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Transitions

Clearly, I never followed through on my last post's promise to share my experiences in Bariloche. And then I didn't post anything here for over ten years. Oops.

I spent most of that ten years going to law school and working as a lawyer in Philadelphia and New York. But in 2023, after a particularly hard series of days at the office, I went home and asked my partner Monica whether we should quit our jobs and travel for a year. To my delight, she said yes. So in September 2024, we moved to Seoul for a year, to spend time with family, learn Korean, and travel. And this whole time I've been feeling like I should really write a little about what I'm seeing, feeling, thinking, if for no other purpose than for myself to read it ten years from now.

So I'm back on AndysAndes, even though I am farther from the Andes than I have ever been. I think there's a lot of continuity between that experience in Chile and this one, though, so I'm going to adopt an expansive interpretation of this blog's title. Maybe one of the richest discoveries I've made in Korea is that I still feel the same little flame of curiosity and adventure guiding me now that I did then. It's exciting to be back in that place, a little off the beaten path, learning, observing, feeling so lucky to live a life this full of color. That feeling came into focus for me in the Andes, but it never left. That's how, before we left for Korea, I came to realize how many times I've gone abroad because I thought it was my last chance. Go to Chile before starting law school because after this, who knows... Go to Mexico during 1L summer because after this, who knows... Move to Korea before having kids or buying a house because after this...

But now I'm starting to wonder if "after this" isn't really true. Or maybe the lesson is that you should always go, because you never know. I'll think about it. For now, though, we go. Again!

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Touching Base

It's been a month, and, frankly, it's time for an update.

Unfortunately, a detailed update will have to wait, as another adventure begins in just over a half an hour. I had a good January--I took a trip to the Pacific coast, and another to an Italian hamlet for dinner; I played in a basketball tournament across several weeks, untangled tomato plants at Don Francisco's, experienced Puren healthcare firsthand, and took in the lights and sounds of Puren's annual music festival--and I'll write about it all as soon as I get back. But my first trip across the border, inspired by the conclusion of my tourist visa, is upon me. This evening, I'll head to Temuco, where I'll spend the night at my friend Claudia's apartment. And tomorrow morning, I'll board a bus bound for Bariloche, the capital of Argentine Patagonia. I'm traveling alone, something I've done little of before, but I'm hoping that new friends and exciting adventures await.

All the details, and lots of photos, as soon as I return.

Hasta entonces.

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Party Like it's 2014! In a Small, Small Town in the Southern Hemisphere.

I had a strange experience the other day. I was hanging out at my host family’s house in the campo, where my host mom’s mother lives with her brother. They have some potatoes planted, some sheep, a few cows. A little river runs across the back of the property. It’s quiet. I was exploring beneath the increasingly intense summer sun, sweating. As I slathered on another layer of SPF 50, something I do multiple times a day, my “dad,” Marco, turned on the radio. And out came “Jingle Bells.” In Spanish. Though I’d understood conceptually that Christmas was coming, I really struggled to rationalize the merry sound of sleigh bells with the summer Chilean sun. It never really occurred to me before that Santa might need to pack a change of clothes when he takes off from the North Pole.

In any case, I managed to tune it out and enjoy my family’s summery celebration of Christmas. On the Sunday prior, my adopted mom, aunt, and grandmother combined forces to host a beautiful onces for all the children of the rural area around Nena’s house in the campo. Onces is the late evening snack that rounds out the day of eating for most Chileans; lunch is usually the biggest meal of the day, and there is no dinner. While normal onces consists of bread with avocado or jam and a cup of tea, this Christmas onces featured a huge torta, home-made alfajores (dulce-de-leche filled cookies, covered in chocolate), ice cream, stacked strawberry Santa Clauses, café con helado, marshmallows, candy and more. It really was a spectacle, and an impressive display of generosity. It was pretty cool to see how the event brought all the families of the sector together to celebrate.

On Christmas Day, we got the day off from work, and I went with my parents and my brother Alexis’s family to the campo for the day to hang out, have lunch, and explore the river. Presents were understated, and the day was relaxed.

