This past week was sandwiched between Christmas and New Year’s so there isn’t too much to share. I spent most of the week frantically planning my trip south to Patagonia. My attempts at constructing a cohesive and functional plan have reminded me how lucky I am back home. If I wanted to go somewhere, I would simply drive to the destination. The flat, dirt roads I used to complain about while driving through the countryside of Indiana now seem like a far away dream as I try to decide between 30-hour ferry rides around impassable glaciers or hitchhiking the sparse Austral Carretera (the main highway that bisects Patagonia). The biggest issue is simply the immensity of Patagonia. The area occupies the entirety of the southern cone of South America, a startling +400,000 square miles of mountains, fjords, glaciers and prairies. And of course, I want to see it all (or at least as much as I can within a two month period).
In planning out this epic adventure, I’ve divided my time into tourist and non-tourist time. There are a million sights to see in Patagonia, but I’ve also got a great deal of work to do, so deciding what to see and when to see it has been a crucial step in the planning process. I’ve chosen to start with the work, saving the touristy visits to places like Torres del Paine and Tierra del Fuego for late February. By mid January, I should be moving out of Santiago and starting my journey south to my first stop, Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas. Puerto Montt is a port city in Chile’s Lake District, a brief 11-hour drive from Santiago. Planning this first stop made me realize just how massive Chile actually is. I knew Chile was a large country, but what I didn’t realize is that the time is takes to travel from the northernmost city to the southern most city is a whopping 90-plus hour endeavor. Not only is it more than double the time it takes to cross the US, but the shortest route actually forces you to cross into Argentina in order to avoid the lengthy ferry rides through Chile’s impenetrable glacial fields. Luckily, I am not trying to travel the length of Chile, at least not during this visit, so I won’t complain too much about the extreme distances.
I plan to stay in Puerto Montt/Puerto Varas (a neighboring city) for 2-3 weeks working with several of the conservation organizations based there. Three hours north of Puerto Montt is Valdivia, another cultural hub with a distinctly German influence. There are several interesting conservation projects taking place nearby Valdivia, including a world renowned eco-resort called Huilo Huilo, which I will be sure to visit. It is in Huilo Huilo and nearby Valdivia that I intend to begin filming interviews with residents impacted by conservation projects. Several academic articles have been published documenting the frustration that community members feel towards conservation projects that alter community livelihoods and seem to withhold economic independence. I hope that in my time in Puerto Montt, Puerto Varas and Valdivia, I will be able to capture these sentiments and document whether the general attitudes towards conservation have changed.
Besides the ambitious scheming, I had a lovely New Year’s Eve celebration with the same friends from Christmas. My friend Veronica and her family were very kind and invited Jesus, Omar and me to celebrate New Year’s with them in the suburbs of Santiago. New Year’s Eve celebrations are basically the same as in the US, except it takes place in the summer so there are cookouts and pool parties! iIt was a pleasure to share time and food with such wonderful people!
