Leaving El Bolson, headed north

El Bolson, where we´re leaving from now, is a very lovable place. The mountains are beautiful, it´s extremely safe and the people are kind. Pciture a quaint, cozy little town, lots of hippies and families, flanked by mountains and rolling hills of farmland. There are lots of things I will miss about the farm, Reko, and El Bolson.

We´ve left the farm two weeks earlier than planned and are headed north to Cordoba where were applying to some more farms for more wwoofing work. We´re camping in the same campground as before and leave on a 26 hour bus ride tomorrow morning.

We are at peace with our decision not to go to southern Argentina to the really wild part of Patagonia. We just can´t afford the cost of getting there and doing stuff and to do so would make us risk coming home early. Recent acquaintances arriving from there confirm it´s expensive and still very cold down there, so we´ll just have to come back another time.

The community of El Bolson is in a terrible state of alarm. Less than 30km out of town, Cerro (Mt) Perito Moreno ski hill is on the cusp of major transformation. Currently it´s a modest little ski hill, nothing to it really, but massive development is imminent. Reko is down the hill from the ski hill, about an hour´s hike away. All their water comes from an underground spring on the mountain, as does the rest of the homes and farms in the immediate hamlets of Mallin Ahogado and Wharton. The plans are a massive golf course, and extensive gated community for the ultra-wealthy, complete with private helicopter pads. Projected water usage would be six times what the town of El Bolson uses, population 27k, for the golf course and gated community combined. Public opinion is that the development will impact the identity, spirit and atmosphere of El Bolson, and compromise the abundance and purity of its (delicious, prisitine) water. Of course the people in favor are using the tired refrain that "the hippies don´t want progress".

There have been numerous demonstrations against it and today the town council has begun the voting process to be concluded at the end of the week. We swung by the demonstration at the town hall today. There is an occupation in place, with several tents and a bunch of tethered sheep and about a hundred people. It broke my heart, I teared up with empathy for the people around me. As we were leaving to come use this internet cafe pesos were being gathered by someone towards the preparation of food for the occupants.

A fervent discussion was volleying around the crowd, but peaceful. Beautiful raven haired men and women, with the lined and healthy faces of people who spend lots of time outside. Plenty of dreadlocks, tattoos and drums, children and pets. The omnipresent yerba mate being consumed all around, thermoses of hot water and mate gourds in people hands. It is evident that in addition to being consumed throughout the day as is tea and coffee, it´s soothing. To quote my new from Kierian, a wwoofer at the farm, Mate isn´t a beverage, it´s a lifestyle.

I will be checking back to find out what the outcome will be, to build or not to build, because I´ve become very attached to the area.

As for Reko, after my grumpy blog entry last week...Our experience improved a lot. I´m finally healthy, after three weeks of a nasty cold. I´m sure it impacted my experience at the farm, as my favorite days there were the last few that we were there. Reko is a massive property, there´s lots to do, but not enough organization and structure to how and when it´s getting done, and we both craved order to the madness. Initially they were going to buy a few acres but it was so cheap that they bought 250. Lots of houses in various states of construction to work on, and the garden are the main tasks at hand.

Things I will miss, in no particular order.

Our fellow WWOOF volunteers, we all became good friends. Kierian, Alex, Miriam, Emma and Karin. The girls came into town to eat last night so we got have some pitchers of local artisanal beer (not bad, but nowhere near as good as our Canadian craft beers) and some nice food with them.

The magnificent garden that needs a lot of attention at this stage...I have reaffirmed for myself that I love to tend a garden and have no trouble weeding, organizing and maintaining for days on end.

The lovely dogs, Princessa, Chiquita and Benga. They reminded me of Meadow, for those of you who knew her. Princessa the mom, Chiquita and Benga from the same litter. Mostly a lab-shepherd mix of mutt, I believe. Super affectionate, smart and disciplined, they were only outdoor dogs and it broke our heart that we couldn´t bring them in to sleep on our bed!

Paula´s incandescent smile.

The view of the mountains and the delicious water.

The velvety raw organic milk we´d obtain from a tiny German dairy farm 2km away on Tuesdays.

I admit I continued to have a lot of trouble with those children. 1.5 year old Rio biting my legs under the table when I´m eating, giving hard pinches at random moments because he´s just learned that he can. He is quite sick with a perpetually runny nose of green slime and terrible cough and moderately infected eyes, and is usually covered in dirt from playing outside, and has realized that an efficient means of cleaning his face is to walk up to people and smear his face all over your pants leaving a revolting scab of slime and dirt all over your shin. He can be sweet at times, but he´s usually rather gross, and no one seems to mind that he´s quite ill.

The middle son, Lao is a little tyrant and can be hysterical to watch. He usually is out of his clothes within a few hours. He´s fearless anf funny and vicious to his brothers. Aside from snooping in other people´s stuff he´s not so bad. The eldest, Apolo, is awesome whenever he´s not around his brothers. Inquisitive and nice, he transforms into a horrendous heartless bully around his brothers, and beats the crap out of both of them. He also undergoes quite the Jeckyll and Hyde transformation when his parents are not around. When the three of them are together there is a constant soundtrack of howling and crying that got to be really tedious. They all have really scary sounding coughs.

Our laundry is done, our bus is booked. WWOOF emails sent to a few farms in Northern Argentina. We´re both mostly healthy, Nate´s minor version of my cold is mostly gone, too. We´re going to get some tasty chorizo sausages and barbecue them at our campsite later, and pack a bunch of food for our big bus ride. Our bus is at 11am tomorrow.

It´s Eryn´s birthday! Call her and give her the love!