PATAGONIA - February 2017

United Methodist "Volunteers in Mission" Trip

An opportunity to do another mission trip with my folks came up, this time with several of the people my folks had travelled to Chile with before, with Pastor Don Harringa as the leader. If you read my book, you know that Jeff and I, along with my parents, went to Cuba on a mission trip in 2010 - enough time passed so that we were ready to try it again!

My niece, Hannah, who is fluent in Spanish came along with us too. We had pretty uneventful travel - other than the length of time, about 36 hours. More by error than design, Jeff flew from Madison to Chicago, Cincinnati and Miami. Mary & Geo and I flew from Madison to Dallas to Miami, and Hannah flew from her temporary Lockheed-Martin assignment in LA to meet us in Miami. We all met there in time for our overnight flight to Santiago. We had a few hours to kill in Santiago before we boarded a LATUM flight for Punta Arenas, making a stop somewhere along the way. Just before boarding we met up with most of the rest of our group, some that Mary and Geo had done previous United Methodist VIM (Volunteers in Mission) trips with. When we arrived in Punta Arenas, our leader Don, local pastor and translator Alexia were there to meet us, and guide us to the “tourist bus” that took us to Puerto Natales.

It was “summer” in Chile, and the temperature outside was probably about 60 as we boarded the bus at 7:30pm and it was light for most of the drive. The landscape initially was flat and very barren. Dried grass, wind whipped but scarce trees. Occasional livestock - cattle, sheep and horses. The fences were made of wire and small wood slats, and like we’ve seen in Cuba and Costa Rica, the “telephone posts” were formed concrete rather than tree trunks.

It started getting dark about 10pm, just as we were seeing snow-capped mountains in the distance. Like so many other destinations where we initially arrived in the dark, it’ll be hard to form a true impression of Puerto Natales until the day light.

Quick dinner at the church, then they dropped us off at individual church members homes to stay. Our host lady, Celia, is very sweet but we don’t speak the same language so this will be interesting. She is widowed, and reminds us a lot of Jeff’s late mom, Clara in that she is tiny and seems to be a spitfire!

We had a great night’s sleep after that kind of travel. It was after 8am before I even woke up (breakfast was between 8a and 10a so no matter).

Jeff tried a new method of communication with our host - typing a question into his Spanish translation app and showing it to her - didn’t really make a difference. She would just smile and rapid-fire Spanish right back to him! We figured we were supposed to have someone pick us up, but we set out on foot to the church and anyway - looking for landmarks we saw last night on the drive to her home.

We walked a mile and we’re just about to take a wrong turn when our leader Pastor Don stepped out onto the sidewalk. We chatted with him a bit and asked him the way to the hotel for breakfast, and he said “you’re here!” And we were - who knows where we would have ended up if we hadn’t run into him! There is a nice hotel next to the church, owned by someone from the church. Even though no one from our group is staying there, they’ve invited us to have breakfast there each day, a wonderful continental breakfast. I imagine that also takes the pressure of the host families as they’re not having to feed us.

Mary, Geo and Hannah were already there and it was fun to compare notes about our accommodations. M&G are at a “hostel” right across from the church. They said it’s a tiny room with private bath. Geo asked Don about “upgrading” to a hotel, and Don politely told us that the accommodations enhance the mission experience – we should be out of our comfort zones, and it makes the people we’re helping happy to share with us. Good perspective.

We had breakfast and got the schedule for the trip - 7 days of work, two days of touring and two Sunday’s “off.” Sounds perfect! After breakfast we headed out to the project site. There was a small “outpost chapel” about 8 blocks from the church. Apparently, many years ago a group splintered off from the main Methodist church and built this smaller one about a mile away. Over the years it was absorbed back into a merged operation and the church decided to keep this chapel as a neighborhood outreach initiative. The attached “apartment” was rented out to provide income for the mission. Our job is to renovate the apartment – pour cement for what currently are dirt floors, paint, and do some trim work. Maybe they’d done some demolishing before we got there, but it was sad to think that someone might have been living in the current conditions. I’m afraid our crew is nothing like what we watch on the home makeover shows, but hopefully it’ll look improved when we’re done!

It was interesting to walk through parts of Puerto Natales on our way to the worksite and back. There are dogs all over the place - running, sleeping, traveling in packs. They seem oblivious to people! The houses are small - lots of hodge podge building materials, and various stages of repair (very few that were completely fixed up and even fewer that were landscaped). Many seemed to run businesses out of the houses – we passed a bakery, a shoe shop and other things that I couldn’t decipher. Nearly every block had some kind of lodging accommodation too - hostel, B&B, etc. We also passed several outdoor outfitters, and saw lots of hikers.