Speaking of exploring rivers, there’s a lot of that to be had around Puren. One of my favorite things about living here is that there is an endless list of noteworthy nature spots to explore, and I’ve gotten a good start. A couple weeks ago, I was invited by a couple Muni colleagues to head to the nearby Salto Reyen, an ice-cold waterfall at the end of a beautiful jungle hike. I enjoyed it so much, I intend to go back several times during the months ahead. This past weekend, I was invited by friends I made playing basketball “to the river” for the afternoon. Going to the river, which can refer to any number of nearby rivers and streams, is an everyday summer activity in Puren. After acquiring some beer, wine, and cookies, we hopped on our bikes and headed over dusty back trails and over fences to a spot where the river gets deep enough to jump in. And jump in we did, though only one of the group was loco enough to climb a tree and drop in from 15 feet up...In any case, I could definitely get used to doing this sort of thing every weekend.

For the New Year, I’m back in Labranza with my other host family, in order to divide my holiday celebrations evenly. The party was thoroughly low-key, with a late dinner, pie, and fireworks on TV, but they’re happy I’m here, and I feel grateful to be with “family” far away, even if I can’t be with family and friends back home. Later this afternoon, I’ll head a couple hours south of Temuco for a day on the beach beneath the renowned Volcán Villarrica, to kick off 2014 in style.

Wherever you are, cheers to a very happy New Year. If you’re in the US, chances are I won’t get to see you until the second half of 2014, but know that I’m thinking of you down here, and wishing you the best!

(Pictures in previous post)

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Settling In

Slowly but surely, my life is starting to take shape here. I’ve only actually been in Puren for 2 weeks, but piece-by-piece I’m steadily getting everything in place for a successful journey this time around in Chile.

Particularly notable among these developments is my recent acquisition of a bike, which had been a goal since the first couple days in Puren. Bike transit is popular in Puren, and perhaps for that reason, bikes are (unfortunately) a more expensive commodity than I anticipated. But I managed to work out a trato with a friend of my family here, who left her bike in my possession for the duration of my stay for roughly $50. When I think that I once happily paid $30 for a 2-hour bike rental in Chicago, $50 for 7 months seems like a reasonable deal. And having the bike gives me access to all sorts of things, among them nearby waterfalls, biking around town for fun with friends, and getting to the Muni from my house in less than 5 minutes. I feel liberated.

I’ve continued to accompany teams from the Muni out into the field, getting to know the administrative region and, to some extent, the lives of the people that live in it. In multiple cases, the small farmers whose homes we’ve visited have been extremely gracious and shared some of their produce with me. An exotic specialtiy of the region is the frutilla blanca—the white strawberry—which is an extremely delicate crop that some farmers cultivate in limited quantities and sell at impressively high prices. I got to pick some white strawberries and taste them in the orchard of one farmer high in the cordillera, who also served me cleri—basically, white wine with chopped up white strawberries floating in it. Cleri, let me just say, is friggin’ delicious.

Right now, I’m in Labranza, my secondary home. Generally, I’ll be here for a week each month, helping Don Francisco and his family with the hard work that making a living on small-scale agricultural production requires. Last week, I accompanied D.F. and his oldest son on their yearly sheep-shearing adventure, which they do the old-fashioned way—with big, rusty scissors. I sheared one sheep myself, but mostly I assisted in tackling them to the ground while Don Francisco tied their feet together and told them to be tranquilo, damn it. As it was more novelty than chore for me, I enjoyed myself. These days, we’re in the fields planting puerro, which looks like a spring onion sort of thing, but whose exact translation escapes me. Planting doesn’t take much expertise, but the trouble is that you have to do it in the ground, which means you have to bend over. All day. My hamstrings are shot. But there’ll be puerro in Labranza come harvest time, dag gummit.

