Frozen

I love my new temporary home! Difficult to be discontent in such a place – comfortable, uncluttered, elegant house with wood framing, large windows, views looking south toward snowy summits near Cerro Castillo, trails leading up into the high country from the front door, garden full of hardy kale, compost pile, and bags of recently-harvested potatoes. Ailén, the pup, and I run up a south-facing ridge and over toward Cerro Huemules, the peak(s) I recently climbed from the other direction via the Río Claro. Along the way, I meet Tulio, a true patagón who owns over 300 hectares in the area. We sit down to mate and enjoy excellent conversation: he wants to cut me a deal on a hectare in the high country. I am seriously considering it – for somewhere on the order of $1000, I could own a hectare in the Chilean Patagonia, where I would build a cabin, live out the rest of my Fulbright, and establish an outpost for visiting and resident researchers that could house the consoles for Brian’s/my weather stations: close enough to stick one station in the alpine, the other below treeline. Still, hard to commit to a place that requires nearly $2000 in travel to access from North America… 

I also enjoy some human company around the house: Isaí is a Fulbright National Geographic scholar and pack-raft enthusiast who has been living with Brian for a while. He is finishing up his fellowship (identifying rare insects of patagonia) and heading back to the U.S. soon; he'll return with his partner in August. The weekend before he leaves, another Fulbright comes to visit from Santiago and we tour the nearby area, strolling over to the lagunas near the house to pack-raft and traveling to Lago Portales. I drive the truck to portales and build some confidence with the manual transmission – I’d driven sticks before, but struggled with my folks’ Mazda (I think the clutch is super sensitive…) 

Both Fulbrighters go on their way, and I continue conversing with Ailén (she’s not very chatty). After a brief transition, I am able to fully embrace my solitude once again! I always need a day or two after a period of regular socializing…but once I’m back, it feels great! The days rise and fall seamlessly, my energy ebbs and flows with the light. When the Pacific isn’t slamming the region with precipitation, the sunshine and cool air make for great running weather! When the wind and rain show up (most of the time), I’m happy indoors.  

I have a morning meeting with the Dirección General de Aguas in Coyhaique – I wake up early to take the bus, and immediately dread agreeing to the meeting, vowing to return to bed as soon as possible. The return trip on the bus isn’t until 5:30pm, so after stocking up on supplies at Unimarc, I hitchhike back, along the way meeting the spouse of another CIEP investigator, and a patagón Don Eduardo who owns some land and ‘virgin peaks’ toward the coast near portales. I enjoy a mid-afternoon lunch, post-lunch wood-chop, and contemplative lounge session on the couch with Ailén. The cat is there too, but she’s mostly aloof. The couch affords many opportunities for drinking mate, gazing off into the distance, stroking one’s beard, and coming up with all sorts of silly ideas. 

After a couple weeks experiencing a profound lack of motivation, I’m back in the game! Intermittent mates are an ideal break for deciding what I'm going to study, what trends I will analyze, and how I will write the code… recent projects have such names as ‘Extreme Analysis ‘and ‘Man Flow.’ (don't worry, Man=Río Mañihuales) 

I definitely enjoy building a fire when the temperature drops below 0ºC. Sadly, Coyhaique’s air quality has declined significantly in recent weeks – this past weekend, PM2.5, the carcinogenic fine particulate matter produced by wood-burning stoves, reached steady concentrations near 400ppm, well above the 10ppm annual mean or 25ppm daily mean recommended by the World Health Organization. A CIEP colleague lamented that he developed a headache from the smoke, and couldn’t see across the street from his house. I can’t help but meditate on the privilege of heating with firewood without having to breathe in the consequences. 

View looking southeast toward Coyhaique. PM2.5 concentration was near 400ppm. Fascinating, but also profoundly depressing and frustrating. Frustrating for the following reasons: (1) Chileans complain about the smoke, but fervently defend the wood stove as an integral part of Patagonian culture; (2) there is cheap and plentiful natural gas just across the border; (3) the Chilean government's incremental solutions include banning the combustion of wet wood, banning multiple stoves in one house during air quality advisories, and giving away free heating systems whose fuel is too expensive for Chileans to afford; (4) another 16 wind turbines would provide enough electricity to heat and power the city of Coyhaique; (5) a small hydro-electric project could heat and power the region while maintaining the ecological integrity of the river. 

After weeks watching the frost line descend from the high peaks (high being 5000 feet), the snow has finally arrived at Antarctica. The temperature hovers around 0ºC as the countryside is blanketed in some 10cm of snow. There is a pair of skis in the shed that I’m allowed to use – soon I shall head into the high country in high style! Hopefully Ailén can keep up.