Crossin the border, homes

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Macarena left a few days ago, and we all went to the airport to see her off as a family. It was really nice and of course Judith took about 300 pictures so it was well documented. Life settled down again back into the normal routine of quiet lunches and the Chilean version of "Are you smarter than a 5th grader" at night.

Classes and basketball filled my week, I hung out with Esteban Friday night, played basketball Saturday night, but then early Sunday morning I left with Judith for a little trip.

We went with her brother Freddie to his newly opened business headquarters up in the Andes mountains on the border of Argentina. It was really really cool. We drove about two and a half hours weaving through the dirt roads to get to his building right on the border of Argentina in Eastern Chile. The building is really nice. Freddie has a security/safety company and he is based out of the building. It was built in 2009 and it is very modern and impressive.

We arrived to meet the two workers who live in the building to maintain it, Alejandro and Irene. I could tell they were happy to have visitors because they talked a lot, but I don't blame them it must be very lonely up there all alone in the mountains all year. red rum!

We had a little something to eat in the kitchen. We spent most of our time in there because it was efficient to heat...and we eat a all the time so it worked out perfectly. Alejandro gave me a tour of the building. It was really cool...my dad and Jake would have loved it. They are almost entirely self sufficient and off the grid. Every few months someone comes with gasoline, and they have to go into the closest village to get the essentials; sacks of potatoes, nuts, and cigarettes...but for the most part they take care of everything else. They have a big John Deere generator in the basement (vented to the outside obviously), and they tap their running water directly from the mountain. They have two sources of water. One from a running stream down the mountain, and the other is a well. The well water is drinkable but it has a yellowish color from all the minerals, they used that source for toilet water and shower water. The other source was used for drinking and washing dishes. You can see in one of the pictures how the water leaves a yellow tint on the rocks.

After we got settled in and I received my tour, Alejandro took me down to the natural hot springs at the bottom of the mountain. Someone constructed baths to trap the bubbling water from the earth, but it did not look very tempting to me. It was covered with an orange and yellow film of sediment and minerals...and it wasn't even that warm...but it was still cool nonetheless. After we ate (what else is new) Freddie took Judith and I out for a border crossing excursion. The border police go home mid April before winter because the roads become unusable, so we had free run of Argentina for a little bit. The border was marked with a metal sign and a statue of Jesus on the cross.

We had gone almost three hours without eating so it was time to head back to Freddie's building. We sat at the table and talked a lot with tea and chicken soup to "matar el frio" or kill the cold. Someone stopped outside the building and it turns out they had some vehicle problems. There were two vehicles, one had a flat tire, the other was leaking radiator fluid. We went out to help them change the tire, but their spare tire had a leak too. Freddie lent them a small electric compressor so they could stop along the way to fill the tire...they promised to come back and return it. Freddie told me that people from that area are good people, and he trusted them. Sure enough they returned it the next day.

I got ready for bed and read a little bit of "Las Cronicas de Narnia". I had some trouble sleeping, I think I had too much tea. The next day I woke up and decided I was going to climb one of the mountains. I set off for a mountain behind the house and started my ascent. It was very steep, and at an altitude of around 9000 feet above sea level, I had to stop and take a break every 50ft or so. After a healthy trek I made it to my goal over looking our valley. You can see in my pictures that I was pretty high up, looking down you can see the green roof of our building and a truck next to it for perspective. I was happy I did it, even though I didn't get to wrestle a puma while I was up there.

I came back down for some food before we headed back out for Santiago in time for my basketball practice. It was a really cool place and I hope I can go back again in the winter sometime in June to see it covered in snow. Apparently the pumas come down into the valleys for food in the winter when it is more scarce at the higher altitudes, I have a chance!