin´

After the smooth pickup of Rowan "Corn Row" Steele, we took the night bus from Santiago and arrived in Mendoza early Thursday morning. Things got off to a rocky start when either the hostels didnt have room, were too expensive, and/or wouldn´t let us check in until early afternoon. You can imagine how happy we were walking around, canvasing the town, with all of our stuff on our backs. (And all of this before sunrise.) Eventually we were recommended to the glorious Hostel Alamo, where they allowed us to sleep for 5 hours on their amazing bean bag chairs in the living room until our room was ready. Thanks Alamo!

The next day we woke up super early to start our big wine tasting day adventure. The common tourist practice of Mendoza is to rent bikes and tour the dozen or so bodegas (say it with me now, bo-de-gas) that are all located on the same country road. Some of them give tours and free wine tasting, while others serve food and cater to people of a more connoisseur nature. We tried our best to fit in and ended up having a great day, filled with wine, carne y sol.

We spent half of the next day in Mendoza eating the world famous, or at least they should be, sandwich de lomo at a local place called Tablao, and the other half lounging around the park. In the late afternoon we hopped on the bus to Tunuyán about an hour south. After a rather trying experience attempting to locate a taxi, we finally arrived at Madre Tierra; the incredible farm where we will be spending the next two and a half weeks. The farm is around 40 acres and is nestled in the foothills of the Eastern Andes. Despite a rather dry climate, the farm is very lush with rivers and irrigation ditches a plenty.

We couldn´t have picked a better day to arrive as the owners were gone and the asado (meat fest) was just about to start. Read translation: no work, yet, and lots of play. We got to meet the other volunteers in the area, three from France, and the rest from the US, with a total of 10 in all (including us three crazy kids). Last night during the asado we watched the sun go down and the stars and the fireflies come out, a welcome change from the city life of Santiago and Mendoza.

We are really looking forward to the next two and a half weeks, with pictures and more updates to follow soon.

Osorno, Chile´s Hidden Jewel

Hello again,

We continued our journey from El Bolson, stopping in Bariloche to catch a bus that dropped us off in the Chilean border town of Osorno. Osorno is commonly known as a dumpy border town with little to offer, but we beg to differ. Its actually just a normal South American town without the glitz and glamor of the tourist industry. A more authentic vibe that we´ve grown to prefer. And speaking of authentic, lets speak about our hostel owner, the proud dueña of the Dirty Sanchez oops, we mean, Hospedaje Sanchez. Aka crazy bird lady, aka the bird whisperer. We dont know if any of you are familiar with the disease cryptococcosis (caused by accumulation of bird droppings, and she had at least 20 birds in her kitchen), but we´re pretty sure that her brain has been taken over by it...perhaps long ago. She was quite the character, thus adding to the local flavor, and to our love of Osorno. Plus we had cable tv in our room. Very luxurious.

Outside of Osorno is the national park of Puyehue, made famous by the volcan (volcano) located in the center of the park, and the various hotsprings that surround it. The original idea was to go on a three day hike, stopping along the way to take advantage of some natural jacuzzi´s, however it was still too cold and snowy to reach the second day of the hike. Our first night it even snowed! We had met some American study abroad students on the way to the park, and it turned out that they were heading in the same direction, so we all hiked up together and ended up staying the night in another convenient refugio, complete with a wood burning stove.....and two Israeli´s named Yotam and Nisan. Luckily for us, they had already been warming the place for about an hour, it was as if they had been expecting us!

Due to the bad weather, the next day we hiked down and decided to camp in the valley for two more nights with Yotam and Nisan. We stayed in a "quaint" (read: old and busted) shack down by the river. We hiked to some beautiful waterfalls, had some fun bonfires, and found the infamous "empanada lady", a sweet old chilean woman who made them from scratch in her kitchen. Muy rico!

After two days of our shack paradise, we had to pack up and pack out, in order to continue our journey northward. We stopped off at Valdivia to meet up with our new study abroad friends, and spent the next two days enjoying the comforts of a city. Despite the constant rain, we managed to have a good time, even going out one night and socializing to support a national fundraiser held every year to support disabled children in Chile.

Now we are off to Santiago to meet the third member of our party, Mr. Rowan Steele, who will be joining us in just four short days! Hurray!

Hasta pronto amigos, y gracias por leer.

