Week 2
The one thing you learn while traveling in Chile is if it isn’t 8 hours away it’s a short drive. We have about an eleven hour travel to our next destination Futaleufu. Futa is a little town in the heart of the Andes. This town is home to Rio Futaleufu, the second biggest commercially run river in the world. We stayed with a fishing guild by the name of Lu. He has created a very successful business by bringing gringos into one of the best fisheries in the world. We spent another 10 days in Futa. With Lu we went fishing with him and saw and made suggestions on how he could possible make changes and improvements to his successful business. During this time I started working on my LINK project. From the clients on the sea kayaking trip, they wanted to do a HAP training in North Carolina. My job was to create a brochure that explains what HAP does and what the results are to the participants. For the first part I did as much research as I could. The wifi is always an iffy thing, and research was a slow painful endeavor. I was given a really cool opportunity and was able to travel to Argentina. . I was there over night and helped out in a friends bakery. Argentina is renowned for their beef and to give some context it would a vegetarian's mouth water. It was really cool to learn a little bit of Argentina Spanish. They say things a lot different than Chile. With their new president then black market has disappeared fairly quickly and sadly I didn't sell my phone for 2000$ us. Going between the two countries is very simple as long as you don’t have any food. In Chile hitch hiking and expecting the unexpected are two necessary things that will make your travels cheaper and more interesting. In Futa the food truck comes only once a week and no one ever knows when it’s coming. So even getting is an adventure, then on top of all that you don’t even know if you can get a ride in and out of town. When our small group wasn’t going on some crazy adventure, we discussed emotional intelligence. These chats were about different skills, ideas, and trainings. These were always engaging and I was able to add my input on my views of emotional intel. As our time near closer in Futa, we went on a river run. The Futa is an epicly big river, with incredible white water. We went with Mitch and incredible guild and a good friend. This was my first time kayaking since my shoulder injury. Jump into the deep and hope to swim so to speak. The next day it was another 16 hour travel to our next stop. Traveling for more that 24 hours can be a pain in the a#&, but going to a new country, with unknowns, new friends, and different places, that travel time seems to be totally worth. With my week one quickly progressing, and only four weeks in Patagonia, Chile I knew every second was precious. I started off my internships with a fjord trip. We first met the nine clients, in a hostel called the Guest House. The fjord trip was going to be nine days in three different fjords near Puerto Montt. After a near death experience in a van to the fjords we arrived at the location where we were going to start this incredible journey. We loaded gear onto a smaller vessel that would be home base for the week and a half. The boss man was Francisco Valle, the cook Yoyi Valle, the crew members Rouel and Cloudeo, and the three guilds, Bryan Maddox, Sam Carter, and myself. I worked really, really hard during this trip. Over the 9 days I worked about 140 hours. It was a great experience, I had multiple responsibilities, ranging from relaying messages from the workers to the clients, setting up all the meals, cleaning up and cooking. My Spanish as far as I could tell greatly improved over a short span, due to the quick commands, and rapid communication. The surrounding area is amazing, We are at 0 ft elevation and the mountains rise 3000+ feet all around us. Glaciers loomed over our smaller ship, making you feel small, very few things in Colorado can compare. Waterfalls dotted the landscape, some massive others trickles. There are no water born diseases in Chile so almost every single fresh water source is drinkable. One of my many highlights for this trip was swimming the the glacial rivers. The freezing cold water, was refreshing due to the late summer weather of Chile. Colorado has a harsh and brilliant sun but the hole in the ozone layer redefines the meaning of intense sun. Every Once and awhile a pod of dolphins would show up and surf the wake of the ship. It is magnificent to see such graceful animals dart and jump in the ocean and so close to you. Each day had a new adventure that would completely new and different. The only consistency was there was no consistency, other than food we always got food. Working in the kitchen was always interesting, with me trying to teach Yoyi some English, me trying to understand the frantic Chilean Spanish, preparing meals, and so forth. I always was enjoying myself, learning a newer language and trying to cook at the same time is tricky business, but it was a challenge I enjoyed. As the days quickly pass by the final day was one of the best. There is a natural hot springs in the fjords, and it is absolutely stunning. The springs start at a natural seep and the scalding water runs down a series of pools. Each pool becomes cooler and cooler. Right over the ridge is a medium size glacial river that is a nice place to cool off. Running between the two places and shocking your body felt great. We sailed out and so began part two.
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AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2016
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