Monday, November 15, 2010

Arrived in Coyhaique

I arrived in Coyhaique yesterday after 20+ hours, 3 planes, and one awkward car ride.

The part on the planes was much better than expected, thanks in large part to LAN’s selection of over forty movies. Trying to follow the plot of Inception took up a good 3 hours. When I finally arrived in Balmaceda, on the high plains of Patagonia, it was early afternoon on a beautiful sunny day. The airport primarily serves the town of Coyhaique, but is an hour away, despite a surplus of empty space for an airport much closer in. The explanation seems to have something to do with Balmaceda’s position very close to the border with Argentina. Good fences make good neighbors, and apparently so do strategically placed airports.

I was met at the airport by a driver named Rafael, who I greeted with “Hola, soy Brad. Hablo solo un poco de español.” The truth is closer to “no hablo español,” which made for a spectacularly awkward hour-long drive in to Coyhaique. I struggled to recall and string together even the simplest words and phrases, often mixed with a little errant French. Somehow “aqui” kept wanting to come out “ici.” Rafael tried to tell me that there was fishing in a river that we crossed, saying what sounded to me like “pecar.” I repeated it as such, and he told me that was “otra cosa” and pointed upwards. “To fish” is actually “pescar.” I found out when I got home that “pecar” means “to sin.”

My accommodations here in Coyhaique are wonderful. One of the guys working for Patagonia Sur just left to spend a month in Santiago, and I took over his very small, cabin-like apartment while he’s gone. It’s working out perfectly, and even has internet, though that’s a bit finicky at night. It now sounds like I’ll be here for about a week before heading out to spend another couple of weeks at two of the properties managed by Patagonia Sur. More to come on those as plans become a little more firm.

Coyhaique is at 43°S, which makes it pretty close to the southern hemisphere’s equivalent of Portland, OR. As a result, the days in the summer are delightfully long, and I had time after work today to take some photos around my cabin and then go for a run as the sun was setting behind snow-capped peaks. The pictures are below:


Lupine across the street from my cabin


Fence and a view west, towards Argentina


Looking north from my cabin


Still Life With Burned Trash - Next to my cabin (not very relevant, except for the fact that it looked cool)


Like a black-and-white Rothko



4 comments:

  1. Love the fence picture, Brad - the composition is great, w/ the juxtaposition of the wood fence, the wires, and the grasses stretching out... beautiful stuff!

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  2. Love the Rothko simulation. Could you cut that piece of wall out for me and send it?

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  3. Agree with both Senior Pedro and Senorita Anne but I do have the say that Portland is at 45 degrees N, not 43. We are hardcore up here in PDX!

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  4. Thanks Pete and Anne - glad you like!

    Michael, you're right. However, I subsequently found out that Coyhaique is actually at 45°35' S and Portland is 45°31'N, so they're actually almost identical after all. And if you ever come to love the rainy weather in PDX, I've got some great towns along the coast down here for you to check out. Apparently 5m of rain each year.

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