Camping 2.0

We have co-existed for almost a month now. Luis and me in a 2 x 3,5m motorhome situated away from everything behind a calafate bush in the middle of a windswept field. The freckle I call it. Seen from the road it does resemble a small dot and when you compare the size of it with the neighboring farm houses and mansions we appear to be a simple outpost used by the herding Sheppard or maybe even a dog house! We are visible yet we seem to be nothing. That’s us: getting used to living retrieved and in symbiosis with our surroundings. We get up with the first ray of light and usually go to bed when the sun retrieves. It’s too cold without it. If it does not rain we are outside. Occasionally we can even cook and eat outside. These days are incredible and I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. Some days we have to stay inside all day. These days are complicated as our problem with condensation increases considerably.

To begin with we spent time on accommodating the place to our basic needs. Let me rephrase that again. Luis spent time on building a toilet while I once again nursed my knee that had suffered a severe strain on the very first night, when I failed to see a recession in the terrain. Luckily the days were spectacular so I sat outside, in the abandoned bus seat we had retrieved, all cuddled up in clothes and blanquettes with a binocular, my bird field guide and a regional map, identifying every bird and situating us in relation to the surrounding peninsulas and mountains. This is something I really appreciate and I had the perfect excuse not to worry about anything else.

10 days in, we accomplished our second mission: Electricity. We had gathered sufficient abandoned cables around Puerto Natales to carefully unite them and install one long cable between the freckle and our nearest neighbor that had indulged in supplying us via a socket in his kitchen. Imagine now an extremely homemade cable running from his socket out his window via a small hole in the frame and running approx. 200 m over the ground. Where we overrun it by car upon leaving or entering our terrain,  the cable is wrapped in a pvc tube. It enters the freckle just under the roof from where the cable ends in a 5 port slot. On the very same day a friend helped me to open an account and contract multimedia services and a chip for the IPhone I have brought, thus supplying us with – surprisingly good -internet. In just one day we went from a very humble candlelit camp to a 2.0 camp with light, music and internet. That was quite an advance. Now I could work sitting in the freckle looking out at the mountains. Stop, take a step outside and share a mate with Luis. We danced and laughed out loud.

Our budget is extremely low. That means our plans and visions are second to our actual material supply. And our supply is so far limited to what we find tossed or thrown away. We re use pallets, cement tiles, window frames, cables etc. You name it. At the local sawmill we pick up the cuts of bark that is otherwise chopped up or thrown away. We have cleared space in front of the freckle, we have planted a plum tree, calafate and Alamos. We have worked a lot on the muddy common entrance road collecting and throwing in stones. We have started the fencing, installed a football goal and corrected details on the freckle as well as on our very interim and exposed toilet. We have been moving around outside and ended up making a beautiful space, overlooking the Sierra Dorotea, where the sun is shining and heating all day converting it to our favorite spot for drinking mate and observing the abundant and varied bird life around us. We have everything from condor to small sparrows. The migrating birds have arrived just a few weeks ago, so shortly we expect to be able to follow their mating acts and behavior

And without us noticing it we have created a routine balancing common home duties, desk work and house/ garden work. It’s so relaxing and strangely fulfilling  being outside cutting grass, moving stones or just circumwalking our terrain checking out the bushes, the humidity, searching for signs of hares and rabbits and saluting the neighboring horses, sheep and cows respectively living on the other side of our fence. 

August 2013

Next step is to start up the extention of “The Freckle” building a simple construction to enlarge our living space. During one of our nightly “Mission Imposible” outings, when searching for building materials, we stumbled upon 2 giant gates that had been rejected by their former owner and left on the curv. We asked permission and brought the gates home strapped ontop of the jeep. These we have agreed upon will act as the model to build 2 other copies. A friend of ours has gifted us with 8 4x4” beams that will be inserted in the ground and supported by stones and gravel. The gates will span in between and thus making flexible and de-mountable walls. Towards the north we will put the entrance door and window frames to let in a lot of sunlight. The roof will be something very simple and cladded with metallic wave boards leading the water away from the junction between “the freckle” and “the mold”

Something like this!

Let the digging begin

I present to you...

We now live in Huerto 256 on the outskirts of Puerto Natales. I'll take you on a tour from space via google earth to focus in on our new home. North is always at the top of the image.

Southern Patagonia

In relation to the National Park Torres del Paine 150 km to the north

Puerto Natales center approx. 7,5 km

Access via Camino 3to the south. The foto is not up to date. The access road is established.

 Huerto 256, lote 1A 1A 2

From the Northwestern Corner looking south towards Puerto Natales

From the Northeastern Corner looking South towards Puerto Natales

From the Northwestern corner looking east

From the Southeastern corner looking north towards Sierra Dorotea.

A surprice visit in the snow

This morning we woke up relieved to se that we definately fixed the outside-leek that was wettening our bed and clothes. Now we just have to dry up the matress that is very humid and showing the first signs of fungis! But that was just 1 of 3 very beautiful surprices this morning: 

It had been snowing most of the night and still was in the morning. To step out, take a deep breath and fill the lungs with the fresh, cold air surrounded by low-hanging clouds, winds and a white layer of snow was incredible. And then came the pair of andean condors, in an oddly low flight, passing by just a few meters away. We were stunned and not quite fast enough to fetch the camera. Still here is the youngster lacking behind the adult that already is gone.