It was nearly 11a before we got to work, and our first break was scheduled at 11! The painters got started right away, but those of us opting to be cement grunts had to wait for the delivery of our cement mixer. I’d never done any work with cement before, but I found that running the mixer wasn’t that different than my kitchen aid mixer. I was paired with 84-year-old Hintz, a character from the Milwaukee area that my parents had worked with before. He was a hard worker, but also a jokester and I had a hard time telling when he was serious. Jeff is the most experienced and agile of our group, therefore he was assigned the hard part of the cement work - leveling and troweling.

At 1p we knocked off for lunch, and walked back to the main church where we were served lentil soup - awesome cooks, like every Methodist church! Then back for more work - as the afternoon went on, more men from the church joined us in the work, and the ladies came to watch and visit, and prepare our afternoon snack. Definitely the same gender role separation that we’d observed working at the church in Cuba.

This afternoon we were also joined by an additional translator, Ethyl - originally from South Africa, now living here and a member of this church. We finished the cement for the largest room, and the painters painted a portion of the outside before we broke for the day and walked back to the church for dinner. We detoured a different way, past a school and a neat town square.

While we want to explore more of the town, we were thoroughly exhausted after dinner and started our walk back to our host house. Ethyl told us our host was working in the kitchen and someone would be driving her home soon and we should go along. We declined and said we’d walk, but after we’d gone only about three blocks, they came along and insisted we get in.

Back to the house for showers - not the best, but after hard work and shoveling dirt in the wind today, it felt great. Our house has a gas water heater with a pilot light that needed to be lit before the shower – I guess it heats the water as you need it? It was a concept that was completely unfamiliar with me, and while Jeff did his best to understand our host’s instructions, we didn’t get it right for the whole stay!

On our second morning, we awoke before our alarm feeling refreshed. We got dressed and headed out for our walk to the hotel for breakfast - it’s was totally different feeling confident about where we were going. We found Mary & Geo there and enjoyed the morning time together - it’s odd with us all staying in different places. We part ways after dinner, rather than continuing to visit.

After breakfast, Don tried to lead a devotional session, but it’s tough - partly due to the attention span of our group, and partly because there were hotel patrons also enjoying their breakfast and visiting amongst themselves! We did the short hike to the chapel and assumed our same jobs. The cement in the main room had set up, so the guys had the task of removing the metal forms. Then they demanded a mix of concrete with no rocks to fill the gaps - so mom, Coggin and I visited while we picked rocks out of the sand mixture to make a smoother batch.

They set the forms and were ready to pour the patio, while Hintz and I got our mixing operation going in full swing. I had issues with the consistency of our concrete mixture though, making complaints from the leveler (Jeff) – it was a fine line between too dry and too wet.

When morning break came today, I was all too happy to stop working! Then back to more mixing until lunch time. It was very windy today, which apparently is normal here. They said in Punta Arenas there are ropes to hang onto while you’re walking along the sidewalks! We were covered in dust from trying to mix concrete out in the wind. When it came to leave to walk to lunch, I changed out of my dusty clothes. I’d also fallen onto a fresh paint spot when I tried pushing a wheelbarrow full of fresh cement - so my work clothes were a total mess.

We walked back to the church for lunch. It was a gorgeous blue-sky sunny day. There were a few dark clouds, and a few stray raindrops when there were no clouds overhead; the drops apparently blown in from rain somewhere else. Being Saturday, we had lots of guys from the church helping us out after lunch. Segundo, Hannah’s host “dad” took over as the mix master and we made some really huge batches (2 wheelbarrows full each), and they finished the floor of the front room in no time.

Soon it was time for afternoon break - this is almost like bike touring as much as we’re eating! Yet each time I find that I’m hungry. Rosa is the name of the lady that hosts our breaks and seems to be the loving caretaker of the chapel. She has a really neat spirit, pink lipstick and a fun laugh. We love to hear her cry “break time,” after she’s prepared the snacks!

We continued to enjoy walking the streets and watching the interactions of the dogs. The three dogs that live in the little house behind the chapel seem to be getting more used to us. They found a large bone somewhere (like a cow leg) and it was amazing to see them work together and chase off the other dogs until the little one had secured it somewhere in their yard. Towards the end of the day, they were allowing people to scratch their ears - and nudging you when you stopped. A really cool cat lives there too - wants nothing to do with people however - it is a cat after all!

We pulled the rails out of the patio, and hand-mixed a batch of concrete to fill into the slots. Then we cleaned up - the others had gotten to a stopping point before that and left. We cleaned up and started walking to our place, hoping we’d find Celia at home (we did - along with her daughter and son-in-law who were visiting from 22 km away).

