By Teddy Charlton of Westminster College Last week, our Round River cohort spent a total of seven nights and eight days in Valle Chacabuco which is part of Patagonia National Park (PNP). The landscape is incredibly beautiful and unlike anything…
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By Teddy Charlton of Westminster College Last week, our Round River cohort spent a total of seven nights and eight days in Valle Chacabuco which is part of Patagonia National Park (PNP). The landscape is incredibly beautiful and unlike anything…
By Bailey Fuhrmann of the University of Puget Sound On October 3rd we left for Valle Chacabuco to conduct guanaco (Lama guanacoe) research for the week. The goal of our research was to map the extent of guanaco and estimate…
by Kira Corasanti of the University of Vermont On Monday, September 26, we woke up to a rainy cold morning, more excited at the prospect of staying in our quincho and drinking mate than going out for our first backpacking…
By Lily Simko of the University of Montana Back in March, Jack and I were dropped off at Norma and Gavino’s campo. We were nervous, excited, and unsure of what to expect. One-week later Sara would arrive to find Nellie…
By Allie Shiers of the University of Vermont After many weeks of anticipation, our two days of environmental education were finally upon us. This opportunity, although different from our many mountainous adventures, was an excellent way to get more connected…
by Sophia Merriweather of Colby College The huemul (Hippocamelus bisculus) is a deer endemic to southern Chile and Argentina that holds great cultural significance to the Chilean people. It is featured on the Chilean coat of arms along with the…
by Caroline Killian of Trinity College Check out Caroline’s video blog on the group’s time in the Chacabuco Valley!
2/7/22 – 2/14/22 by Jack Grabinski of the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University Nestled along the border between Chile and Argentina, La Ruta de los Pioneros is a historic horse trail that was used by pioneers…
By Hailey Kellison of University of Puget Sound My first backpacking trip in Patagonia entailed a 12 km hike in the lower region of Aysen within the Patagonia national park. My group was led by my instructors Sara, Claudia,…
by McQuillen Martinez of Colby College I arrived at Boston Logan Airport about three and a half hours early for my flight to JFK from where I would board my connecting flight to Santiago, Chile. I have not done…
By Lucca Sterrer of University of Vermont Walking through the rich forests of Southern Patagonia, it is not uncommon to be approached by one or a few of these brightly colored, curious little birds. Thorn-tailed Rayaditos (Aphrastura spinicauda) are…
By Anna Bosco of Oberlin College When I think of Patagonia, one of the first images that comes to mind is that of vast, hilly expanses covered in neneo bushes. Neneo (Mulinum spinosum), a medium-sized cushion plant, dominates the arid…
Kira Warm of Sara Lawrence College The Rhea penneta, commonly known as Lesser Rhea in English (or Ñandu in Spanish), is a flightless bird that looks similar to a small ostrich. These birds inhabit open scrub grasslands in Patagonia as…
By Ayana Harscoet of Bowdoin College In the very south of South America, far from the deserts of northern Africa and central Asia, lives a close relative of the camel: the lesser-known guanaco, or Lama guanicoe. These slender, graceful-looking camelids…
By Seth Price of Binghamton University Formally described by none other than the famous British naturalist Charles Darwin, Darwin’s Fungus (Cyttaria darwinii) is a real-life illustration of the complex ecological forces that can shape a species. In Spanish, the fungi…
Rob McManus of CSBSJU Two of the most prevalent things you can find almost anywhere in Patagonia are spikes and condors. During the moments we were not looking down at the ground trying to avoid the thorny neneo (Mullinum spinosum)…
By Maxwell King of University of Vermont Chucao Tapaculo (Scelorchilus rubecula) Like many species of birds in Chile, the common name of the chucao tapaculo is an onomatopoeic derivation from its song. The surprisingly loud “chu-chu-chu-caao” ringing out through the…
By Carrie Finkelstein of University of Vermont Upon arriving in Patagonia, the first species that I immediately connected with was Chile’s native bumblebee (Bombus dahlbomii). On the drive from Coyhaique to Cochrane, we stopped at a sustainable farmstead to get…