Around here, they work hard, but they also take their relaxation seriously. Work is in the morning and late evening, but from 1pm to 8pm or so, while the sun is high, we eat lunch and basically just chill out. And last night, instead of planting, along with a couple of road construction workers that are staying with the family for the duration of their nearby project, we made a discada, something I’d never experienced before. Basically, to make a discada, you take the lid of a massive pot, flip it over, and set it over flames, filling it with every kind of meat you can find, some hot water, and spices. When it’s cooked, everybody gets a potpourri bowl of meat. Last night, I was served a bowl with a chicken breast, a cut of beef, a pork cutlet, a couple of mussels, clams, and a sausage. In theory, you’re supposed to eat everything you’re served, or risk having disrespected your hosts. But holy crap, this was a lot of meat.  I ate as much as I could, probably 70-80% of it, and practically fell asleep in my chair. I’ve found, especially here in the south, that Chileans love their meat. On normal occasions, meat. And on special occasions, lots of meat. Sometimes, I tell myself that when I get back to the US, I’ll seriously  consider becoming a vegetarian.  Not until then, though, because many Chileans would write me off as crazy if I tried to explain that I don’t eat meat. I’d most likely be served a couple slices of tomato with olive oil and a healthy portion of disapproval. So, for now, meat it is.

Everyone has continued to be extremely open, warm, and welcoming to me. I still have to work on figuring out what sort of mark I’ll leave through the work that I do here, but that will come with time. And as the pieces continue to get put together here, I feel like I’m in a great position to make the most of the next 7 months.

(photos in previous posts)

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Puren Indomito

I’ve arrived in the small town of Purén, in the Región de la Araucanía, where I’ll be spending the majority of my time over the next 7+ months. I took an overnight bus last Monday to the regional capital, Temuco, where I met Claudia, a native of Puren and the person responsible for setting up my opportunity here.  I then followed her around like a lost puppy for a few days as she introduced me to all of the important players in my life here.

We spent two days in Labranza, getting to know Don Francisco and his family. On Wednesday, I spent most of the day bent over, pulling overgrown cilantro plants out of the dirt in order to prepare for new seeds. As a result, I woke up the next day with hamstrings that felt more like guitar strings and fingernails that I doubt will ever be entirely clean again. Such is life every day though for Don Francisco, who whistles while he works. So I can’t complain.

Then, on Thursday, Claudia and I headed to Puren. There was a feeling of finality to it, as I’d been traveling for 2 weeks and was just now arriving in my final destination. As I walked around town the first day, I couldn’t stop thinking how weird it is that I...live here now. For the next 7 1/2 months, this is my home. In a few months, though, I know it will start to feel like home. And that’s part of what makes living abroad so cool.

I had imagined that Puren might be an indigenous village of rukas with thatched roofs and smoke coming out of the central vents. Or maybe a dusty crossroads surrounded by rustic cabins whose nights are filled with stars and the gentle sound of crickets. Instead, Puren is a tidy little town, with all the requisite idiosyncrasies. There is a pleasant and official-looking Plaza de Armas in the center, with a couple main commercial arteries radiating outward. By commercial arteries, I mean you can find secondhand clothing, personal items, artisanal crafts, fruits, vegetables, etc. It takes about 30 min to walk from one end to the other, and while the vast majority of the region’s rural population is indigenous, the town itself is home to a healthy mix of people of both indigenous and European descent. The roads are paved and there are sidewalks. There’s a beat-up but serviceable basketball court near my house, where I played with some local kids earlier this week. They call it “Puren Indomito” because it was the birthplace of some of the fiercest Mapuche warriors in history, and all of its residents seem to have proudly embraced that legacy.

The folks at the Muni have been very welcoming right from the get-go, and while I’ll really start regular work there on Monday, I’ve already had a formal presentation to the entire UDeL team. The plan is to spend most of December accompanying them out into the campo to engage directly with the residents of the zona. In some ways, the office feels like a real-life, Chilean version of “Community,” but in other ways, the work is very different. Recently, I’ve tagged along with several teams from the PDTI office—the Programa del Desarrollo Territorial Indígena—on some errands. Last Friday, I gave a sick cow a steroidal injection, chatted with the president of a Mapuche community and his family while they nonchalantly shaved and gutted a pig for dinner, and shared in a meal of massive quantities of grilled meat and fizzy soda at the rough-hewn table outside their rural home. Eating meat right after watching the pig-prep was pretty intense for a softy suburban boy like me, but it was just regular life for everyone else who was there. I suppose I’ll get used to it. And since failing to finish the food you are served is considered a disgraceful gesture of disrespect, I suppose I’d better.

In my first two official days of work this week, I’ve assisted in the castration of several bulls (I held the testes firm while my colleague Juan delicately cut them out) and the application of anti-fly ear tags to some 120+ cows. Nbd.

