Since my last post, I completed my quarantine period and boarded a plane to Puerto Montt the same day, flying to Los Lagos for a school trip. Walking out of my quarantine room and immediately getting on a bus with 30 people was a little jarring, but I slowly returned to my typical rhythms throughout the week.
However, even though I only took a week and a half off (mid-semester break plus quarantine), I found myself struggling to pay attention in class this week. The stress levels are also high, which I think is partially because my break wasn’t really a break (getting sick two days in will do that). Now I’m in a race to feel like I’m back on track as assignments pile up.
Luckily, the Los Lagos trip was as fun as it was overwhelming. We spend three days in Puerto Varas, a beautiful city on Lago Llanquihue. Our first day there, we hiked (or, more accurately, tried to hike) on two volcanoes: Osorno and Calbuco. As we got out of the car and began to climb Osorno’s steep slopes, the wind thrashed us with 55 mph gusts. At first it was exciting and made the hike feel like an adventure. However, after the wind pushed me off balance enough that I almost tumbled down the cliff, I was ready to turn around, and our professors made the same call, cutting our hike short. Calbuco, on the other hand, was sheltered from the wind, and we hiked through vast tephra fields that the 2015 eruption deposited. The landscape looked like the moon after a century of human colonization and floral cultivation: gray rocks covering the ground, but somehow, patches of forest interspersed the tephra.
The next two days in Puerto Varas passed quickly, full of tours of urban wetlands and a free morning during which I tested my post-COVID lungs with a run along the lakefront and a climbing session at the local gym. After lunch, we regrouped and traveled to Chiloé Island.
The next few days of the trip felt more like fun excursions than school. We spent a day exploring an ecological reserve, where we had the opportunity to visit an Eddy Covariance station (one of three such stations in Chile). The next day, we drove to Puñihuil, where we took a boat to sea Magallanic and Humboldt penguins. After Puñihuil, we drove to Chepu, where we met an Indigenous woman who discussed various cultural practices with us (primarily traditional weaving methods and native potatoes). We helped our host dye wool using old man’s beard (a type of lichen). Watching the rich orange color seep from the lichen (which was green, making the orange dye even more interesting) and into the wool was fascinating. As the dye set, we went to her garden, where we harvested native potatoes (Chiloé is home to over 200 potato varieties). We dug up long, skinny, and red potatoes, spherical potatoes with purple swirls, giant yellow potatoes, and so many more.
Our final day took us to Tenaún and Dalcahue, where we explored more of the island’s iconic culture. At Tenaún, we visited a family and helped them prepare curanto—a signature meal in Chiloé. Curanto is a meat-heavy dish, involving mussels, clams, sausage, and pork (as well as potatoes, milcao, and chapaleles). To prepare the curanto, you place stones on a bed of embers and charcoal in a hole in the ground. Once the stones are hot enough, you remove the charcoal and dump the meat and potatoes onto the stones. Then, you covered the food and stones with massive nalca (type of native rhubarb) leaves. The milcao and chapaleles (these are kind of like potato pancakes) go on top of the first nalca layer, then you seal the entire curanto with more nalca leaves and let everything cook for 45 minutes.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been vegetarian for seven years, but recently decided to eat meat on this program. The decision was partly because I felt as though I wasn’t eating enough protein. However, I also chose to switch to meat so I can experience Chilean culture through its food. So, I tried the curanto and, while I’m not a huge fan of seafood, I’m glad I did.
Later that day, we spent two hours in the artisanal market in Dalcahue. The vast majority of products in the market were wool, which speaks to the importance of sheep and weaving. I enjoyed shopping at the market after our trip to Chepu, as I was familiar with the work that goes into creating the sweaters, scarves, hats, blankets, and so much more.
I know this is a long entry, and more focused on a rundown of activities than some of my past posts. However, the past week was so busy that it’s hard to avoid. I still feel a little disoriented by my transition out of quarantine and into a field expedition, so writing this helped me organize my thoughts and identify the key highlights from the Los Lagos trip.
And the busyness never stops with SFS; next week, we have a four day hiking-focused expedition in Torres del Paine, so I’m taking advantage of the first two-day weekend of the semester to prepare myself!