It felt great to shower and lay down for a few minutes. I didn’t wash my hair though, and could barely get my comb through my wind-blown tangles. If I lived here, I’d have to cut it shorter or do dreadlocks!

Jeff cleaned up fastest and went out to chat a bit - the son-in-law could speak some English and both he and Jeff had their smart phone translators going! We learned they’re both Social Workers, and we told them a bit about our business. Then we all climbed into their little car and they drove us to the chapel for the service (we drove by a festival going on, and also the new hospital).

The little chapel was filled, mostly with people we’d met so far, but about 5 new faces. There were two men playing guitar, and we really enjoyed their music. We even had a song book so we could sort of sing along. I wish they’d have interpreted what Pastor Ariel said, but I kind of got the just of it. Tomorrow we’ll attend a service in the actual church. So far, it’s not as evangelical and lively (or as long) as those at the Cuban Methodist church. We introduced ourselves, sang one of my favorite hymns: “Here I Am, Lord,” and Pastor Don preached on “the Good Samaritan.”

Then we all went back to the main church for a late dinner - another fabulous meal. We lingered and visited afterwards, and said adios to Arturo and Pepe who will be returning to Punta Arenus in the morning - Jeff really enjoyed working with them and got the “handshake, hug with back slapping, handshake” greeting down perfectly with them. That’s the man greeting, for women it’s a handshake and cheek-to-cheek air kiss.

Sunday was a day off of “work” for us, but we decided to meet for breakfast at 8a as usual. We had breakfast and our Wi-Fi fix, then headed out to explore the touristy side of town. I’d noticed on the map before we arrived that this body of water seemed connected to the Pacific Ocean. We headed down to the body of water - known as Seno Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope Sound) named by Spanish navigator Juan Ladrillero in the 16th century as it was his last hope to reach the Strait of Magellan.

There is a beautiful walkway along much of the sound. We started at the west end, and as we were walking along, a RV with bikes hanging off the back and Canadian plates passed us and stopped near a playground. Geo walked over to chat up the guy that got out - the rest of us kept walking to check out the cool playground equipment. Three young kids bounded out of the RV - the youngest a boy who was barefoot! They were quite chatty and was fun talking to them - the boy was 4 (Rupert), the girls were 8 and 11 (Loralee and Olivia). They were on a two-year adventure, having bought the RV in Toronto, drove to Alaska, down along the US west coast, through Mexico and Central America. After exploring Patagonia, they are going to drive back up to Bolivia. They consider themselves Australian, but they were born in England (rainy and boring the girls said). They live near Perth (hot, but they go to the beach). They had the most charming little accents and clever answers to our question - we could have talked to them all day! Their daddy is an engineer - he had a solar energy company which he sold. Their mum is a massage therapist, and they have a 13-year-old sister that was still in the RV with their mum. We kept walking, and soon they passed us - 8 little hands waving out the side window.

Much more humorous dog watching today - couple sets of dogs with matted “dreadlocks” that would plunge into the water chasing the ducks. Not sure they’ve ever had success in catching one - but didn’t stop them from trying! It was a glorious day to walk along the path - cool statues, people fishing, gorgeous views of the distant snow-capped mountains. Soon we got to the touristy area and stopped at the Hotel Kha and enjoyed their cafe. Then we cut back through town and poked around a bit on our way back to the main church for lunch - amazing variety of food - they’re taking such awesome care of us!

Geo went back to their hostel for a rest, but we’d picked up Heinz and set up to explore a bit further along the sound. Along the way we discovered a “camping” spot in the middle of town - pretty awesome place with a kitchen, laundry and showers - a soccer stadium / velodrome - and some cool shops that weren’t open as it is Sunday.

We got to the statue of the “Milodon,” a prehistoric herbivorous mammal, of which the remains were discovered in a nearly cave in 1896. They think it was twice the size of a man, and that 10,000 years ago a group of Tehuelche Indians trapped the beast in this cave where the remains were extraordinarily well preserved. There are models of this beast all over the tourist district.

We met up with Geo at the town square, then poked around a few more shops for the rest of the afternoon. We went into a grocery store looking for some of the spread we have been putting on our toast, but it was pretty chaotic in there and we didn’t end up buying anything. Now that we know the layout of the town better, the tourist district isn’t but a few blocks from the main church. Some in our group have been to this region on a mission before. Heinz told us the feel of the town has really improved since his last trip here. The tourism is bringing jobs and money = good economy.

