I've been
living slow in Lago Puelo for the past few weeks. I was put in contact with
Ghila, an Italian woman who lives here on her four hectare Chakra with her
two young children and I've come to volunteer and wander around the property.
There's snowy mountains surrounding us, streams and a river to the rear and
whole lot of dogs, cats, chickens and a horse named Moro.
The
place is ran as a guesthouse, holding workshops 'for a
better world' as the sign by the main road has it, in meditation
and yoga with live music during the summer when the place comes
alive. There's a new age sense to the place with Ghila's attitude, the
furnishings, music, and activities. It's very much low season at the moment and
will continue to be until the winter's end but there's still been a slow stream
of travellers passing through who I've spent many laughs with over dinner,
even cooking for a late arrival of six guests one evening on short
notice.
I'm sleeping in my favourite of the mud houses and given an open kitchen to use in exchange for physical and repair work needing attention around the place. Fresh chicken eggs have never tasted so good and with a house of vegans I get them all to myself. It's very relaxing with so much beauty around and it makes me content to get my hands working, whether its mud, washing clothes or kneading dough for bread or pasta.
Today I'm taking a rest to take a slow walk out to the nearby lake but other days I'm making an earth mix and plastering mud on to one of the huts to improve it's thermal properties, I'm painting on top of it with a lime and clay based mixture. Then there's fences and roofs to fix, attending to the compost, searching for eggs and cooking something simple for myself. I'm sleeping in and working with the sun, life is peaceful.
I went out with a guest to the nearby pine forests to forage for pine mushrooms but all we could find were 'slippery jack's' which aren't worth the effort of cooking, too bland.
This is my little project,
mud plastering Diego and Agostina's place. I first whisk flour and water
then add it to sieved clay, sieved sand, topsoil and a handful of straw. It's a
joy to work with as long as the sun is shining on my back. Even more so as
Diego and Agostina are a very nice couple, Agostina feeds me jam from the wild
fruits growing nearby and Diego has a real talent with the guitar, enough
to keep me working once the sun goes down on an unforgettable evening.
Plastering Diego and Agostina's hut to the back of the property.
When Jeronimo arrived at the Chakra he was keen to hike up to Cerro Lindo, one of the tougher treks so I joined him to get out of the farm gates and into the wilderness for a couple of days. Sixto took us as far as the road would allow before we began the tough, steep hike but a great time of the year to be doing it.
Chilling out with Jeronimo and Raul at
the refuge, talking shit away from the chilly weather. Raul is
surely the coolest refuge lodger I've met, a real Argentine dude, full of chat
and laughter. Being the only two guests, we put our food together and cook
over the wood stove for two nights, someone's fetching firewood while the
others are rolling cigarettes or pouring mate` in the shared cup. A
touching mountain experience with two great guys.
A not so
happy moment. Two days quickly became three when we took Raul's
loose Argentinian style instructions on the second day to get to the
waterfalls. The further into the valley we hiked, believing we could follow the
mountain around and back to the refuge, the deeper we went and lost all
sense of bearing so we had to follow our steps instinctively to arrive back by
dark with appetites like lions and head back the following day.
One of the highest lakes in the area, ready for a long approaching winter
Clouds in the valley over El Bolson with fresh sun above
