Livin` it up! Patagonia Style

So I made it on to my first summer adventure, FINALLY!!! Right now I´m chillen in Raul Marin Balmeceda in the Aisen region of Patagonia. About a month ago I got in contact with the family who lives and runs a ranch out here in Chilean Patagonia and they agreed to let me come stay with them for a month helping out with whatever needs to be done. They also have 4 tourist cabanas for recieving guests. This place is amazing, I absolutely love it. After the 10 hour boat ride, 5 hour drive down the (dirt highway) carretera austral, 5 min ferry, and 10 min drive to the front gate of the ranch we made it here! (And mind you this was all after i took a 12 hour bus from Santiago) The entrance is really long to the ranch, about 2 miles. First thing you see is lots of trees, greenery and open fields with foresty mountains and hills in the background. The as you continue driving you start to see some of the 100 or so sheep they have grazing. Keep driving and you get to another gate, get out of the car to be welcomed by the dogs barking and wagging their tails. Enter through the garden (biggest garden i´ve ever seen) with carrots, all types of lettuce, spinach, green onions, lavender, other spices, just to name a few of the things I can think of off the top of my head. As you walk through and out the garden gate to the path to the house you see on the left rows of blueberry plants, as well as potatoes growing. And the country style 2 story, 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house in front of you. Walking around the house to the right you get to a sort of backyard where they´ve just built and enclose BBQ area with a table and seats. Keep walking straight and you see 2 of the 4 cabanas. Walk past that and there it is, a strip of ocean (no waves, looks like a lake in that way) and sandy beach. I´ve walked up and down the beach with the dogs now everyday and seen groups of dolphins swimming twice. I have yet to go kayaking but they have a bunch of kayaks that can be taken out too. The first couple days the weather was nice, i did a lot of weeding on the paths and some help with cooking in the kitchen. Then a couple days ago the family i´m with left to go back to the city where I met them to turn in their winter rental house and pick up their sons to come back here for the summer, so I´m left here alone for almost a week!! I´ve spent 2 nights here alone so far. It is nice that the sun rises before I wake up and goes down about 11:00pm when i go to sleep, cause usually I´m most scared when its dark outside. In the house, the electricity runs on a generator that we only turn on for a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours at night so needless to say, its been pretty quiet. Probably the most silence I´ve experienced in my life, ever. But I´m taking advantage of it and actually getting pretty used to this life. Ive been doing lots of reading, baking, and long walks on the beach which can probably all three qualify in my top 10 favorite things to do. At night the stars are absolutely incredible, so bright and so many!! I have yet to go star gazing though, not that comfortable outside in the dark quite yet ;). But needless to say, its been a great kick off to my summer, as well as the fact that I improved my grades on all my finals from my midterm grades, which makes me excited to do even better next semester. I´m going to miss my family lots over Christmas, but I´m so glad I found a great family to spend the holidays with and a beautiful place to live the next month. Living on this ranch I am living my dream and am so happy to be here having this experience. I wouldn´t have it any other way and everyday I just feel so blessed to be able to do all the things I´m doing. I wish I could upload some pictures but i haven´t really figured that out yet on this desktop. So for now, Chao and Feliz Navidad :)