Back to the church for an earlier dinner (5pm) and 6pm worship service. The church was beyond full and they brought in extra folding chairs. There was lots of singing - with the words projected on the wall which made it easy to sing along even though I didn’t know what I was singing. I also have no idea what Pastor Ariel preached about, but he blessed a young boy who had a birthday and that was cute. They briefly introduced us and we sang “Sanctuary” and a bit of “Amazing Grace,” but other than that it wasn’t about us, and I was grateful for that. It was enough just to experience their way of worshipping, and I enjoyed that.

Monday morning, we had our usual breakfast and I used the hotel Wi-Fi to post to the blog. Devotional time was still a bit chaotic, and I prefer to have mine in the quiet sanctuary of my bedroom before I start the day anyway.

Back at the job site, we easily fell into our routines and finished the last of the inside cement work and a portion of the outside before break, and the whole front walk was finished before lunch. At times it seems like there isn’t enough work to last the 4 more work days that we have here, but then we look around and there is a TON to be done. We might be lacking the vision of the finished product though! Walter and Antonio came by later in the day and discussed building a wall for the bathroom and moving the door for the front room. Perhaps they had to see what we could do before developing the whole plan.

It was another fun day watching the packs of dogs. The three that live behind the chapel were hysterical in defending the block today - and they’re serious about no other dogs coming into our zone! The female gets started and then the “friendly” one takes over. It’s a wonder they’ve not been hit by a car yet. The friendly dog was watching Jeff through the open door today as he was finishing the concrete in the main hall - he was standing there wagging his tail waiting for Jeff to stop and scratch his ears. It’ll be a tough transition for him back to no human contact when we leave.

When we left at lunch, we tried to barricade the fresh concrete out front - but just before we left, friendly dog jumped the barricade and walked through, so Jeff pulled out his tool and smoothed it again. We came back from lunch to cat prints of course! There is hardly a sidewalk in town without an animal paw print!

Our group is getting along well - our only issue is they’re feeding us too much - breakfast, lunch and dinner with nearly complete meals at both breaks. Of course, we don’t want to hurt their feelings so we eat, eat, eat. Besides the physical work we’re doing, we’ve been walking over 8 miles each day - but I’m not sure that’s enough to counter all the wonderful food! At dinner tonight we had fresh salmon (fish boat comes in on Mondays).

After dinner we relaxed and chatted about the next few days - then Hannah ran off to play soccer with the boys, and we walked home. Celia was serving dinner and cleaning up the kitchen at the church so she gave us her key - we’re making progress in our attempt to communicate. Jeff still didn’t get the knack of lighting the pilot light for the water heater, but he will. It’s fun to watch them working on it together - her just prattling on in Spanish!

Jeff orchestrated a project the next morning: we hauled much of the dirt pile out front around the back - filled in around our new sidewalk and made a more gradual drop from the back patio to the yard.

They’d brought metal “siding” for the back of the chapel that had been a mixture of patched siding and rotted wood. They (the guys from the church) replaced some of the boards, then instructed us on how to nail the siding on - NOT EASY! Especially where you had to nail through a second piece of siding. I only successfully drove about 8 nails - each one a small victory to me. After about 20 times of hitting my thumb, I gave up and went back to shoveling dirt.

After our 11am break, we fired up our cement operation once again, but in the middle of our first batch, our mixer died! After taking it apart and many different people involved - Geo and Heinz with Alexia trying to translate - and Uggo and Antonio from the church, and several guys who were driving or bicycling by - they said it was a motor problem, not an electrical problem. We mixed four wheelbarrows of cement by hand while the guys were working on the problem - made us grateful to have had the mixer as long as we did.

I sat outback for a while - two of the dogs came through the chapel as the front door was open. They walked through the wet cement on the patio of course. I grabbed the trowel and tried to repair it - not as easy as it looks. Then I sat on an old cupboard and watched as the church guys measured and Geo cut the remainder of the metal siding for the peak of the wall. It struck me that this congregation is a LOT like ours at Crossroads UMC in Waunakee - guys that are super talented in repairs and building stuff, women that are talented in the kitchen (personally, I try to assist both sides, but I’m a master of neither … Jeff, master of both).

We walked back to the main church for yet another yummy lunch, then an afternoon of “leisure time.” Jeff and I returned home to shower and change - then headed to town via a new route - where we got slightly turned around, but we had plenty of time to just explore. We poked around some artisan shops - looking at some handmade ponchos, the wool is so pretty but is also scratchy to me - the alpaca is so soft and luxurious, but comes at a pretty steep price too! We also bought a book on Torres de Paine park and spent about an hour at the town square soaking up the sun, reading and watching people.

