Sustainable Peoples

Webisode 4 shows some highlights of our trip to a very special sort of farm. As always, it just covers some broad strokes, so please head over to the corresponding blogs and pictures for the real deal.

Have a look- this is my favorite so far.

Hey to everyone who has been reading, watching and listening. I just wanted to give you all an update since the blog posts have been scarce. We are in wrap up mode here in Chile, and I’m due to head back to the states this Tuesday. We finished the first two videos last week, and they are up on the front page now. Look out for 3 more videos coming soon. Hopefully 2 more tonight and tomorrow, and one more hopefully early next week.

We visit a Mapuche native Pharmacy in Santiago to get our feet wet with native culture- and see how westernized Chileans interact with it.

Webisode 1- A little lo-fi,  but we’re getting better and better.

Sustainable Peoples Blog 13
Airbus A319- 37,000 ft above Antofagasta
6/22/08
6:00pm

Sometimes you have to back up from an experience to see it more clearly. Sadly, the view back on my time in San Pedro appears no simpler from 37,000ft. San Pedro de Atacama sits squarely in one of the harshest and most beautiful places on earth. They get less rain than Death Valley, California, at a lung-aching 10,000 ft above sea level. I hoped that there, I would observe human life, stripped of all it’s garnish. Then, I could see what it is to be human, and how that condition might in the future support a more sustainable way of living. I suppose, to paraphrase a writer far greater than I, I hoped to observe the marrow of life, even if I couldn’t breathe deep at altitude. What I found was a small town, in the grips of an identity crisis, like a long-time blue-collar worker turned lottery winner.

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The first batch of pictures from the Atacama dessert are up on the Photo Gallery. Have a look, leave some comments, and look out for the accompanying blog posts coming soon.

Sustainable Peoples Blog 12
San Pedro De Atacama- Don Raul Hostel
6/19/08
12:50am

It was another glorious travel day today for SP, though nothing so strenuous as our recent jaunt to the South. After 2 days of false starts due to logistical problems, Marcela and I finally boarded a flight for Calama this evening. Transportation to anywhere in Chile is always a cocktail. We began around 5 in Santiago, with a shuttle to the airport, followed by a 2 hour plane ride, then 2 more hours from Calama to San Pedro via shuttle. The moon was full tonight as our van trundled along the semi-paved highway 23 that heads south east from Calama to San Pedro. We arrived, starving, in San Pedro about 11 and were dropped right at the door to our hostel.

Let me give you a few quick facts on San Pedro de Atacama. Here, I am currently at about 11,000 ft above sea level, though not on a mountain. I am 20 miles from Bolivia, 35 miles from Argentina, and dead in the middle of the driest place on the planet. Due to that last fact, the water in town shuts off at 9pm every night, and in the 10 minutes I’ve been writing this, the power has already gone out twice. I am prepared though, and will forge ahead blogging, even if it means continuing by the light of my little petzl headlamp.

The place looked quite nice, with a sort of desert theme. The whole lobby smelled pleasantly of mesquite smoke, which is to say, it smelled of BBQ food. The first inclination I got that I was not longer in the first world, however, came as soon as the door to my room opened. It wasn’t the room that was the problem- the room was just fine. What I didn’t expect to see was a cat fly out of the room though the door I had just cracked. It’s a good thing I’m a cat person.

No matter though, for I was starving. Marcela and I wandered out into town, and eventually found a place that was still open, even if it was only really open because tonight Chile won a soccer game against Venezuela. We were welcomed in, and served the largest and most delicious empanada I’ve ever experienced. In case your not familiar with them, empanadas are sort of miniature calzones, or pocket sandwiches, usually a few inches across, and filled with cheese, meat, vegetables and whathaveyou. THESE empanadas, however, were the size of large calzones and were filled with warm beef, marinated vegetables and cheese. Think of it as being filled with what you’d find in delicious stew, without the water added.

So we feasted, had a drink or two, and headed back to our home base. Tomorrow will begin early, with a trip to a rental agency, to see what out best options are for getting where we will be going. For now though, it is time for bed. Just being this high up for this long is exhausting, and I need to save energy for the rest of the weekend.

Well wishes to all, and stand by for another podcast travel episode maybe tomorrow.

Sustainable Peoples Blog 10- Mapuche Weavers
Temuco HQ- La Frontera Hotel
6/13/08
10:05pm

I had been looking forward to the last 2 days for about a month. Seriously, ever since Marcela got a line on the community we have spent the last few days with, I have been mentally preparing for what would be one of the most interesting experiences I have had in my (admittedly short) lifetime.

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Sustainable Peoples Blog 9- The Future Through the Past
Concepcion HQ
6/11/08
7:10pm

The last few days have been a whirlwind, and today was no different. Marcela and I spent the day in a town called Jumbel, outside of Temuco in the south of Chile. We made the trip down, not for the beautifully frigid southern winter, but to visit with the managers of an internationally influenced sustainable farm.

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