{"id":450,"date":"2012-03-08T20:33:18","date_gmt":"2012-03-09T04:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/?p=450"},"modified":"2013-09-05T15:14:35","modified_gmt":"2013-09-05T22:14:35","slug":"a-short-visit-to-a-huge-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/?p=450","title":{"rendered":"A Short Visit to a Huge Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have left Chiloe to explore parts of Patagonia. \u00a0We spent over a week doing preliminary research on the wind farm project, interviewing local people about the project, and doing several site visits to Playa Mar Brava (including camping there one very windy night). \u00a0Unfortunately\u00a0we were not able to get out to sea to make some sound measurements as the weather was pretty terrible and the port at Puinhuil was closed, day after day. \u00a0So we decided to take a short trip to Doug Tompkins’ celebrated park, Parque Pumalin. \u00a0Mr. Tompkins \u00a0(North Face and Esprit) purchased an immense track of land from the ocean to and beyond the border with Argentina. \u00a0Over the past 20 or more years he has sought to develop sustainable jobs for local people and protect a lovely pristine wilderness.<\/p>\n

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To get there is not so simple. \u00a0We took a ferry from Chiloe to the mainland and stayed a night in Puerto Montt. \u00a0Then we took the Carretara Austral, a 1.5 lane at best rock-studded jeep road south. \u00a0After about 6 hours and another ferry we were ready for a break in Hornoprien – the launching pad for yet another ferry. \u00a0The next day we left the car and walked on the ferry. \u00a0It took us 4 hours south to another bus which zoomed through the wilderness for 45 min to a final ferry which took us at last to the headquarters of Parque Pumulin!\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We set up our tarp tent in a gorgeous, fern-filled campsite and had a couple of terrific days touring some of the local sustainable industry (organic gardening, bee keeping, and park managing). \u00a0We also saw some great wildlife, including a whole pile of seals parked on a rock ledge 2 meters above the \"\"<\/a>sea and a hummingbird with the\u00a0flashiest\u00a0headdress that one has ever seen. \u00a0We did some hiking along very well-organized trails. \u00a0That is, trails that were excellent with wooden elevated sections above marshy areas and log ladders where needed. After a couple of miles, the developed trail turned into knarly boulders and slippery moss underfoot. \u00a0Regardless, the wildness of this place is its special charm.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The people whom we have been meeting while camping and waiting on ferries and talking with park staff have been so incredibly nice to us. \u00a0People share stories with us and tell us not to miss the bus on some particular section of a journey and to stop at a certain restaurant etc, etc. \u00a0If the Chileans are as nice to each other as they are to us, they are a pretty well-adjusted lot.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow we are migrating south on the tramp steamer. \u00a0 We request patience on the next post, as we will be out of internet range while exploring some more of Patagonia, including hiking in Parque Torres del Paine.<\/p>\n

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We have left Chiloe to explore parts of Patagonia. \u00a0We spent over a week doing preliminary research on the wind farm project, interviewing local people about the project, and doing several site visits to Playa Mar Brava (including camping there one very windy night). \u00a0Unfortunately\u00a0we were not able to get out to sea to make […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chile","category-south-america-2012","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=450"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495,"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions\/495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}