Picture windows with boats going by

Hello! We´ve safely arrived to our new farm, Refugio Mawenko. It is a lovely Chilean family, both parents from Santiago. They have two young children, 14 hectares of land which all includes a huge view of the fjords of the Chiloe main island. A neighboring smaller island can be seen, where we will visit tomorrow to see a regional folkloric dance festival by ferry. The family is so nice, and the food is almost all produced on their land-- including the wheat they use in the bread they bake daily, jam made from apples, plums, and rasberries from the property, black beans, potatoes (from their nextdoor neighbors), root veggies, salad fixings. We are working in their greenhouses, with their bees (this is so exciting since we´ve been wanting to learn about bees!!), weeding rasberry plots, and more. We work four hours and day, then we have freetime to walk to the beach, through the forrest, or stay in the cozy volunteer house with a book. We have our own room, complete with a down blinkets! The downstairs has a great kitchen with a woodstove for heating and great views of course. We feel so lucky to be able to live here for the moment. We kind of wish we could just live here forever, if you get the idea!

Chao, chao! Hope you are all well back at home. B-C


Afternoon relaxation time
Our kitchen!

The volunteer house

View from the tallest hill on the property. You can see actively erupting volcanoes from the distance on a clear day!

The family´s house (to the left) and a view of the wheat fields

Our picture window from our room!

The nearby city of Castro

Downtown Castro! We skipped mass, not our thing...but a nice view from the outside! ;)

Palofito houses in the bay behind us

Grant Island of Chiloe

So we´re here on the island of Chiloe, its great, we´re having a great time! We just came back from Chiloe National Park right on the pacific ocean. We camped on a lake, went on several hikes, and saw parrots (we think!)! Tomorrow we´re headed out to our next farm. We´ll let you know how it goes. XOXO Chris and Beth



The beach at Chiloe National Park

Hiking to the beach

We got a little lost and were literally bush wacking! Chris is deep in a thicket.

A view from our unknown location

Boat bridge getting to the ¨trail¨

Nature hike at Chiloe National Park

View from our campsite!

Our campsite. It didn´t even rain too much! We were so lucky.

Typical Chiloe style church

Typical shingles on Chiloe style house

Houses in the city of Castro

The ferry ride to the island of Chiloe!

Last week at Tenio Natural Reserve

Well, hello! We finnished our final week at the Tenio Natural Reserve. Last weekend we left to Puerto Varas, a lovely town full of decendents of German immigrants, and had some adventures. Once day we tried to visit a rustic hotsprings in the Vicente Rosales National Park. We waited and waited to see if we could cross a river by rowboat. Suddenly an old woman in her apron came with some visitors from a nearby town. This lady rowed us accross the swift river. Her bicepts were huge! Unfortunately there was not enough hot water to take a dip, but instead the family that came with us offered to take us back to Puerto Varas. Not only did they graciously drive us, but they took us out to candlelit dinner, bought chris roasted goat with local microbrew! They were just wonderful people. They wanted to make sure that we got to see real Chilean hospitality. So that was a great weekend, plus all the german pastries, yum!

Then back on the ranch, we worked hard on getting an existing greenhouse running better, plus we conditioned the soil in a new one, and planted more crops. We also burned trash, played with the chickens and pig, filled some giant holes with dirt and dug a lot in the dirt in general. But probably the best thing about this last week was hanging out with the local neighbors that work with the family who owns the ranch. They invited us over for boiled raw bread dough with butter-sugar, homemade bread, and seafood stew! So good. Then a round of mate, of course. They were so exicted to have us and converse and share ourlives with them, such hospitality and generosity! They even prayed for our safe travels, which was really special. sigh.....what great friends!

Anyway, we are well. We arrived 4 hours south to the Grand Island of Chiloe, which is a unique area of maritime culture, lots of sea mythology, ¨liquor de oro¨, a special liquor made of herbs, milk, sugar, sticks, and other things, AWESOME fish and seafood. We are headed out to the National Park of the area today, and will be back in a few days to get ready to arrive at our next farm which is near the city of Castro in Chiloe. More later. Miss you all! Chris and Beth

Chicken tractor at work!

Hard at work in the new greenhouse

Whoa smoking graves!

Tenio Natural Reserve

The fence next to corn plot we constructed

Chris´gate he built

Our morning commute view to the house from our cabin

Parque National Vicente Rosales

Photos from our Pucon Vacation and at the Tenio Natural Reserve

Near Tenio Natural Reserve outside of Puerto Montt, Chile...our current home!



The field we sowed with potatoes

The neighbors who fed us tasty sopapillas

The classic chilean kitchen in the campo

Potatoe planting

Using oxen with a plow

Our view from the cabin


Catholic Mass

Fixing fences

Planting corn

Greenhouse work

These next photos are from Parque National Huerquehue near Pucon, Chile





Monkey Puzzle Tree!

Villaricca Volcano


View outside the sauna

The lodge we stayed in! Lovely!