In Chile, Jon, Justin and I will be volunteering with the Patagonia Land Trust in the Chacabuco Valley of Chile’s Region XI in Northern Patagonia. Basically, the founder of North Face and the former CEO of Patagonia Clothing are married. And filthy rich. Obviously. These two rounded up some other benefactors and bought up 300 sq miles of sheep ranches abutting a 600 sq mile National Reserve in southern Chile. Taken together, that's nearly the size of Rhode Island and three times the size of Grand Teton National Park. The founders bought the 'estancia' complete with sheep, and have been slowly working to decrease the herd while they remove any traces of the last 150 years of agricultural use.
And that's where we come in. The job description was almost entirely composed of euphemisms, but it seems like we'll be pulling out miles of old barb-wire fences and other manual labor tasks. We'll head out to a location on Monday morning, work there for four days, and return to base camp on Friday evening. We'll then have two rest days to go explore the park on our own or head 15 miles to the nearest town (Cochrane, pop. 3000). We'll camp out every night, but will have access to electricity, showers, and laundry once a week. To keep their funds heading to actual projects, the program asks for $15/day for food and maintenance of facilities. Elevation at base camp is only ~ 1500ft, but 7000ft peaks loom just a few miles away. A giant glacier field with some 15000ft peaks lies 50 miles to our west. Find more information and pictures at the gorgeous website www.PatagoniaLandTrust.org
Here is a map of the location …
And a photograph of the base camp …
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