Patagonia

I didn't think I was going to have the opportunity to go to Patagonia again after the trip to Torres del Paine in 2004, but it turns out that this year the Fulbright decided to have the midterm presentations in a town in southern Chile called Coyhaique, which is on the northern end of Patagonia. In addition to the presentations, we got to do some really incredible things!



The first and possibly the coolest thing that we did in Patagonia was to go to a real archeological site that is being excavated by a professor who is also in Chile with the Fulbright. The site contains 10 skeletons that are over 8,000 years old, which represents 40% of such skeletons in North and South America combined. This is a picture I took of one of the skeletons that had just been uncovered.







This is the cave (archeological site) where the skeletons were discovered.














These are the surroundings of the archeological site, which is located near a town called Baño Nuevo. It was freezing, but very beautiful!




The next day, we gave our midterm presentations, (ostensibly) the reason for our trip in the first place. They went really well and we had a good turnout from the local community, and it was fun to share what we were doing. We even showed up in the local newspaper! (and according to the newspaper, we are all doctoral students....news to me!)







The next day we ventured out into the surrounding area again, first to a park called Cerro Castillo, which had some views that were reminiscent of Torres del Paine.

The Fulbrighters at the top of our hike. The people are, from the left, Denise Saint-Jean (director of Fulbright Chile), Anton Daughters (cultural anthropology), Jason Sibold (ecology), Greg Robinson (anthropology of music), me, and in front is Joey Richards (astronomy). It was really an energetic and fun group, with lots of different research interests!






Me at the top of the same hike. The mountains were really incredible, even more so than it looks from the pictures!










After going to Cerro Castillo, on the same day we continued south of Coyhaique to a lake called Lago General Carrera. The lake is an incredible opaque turquoise color which apparently comes from suspended rock dust in the water, because the lake is formed from melting glaciers. The lake is especially famous for caves that were formed from the rock surrounding the water, and we took a boat ride to see the caves and rock formations.


























The last thing that we did in Patagonia was go on a boat ride to see a glacier. I don't know how to describe the experience except to say that it was really incredible to be presented with such an immense mass of ice - it is two kilometers wide at the mouth - and to realize that a glacier had been there, where we were, since the last ice age.








This is the group of us on the Zodiac (inflatable boat) that we took from our larger catamaran out to see the glaciar up close. From left: Denise (the director), Joey, me, Greg, Jason, and our guide.











A panoramic view of the glacier....


And then the next day it was back to Santiago, once again for only a few days before it was off to the beach to celebrate my host sister Ana Maria's birthday, and then - finally - back to Santiago for a few weeks!!