Then back to the church for another great dinner. After dinner, Rosie asked if we wanted mint tea, and I said yes. She went in the backyard and picked some fresh mint, crushed it and added hot water - yummy! After that we hurried back home as it was scheduled to be a short night - tomorrow we’re leaving EARLY for the penguin tour!

The plan was to meet at church for breakfast at 3am, then we’d be picked up for a 4am departure to Punta Arenas for our boat trip to the penguin island. It was painful when Jeff’s alarm went off at 2:15 am, and my back up alarm at 2:20 am. But we were motivated to see the penguins, so we dressed in our warm clothes, donned our headlamps and left the warmth of our little house. It was actually quite mild outside - a rain shower had just passed through. We saw one walker and one car during our 15-minute walk to the church. We heard lots of dogs barking and passed a few sleeping dogs. There was a lot of activity at the church - scrambled eggs and ham, coffee, cereal, bread, cheese and yogurt were all ready. I thought it’d be a quick bite and onto the bus, but it turned into our leisurely kind of meal! By 3:45am I couldn’t sit any longer and got up to do some stretching. By 4am, everyone was anxious and the pastor was on his phone. Our ride finally arrived just after 4:30a, with a “no problem” to catch the boat attitude.

We settled into the van and everyone fell back asleep, and soon we were there. “There” was a little shocking at first - we pulled over on the main highway and there was a dock with one medium sized boat and two smaller boats. A van with our crew arrived about the same time. I was expecting we’d go to a harbor in Punta Arenas with lots of boats - but this little dock just north of the city worked perfectly!

Our group settled into the medium sized boat and then a few more small bus loads came and filled it up, and at 7:30am we were underway. It was a great boat for this little trip. After about an hour, we reached Magdalena Island. I really had no idea what to expect, but this experience exceeded expectations! Even as we approached the dock there were penguins swimming alongside the boat, as dolphins sometimes do. And then it became apparent that they weren’t going to be hard to find - the island was covered with penguins! As we were walking down the dock, they were swimming under it, and hundreds of others all over near the water and up near their holes (dens?). It was fun to see the groups of them standing around chanting, and others waddling to and fro. Just as our guide described, they’d cut across the path in front of you, or behind you when you’d stopped - with really no regard for us at all! It was an amazing experience.

It took us about an hour to walk the roped off path up to the lighthouse and back down. Besides the penguins, there were seagulls and cormorants on the island. There were a lot of dead juvenile seagulls, and we heard conflicting reasons for that - one naturalist said it was a larger bird that was killing them, another said it was because they crashed as they were learning to fly in the strong winds? We also saw several sea lions hanging around offshore and the clumps of penguins seemed to move away from them. We thought it was because they’re a predator to the penguins, but the naturist said they hang around the penguins just to get their fish, not to get the penguins.

It was a glorious day to be on the water. It was mostly overcast and there was barely any wind, which made for calm seas. Since it was so calm, the crew said we could go to an additional stop. We boarded the boat and headed to the island of Marta to see the sea lions. I was thinking - eh, been there done that. But I did go up to the top of the boat anyway and they were fun to watch. Kind of in clumps with a massive sea lion each ruling his harem - barking and biting and waddling along. It was amazing to see how high some of them had climbed above the sea onto rock shelves.

The crew served coffee and cookies on the way back, and everyone was mellow. As we approached the dock there was a little more commotion with the sighting of a pod of Sei Whales – an extra bonus! As we got off the boat, Pastor Ariel handed us each a lunch bag, and we drove about a mile down the road to a wayside park. I’d seen the park in our drive from the airport - a beautiful spot, but terribly littered! We ate our sandwiches and peaches, mostly standing around the table.

We continued towards Punto Arenas, but I was asleep before we even passed the airport. When I awoke, we had a 20-minute stop to “shop” at a mall designed for cruise ship passengers - not the kind of shopping most of us had in mind! Back on the bus - back to sleep. The next time we stopped was on a beautiful overlook with a view of the city and the sea. As I took in the panorama, I looked to my right and saw a vendor selling locally knit products - I looked left and there were three more! I found a fun hat, but as I was looking further, I found the alpaca poncho I’d been searching for - my only quandary was deciding which color - I settled on a bright blue - the color of the ocean!

Back in the van and we drove to the main square and finally got the sense that Punta Arenas was a large city. After less than a week in Puerto Natales, all of a sudden, I felt like a hick coming to the big city. The shoppers in the group set out to explore some more artisan booths that were set up along the square, while the cultured ones checked out the cool statue of Magellan in the middle of the square.

