My entire trip in one slide of pictures!

final installment

Now that I'm back home in SF, I owe this blog the final post from my time in Patagonia.  I believe I left off at the time that I found out I was plunging into the wilderness for the next 2 weeks.  As the day went on, I slowly got more information about the excursion that was planned, though most details were vague at best.  A good reminder to just let it flow, hope for the best, and know that everything will work out one way or the other regardless of whether I know what's going on or not.

We loaded up what seemed like an enormous amount of stuff to carry out to the Rio Yendegaia for two weeks.  We each had our own pack with our personal clothes, sleeping bag, etc, plus some personal food/snacks, then we had a TON of food to carry out there, a generator, a tank of benzene, a reactor (to have fire/cook food since it's all Leave-No-Trace so campfires were not permitted), extra food/storage tent, some laptop and wi-fi system, satellite phones, etc.  As the piles grew larger we were all wondering how in the world we'd be able to carry all of this 15km into the campsite.

Violette, ready to roll!

Our packs, mine on the right ended up so heavy that other people had to lift it onto my back. 75lbs?

Crappy food for the trip: cracklets, pate in a tube, cookies, ramen, pasta and more pasta

Reactor.  Pain to carry, but nice to have a warm fire!

There were 10 of us heading out to PC17, then half of the group would end up manning PC18, and another couple would head to PC16 once it got closer for the racers to arrive.  We had a great group of people, from all over the world, and from diverse backgrounds and interests:  Pascal was the group lead, a great guy from France who leads canyoneering trips back home; two photographers from England; several Chilean guys from Punta Arenas who work for Nomades; a French student of International Communications; a chainsawyer from New England; a cartographer from Nebraska; a Chilean student of Ecotourism; and me, a YogaSlacker from San Francisco.  Here are a few pics of the crew,

Pascal and Violette

Igor, Kyle, Violette

Jake, Chloe, Miguel, Violette

Chloe

Tim (racer), Sherpa, me, Pascal, Igor

Pascal, Igor, Duncan

Me, Igor

Pascal, me, Chloe, Duncan, Harrold, Sherpa, Igor

Duncan, Kyle, Violette, Igor

Duncan and his red pants

Sherpa and Violette

So.  The adventure begins.  26 hours on a ferry from Punta Arenas, through the Straight of Magellan, west towards the Pacific Ocean, then back into Tierra del Fuego through the fjords and Beagle Channel to where we were dropped off in the Yendegaia Valley with some carabineros (local police/park rangers).  Nice boat for the travel, reclining seats, blankets, movies, etc.  Little did we realize how lucky we were on this boat ride (more on that later. . .)

departing from Punta Arenas

Amazing ride through Tierra del Fuego

Glaciers galore!

Boat transport

Great window views

You can kind of see the racers route on this map.  Starts far top left, then our Checkpoint is at the bottom red on the right. . .approximately 400 miles away. . .!!!!

Sort-of route of the boat ride

bye bye boat!

We stayed here one night in probably the dirtiest most abandoned what-used-to-be-a-house that I've ever witnessed (picture huge holes in the floor, no lighting or plumbing, smell of mildew, ratty mattresses on janky wire bunk beds, etc).  Thank goodness for my sleeping bag from Liz so I could just snuggle in and pretend that I was in a nice clean place!  And the VIEWS of where we were staying, and the land that surrounded us, that was the beauty that far surpassed any indoor dwellings.  Truly a magical place, and this was just the tip.

So the next day we hiked 15km to where we would set up our checkpoint.  Normally not such a hard hike, but my bag was so unbelievably heavy it made it a bit tough on the knees.  And the views were just so ridiculous we stopped to take lots of photos, so 7hrs later we made it to our destination (it would only take 4 hrs on the way home).  The area where we were staying was right next to a glacial river with ice cold yummy water, and surrounded by mountains on every side.  There were rabbit holes everywhere, and also rabbit shit, so it became the Land of Nestle Quick as we settled into our new habitation.  Also wild horses would grace our presence almost everyday, sometimes grazing in the fields nearby, sometimes coming to check us out, and my favorite, when you could hear them running along the river, hooves thundering.  Truly stunning and such a raw up-close look at wild mother nature all around us.

Hike to PC

our campsite

Rabbit holes, also doubled as toilets (sorry, guys)

unbelievable sunsets and clouds!!

