Tuesday

It's been a solid week and a half since that last post.  My, how time flies!  And I have been having fun.  We finally had a weekend without guests in the lodge, and it was also time for the annual Ruta del Huemul, so we got some time off the estancia with a cool group of people.  The Ruta, in its seventh season this year, is a two-day hike that goes from our estancia into the Reserva Tamango (by the town of Cochrane) through the heart of local huemul territory, in an effort to raise awareness about the endangered status of this symbolic Chilean deer.  The Reserva is home to about 10% of the world's population of huemul deer, and when CP donates the land from the estancia to the Chilean government, one of their conditions is that the Reserva Tamango be upgraded to national park status to further aid in the protection of the animal.

Saturday marked the end of the Ruta and a huge celebratory asado in the Reserva, which we from the lodge helped to run.  There were over 100 people that participated in the Ruta, largely Chileans from the local area, so we had an interesting group of people to interact with.  It was a warm, sunny day, perfect for being outside. Here are some photos from the festivities, the few I took between serving people food and cleaning up:

After the asado, Collin, Sarah, Josh and I hitched a ride back to the cruce (crossing), where the road to our estancia meets with the Carretera Austral, and hiked down to the Confluencia of the Baker and Chacabuco Rivers, where we camped for the night.

There was a large rocky beach right by the river, and there we sat around a campfire sharing some wine and some stories.  Juanjo, the only Chilean intern, arrived later with a few new acquaintances he'd made at the asado, some university students from Santiago hitchhiking around Patagonia during their summer break.  Sunday was a day off for all of us, so we took advantage of the time off and enjoyed a lazy day by the river, fishing, reading, and talking.  In the afternoon some threatening clouds rolled in over the Northern Ice Field, so we packed up and started on our way back to the estancia.  We got rained on a bit, and blown around by strong gusts of wind, but three hours later we arrived back home, contented from the walk in the cool weather.

Yesterday more guests arrived at the lodge, and they kick off the next round of visitors that will last for a couple weeks.  Today, a Chilean senator graces us with his presence, an important visit because he represents the Aysén region of Chile (where we are) and has the power to pull for or against our cause within the government.  Of course, the day that he comes Mother Nature decides to pull out the stops and unleash a nice rainy day.  That's been happening more and more these days...we're starting to suspect that summer was short-lived and fall is quickly approaching.  Luckily, there are random days of sunshine to break up the grey weather, which keeps this sunshine girl happy.  Hopefully on the next one, I'll be able to go out for a horseback ride - I've talked it over with my new friend Luigi, the jack-of-all-trades who's in charge of the caballos, among other things, and he's told me that all we need is a mild afternoon to make it happen.  Fingers crossed!

All photography copyright Kendall DeLyser.