The Punch Tree of Patagonia

Jason proving that you can indeed punch the aptly named Punch Tree. Photo taken during a mountain bike trip outside of Bariloche.

Chocolate and Lakes

With the stunning backdrop of Patagonia, the city of Bariloche can hardly go wrong. You can overlook the somewhat forced homey look of some of the buildings with their faux timber exteriors and the touts on every corner. For what Bariloche may lack in authenticity, it makes up with chocolate; heaps and heaps of decadent, artesan chocolate that looked almost too good to eat. Almost.

David and I were in Bariloche for about five days, preparing and recovering from treks in the surrounding mountains. We spent our days hunting down mountain gear and our nights eating Mexican food. For a couple of those days, we were able to meet up with the lovely Prem, David´s partner at Inti Wari Yassi and a good friend. The three of us managed to find a beautiful lake (okay, that wasn´t exactly exactly hard) with a small rocky island that we alsmot had to ourselves. The water was freezing but crystal clear; you could see 6 meters down in some areas.

Mas de Karumbe

After attempting (unsuccessfully) to set the net in rough seas, we rigged up a lean-to for our afternoon seista. Life is rough when you work at the beach.

Ali-Karumbe´s founder and El Gordo - a fisherman by trade who stayed with us for a week and cooked some delish meals.

Part of the Karumbe crew

Gus teaching and playing games with the local kids during an environmental outreach campaign
Getting ready to take a DNA sample from a very dead fresh-water dolphin

Ita, Lu and I at camp

Paryting on the beach in Punto del Diablo on my last night

Karumbe and Cardboard Turtles

I arrived at Karumbe the day before Carnival. Karumbe is a turtle research station in the small coastal town of La Coronilla. As a new volunteer, I was expecting to be thrown into work, maybe cleaning field equipment or helping with the turtle capture. Instead, I was sized up for a starfish costume. In fact, I spent the whole day creating marine animal costumes out of cardboard, driftwood and anything else we could find lying around the station or beach. On the night of Carnival, we marched in the town´s parade as a medley of turtles, sharks, jellyfish, starfish and sealions. We stratigically placed ourselves behind a drum line so we had a great beat to dance to during the parade.

Turtle Liberation!

I was starting to doubt that Karumbe Bay actually worked with turtles because with all the hubbub over Carnival, I dídn´t actually see a turtle till my fourth day. But since then, I have been helping the scientists with turtle sightings, capture and census walks. Their goal is to obtain more information on the habits of juvenile green turtles who come down from Brazil and the Carribean to feed during the summer months. The days can be long, but you can´t beat working in a bikini and swimming in the ocean as a part of your job.

Turtle Capture

This dolphin has seen better days

Tramping through Argentina (and Uruguay)

After a couple days in the desert oasis/tourist trap of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, I found myself in Northern Argentina. I spent a few days in Salta, then headed to Mendoza, in the heart of wine country and finally on to sultry Buenos Aires. In every town I found the people to be incredibly friendly, outgoing, funny and of course holding a mate. Rich, poor, young and old, everyone in Arngentina drinks yerba mate.

I was suprised to find myself falling in love with Buenos Aires. Although it is a huge city (6 million people call it home), it is easy to walk around and in places it is downright quaint. I arrived on a Sunday and headed down to San Telmo´s market, an incredible feast. The streets were packed with vendors, street performers, artisans and their wares, musicians, tourists and tango dancers. Yes, tango in the streets. It was a vibrant, sensual city and reminded me of a more sanitized version of pre-Katrina New Orleans.
After Buenos Aires, I took a ferry across the Rio Platos to the coastal village of Colonia, Uruguay and then headed on to Montevideo. It was a couple days till Carnival, so the streets were packed with the sound of drums and chants as everyone practiced for the upcoming parades. Late one night, after checking out a traditional murga, some friends and I stumbled onto a ceremony being held on the beach. Groups of people wearing all white were walking into the water and sending small shoebox-sized boats filled with lit candles to sea. They would then walk backwards to the beach, while chanting. On the beach, there were more groups of people all dressed in white and traditional healers that were offering their services to those taking part in the ceremony. No one was in charge and there was a very organic, spontaneous feel to the whole event. Later, we learned that they were offering thanks to Yemanya, La Madre del Mar, a Brazilian Goddess with African roots.

Protest outside of the La Casa Rosa in Buenos Aires - the same building where Eva Peron gave her speeches

Xabi normally cuts hair for transvestites in Basque, but kindly cut all of our hair at our hostel in Mendoza.

The World Turned Upside Down

After a three day tour of Southwest Bolivia, your mind is awash with images. With every curve around a mountain or dip into a canyon, the landscape seems to change completely. We went from the stunning salt flats which offered surreal mirror images of the sky, to bleak, lifeless desert moonscapes and finally to vibrant blue and green salt lagoon, all in one day.

Our group consisted of me, David, who I had met at the refuge, Tirini from Spain, a New Zealand* couple and our quiet guide/driver Raolo. We had also begun with a couple from Venezuala, but we lost them after the truck broke down the second time. Ah, the truck. It was a four-wheel drive Toyota that had apparantly seen better days. It broke down around 12 times during our trip, often leaving us stranded in very remote, desolate areas. There was apparantly something wrong with the fanbelt, but fear not! Raolo was able to cut pieces of the rubber that secured our luggage to the roof and use it to fix the fanbelt. I won´t get into the techie mechanical details but I´m pretty sure I saw bubblegum being used at one point. Fortunately, the scenery was amazing so we didn´t mind waiting while Raolo worked his magic. There was also a strong communal aspect to the truck tours, so often during our pitstops a fellow driver would stop, look under the hood and offer his bubblegum.

After three days of jumping around boulders, skipping stones on salt lagoons, prancing around salt flats and warming up by geysers, we were dropped off at the border of Chile, bus ticket in hand. Next stop, San Pedro de Atacoma.

*One useful piece of information gleaned from this trip: Kiwis will put ketchup on ANYTHING.

Salt Flats

Flamingo Reserve
High Plains Desert

Our Truck Broken Down, AgainValle de los PiedrasSalt Lagoons Early Morning Gysers

Inti Wara Yassi

I don´t think Inti Wara Yassi could exist in any other country. My partner Mikel had a saying, "Bolivia: Todo es posible, nada es seguro". (Bolivia: Anything is possible, nothing is safe.) At times, I felt like I was living in a John Irving novel: we had an ocelot living in one of the hostal rooms because a landslide destroyed her cage; I danced with a Spectacled Bear; my housemate had a cute, green inchworm-looking bug pop out of his hand, the monkeys teased my 300 pound cat by peeing on him from the trees; I was quasi-attacked my a large spider monkey baring fangs while on dawn patrol of the "Big Bad Monkey Watch"; and the list goes on...

There was a fun cast of characters at the refuge and we spent our evenings drinking beer or macoyoa juice at the cafe or at a local restuarant, destressing and swapping animal stories. We had many a fun night, including trading gifts of Christmas Eve, kisses on New Year´s Eve and money on poker nights.

IWY is always in need of volunteers so if you are thinking of heading to South America, consider spending a month or so at the refuge. For me, it was one of the most intense, amazing and unforgettable experiences I have ever had. Where else can you spend nine hours a day bonding with a Puma in the jungle?