At noon the snow seazed a little giving space for a penetrating, beautiful blue sky. The sheep next door don't seem to care at all!

Despite beeing dirty, smelly, cold, wearing the same clothes for the 4 day in a row and having to bowl move in a bucket with the wind hurling snow in the face, this is paradise. What a beautiful morning. Good day to everyone.

Pulling up the last roots

Its been several days now. We’ve got it all ready but the climate is not really accompanying us. Then finally: to hell with it. Let’s do it. We hook the motorhome to the car in a not very authorized way which include an old common blue rope, and set off towards the outskirt of Puerto Natales approx. 7 kilometers away from the city center square, where we will encounter the entrance to Huerto 256, lot 1A1A2. Our lot.

The problem has been and still is the amount of water that gathers up at the entrance creating a little lake with floods of water coming down from the lot itself, converting everything to mud. Will the Ssangyong Korando be able to tow the motorhome the 300 m uphill on the extremely muddy trail? Well today is the day. It’s been relatively dry for a couple of days and the wind we hope has helped to carry away a bit of the humidity.

No more waiting. We want to start this new adventure we have planned for for the past couple of months. We want to install our new home on our lot. We want to get away from civilization to get closer to nature. We are elevated here, some 100 meters above sea level and above Puerto Natales. We can see as far as the furthest mountain. The rays of the sun and the shadow creating spectacular colors and an ever moving image, the variety of birds and farm animals the only noises and the snowcapped mountains surrounding us yet in the far distance, preventing us from seeing the horizon. Everything played out and interacting right in front of us. It’s amazing and awe inspirering. This is what we want. And today we won’t wait any longer.

Arriving at the lot entrance we are excited about how easy it has been to get so far with the motorhome on tow. We take a breather and wait while the 4x4 traction are kicking in. I get out with the camera. I won’t miss this for the world. Besides it’s a day of great importance to our future. It should be commemorated and made eternal. To us its history in the making.

Maybe we should have gathered friends and family to take part in this moment. To share and celebrate together, supporting us morally and lend a helping hand if our worries of getting stuck in the mud should manifest themselves. But in the end it was a spur of the moment decision  thus we are all alone out here. Us, the Ssangyong and our future home. Basically everything we physically own. Before starting the last but complicated bit we hug each other. In that moment we had left home. We had pulled up our small roots and lifted everything away. Now we were standing in ”no-mans-land” between the past and the future. 300 m up the road is our future. To me that is heavy. I once have liberated myself from the path of my future. I have chosen not to have a future path during the past 5 years. Now I find myself taking the last step towards a very conscious choice of my future path. When the motorhome in 15 minutes would be installed on our lot, there would be no turning back. Note to self: Of course there is always a turning back. Nothing in life is eternal, but as I am gifted with sentimentality, melancholy and a certain amount of foresight, this was the grandness I attributed this very moment, which of course was dominated by the anxiety and insecurity concerning the actual carrying out of this final step.

But now at least I think I have transmitted the importance of the moment, the decision to finally initiate our life together. Did we make it? Will we make it?

Rewarding a Pioneer

The past 2 years has been somewhat different to what I had planned and hoped for. Instead of finding myself working in the field exploring mountains and future paths I have been occupied in the desk work of exploring sustainable possibilities of inviting Scandinavians to Patagonia. Performing the philanthropic work of a true pioneer connecting my land with the land that literally doesn’t exist.

A long the way I have received signs and manifestations that has made me continue in the formation of DEFY Patagonia with a rock hard dedication even though I deep down has wanted to be in the mountains doing something completely different. Something that gives immediate pleasure to my soul. Being unable to has proven to be the main argument of DEFY Patagonia presenting me with the ultimate test of perseverance and faith.

The 2 of August 2013 DEFY Patagonia received yet another manifestation and justification of its existence, after having spent the past months occupied in completing the requirements to proceed in the contest of start-up capital and initial assessment for new business ideas in Chile. A process that started in late march when the initial postulation was closed.

To stand this day in August on the podium cheek-kissing the governor meant that I, along with approx. 20 other natalinos, had been selected amongst a total of 78.000 ideas/ projects nation-wide.

A part from the recognition, the process has helped me to focus on goals, visions as well as near and future economic estimates for DEFY Patagonia in a 5 year horizon. As I am a rookie entrepreneur a lot of my ideas and projects are driven more by intuition then by actual knowledge. The paradigm set up by the government and all the tools provided along the way has worked really well for me. They are based on what I consider a real concern of individual success.

So I extend a true gratitude towards SERCOTEC and I look forward to the assessment and advises I am to receive during the next couple of months when DEFY Patagonia are taking its very first steps on a road I hope is paved with a lot of mountain adventure and great people driving us towards a future of fun and prosperity in the greatest setting in the world.