Shotgun Weekend Adventure

Friday, February 20

This morning began extra early with a meeting in Puerto Montt with a land conservation organization call Patagonia Sur. I sent them my resume in hopes of procuring some type of job or project and was able to schedule a meeting with their head of development in Puerto Montt. He was there only for the morning before he was on his way back to their headquarters in Coiaique further south. Our meeting was at 8am, which meant I would need to leave at 6:30am to catch the micro bus and leave myself enough time to find the Holiday Inn where he was staying. Luckily, I remembered that our friend Karem worked at the Holiday Inn and I was able to carpool with her at 7:30am and skip the hassle of coordinating the public transportation. What a lifesaver!

I met with Juan from Patagonia Sur over breakfast, and he explained the mission and goals of Patagonia Sur. They were a land conservation agency that purchased large pieces of land with money from private investors. The premise of their organization was similar to that of Parque Pumalin started by famed American philanthropist Doug Tompkins, but their mission was slightly different. A major effort of theirs was to allow the land to be self-sustainable by developing small portions of the purchased plots to help finance the maintenance & conservancy of the preserved portions. Their plans were grand and ambitious and they had a lot of promising ideas in development, but like any other company that relied on money from private investors, they were feeling the global financial squeeze. Things were slowing down a bit, but that did not deter their ambition, nor their goal of zero carbon emissions and completely green housing for the visitors to their national parks. Also, they were dedicated to the involvement and prosperity of the local communities in the areas in which they purchased land. All good things, and an organization I would be thrilled to be a part of.

I made my way back to Puerto Varas, and later in the afternoon I met with Jimmy to discuss progress with the business plan. Part of me is excited about the possibility of this turning into a great learning experience and resume booster, but another part of me is a bit frustrated and find it hard to get motivated. So much of this project and much of Jimmy’s demeanor is disorganized. I am having a very difficult time gathering all of the information I need to put together the nuts and bolts of the business plan and mesh it with the subjective and content-oriented information that was put together by Jimmy. It’s a challenge, but I’m excited about the possibilities. It’s going to be difficult over the next 3 weeks however, as my brother will be visiting and I won’t have much time to work on the project…c’est la vie.

As my meeting with Jimmy came to a close, I got a phone call from Lily saying that if we wanted to go to Chiloé with her co-worker Cristian we had to leave in 15 minutes. I met her at her office and we rushed home to the apartment. Literally the minute we crossed the threshold of our apartment Cristian called and was waiting outside our apartment for our decision. We weren’t packed, had no lodging arrangements, and no plan for activities or places to see in Chiloé. I wasn’t really comfortable hoping in a car with no plans or forethought, but Lily and Pearl were convinced we should go, so we threw some clothes in a bag and ran outside to meet Cristian.

The car ride to the ferry took about 2 hours and as we shoved off into the channel between mainland Chile and the island of Chiloé an enormous rainbow emerged from the dark cloud cover and rain. What an amazing, and welcome, sign from nature affirming our decision to make this trip. While driving, Pearl booked a room at a hostel through her family friends who lived in Santiago. Things were falling into place and we planned our activities for the weekend before we arrived in Castro, the largest city located in central Chiloé. Our plans were set and we were excited about what the rest of the weekend would have in store.