All signs indicate that I’ve struck gold with my host family, the Monsalves. They are the parents of a boy who spent this past year working on the congressional campaign of Claudia’s older brother, Diego, who also happens to be a former Pan-American Karate champion. They’ve basically adopted me as a temporary son, and have repeatedly told me that I should consider their house my house and rely on them for everything. The father, Marco, told me today that he’s going to take me to as many of the beautiful sites around Puren as he can while I’m here. I’ve got my own room with a big bed and a TV on the wall. There’s no internet in the house, so I’ll have to be creative about posting to the blog and staying connected with everyone back home, but I’ll definitely be comfortable here. It’s nice to be able to count on that.

I also got the chance to head to Lago Lanalhue last Sunday with Claudia and the rest of the crew. There are lots of lakes, waterfalls, rivers, and trails in the hills around Puren, and I’m hoping to explore most of them before I leave. My forthcoming and highly anticipated purchase of a bicycle should help. The weather has been mostly beautiful, though cold in the morning and hot at midday. Next weekend, I’ll have to leave the lakes behind and return to Labranza in order to accompany Don Francisco to shear his 40 sheep, a once-a-year (and for me, perhaps once-in-a-lifetime event). I’d say that we’re not in Kansas anymore, though I wonder if sheep-shearing and bovine medicine aren’t actually staples of life in Kansas. But I’m not in Chicago anymore, that’s for sure.

(photos in previous post--nothing graphic)

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The Back Story

Well, a lot of things certainly have changed in the past week. First, though, a little background information. I’m here in Chile as a representative of the Loud Grade Produce Squad, an awesome little organization based in Chicago whose mission is to promote environmental sustainability and organic agriculture through education, production, and cultural exchange. I worked with LGPS for the last 6 months in Chicago, learning the ropes of urban environmental sustainability, biodiesel production, and the ins and outs of what it takes to run a small non-profit. Now, I get to be a part of Loud Grade’s intercultural exchange program, through which I’ll be working with the Municipality of Puren, a little town of about 13,000 in Chile’s 9th Region, La Araucanía. I got the opportunity to work in Puren through a woman named Claudia, a native “Purenina” who became friends with Will, the director of LGPS, when Will spent a semester abroad in the regional capital, Temuco. My mission in Chile is 3-fold:

1. 3 weeks out of the month, I’ll be in Puren, working within the “Muni’s” Unedad del Desarrollo Local, which is essentially responsible for administering all the national-level programs for community development on a local level. In La Araucanía, the historic home of the Mapuche people (the largest indigenous group in Chile), this often means working within the indigenous communities that surround the town of Puren to distribute resources, share best practices, promote entrepreneurship and economic independence, and maintain positive relations between the communities and the government. As the Mapuche have a long, proud, and bloody history of resistance to outside attempts at control/integration/elimination, this work must bridge the gap between local Mapuche interests and the initiatives of the Chilean state. I’ll get to tag along with most of these programs, learning and sharing my experiences in the process. In so doing, I’ll explore themes of rural economic development, cultural preservation, and environmental law. It seems that the Muni folk hope to get some value out of the presence of a foreigner who can share his experiences with sustainability and small-scale agricultural production. While my experience with these themes is pretty minimal by all counts, I hope to be helpful in some way, eventually.

2. 1 week a month, I’ll be in Labranza, which is really the campo just outside Temuco, helping out the family of Don Francisco, who has a small farm there. I’ll learn some techniques of agro-economy while helping out with the farm, both in day-to-day farming tasks, and in rebuilding some of their structures that got damaged by storms earlier this year.

3. While in Labranza, I’m planning to launch an LGPS Biodiesel operation for the greater Temuco area. This is a potentially lucrative venture for LGPS, and while the playing field in this arena is increasingly dense in Chicago, it’s wide open here. My mission is to acquire a vehicle, build a small laboratory, and get a host of restaurants to sign on to the project by donating their used cooking oil to us as a raw ingredient. In the process, we can spread our message, reduce CO2 emissions, and maybe even earn some money. People seem pretty excited about it, so I fully intend to make it a reality during my time here.