Back in the van for a quick stop at the central Methodist church. We were greeted by the UMW lady and the OB doc that we’d met over the weekend (I have no idea of their names). It was fun to see a photo on the wall of Pastor Don, Coggin, Glen and Heinz from their trip here 4 years ago! We sang a song and had a prayer, then back in the van for a trip to their smaller mission church on the hill. There we were greeted by our “old friends” Arturo and Pepe, along with about 6 women. We gathered in the sanctuary and they sang a “welcome” song to us, then we went to their kitchen for tea, sweet breads, empanadas, and tea sandwiches! It was fun, and yummy of course.

We climbed back in the van one last time just before 5pm - most fell promptly asleep again. After about an hour, we came to a sudden stop and the driver insisted we get out and take a photo at the sign that said “road to the end of the earth” so we were told …

We arrived back in Puerto Natales about 7:30pm and dinner was waiting - mussels (biggest shells I’d ever seen served), chicken, ham, pea pods, potato pancakes, and sausage - along with wine tonight. Glorious meal to end a fabulous but long day. We walked back to the house and arrived just before Celia got back from helping at the church. We had a breakthrough in our communication tonight - not necessarily with our words, but with our understanding each other. We showed her the photos of our day, and she toured us through her garden in back of her house.

When we were preparing for this trip, I checked the weather forecast every few days - looked like lots of rain. Up until today we’d had some rain on the overnights, but today we had rain all day. It curtailed our work, but we were mostly done with outside projects so we made the best of it. When we got to the chapel apartment, we discovered someone had thrown a rock through the front window. The church folk didn’t seem to be as troubled by the vandalism as the rest of us were - could be that “stuff” in general doesn’t mean as much to them.

Much more discussion about what to do with the tiny bathroom - move the door or the front room so we could make it bigger? Pastor Ariel ruled no. They left Hugo in charge of us and we struggled to communicate with him, yet he displayed incredible patience with us all day. Jeff set out to frame the new wall for the bathroom. I tried to help, but found the measuring and leveling to be a little tedious. Others were painting, but they thankfully seemed to have that covered. I found a job hand mixing the concrete for the last of the back sidewalk, while Pastor Don did the hard part (bringing wheelbarrows of mix from the front) and Heinz did the troweling.

After lunch, we finally got the clue that the bathrooms walls needed to be lined with this cement board stuff - so I got to work measuring the pieces we needed while Hugo did the cutting with a special saw. We got to do some bathroom demo, which was kind of fun! We worked up until 6:30p, then went to the church for dinner just as we were. We’re tired after yesterday’s long day, so we walked home for showers and early bedtime. Tomorrow we have another day off “work” and will be exploring the National Park Torres de Paine.

We awoke to light rain again. The plan was breakfast at the hotel at 7a, and a tour bus was going to pick us up at 7:30a. Everyone was prompt and rushed through breakfast, only to wait 45 minutes for the bus again! It was a large but with big sight-seeing windows and the gang spread out across the bus. But then we realized we were making other stops and picking up other passengers, so we condensed ourselves.

Our guides’ name was Jose, and after the pickups were completed, he became quite animated! He did a good job narrating our day in Chilean Spanish (slurred) and broken English! What he lacked in linguistic skills, he made up for with enthusiasm. After about 30 minutes of travel (or 60 for those of us that got on first), we had our first stop at Cerro Castilla - bathroom, shopping, coffee break. We could see the border crossing into Argentina from there.

After that we went off the paved road for a day of bouncing over rutted gravel roads, and speeding around blind curves at a breakneck pace. It wasn’t long before we started seeing wildlife - lots of guanaco’s (similar to llamas) and rhea (ostrich-like birds). It was hard to get good photos, but awesome to see. We took a side trip to see Paine River Cascades, and about then the clouds started breaking up giving great promise to the day.

We entered National Park Torres del Paine via the Laguna Amarga entrance. We took frequent stops at overlooks, one was overlooking a lake that had a mixture of saltwater, with several flamingos grazing along the opposite shoreline. The landscape was barren - low scrubby trees and bushes, some of them almost cactus-like. There had been a fire four years ago that wiped out a lot of the trees across most of the park.

Before lunch, we stopped at another waterfall where we had to walk a distance to get to the overlook. By that time, we welcomed the walk and it felt great to stretch our legs! The views of the Torres (towers) and glacier were fabulous there.

We drove around Pehoe lake and stopped at a campground for our picnic lunch. The sun was out and it felt warm - the scenery was amazing in every direction. At the campground, we saw a deer and an armadillo. Leaving there, a Chilean skunk crossed in front of our bus - so we saw all the possible wildlife except the puma.

