Conservacion Patagonica

What a great organization!! I have loved volunteering here - the people were great, the scenery absolutely incredible and the work was fun. I also learned a lot about the organization - their history, their work and their plans for the future. We did a lot of work and also got some great hikes in as well. We removed old cattle ranch fences, removed some invasive species or exoticas and did some seed collecting. During my stay a saw many animals - zorro (fox), guanaco (another llama cousin in the cameliad family), armadillos, vizcachas (a member of the chinchilla family), rabbits, and tons of birds - eagles, condors, hawks, geese, ducks, cisne (swans) and flamingos to name a few. We camped during the week and came into the estancia (ranch) on the weekends where we had showers, meals cooked for us and internet.















Conservacion Patagonica is run by Kris Tompkins. Her and her husband, Doug Tompkins, have been purchasing a bunch of land down here in Chile, predominantly in Patagonia. They have already completed one park up in the Lakes District and north Patagonia - Parque Pumalin which they turned into a non profit because they ran into so much opposition with being foreigners. They are now focused on creating Parque Nacional Patagonia in which they want to merge their current project at Valle Chacabuco with 2 other national reserves - Reserva Nacional Tamango and Reserva Nacional Jeinemeni and give it to the Chilean government. They have purchased a variety of old cattle ranches and have connected pretty much all the parcels of land in between the 2 reserves minus 2 on which the owners do not want to sell at this time (or are asking too much).

What I have been finding on my travels is that people are people where ever they live and there are politics everywhere - unfortunately. I learned a lot more about the patagonia dams (reprisas) and how they are impacting the idea merging the 2 reserves and Valle Chacabuco. The organization has worked hard to create Parque Nacional Patagonia and they actually found a donor from the government of Germany but the Chilean government would not accept it because the Tompkins are avid supporters of SinReprisas (a local grassroots organization fighting the dams) and do not want the dams to be built. CRAZY! AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH! Why can governments not see past corporate interests and money and see what value open tracts of land have for not only their own country but for the world and for future generations???!!! Despite this turn of events, the people involved with the organization continue to be passionate and hopeful. If you want to learn more about this, you can see the movie/documentary 180 degrees south. It is a great film if you want some action shots of surfing, climbing, hiking and information of what is happening with Conservacion Patagonica. It is a documentary of Jeff Johnson's trip down to Patagonia. He got the idea from Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins (avid climbers, surfers and founders of the companies Patagonia and North Face) who took a road trip down to Patagonia in 1968.

Funny but I actually got to shake hands and talk with Yvon while he was visiting the estancia. He is still surfing. I love to know folks who are still active and pursuing their sports in their 70's!! The weekend he was at the estancia, we had an asado where we roasted one of the lambs from the property over a campfire. Yvon brought a marinade for the lamb which was spicy and yummy.























































































I actually have border crossing pictures now for all the countries I have visited so far!!