By: Owen Smith, University of Vermont
This week at homestays has been the best part of the Round River program. Coming down to Chile, I was most definitely looking forward to homestays, but it has surpassed all my expectations. My partner (Nico Hochanadel) and I went to the Refugio Dona Rina on beautiful Lago Brown, a 5000-acre campo. The campo hosts many animals: cows, horses, ducks, chickens, and dogs, roaming around within the confines of the campo. The owners of Camping Aqualsol, Don Atilio and his son Julian, hosted us for the week at their estate, and it was a terrific chance to fully experience an authentic Gaucho rancho. We arrived on the morning of October 27th and left the morning of November 2nd. I got to learn so much about the culture, the language, and the work necessary to run a ranch.
After arriving on the 27th, we were treated to a delicious lunch of chicken, potatoes and rice, along with mate and bread. The food was cooked on a woodstove that is central to the residence. This stove cooks all the food, heats the entire house, and makes the hot water for the showers/dishes. The stove heats both the downstairs and our bedrooms upstairs. It is not uncommon to see a woodstove for cooking being used here in rural Patagonian campos. Nico and I had the opportunity to cook some small meals on it including bread, eggs, pasta with lamb, and rice. Some other great meals included cooking charqui (horse jerky) with Atilio. We combined charkey, garlic, paprika, and oil, then cooked it very quickly on the stove. We would eat it with bread and tea usually for breakfast or as an evening snack. Trout caught from Lago Brown and Morrell fungi harvested from the forests on property were really good. We mostly ate lamb and potatoes every meal, both from the property.
During our week here we worked very hard but had plenty of time to read and relax. The first day we helped plant native potatoes, which had been farmed on this land for 4 generations, and cut firewood. These potatoes were purple and can’t be found in the supermarkets. On the second day, we cut more firewood, hunted for morel fungus, and fixed a flat tire on the truck. One day we cut pines to build a corral for the animals on the land. The pines were planted by Don Atilio 20+ years ago and now are being harvested to help run the ranch. Don Atilio cut the pines down and to length using a chainsaw. Nico and I then lifted them up and moved them to the truck. The pines had a dbh (diameter of breast height) of 18 cm and were around 3.6m long. We cut 30 trees that day, while stopping for four hours for lunch and a siesta. Another day, we went down to the farmhouse and dug a trench to allow water to escape the over-saturated fields due to heavy spring rains. This is usually an arid region, but to my chagrin, it has been very wet this spring. This week was a lot of work, but we had plenty of time to relax too.
During our downtime, we had lots of fun. We fished, walked around the property, read our books (The Stand and The Satanic Verses), learned to cook traditional meals, and listened to music. We also had many interesting conversations with Don Atilio and Julian about politics, the history of the ranch, farming, and our experience coming from the United States to the Patagonian region. The living room has a killer view of the Lago Brown and Nico and I would frequently read there.
Our normal day looked like:
7:30 Wake up
8:45 Breakfast
9:30-1:30 Work
1:45 Lunch
2:45-4:30 Siesta
5-8 Work
8-10 Dinner and Bed
The house we stayed at was very interesting. It was recently built and still is a work in progress. In the future, it will be a place fishermen can rent to stay overnight during a fishing trip. It has 3 permanent bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, a shed, and an unfinished upstairs. The house had indoor plumbing, but no power. We had to go to a neighbor’s house to charge our devices and use Wi-Fi. I was very thankful to have a mattress in our room upstairs and not have to sleep outside for the week. The privy out back was also something that was relatively new to me coming from the states. I loved the house and staying here for the week was an awesome treat.
One day, the water pump that brought water to the house broke and we spent the day fixing it. The pump is solar powered and draws water up from the lake to the house. We had to rewire the pump from the solar panel, clean the pump, and dig a new hole because the old hole was too shallow. All this to simply have water. This week has shown me how much work it takes to live here in Patagonia. You might have set out with a plan for the day, but anything could happen and change it. This has been true not only on our homestay but throughout the program. I’ve learned it is all about being able to roll with the punches and change plans when needed.