¡SIN REPRESAS!

at the airport in Puerto Montt waiting for our flight to Balmaceda from where we would somehow find transportation to Coyhaique, spend the night, and see the marble caves in Puerto Rio Tranquilo the next day

airport fashion

as mentioned in my previous post, on the plane we all sat in row #13. it was quite unlucky considering we didn't get any alfajores for the snack on our flight :(

we quickly found the bus service from the Balmaceda airport to Coyhaique  - quite easy to find because the airport was only this big:

the minibus ride proved to be quite interesting. a hippie baby was sitting right in front of me (for anyone who doesn't know, i'm not a huge fan of those creatures - babies, not hippies)

Nat: so cute!
Me: babies freak me out
Nat: what about her? *points to other little girl*
Me: her outfit's really cute. so that helps.

so now i should probably explain the protest situation in Coyhaique. before arriving, this is all we knew: people were pissed off about healthcare, education & gasoline. so basically, LIFE.

what is actually going on:
the Aisén region (of which Coyhaique is the capital) is taking a stand against the centralization of the economy (among many other things) in Santiago. Santiago is developing faster than any other part of Chile, so major issues in other parts of Chile do not receive adequate attention. many Chileans end up having to move to Santiago because that is where the most opportunities lie in better employment, education, and healthcare. the key problem here is centralism, hence one of the most commonly used phrases when referring to this struggle: "Santiago is not Chile"

Region Aisén

one of the main protests is against a major hydroelectric project - Chilean Patagonia is threatened by an international energy company planning to build 5 massive hydroelectric dams on the Pasqua and Baker rivers, which would take out huge areas of land for wildlife, cut down a significant portion of native forest and probably kill the huge growth of ecotourism in the area, which the economy of the region is so dependent on

the creation of these dams would also result in the flooding of some of the region's richest agricultural lands. furthermore, the majority of the electricity generated by these represas (dams) would be sent straight to Santiago and further north to supply the mining industry. again, centralism seems to be the largest issue. this project would destroy so many things that are essential to the success of Chilean Patagonia and practically zero benefits from this project would be returned to the region. i'd be pissed off too. heck, i am pissed.

clearly there are a multitude of conflicts associated with HydroAisén and it's hard to take in and analyze the enormity of the situation.

the protests in region Aisén really took off approximately 5 days before we arrived and the night before we got there was the largest march yet. we saw on the news how no one can leave due to strict roadblocks - protestors are not letting any commercial vehicles into Coyhaique, including trucks carrying gasoline and food. the only vehicles allowed to pass are small shuttle buses (like ours from the airport) and personal vehicles.

there is now an extreme gasoline shortage in the region - gas is being rationed out between vehicles, you only get a certain amount each week. so even if you are a traveler and stranded (like we were about to be..), you can't pay someone to get you out because even if they could use the money to buy more gasoline, there just simply wasn't any available.

SO. we ran right into the fire. as expected (although we didn't really understand what was going on at the time), our shuttle from the airport got stopped at the road block. we luckily only had to wait 15 minutes, but they only open the block to let certain vehicles through once every hour.

hippie family (with their hippie babies) playing with this ridiculously happy dog that we found at the roadblock 

 

when we made it to our hostel and mentioned how we were trying to go see the Capillas de Mármol (the marble caves - well, more literally "marble cathedral") we were pretty much laughed at. everyone immediately said it was impossible, but being the determined travelers that we are, we went into town to see if we could make some magic happen

Patagonia Hostel, run by Germans who apparently met in Coyhaique years ago, fell in love, and never left. the breakfast was bomb - homemade German bread!

we went to multiple bus stations, all of which said they were closed and did not know when they would be back open. the tourist information center also was a bust. we called multiple private companies including a random guy's phone number to try and find a way to get to Puerto Rio Tranquilo the next day to see the caves, which is about a 4 hour trip. there simply wasn't enough gasoline to get us there.

we eventually accepted our fate and decided to just hang out in Coyhaique for the night and figure out the next day what to do. we met up with some other stranded travelers form our hostel and walked around town. while some of my group had an asado at a nearby hostel, i decided to kick back for the night and ended up talking to everyone else at the hostel for hours.

Coyhaique was gorgeous. not a bad place to be stranded, eh?

while at the grocery store buying my extravagant dinner (bread + salami & cheese), the supermarket was PACKED and everyone's shopping carts were full to the brim with any food they could get their hands on. people were clearly freaking out about a food shortage in the near future since grocery trucks can't get through the road blocks. super scary.

i met a lot of cool people at the hostel including newlyweds - Jenny & Delaney - on their honeymoon. i thought they were badass considering they had their wedding at a CAMPGROUND near Tahoe, California. with all guests spending the night in tents and all. i don't think that would fly with my mother haha

keelin and i also talked to this big time mountain/adventure film maker who has festivals all around Chile - Banff Mountain Film Festival. he showed us the intro to his upcoming films and it was INTENSE! apparently there's a 50 minute film about one of the best female paragliders in the world, who during a competition got swept up into a storm, lost consciousness, and whose parachute opened just seconds before she hit the ground. and it's all on film. i have to see it. 

there is always a dog we fall in love with everywhere we go. this ones' name is Caballo ("horse")

here are some photos referring to the protests

gas station closed.