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A Week in the City

I've been in Santiago a week now, and things are moving right along. I've managed to rendezvous with most of the friends I've kept in touch with since studying here in 2011, and I've made plans to see the rest. It's crazy how growing up, graduating, and getting jobs can make everyone so busy all the time. 

I also managed to grab a bite with a friend who lived in my dorm at Michigan and is working here in Chile for 2 years. Clearly, UM alumni rule the world.

When I haven't been out and about, I've been hanging out at Jani and Nelson's place, where I basically feel at home by this point (and they treat me as such). I've also been helping them out where I can with various projects. They seem to always have the next ten steps in mind for home improvement, garden expansion, and promotion of LGPS Chile, which includes putting together paperwork for official recognition, participating in environmental events like the upcoming Festival del Medio Ambiente, and networking with other sustainably-minded Chileans. 

To that end, I spent Tuesday afternoon working in the huerto (garden) of a friend of a friend. Lots of people came out to help, and there was a great can-do spirit to the whole thing. We planted some seedlings, painted some walls, and built a really cool spiral planter, whose design creates gradual variance in levels of sun and shade, so you can grow a variety of plants all in the same spot. A couple mates put together a bangin' lunch that everyone ate together on a blanket in a shady corner of the site--a perfect finish to a day spent working in the sun.

Though I'm enjoying myself here, I'm definitely ready for the journey south. A lot of people around me openly miss Temuco. And Santiago is really hot and crowded: when I was here in 2011, the metro was a disaster at rush hour, but pretty easy to manage at off-peak times. Now, it feels crushingly overcrowded at pretty much every hour of the day. And even though it costs less per ride than the El in Chicago, you still spend money startlingly quickly just getting around. Standing squashed between thousands of other people going from A to B, everyone frustrated and sweaty, with some people pretty aggressive about pushing themselves into place...It's enough to make La Araucania a beacon on the horizon, especially when my computer's weather app, which I've set to show both Santiago and Temuco, constantly tells me that Temuco is 8°C cooler. And did I mention that it is wicked hot in Santiago right now? Every day we wake up con ganas de hacer trabajo in the garden out back, but most days it's just too hot to be out in the sun working, so we hang until the sun goes down and then wind up drinking beer and going to bed. Oops.

Really though, my mission in Chile this time lies far from Santiago's urban pulse, not just in Temuco, to which I'll head on an overnight bus on Monday, but also in Puren, which everything indicates will be world apart in most every sense. I don't know what to expect, but I'm stoked for it.

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Aterrizaje: Santiago

It's strange how totally familiar Santiago feels, since it's 5,300 miles or so from home. I knew which bus to take from the airport, how to put money on my card in the metro station, and it has been easy to orient myself and get around the city on my own. The language barrier is also 100 times less daunting than it was the first time around, as I don't have to go through the process of figuring out what Chileans mean when they say (mumble) something like, "Te vai al carrete, weon?"

I definitely owe a lot of my feeling at home here to Jani and Nelson, friends of my boss, Will, who have offered me their house as my base for the 12 days that I'm spending in Santiago before continuing south. They welcomed me into their family, which includes 8-year-old Chinchi, 6-month-old Ayun, and kittens! (see below) immediately upon arrival, and have taken care of me since. Everyone, from Chinchi to a stranger I met in line during a layover in Miami who offered me her condo on gorgeous Lago Villarrica, has reminded me how generous Chileans are in general. Over the last few days, I've hung out with Jani and Nelson and some of their friends, as well as my compañera gringa, Michelle. Prompted by Chinchi, in that time I've played a lifetime's quota of Jenga.

While I'm in Santiago, I'm also trying to visit my closest friends from my intercambio experience in 2011. I spent last night with several of them, watching Chile beat England 2-0 in a pre-World Cup friendly and partaking in my first chorrillana in a while in the process. Pisco, música, fútbol, completos, cerveza every day, and palta (avocado) at every meal--it's all coming back to me now...and it feels great.

Anyway, things are off to a very good start. I've finally gotten my hands on a cell-phone here, which is a huge relief. It's extremely hot during the day in Santiago, but it will be more temperate in Temuco and Puren, where completely different adventures await...

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Y una a una las noches entre nuestras ciudades separadas se agregan a la noche que nos une.

Pablo Neruda