Rios Libres - A Campaign to End Damning on the Baker River in Chile

Hi folks,

Having lived and knowing the political situation regarding these dams in Chile, I feel this is an excellent project to share with you: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/rios-libres

They're raising cash to help spread the word about the damaging effects dams would have on the rivers in this region of Chile. Please stop by and donate today!

Greg

Gracias a la Vida

Nivea

Her eyes were as wide as a bucket of tears when I said I was going to be away that week.

Henry on the offwidth
Photo by Catalina Mekis

“All week?”

“When do you leave?”

It was next Sunday, early, and Henry, Armando, and Catalina had planned to come home late that same day. Maybe I can come home early, I thought, and Henry confirmed that the hardest part was getting there:

“Getting back is a piece of cake, even if you don’t know Spanish that well.”

When we met to discuss our plan the Wednesday before we were to leave, I told Armando and Henry I would leave on Friday and that I hoped we would get to the top of the lower buttress before that.

“I understand,” Armando said. Henry did too. We had one week left together before she left to go home to Brasil. I was going to be away with them, and I wanted to see her one last time before she got on the plane. We had talked about me visiting in April, when her school year was slower after her students had settled in at the university where she taught, but this was also scary to us.

“Don’t have any expectations,” she said. “No plans.”

I deceived her and planned to return early just to see her.

Viva Chile!

The stream below us

Less than four weeks had gone by since I had first arrived and I was rushing to meet "Red" downstairs. Two days prior he had said on the phone that in order to beat the Santiago crowd we'd have to leave early, which was fine to me because I wanted to beat the hot sun as best as we could. I figured he'd have me meet at the end of one of the subway lines at 7am so that we would have an easier time getting a collectivo (fixed-rate taxi) to San Gabriel in Cajon de Maipo, which is a deep, rural, and narrow canyon just to the southwest of Santiago. A day later I recieved an e-mail with the details: "Bring lunch, water, 3,000 pesos for the collectivo, and I'll pick you up at 9am."

And thus, for the first time, the notion of time in Chile had finally settled upon me.

Reconnaissance in South America

The flight from Toronto to Santiago was a cold, restless twelve hours of tossing and turning in my seat.

Click here for the rest of the story over on Climbing.com. This post is about my recent trip to Chile and Argentina, and the obstacles and opportunities I found about and within the climbing community.