Last schoolvisit in Valdivia, Chile before the summervacations:
With Christmas here in Chile the long summervacations begin until next March, when a new schoolyear will begin.
On the 23. of December we were invited to visit the school Escuela Fedor Dostorevski. Classes with children from the age of 7 to 12 and a class of disabled children with their teachers listened to the presentation of Top to Top. We tried this time, too, with pictures about the nature of Switzerland and Chile to compare these two countries. We would like that the kids and the teachers don
Wolfgang decided to join us on the trip to Pumalin. Wolfgang we met when we biked to Aconcagua. He sailed for 12 years in his boat "Wilde Mathilde" and lives know with his wife Gabi and some sheeps and alpacas in Villarica. He does the Patagonian safety net for the sailors in the region.
We sailed with Wolfgang from Valdivia 33 h to Puerto Ingles on Chiloe Island, Salina's first anchorage. The sea was raft and everybody has to vomit. It is the first vomit on a boat for Salina and me. The next day the tide pushed us trough Canal Chacao and the speedometer showed 10 nm. In the golf of Ancud the wind was blowing from the South and we had to tack and couldn't make it to our next anchorage island Mecheque. So we found protection in Puerto Huite between fish farms on Chiloe Island. Passing Quemchi we followed the Canal Caucahue and soon needed the radar because of the dense fog. After island Tac the wind was picking up from the North and we have had a very fast passage over the golf of Ancud to the Renihue fiord. Like the day before, also today we have had a fishing line in the ruder but we were able to sail us free. Fortunately the clouds were lifting and we sailed into the fiord till the very end where the Renihue fiord turns left into the small fiord Pillan. We were lucky to have spring tide and that Wolfram and Rodrigo guided us in. Kris and Doug Tompkins invited us for dinner in their house and we were able to take a shower after this challenging passage.
We will stay now for a while in this very beautiful Pumalin Park and plan to visit some schools in the neighborhood. Kris and Doug Tompkins are the initiators of the Conservation Land Trust and Conservation Patagonica. Our friend Wolfram Heise is the international cooperation coordinator and helps us coordinating the school visits. Their goals are to create and/or enlarge national parks. They belief that in wilderness is the preservation of nature. Another good example of individuals they act for nature. Yesterday Rodrigo's wife Paula showed us the production of organic honey and Salina enjoyed it to play with Augustina. Today Salina and Sabine are just exploring the area to collect this extraordinary beauty for our next presentations
PUMALIN Park:
We are in on of the most beautiful parks on our planet. Our neighbours are dolphins, sea lions and black necked swans. Our anchorage is in Puillan fjord. From here it is about 2 hours to a native tree plantation to reproduce the 3000 years old Alerce trees which all were logged in the past. As a climber I was fascinated about the 900 m big wall here in the Vodudahue Valley, - like El Capitan in Yosemite Park, California.
We have also a wonderful time with the initiators of the park, Kris and Doug Tompkins. They live about 20 minutes from Pachamama in Renihue fjord where Salina enjoyed a warm bath in the sink. Yesterday they were on Pachamama and we offered the Swiss meals Aelplermacaroni and Plain in Pignia.
Between clean ups and school visits we spent our time fishing and doing the laundery, working on the boat...
CLEAN UP's on Pumalin's fjords:
A lot of the trash we found came from the salmon industry:
- antifouling canes
- beer canes
- clean up on Vodudahue beach
- cleaning gives satisfaction
- fishing nets and ropes
- plastic bottles and oil canes
SCHOOL VISITS in the neighbourhood of the park:
Here some pictures:
- Annemarie in action
- drawing contest
- finding solutions
- funny games
- great solutions
- kids of Amarillo
- kids of Chaiten
- local beauties
- plenty of good ideas
- Sabine in action
- Salina in action
- TOPtoTOP workshop
- Dario in action
- trash game
- trash sketch
- 3 solutions
The next 3 days we will try to climb volcano Michinmahuida...
Salina got her third tooth and is able to eat like an adult and join the climb.
We moved to the camp ground in Galeta Gonzalo where Nico explained us how they produce organic food.
The next day we climbed from sea level trough the beautiful and dense forest to our base camp with a lot of soft moss on 850 m. We camped on a spectacular lagun just on the base of the glacier with a wonderful view on the Pacific Ocean.
During the night it was extremly warm. At 3.15 a.m. Jimmy, Sabine and I started climbing.; no clouds - only stars. Annemarie stayed with Salina in our tent. As soon as we accessed the glacier the first clouds came up. We continued in the fog. Then it started to rain and the snow were getting soft so that the snow bridges over the crevasses were getting weak. At around 7 a.m. we turned back on a altitude of 1800 m and joined Annemarie and Salina to climb further down. At 10 p.m. we arrived on Pachamama where already our friend Martin expected us.
Today we washed our cloths and were again invited by Tompkins for a barbeque.
From successful entrepreneurs to tireless environmentalists: Douglas and Kris Tompkins
His interest and passion in land conservation have their roots in his childhood growing up in a rural upstate New York community and in his life of mountaineering and adventuring in wild places all around the world and his growing concern about the relentless expansion of the
Kirs and Doug organized a ceremonie to plant an Alerce tree for Salina. An Alerce becomes up to 3000 years old, fifty meters high and grows 1 mm.
The "Salina Alerce" is on the bottom of volcano Michinmahuida. - The pilot Rodrigo gave me the chance to see the TOP of this volcano and Pachamama from the air.
On Pachamama we had kids to draw solutions for nature and clean up the beach nearby.
I just meet Marcelo Santana M in Castro, Chiloe. He is from Chaiten and produce very cheap and efficient generators: For the generators he recycles a lot of old material, like gas tanks, old generators from cars ... for more information please contact marcelosantanam@hotmail.com.