After lunch, most of the bus fell asleep as we drove around to Grey Lake. There we walked across a swinging bridge and down to a huge beach. At the end of the beach was an iceberg! Jeff, Hannah and I walked down as close as we could get to the berg, and from there we had an awesome view of Grey glacier which is attached to the Southern Patagonian ice field. We had just over an hour to complete the hike and we really moved - felt great after so much sitting, but it was tough to walk fast on the shifting rocks.

Back on the bus, we had a final overlook stop that nicely wrapped up the day. Amazing color of Toro lake and the surrounding mountains. What an awesome experience to spend the day in this gem of a Chilean National Park. It’s renowned for backpacking with its classic “W Trek,” but we’re not sure if it’ll make our bucket list.

We made a final stop at the Milodon caves - an amazing cave, but after such an awesome day I was already exhausted so it was kind of “meh” to me. The sun continued to shine as we arrived in Puerto Natales after 7:30pm, and we dropped a few others off on our way back to the church. Supper awaited us there - mussel noodle soup and gnocchi with meat sauce. Quick walk back to Celia’s where we felt into the bed completely exhausted.

On Saturday morning, we again awoke to raindrops, but by the time we were headed out for our walk to breakfast, the storm had passed and we were treated to the remnants of a pretty rainbow.

When we got to breakfast, Hannah was there having coffee with her host “mom” Corrina. We joined them for a quick bite, then at 8am, we headed out with them and my mom and Heinz, for the 10-minute walk to the bus station where Hannah caught the 8:30a bus to Punta Arenas. She needs to be back at work on Monday, so she headed out early. The day felt a little empty without her though.

We arrived at the chapel apartment early to find Hugo already there working. I started measuring the rest of the cement board for the bathroom - triple checking myself as we didn’t have enough to make an error! I was delighted that it worked out - especially the piece that fit around the little window. Jeff had the task of nailing it into place, which was tough with irregular or absent wall studs. He had to create some additional crossbars on his new wall to fit my pieces of cement board!

Meanwhile, Jeff tasked Alexia and Glen to demolish the existing wall board behind the pipes so the new board could slide into place. At first Alexia thought it was a blast, but it was tough work for them! The plan worked though and the new piece slid in pretty easily. We were supposed to have “leisure time” this afternoon, but most of us felt like there was so much to do, so we came back after lunch and started tackling the paneling - I measured and marked and left the cutting to the guys. There were three saws there and it wore out Jeff and Geo sawing the first piece. At break, they asked Hugo about buying a power saw and he said he had one at home and he went and got it. We had to knock off about 5:30p as dinner was at the main church at 6p, but with the power saw we’re confident we can finish the paneling on Monday!

The front hall was part of the yuckiest walls - they’d been repainted so many times and the paint was buckling on the upper walls. Pastor Don’s morning project was to peel that off, and underneath it we found burlap glued to the walls. When we get that paneled, that will be a great first impression when you walk into the apartment!

Geo, Mary and Coggin, with some assistance from Alexia finished the painting today and that looks good. I can’t help but feel some disappointment though - probably too much HGTV watching … we’re not going to have a “big reveal” that shows an astonishing improvement! In the driveway there will still be a dead car with a smashed front window, and in the backyard a lot of junk.

After dinner, we attended a service at the little chapel. Ethyl was there to translate for us, which made it a lot more meaningful. A great way to end the day, worshiping with our new Chilean friends.

Our second Sunday, and yet another day of leisure planned! We slept in a bit and got to breakfast about 9:15a. The church families wanted to treat us to a BBQ today, but forecast for rain made that sound like a lousy idea. In case of rain, the BBQ would be at the church from 10:30a - 4:30p. We’d like to have been working on the apartment, but it’s either something they wouldn’t do on a Sunday, or they think WE wouldn’t do on a Sunday - not sure which.

About 10:20a, Pastor Don told us we were loading up the cars for the drive to Lagoon Sophia. We climbed in Segundo’s SUV - but conversation was tough without Hannah here to help translate! We drove towards Torres del Paine, past the turn to the Montidon cave, and took the next left. Soon we were bumping down a gravel road again, and before long, we arrived at the lake. About a dozen tents were set up in the area - some belonging to backpackers - some to car campers. The group staked out a spot behind a large rock, where a campfire could be set out of the wind.

I took my shoes off and waded into the lake. It was a fresh water lake, not too cold. People started spreading out and several of us hiked up the hillside right over our picnic. “Cow pies” told us that cattle often graze here, and it was an easy hike. There were amazing views from the top, and clouds coming and going made for changing colors of the lake and nearby mountains. We hiked for nearly an hour, then returned to find a “carnivores delight” for our picnic, with some fruit and potato salad too. Walter apparently works at a meat market – so there was chicken, ribs, beef, pork - and then - sheep testicles! They had quite a fire going, and were sautéing the meat in a large wok-like pan over the fire.