"we don't want peace, but victory"

remnants in the street of something burnt during the march the night before

after one night at our hostel, we decided it was a safer bet to get to the airport as soon as possible because we couldn't risk missing our flight to Punta Arenas the next day. since no transportation out of the city was available (i woke up hella early to go talk to some other bus stations and the airport office in town and had no luck), all 5 of us got ready to hitchhike 58.6 km (35 miles) to Balmaceda

all geared up

the owner of the hostel told us she thought what we were doing was awesome (walking to the airport...) and that trying to get out of Coyhaique as soon as possible was the smartest thing we could do incase we got trapped for over a week like what happened to so many other travelers

at least we had nice views on our trek!

hitchhiking

this sign was really encouraging - 39 kilometers to the road that connects to Balmaceda

after an hour we made it to the roadblock:

cars just starting to line up

one of the protestors BBQing behind his truck

we were taking pictures of people, and they were also taking pictures of us (...guy on the right)

others stranded on the side of the road

we got to the roadblock at 1 pm and started trying to convince the blocked cars and buses outside the baracade to drive us to Balmaceda. we got lucky and found this bus that was leaving in our direction at 5 pm

so what did we do for the next 4 hours??

tan.

"i'm gonna get a f***ing fanny pack tan!"

side note - the bus driver kept asking me if i was going to find a novio (boyfriend/spouse) in Chile and get married here. super creepy but i obviously had to pretend to be nice because he was our only ride out of town.

other travelers waiting around just like we were

eventually we notice that our bus driver was tying a rope to the front of the bus ... one of the various thoughts going through my mind:

we just waited 4 hours on the side of the road to be TOWED 35 miles

luckily the bus just needed to be pulled out of the dirt and functioned well enough to get us to the town with the airport - although it definitely was a struggle getting up some of the steep hills and more than once i thought we weren't going to make it

but we did! here is lovely Balmaceda - you can walk around the entire town in 10 minutes

my favorite propaganda - "yesterday, today, tomorrow. patagonia, without dams!"

"Balmaceda! Your problem is my problem. Aysen!"
the black flag signifying they aren't going to surrender, and the Chilean flag.

the bus dropped us off at the airport at 5:40 pm, so we went inside and were quickly informed that the airport was closing in 20 minutes... so there went our plan of spending the night in the airport. there also aren't any hostels in town. 

we started walking down the road and asked a nice lady if she knew of any hospedajes (see previous post for definition). she brought us here:

you can tell we were really thrilled to see there weren't real walls

this place was charging us $9 luca (~$18 USD) per person - WAY overpriced. for the past week we had been paying 8 or 9 luca [1 luca = $1000 chilean pesos] for super nice hostels with breakfast included. not sure if we had any other options, we left our packs in the room and went on a hunt for food.

we ended up at this restaurant: 

and then sleeping in the restaurant's backyard:

while eating we noticed some guys from the bus from Coyhaique to Balmaceda setting up tents in the back, so we asked the owner how much she charged to camp out in her backyard. she said $2 luca per tent. so therefore less than $2 USD per person. score! we awkwardly returned to the hospedaje where we left our stuff and told them we found a different place to stay.

all the other tents at the restaurant were set up in a barn, but the barn was full so we put ours in the dirt

and of course we made new friends:

german shepherd puppy!! and mama.

these 2 dogs followed us all the way to the airport the next day (i say "all the way" but that really only means a 2 minute walk down the road). when we went into the airport the puppy disappeared but the mom somehow followed us inside and ended up falling asleep in front of the airport check in desk.. since no one kicked her out, i guess that's normal?

"my pack is so much lighter! oh my god, how much did i eat last night?? ...i might have been sleep eating"

we boarded our flight (which was delayed, as usual) and were SO FREAKING EXCITED when we got these trays of food on the plane:

we clearly were on a tight budget considering we kept the plastic silverware and salt, sugar, and butter packets for future use...

and then we flew over the lakes where we were supposed to be! Puerto Rio Tranquilo/Lago General Carerra/Las Capillas de Mármol

it's insane how the color of the lakes are so different, but both so blue. i must return to Coyhaique someday after  if these protests end so i can experience the Chilean Lakes District up close and personal

honestly, the fact that we went to Coyhaique during such a huge political event was probably way more valuable than seeing the marble caves anyway. i'm so glad that we got to see first hand an area in such desperate need for change that is actually fighting for rights they deserve without backing down. as of today (March 10, 2012) the protests are still in full swing