The future Patagonia National Park

After spending 2 and a half weeks at the future Patagonia National Park, volunteering for Conservacion Patagonica, I am able to reflect on the experience.

I decided to leave a few days early for several reasons, one of which was my unimagined displeasure with the volunteer program.

My only expectations going into this volunteer program were that I would work for 4 days out in the field, either removing fences or doing conservation-restoration work, have 2 subsequent days off, and that the 15 dollars a day I was paying to be there would go toward my meals. I also expected that he Park would be beautiful.

Unfortunately, only one of my expectations was met - the park was beautiful. Not in a Torres Del Paine way, but in a unique, diverse landscape that, although ravaged by decades of sheep and cattle farming, was a sanctuary for all things wild, with incredible potential.

According to the website, Id be camping and working for 4 days and resting for 2. But when I got to the Estancia Friday 11-06, I learned that something very different had been going on. The Volunteers had worked for 6 straight days, sleeping the entire time in bunks. I was shown my bunk, and hopped in, while the others told me what was about to unfold. That I would get one night in a bed and then wed all be camping the rest of our time on the estancia. The Argentinian architects were coming to decorate the Tompkins house, and they would be using all the bunk beds.

So, instead of 4 days on, 2 days off, we would work 6 days on, one day off, each day sleeping in a tent. I thought to myself - hey, this is cool! Ill really get to rough it out here for a few weeks - sleeping in my tent, working hard! Pulling Fences! Doing conservation work! Wrong again.

90 percent of what we did the first 2 weeks was absolutely not in the spirit of conservation, but rather for purposes quite aesthetic in nature. Our first task was to fill a ditch with dirt. The ditch was a fragile ecosystem created by sheep, but happened to sit right by the park entrance - an eye sore that Chris wanted filled. Unsure of where the land to fill the ditch was coming from, we shoveled dirt into this hole for two days.

On Day 3, thinking we might finally be going out to pull fences, I was assigned to paint a shed green (because green is nicer than white?) with James. I believe we were paired together because our main boss, Luigi, thought we might like each other. The others went off to dig up plants to re-plant in the Tompkins yard (are you seeing a pattern here?).

Id heard over lunch one day that before I had arrived the volunteers sprayed exotic plants with pesticides (the Tompkins refuse to have any native plants in the Park). They said the chemicals were so harmful they had to wear special uniforms and masks.

This kind of work continued until we started complaining. The last straw was the weekend of my birthday. While me and the boys were dropped off at a Puesto several miles from the estancia, Agenta (who had chosen to stay behind) and the new volunteer Jakob, were sent to another ditch in the park. Here, they were asked to dump trash, including chemicals, into the ditch, and cover it up with mud. Agenta and Jakob hesitantly did as asked, but decided by lunch time that they would not continue this type of work. They spoke with the wildlife manager Christian at lunch, who agreed this may not be the best approach but was a direct Tompkins order.

That night over dinner, about a week before I would leave the estancia, most of the volunteers except for James and Jamie, decided to leave early. Agreed that what we had been doing was unethical and not part of what we thought conservation should entail.

Ironically, the following day we were told wed be doing fence removal the rest of the time - for the most part this was true and I believe it was also convenient because the bosses would be out of town and it was easier to drop us all off at a puesto or have us camp while they were gone. This way the cooks wouldnt have to work either. While I was happy with the work, I was seriously unhappy with what would ensue.

All 7 of us were expected to sleep at a puesto intended for one or two people. It was currently occupied by one of the gauchos working with the estancia horses. One room was the tack room, leaving one room for sleeping, about 200 square feet. Agenta and I decided to hike back to the estancia that night and sleep in our tents instead, furious that they would expect us to live like this for four days. In addition, the food we were provided was enough for 7 volunteers for 1 or 2 days, not 4. Included was a bag of pasta, a bag of rice, 6 cans of tuna, some onions, a sack (A SACK) of meat, a sack of hard bread, a dozen oranges, and one chicken. Of course plenty of mayo and mate were also provided.

Agenta and I discussed our disappointment with the situation on our 4 mile hike back to the estancia, after spending a few hours removing fences. We told our interim boss Pablo our plan, which he OKd. On Friday we got back to the estancia and would go with out food (except for one dinner on Sunday) for the next 3 days. Breakfast went from bread and jam to bread. The coffee ran out. Hot water stopped being provided. The last day was so dismal, as we sat around eating bread bricks and looking at each other weary eyed, that I was so glad to be leaving before lunch.

I could go into even more detail about the crazy disorganization of the volunteer program, the unethical approach to land restoration and conservation, and the treatment of the volunteers, but Ill save that for an article. This was just my free association, full of misspellings and grammatical errors, to get some things off my chest and into my blog. And to give you an idea of why I, as Mark and Neal said so well Monday morning as I packed my bags, quit the volunteer program.

One last thing - food for thought if you will - outhouses and showers were erected just a couple weeks prior to my arrival. they were what you would imagine an outhouse to look like, so no big deal there, but get this - when you flushed, the shit went out of the toilet and onto the ground, which happens to be right next to the river (the estancia drinking supply), which happens to be right next to the volunteer campground.

Enough Said. Thats my piece for tonight.