Update on the protests

Things have gotten worse and turned violent, according to the Santiago Times.  There are four impassible road blockages between here and Coyhaique and a general fuel shortage throughout the region from Puerto Montt and southwards.  Kris says that this has largely escaped even national media coverage...the articles from the Santiago Times show up on page six or so of the printed version.  I suspect that'll fuel the protesters to keep raising a ruckus and get increasingly more extreme until they get the whole country's attention...stay tuned.

Fuel has become the major issue everywhere.  As I said in the last post, the public buses have ceased to run their routes for lack of gas.  Here on the estancia, we're running out as well.  We have about a week's worth of diesel fuel for our generator, so we're operating on shortened hours of electricity, trying to have it  running only during peak usage times.  We're also pretty much out of gas for our cars, besides what's been set aside for pre-planned trips or moving volunteers to and from their work sites.  Unfortunate when you're working in a huge park designed for exploration by vehicle.  The whole situation here and in Aysén has really thrown into sharp relief how much life here is dependent on fuel; without it, food, supplies, and people stop traveling from place to place.  The basic ease of transportation that we so often take for granted is suddenly questioned and we're exposed as incredibly vulnerable; gas is the noose around our necks, the rug pulled out from under the people of Patagonia, turning everything in Aysén on its head.

Maybe I'm not taking this fuel shortage serious enough, but I'm looking forward to the time when we run out of gas like a little girl anticipates a play date.  I'm just imagining us all sitting around the hearth in our houses, doing everything by candlelight and getting around on horses when we have to go longer distances than our feet can carry us.  Of course, it would bring normal office work to a standstill, Collin would have to come up with some ingenious way to refrigerate all the meat we have, and we'd have no way to get in touch with the outside world, which could be bad in an emergency situation.  But come on.  We're about to start living like people did here thirty, forty, fifty years ago and that, to me, sounds like one darn good adventure.  Don't ya think?