Kamelia

volcano pics

refugio with volcano puyehue in the background covered in snow and fog

us in the refugio with some cool american cats.

us with Yotam and Nisan (some chill israelis we camped with)

right before my triple axle flip

next to our campsite at the base of volcan puyehue

Trek Pics

El Cajon Azul...Refugio famous for its homemade bread and cerveza

Hey girls

View from second night refugio

Yet another sketchy bridge crossing

Katie and Eyal in front of El Cajon Azul (The Blue Canyon)

El Bolson y Hielo Azul

After arriving to El Bolson, the three of us found a great hostel, bought supplies, dropped off our stuff and left early the next morning on a three day trek into the mountains surrounding the town. This happens to be a very established trek, so we didn´t have to take our tents and instead slept in the local "refugios", which are shelters equipped with basic facilities. The first day, after a 10k hike, we stopped off at Refugio Playita, which is run by a very cute and nice family (with an 11 month old named Amelia!) who house backpackers every summer for the great price of 3 dollars a night. The next day, after passing through incredible canyons and lush forests for most of the afternoon, we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by a dramatic landscape of snow covered jagged mountains and various crystal clear lakes. It was very obvious that winter was still going on strong at this altitude.

Alongside one of these beautiful lakes is where we found our next resting place, Refugio Natacion, a bareboned cabin that is maintained by the backpackers that pass through. Luckily there was a wood burning stove, complete with lots of wood, which made the night more comfortable. However, for some reason (maybe because we are in the very beginning of the summer season) the sleeping quarters in the attic were locked, and we had to sleep on the kitchen tables, aka big slabs of cold wood, haha. Tables aside, it was a cute cabin and a yet another Amelia-and-Katie-ism (poor Eyal never saw it coming).

The next day, after waking up a little stiff, we hiked for 6 hours, got a little lost twice, crashed uphill through thorn covered bushes to our final destination, el camping!

The last couple of days we´ve just been relaxing, laying around our Little House on the Prarie style hostel, reading, talking to the locals and getting some much needed sun. We checked out the local fair today, and basked in hippie paradise. Alls good in the world.

Tomorrow we´re off to Osorno, Chile via Bariloche. Crossing borders!!!

Parque Nacionales Los Alerces

Us in front of a glacier

The lake where we camped.

Oldest and biggest tree in the park.

On being 13 in Esquel

After jumping on the night bus in Viedma, we arrived in the early hours to the sleepy little town of Esquel. We were a bit nervous at first because the mountains around us were covered in snow and it felt about 30 degrees, but as the day went on the snow melted away and the sun came out; a weather pattern that we were lucky enough to have stay with us the rest of the trip.

The main attraction for us in Esquel was the Parque Nacionales Los Alerces, populary known as the "Redwoods of the South."

Our first attempt to see the famed trees did not go exactly as planned. We were scheduled to take a boat/hiking tour of the Old Growth Alerces, but upon arriving we were informed that the boat battery was dead!! But that was cool for us, as we were already planning on camping in the park, so we set off to find our campsite, an easy enough task, but the park was bigger than expected! However, after a rather difficult search for the free camping, we stumbled into an empty and incredibly beautiful campsite, just a short walk away from El Lago Verde. It was hard not to think of home that night as the harsh wind blew on the lake, creating waves, whitecaps, and the comforting sound of waves on sand...aaah, California we always think of you. Luckily, before we left the boat that day, the park service told us that we could hop on the boat tour the following day (for free plus a full refund :) ) and thats exactly what we did. Aaand of course, knowing us two and the weird situations we always seem to find ourselves in, the trip just happened to coincide with the entire 6th grade of Esquel field trip, which meant....Up to our neck in, oh nooooo, PRETEENS!!!!

5 minutes into the tour we had already been transformed into the new attraction at the zoo, complete with pointing, starring, and the amazement that the fact that we could speak. It was cute though, as we were the first Americans most of them had ever gotten to speak with. No, we don´t know any celebrities, no our hair isn´t really blonde, no we didn´t bring any boys for you. Haha, all girls think the same!! It was as if we ourselves had been transported back to Junior High...and for those of you who knew us in middle school, yes, we laughed absolutely uncontrolably nonstop for 7 hours.

Giggles aside, we actually did see some incredible trees, including El Abuelo (the grandfather tree) that is 2600 years old. Think about that, older than the United States, older than Christianity, and one of the oldest things that is still around AND ALIVE. They truly are the Redwoods of the South. And so, after a 4 day stay in Esquel, and a last minute addition to our team, a cool Israeli named Eyal, we were off to El Bolson....Donde la mágica es natural!!!

penguin face!

seal face!

Oh, Argentines...

No sos vos, soy yo! Check out the corrections...oh silly argentines and their crazy spanish

Animales!!!