I arrived in Curacavi, Chile for a volunteering programme in the forest, just one hour out of Santiago de Chile, with no expectations as to what the next working week has on offer. My only hope was to build community, practice Spanish and embrace new challenges. And so far we have meditated twice a day, learnt carpentry, gardened, lived off of the land, cleared out tool sheds, cleaned the forest and made genuine friends.
On our first full day we woke at 6.30am to go and meditate at precisely the sunrise time and again at sunset because Karina, the owner, believes it helps keep the plants healthy. She performs a practice called Agnihotra, an ancient Vedic fire which we all learnt to love. We then helped with bee keeping, moving the new bees into their new home while avoiding getting stung. Breakfast followed with a Spanish couple Marti and Ariadna who arrived on the same day, Karina and the beekeeper. Once we ate and changed into our scruffy clothes it was time to work. We weren’t allowed to enter the garden before we were cleansed in the forest, we spent a few hours de-weeding the forest and getting to know our new Spanish friends, the language barrier was tough but I am so grateful we weren’t using English because it pushed me practice more.
I’ve been inspired by the women on this trip who have moved away from societal norms. It reminds me of Women Who Run With Wolves (even though I’m only halfway through the book). I’ve met four women so far who left cities to live in the forest on their own terms, fearlessly. Karina, the eco-house owner, discovered this land twelve years ago and relies on volunteers like me for connection and help around the farm. Similar to my previous post in El Bolson where the woman who owned the house moved from city life in Buenos Aires into nature alone.
After a tea break (fortunately there were a lot of those) we began a variety of projects, I was helping clear out a pregola that was covered over winter. It was dirty work and as soon as I saw the giant spider underneath, I felt ashamed to opt out of the task but I also felt like I was just being irritating and staring at the spider waiting for movement. Instead I got the best job of all, going into the garden and selecting fresh vegetables for our meals. We ate, drank a lot of herbal teas and played with the 8 cats and 3 dogs, and continued practicing our carpentry skills.
I spent most of the week in the garden with Ariadna, our language barrier was tough as she spoke no English, but we used the universal language and I have found a great friend in her. We spent the days nursing the plants and collecting herbs and vegetables. I was in my element, until a gigantic tarantula emerged from the plants and gave me the fright of my life. I knew I would face challenges and be out of my comfort zone here but I didn’t realise my phobia of spiders would have such an effect, which is stupid concidering I’m in South America. We meditated again and I was told to throw my fears into the fire.
For the rest of the week we worked and meditated, rested and worked some more, learning new skills everyday. On one of the days Karina held a gardening workshop where I was responsible for selling seeds to the local community. After 5 days of discovering my green thumb and improving Spanish, myself, Ed, Marti and Ariadna had the weekend off and headed to the coastal towns of Vina Del Mar and Valparaiso to explore more of Chile!
Bevs Backpacking📍 