People tried fishing with no luck. Alexia and Mathias went swimming, but it appeared to be cold! Jeff and I set out on another hike – we came close to climbing up to some caves where technical climbers were scaling the mountain, but we were afraid of running out of time and inconveniencing our gracious hosts, so we turned back.

Back to the church - the service went long, about 90 minutes, and dinner was scheduled for 8p. When we got to the dining hall, we were delighted to have tables set as long as the room and many people joined us, some new faces to us! Rather than dinner, the table was set with hot water for tea or Nescafé, sandwiches, meat left over from today, coffee cakes and sophapias! After about 15 minutes of eating, laughter and fellowship, the main guitar player for the church services came in with his guitar and harmonica. He really got the crowd going - tables were pushed aside and traditional Chilean and Argentinian dances were demonstrated, with much clapping and laughter. It was awesome. I hummed the tune all the way home. They said TOMORROW night will be the cultural celebration, but it will be hard to top the fun we had tonight!

When we got home, Celia’s sister was here and told us Celia was ill with vertigo. I saw in church that she didn’t look well, with her skin kind of a grey tone. There was also a man’s voice coming from her room - maybe a doctor. A helpless feeling for us.

We were up just after 7am for our final work day, and we decided to take the key from Celia’s so we’d be able to get back in this afternoon to clean up and pack before the evening event. We had breakfast, posted the blog and got to the worksite at 9a to find Hugo working there already of course.

Too many people at the work site today, yet it still felt like there was so much to do. Many things (cement not cured, lack of materials) were out of our control. We managed to finish the hall paneling with Geo and Hintz doing most of the cutting, me measuring and holding, Jeff unofficially in charge (someone had to be). He directed Glen to be the nailer, since he’d been so successful with the metal outside. Just after break though, the “good” aluminum ladder collapsed and Glen fell. No apparent serious injuries, but it resulted in an overall stiffness that will be with him for days I fear - not a good way to start the long trip home.

It was tough to fit the pieces in - with nothing else, walls, floor or ceiling, being square! We ended up prying a lot of the old trim off, and after they get it trimmed, it will might look ok. Towards the end, we had to piece some of the sections together - ending up more hodge podge than any of us would have liked - will take some strategic art work placement to cover the flaws, I guess.

It felt unsettled to leave when it was lunch time at 1pm, but that was as much as we could do given what we had to work with. There was no big reveal, but in looking at the before and after photos, it was a big improvement!

We said goodbye to the dogs and cats, then walked to the main church for our last lunch - salad, chicken and hand-cut French fries! Celia and her sister, Marguerite, were preparing lunch – it was good to see her up, but she still didn’t look well.

After lunch, Jeff, Heinz and I set out to buy a new ladder. We have a strong sense they’ll “repair” the twisted one, but it felt right to try to replace it. We had to wait until after 3p as the store was closed for lunch and siesta - a concept that I could embrace. The store was just around the block from the church - one segment sold furniture and home decor, one section sold linens and toys, and a third sold industrial kitchen stuff, paint, flooring, tires - and they had two ladders just like the one that had collapsed. The transaction took a bit of time, but they figured it out - along with a tussle between Heinz and Jeff in who would pay for it. We also bought two light bulbs so Jeff could repair the ceiling fixture in our room at Celia’s.

We showered, napped and packed before returning to the main church for the 7pm service. Before the service, we were led out back to a shack where the men had two carcasses cooking over an open fire. Mom asked what they were and in response they bleated at her as a sheep would.

It was a very nice service, and then we moved into the feast and party. They’d made coffee cups with our photos - really neat gifts to remember the trip by. A woman brought us each little sheep adorned with beautiful wool and a medallion of Chile. We were served potatoes, the wonderful Pico sauce, and lamb. Then there was wonderful music and dancing. Alexia did an awesome rendition of the native Chilean dance! It was well after 10p by the time the kisses and back slaps were exchanged.

Ethyl was there to interpret for us, and Pastor Ariel gave a moving talk about what our time together meant to him. It was neat to see even Ethyl tear up as she translated his words. We were also given the opportunity to say a few words each. I said that with all the strife in the world, it was encouraging to me that I could travel this far and find a community that felt so much like the one I come from - loving, joyful, and full of gratitude. It gives me hope and reassurance for the world. I’m sure I didn’t say it so eloquently and who knows how it was translated, but it is what I felt in my heart.