PC17 evolved into the mecca activity world of Yendegaia.  We mixed everyone's talents so we had yoga classes, Kung Fu lessons, photography workshops, slackline sessions, discotheque, Thai massage, and of course some AcroYoga.  And there were also the occasional day hikes, setting up the Tyrolean river crossing, and LOTS of reading (yay iPad with a solar charger and Game of Thrones book 2!).  And setting up traps to catch beaver (castor)!  The beavers are apparently savaging the land, building dams, changing waterways, destroying trees.  So the locals are all about trapping them and eating them!  We caught one, but unfortunately a zorro (fox) got to it before we could.  The zorros are some sneaky bastards.  Very curious and not afraid to come close into our camp to try to steal food.  It almost snagged my iPad, and it took one guys insoles out of his shoes as they were drying overnight.  Little jerks.

Setting up the river crossing

Day hike

our campsite

What's left of the castor after the zorro got to it

Home of the castors

Setting a trap for the castor

Zorro emailing all his friends to come ravage our campsite

Warming himself by the fire--a very indulgent houseguest

Beautiful nonetheless

Another day hike

Headstand practice

Kung Fu!

Kung Fu on the slackline

But this adventure was certainly not all about us.  The whole reason why we were out in this beautiful country was to support the racers who are the real heroes of this story.  Teams of 4 from all over the globe were racing to finish what some call the most challenging course on the planet.  Not only are they making their way 600km through Patagonia via trekking, mountain biking, and kayaking, but they are also battling extreme terrain, unpredictable weather, freezing glacial river crossings, lack of sleep, unknown routes, and often minor injuries.  So after getting to our PC, setting up the river crossings, and eating more Ramen and tubular pate than one would care to recall, we basically just waited for the racers.  We were there for about 9 days before the first team came through.  They woke us up in our tents around 7am with a call for "Pizza Delivery!". . .if only!  Then it was pretty constant over the next day and a half as the next 7 or so teams came through.  Two teams ended up dropping out of the race at our checkpoint due to injuries.  Only about half of the teams even finish the race.  My beloved YogaSlacker team rolled through one afternoon in 5th place, but decided to up the ante and hiked through the next night in order to bring them into a solid 3rd place for the finish.  The last leg of the kayak was cancelled because the weather was too bad, so we ended up picking all of the racers up at the final checkpoint in order to start our 53 hour boat ride back to Punta Arenas.  Yes, that was 53 HOURS.  And not in a nice comfy boat like we took out--this was like riding a MUNI bus full of 75 people who hadn't showered in 2 weeks, half of which had rotting feet and a gnarly spreading foot fungus from the crazy amount of trekking required in this race (come to think of it, that's REALLY similar to some MUNI buses I've been on in SF).  It was beyond long to get home, but we did, and the YogaSlackers took their 3rd place finish on the podium.  Amazing thing is that no money is won for this race, the prize is the sheer accomplishment of having finished. 

Team YogaSlackers (Chelsey and Paul)

Jason

Chelsey

 

Chelsey--here's where slacklining skills come in handy!

Dan the Man

Luckily this is NOT the foot of a YogaSlacker, and this turned a million times worse by the end of the race for this poor racer!

Paul and Jason on the final kayak for the photo finish on the glacier

And the trip pretty much wound up from there.  An Acro and Slackline workshop in Punta Arenas, a trip to visit the penguins, a day trip to Torres del Paine, then a REALLY long trip home.

guanacos everywhere!

Mini icebergs from the nearby glacier (Lake Grey)

I loved my time in Chile.  I loved the amazing other interns and volunteers that I met and got to spend two amazing weeks with; I love that when a Chilean comes into the room they walk to each person and greet them with a kiss on the cheek even if they've never met; I love that I learned some lessons in adaptability and letting go of control; I loved sharing this adventure with dear friends Sam, Jason, Chelsey, Dan, and Paul in yet another corner of this wide wide world; I loved the raw and real beauty of Patagonia. 

Like the story I heard on my first day in Patagonia about the fine Belgium woman. . .who traveled to Patagonia with her husband, then fell in love with the land and a cowboy, and never went home.  I thought she seemed like a crazy Belgium woman when first I heard that story, but now I've seen the world that shifted hers, and believe that she's probably more than fine.