By: Anna Lick, University of Vermont
Okay, picture this: you just arrived at the hostel in Coyhaique after 3 flights, you’ve met all the other students with whom you are going to be spending 3 months, and you see all your instructors welcoming you to Chile, and all you can think about is how hungry you are after all those travels. Little did you know, a table in the kitchen of the hostel was prepared by your lovely instructors full of snacks: apples, grapes, crackers, cheese, and so many others. Then you see it, the thing that changes your life forever: Manjar. Per Google Translate, Manjar means delicacy in English, and boy, is that an understatement. Manjar is this dulce de leche/caramely sweet condiment that you can (and we do) put on almost everything to satisfy your sweet tooth out in the field. Trying this Chilean delicacy on day 1 set the expectation for the food experience to be elevated from your traditional camp food.
I don’t think I have ever heard more people say “I’ll cut the cheese!” than I have here this semester in Patagonia. When I left for this trip, people were skeptical of many things: “Are you going to shower?” “What’s the weather like down there?” “How will you do your laundry?” As a vegetarian and self-proclaimed foodie, I was always wondering what the food situation down here was going to be. It all starts in the Bodega, managed by Dani and Vale. Every ingredient needed will be there… and if it’s not, then they are actively shopping for it. From pasta to trail mix, to beans, to jam, to crackelets, and so much more, the bodega is the place to be. We have a group of 14 down here and we split our group every day into chores, most of which are centered around making meals for each other.
Since getting to Patagonia, we have all encountered making every meal, inside, outside, in the field, with a power outage, etc. Back in Coyhaique is when we had it easiest to cook (mostly because the instructors cooked for us a lot!). A #1 highlight there was when we were immersed into the experience of eating a Chilean hot dog (veggie sausage for those like me) – called a completo! Instructor Felipe showed us the proper way to load up the dog with tomato, sauerkraut, lots of avocado, more mayo (an essential down here), ketchup, and mustard. When at basecamp in Aquasol, it’s super easy to make meals with a propane stove (water doesn’t take ages to boil and there’s a lot of surface area to cut veggies or put more pots on the stove). Some consistent menu items are spaghetti, couscous, rice, Don Pepe, beans, lentils, FRESH veggie!, chicken, cheese, eggs, sandwiches, etc. When we go out into the field, it’s very similar to what it’s like at basecamp just tampered down a level because we don’t have all the same resources (some dehydrated veggies, not the same quality, etc.) but I was thoroughly surprised with the quality of food even in the field.
While the food situation is usually quite structured with a menu laid out, students are able to coordinate with Dani, Vale, or other Round River staff to plug for foods they want to eat (since there isn’t a ton of variation.) For example, Liz advocated to make us banana pancakes on the morning of one of our free days! Breakfast and lunch, when not in the field, are usually also a free-for-all. Breakfast usually consists of oatmeal with manjar, fruit with manjar, toast with manjar, or eggs. Lunch is usually an egg sandwich with some fresh veggie, cheese, sometimes lunch meat, avocado, etc. Sometimes people get creative (Payton) and decide to put manjar on their sandwich but otherwise those egg sandwiches go pretty hard with this squad.
Some of the joys of having a large squad down here in Patagonia is that it took us a little while to figure out the portioning for our whole crew to feel well fed (though this is a consistent battle). It started out with not enough food in San Lorenzo (we never starved I swear but people were just still hungry), too much food in Jeinimeni, and mashed potato night the other night being just right. In times of dire situations, we’ve had to recruit *trash cans* (Henry, Abel, and especially Jasper) to minimize our group food waste when there is a plethora.
Last but certainly not least, Round River students have the opportunity to indulge in some sweet treats throughout the semester! When in the field, the group gets to split a chocolate bar every night, and we are also always snacking on crackelets with manjar or jam. Also, a highlight was biking to Argentina on our free day off from field work and spending most of our time there eating. We stopped at a bakery that supposedly Messi had been to/eaten from, and there I indulged in an alfajore. Cherries are also very big in the region in Argentina that we were in, and at lunch we all had a delicious cherry juice drink with mint! Speaking of free days, when at Aquasol, we venture to Kokoro café to obtain WiFi to talk to our people and maybe get some work done. Kokoro is where we really indulge in crepes, waffles, smoothies, sushi, burgers, and cake. Also! If you have a birthday during the semester, you get a cake (shoutout Teagan, Josie, and Maria)!
It has been a Slopfest here at Round River Patagonia… most amazing meals with mostly respectable portions (minus San Lorenzo) in the most beautiful place. My favorite food so far: anything the instructors cook for us… but on a real note, the pesto pasta… which yes, the instructors did cook for us.
