Animal Farm

I`ve unpacked the backpack, dirtied the clothes and soiled the boots with all kinds of poop - cow, sheep, chicken, dog and probably my own. In fact i´ve given up the nomadic life for three weeks and become a farm hand.

I`m currently living and working on a friends farm 30 km east of Los Angeles, Chile. If my friend, Carlos, was interested in agro-turism he could make a mint here...this place is amazing in its beauty, functionality, serenity and probably some other words ending in -ty.

The farm is 160 hectares with cows, sheep, maize, wheat, sugar beat, walnuts, and hazelnuts, plus, for our own consumtion, a big veggy garden, chickens, ducks, turkey, geese, a fruit orchard, and heaps upon heaps of ripe blueberries and rasberries (I think I ate a kilo of raspberries yesterday..no joke). Also, we have majestic view of the Andes with snow capped volcanoes jutting out and a crisp blue pool to dip into with an afternoon drink. This is the good life.

My jobs are as diverse and various as they are numerous - there is a lot of work here - and I don`t have time to go into all the details (we don´t have internet there, so for anyone who wants fast replies from me, tough dudo) but I will say that for anyone who is doubtful, vaccinating sheep is very hard work.

Must go now and feed the dogs....

The Land Before Time

There is something inherently magic in really old trees, and, for that matter, ancient forests as well. Standing underneath something that has been alive since the beginning of human beings' ability to record history - and is still alive today - makes mankind’s achievements seem a bit superfluous.

I felt compelled, no driven, to spend some time in the Alerce forests. The Alerce is an evergreen tree growing in the Andean rainforests of southern Chile and Argentina and is the second oldest living organism on the planet, after the Bristlecone Pine. I missed my opportunity to see the Alerce when in Esquel, and so I have seized the chance here, close to Puerto Montt, in the Parque Nacional Alerce Andino.

This place is really so much more than the Alerce trees though - it is a primeval forest with hummingbirds and woodpeckers in force, bees the size of a walnut (with shell) giant trees completely covered in epiphytes, and of course, multi-thousand year old Alerce trees. This is truly The Land Before Time...I don't care what Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas say (actually that movie was an anthem for me when I was six).

Moreover, the weather gods have finally smiled in my direction. I was given two cloudless and utterly beautiful days in a place that generally recieves 3.5 -4 meters of rain per year...very rare. I thank you, oh Weather God, be assured that I have sacraficed in your honor (maybe not a lamb, but definately some flies!).

On a completely less magical note, I am trading temperate rainforests for Chile's central valley's agricultural hub. I am off now to work on a farm in Los Angeles for a guy I met while on the boat last week.

Love (?) Boat

Three and a half days on a boat can provide for interesting social experiments. The closed social atmosphere of a boat is a catalyst for rumors and weird behaviors.

I have just landed my rubbery legs after a sea voyage out of Patagonia on a Navimag ferry. The ferry crawled and creeped through the channels and fjords of Chilean Patagonia and found a majestic yawl during our twelve hours on the open sea (although I am sure some of the passengers would find fault with the world ‘majestic’ as they stared into the toilet with a heavy head and a turbulent tummy).

All in all, it was a good trip…we saw dolphins, whales, a seal, a glacier, a rainbow that touched both ends of our ship, and to top it off, the entire crew of the boat believed that one of the passengers, a young woman from London, was really a man. This, in fact, became the main theme of the voyage as speculation grew into hysteria. Unfortunately, the mystery will remain unsolved as no one was game enough to test out the theory.

The boat was full of Germans and Swiss, and thus, beer was on the menu. In fact, this is almost all we did; drink, talk about the supposed transvestite, try to understand the crazy old Japanese guy who danced all over the ship and took pictures of everyone while muttering nonsensical Spanglish, and, of course, every good ship voyage ends with a healthy night of Bingo to finish off the voyage. Can’t beat that, right?

So now the rides over, the horizon has stopped swaying, I've started eating real food agian and I think my body has finally passed all the alcohol through it. Maybe it's time to hike up the volcano that stands shimmering across the lake from where i am staying in Puerto Varas, Chile.

Northward Bound

The road south ends in Ushuaia, and, although there are some islands further south and, of course, Antartica, I'm not rich enough to explore them...so the road south has ended for me. It's all north from here (and maybe a little east and west, here and there)! So, in a sense, it is a very exciting prospect to be making tracks toward my destination (which I guess, in the end, is the US). I've only got 7500 miles, or 12,000 km left till the US border. Piece of cake...right?

Ushuaia was a lovely city flanked by the Beagle Channel, snow capped mountians and Chilean islands. I cought up with a good friend from my wwoofing days and we celebrated New Years with some Argentine P.H.D. candidates and an Australian travel writer...partying all through the night...which isn't that hard considering there is only five hours of dark. Also, while in Ushuaia I was robbed for the first time in South America, nothing too serious just a loss of sixty bucks or so...but we'll chalk that up as a first. Let's see what the tally can get to before I leave SA. On the same day, I found out that my wwoofing host from November (refer to earlier post) has been acused by another wwoofer for sexual misconduct and gross wierdness...the wwoofer has petitioned to the organization for removal of the farm and all. Exciting, I can't wait to hear the next chapter in this.

Tomorrow I (should be) jumping on a ferry and sailing through the fjords of Chilean Patagonia and making tracks to the north where summer is more synonimous with beautiful people wearing as little as possible...or some sort of fantasy as such.