Attempt

This is named attempt because I can only hope to half capture what I have experienced in the past 10 days - so here I go:

I work hard, from eight in the morning until one pm every day at which time I eat a homecooked meal in the humble stone court. But this I have already said. Jobs were beginning to get monotonous and pointless - that is cutting grass and weeding herb gardens for hours on end one begins to feel pointless. But a few days ago we sent to as Ulises calls it "nature´s rock factory" to gather stones for the winepress and the rabbit pen that we are building - we got two pickuptrucks full. Another day I shovelled shit (litterally) all day - hard, hot, sweaty work. These past few days I have had the fantastic opportunity of learning how to build with stone. First we level the ground and drive stakes in, then we dig a trench where the foundation will go and then we begin laying stones and fitting them to meet the level string we have run around the perimiter of the stakes. then we pack it all with cement and... and today I left the farm. I left the misty hills and the neighing horses and barking dogs in the orange light. I left the stale bread and the fresh cows milk and yogurt. Left the wood fire and the twangy voices of local cowboys who treated me not as a tourist but as a person, one of the rest. I left the dark wood and the water gourds, the hanging pendents and the endless dust that whips up along the road.

Yesterday Orlando (an avid cyclist and boyfriend of the ex-WWOOFer accross the road from our farm) lent me his mountainbike so I went up and up and up, past small cabins viscious dogs and herds of cows and bulls being led down the dusty road. Up, until the pines started, until the clearcuts started, until the only machines were the cutting and dragging machines where the land was scarred, but out of view from people. from here the views are spectacular and the descent on the windy, sandy, dusty road was fast, scary, and slightly insane given the existence of logging trucks and the absence of a helmet!!

Today I broke up some bread into some fresh yogurt, poured a tablespoon of honey from the farm and broke my fast. I packed up, gave my best wishes to Ulises and said goodbye to Natasha (the ex-WWOOFer from Holland) and I walked out onto the dusty road and stuck out my thumb. I got a ride from two guys screaming down the road in a shell of a van from the sixties or seventies. I threw my belongings into the back and sat on the spare tire making sure not to step on the battery whose rusty exposed wires were in view.

On the bus trip from Linares to Pucon I had a moment of absolute awe that I thought I should share, no matter how bizarre it sounds. I was thinking of belonging (inspired from my conversations with Ulises), or rather, of being a part of another system, a bigger, greater system. And this is how it went: electron, atom, molecule, compounds...amino and fatty acids, cells, tissue, organs, body, society, human civilization, ecosystem, continent, planet earth, solar system, constelation, galaxy universe... and my jaw actually dropped. And I hope that no one goes through life absolutely lukewarm - that at some point the big and the small explode in space and time to reveal all the awe and all the connections. even if just for a moment. Within moments I lost this perspective and returned to the mundane thoughts that run through one´s head on any bus trip... "my bum hurts, I´m thirsty, are we there yet?..."

Now im in Pucon. Tourist central. On mainstreet, every second store is an adventure tourism shop - mountain bike, rafting, climbing, kayaking, trekking... They say this is the adrenaline capital of Chile, I can see why and I intend to find out starting tomorrow. Now I am staying at an eco-friendly hostal - more on this later.
I´m trying so hard to be a sponge and soak up all the colours and the smells and experience everything - but as I´ve said before this is sometimes hard but I´ll keep on trying.
until next time