The first was an event arranged by the Facultad de Ciencias Forestales (forestry sciences department) that included a "guided nature tour;" the second was a field trip for my Sociedad y Ambiente (Society and Environment) class.
11 mayo (May 11th): "Plant Life in Your City", brought to you by
Forestales
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| this statue is another iconic UdeC symbol |
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| "Plant life in your city" (trying to restore at-risk native plant species) |
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| lil Araucaria |
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| I guess the forestry dept. mascot is a beaver...? Okay, cool |
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| living for sunlight through the canopy |
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| more tree 'shrooms |
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| lil froggie! |
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| here's another amphib we came across |
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| weird decapitated fungus of some sort |
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| even more tree 'shrooms |
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| (you guessed it, there's more) |
18 mayo: Salida a Terreno - sitio propuesto del Embalse Punilla (field trip - proposed site for the Punilla reservoir)
This reservoir, slated to be located in the upper Ñuble river valley near the Andes, is being created to, in theory, help support agriculture down below in San Fabián de Alico where farmers are under immense stress because of drought-related water shortages. As an additional bonus, the reservoir and accompanying dam would generate hydro power. For whom? There are a number of people who live in the area that they want to flood to create this monstrously gigantic reservoir, and part of our visit included conversations with people who have been forcibly removed from their houses by the police (or are feeling the threat of that fate looming). The plan for the project included compensating these families by providing houses and farms for them in another location so they could continue to live as they have been living, away from the project site, but the project is running out of time and money and there's tons of corruption and basically no laws are being complied with. Good stuff. And maybe you'll be just as incensed seeing how beautiful this place is, and they want to flood the entire thing so they can make money. Yay, corporations. And the irrigation supplement thing is also kind of a lie, because the farmers will have to pay to extract water from the reservoir. So, yeah...
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| (it involved waking up too early on a Saturday) |
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| fall colors on the Río Ñuble |
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| "MOP (public works) and Astaldi (the company responsible for the project) are trampling us. They're lying." |
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| "We aren't moving. And you? No to the hydro project." |
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| "Only when the last tree is dead will we understand that you can't eat money." |
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| this is right about where they'd build a gigantic wall to block off the water |
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| "No to Punilla." |
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| "familiar environment" |
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| Lorena Navarrete, one of the (ex?) residents of the area [my professor is to the left, no hood] |
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| "Return our lands. I want my life, my home." |
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| then it was time for lunch |
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| "Energy for Ñuble" |
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| "No swimming" (literally: "place not suitable for swimming") |
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| el pudú (look them up, they're the world's smallest deer species, and there's a reserve just on the other side of the mountains) |
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| "[Dams] are death. No to Punilla!" |
As infuriating and heartbreaking as this situation is, I couldn't stop thinking "damn, give me more of these Chilean field trips." I mean, how often is it you get to go with your class to a river valley in the Andes? Not often? Exactly. I can hardly believe it happened. (But I did have two nightmares/stress dreams the two nights prior because I was paranoid about not waking up early enough and missing the bus... well, I guess they worked in the end.)
The next post will be a part 2 of Lirquén, because we (Elízabeth and I) went back, and I was determined to get to that mysterious red house in the jungle. So stay tuned...
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