Arrived safely after 10ish hours from NYC. Wandered the city a bit before settling at hotel(rooms not yet ready when first arrived). Took the funicular up Cerro San Cristibal for view of the city. Not much smog.. Nice clear day!

Wandered through some cool shops and lunch at Mexican restaurant.

Dinner at hotel then orientation.

We found that our …

Team moving a bit slower today but cheerful and ready to work. Sunny with a hot day on the way. After our usual breakfast of cereal fruit, bread,yogurt and Marc's special peanut butter we headed out for Curacavi.

Today we started with exterior walls. From there it was flashing around base of addition then dismantling prefab interior walls. …

Today had a different start. The team was led by Ivan to the tour place to get tickets to weekend activities. They then had to go by metro to a hospital for a tour. Miriam was to pick them up and head to the site from there.

I stayed back to nurse an annoying knee. I hope that a day of rest will make it behave.

After the others left I sat in …

Woke up to clear sky and stunning scenery from my bedroom window! I have a clear view of two nearby mountains which looked fabulous this morning. I even caught a photo of a rainbow during a brief shower.

I chose a half day excursion this morning which was basically driving and no hiking. Better for my knee.

I spent most of my time with my mouth …

Quite a nice day by Patagonian standards. Mostly sunny with only moderate winds. The two grey foxes that hang out here provided entertainment over breakfast. They are quite large - like small coyotes. The hares are large too. If you doubled the length of Fergus's hind legs, that would be about the size of the hares! My plan today was to take …

The commute this morning was a bit longer due to the Metro not working for some reason. Traffic was very congested and people were lined up in masses to catch buses. Miriam our driver is a road warrior and navigated us through the traffic snarls. Fun fact: on one 's commute one can buy a paper, ice cream, fruit, or watch a break dancer - all while …

Up at usual time to eat and head off to the site. Ivan was a but late arriving but Miriam made good timing on the drive through the city to Curacavi.

We hit the ground running with people working on a truss, others finishing with insulation, while some worked on framing and supports for interior walls. Ramone and Rita are the siding experts and …

Our R&R today was a trip to the colorful port city of Valparaiso that came to be from people journeying around Cape Horn on their way north to the gold rush in California. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which is somewhat of a curse since it makes renovations to the site prohibitively expensive.  The charm is in the artful murals everywhere …

Said goodbye to my awesome "roomie" Suzanne this morning before heading off to airport. I was able to share cab fare with a couple of Aussies from the hotel who were on the same flight. That flight was pretty much full of backpackers heading to Torres del Paine National Park. It was wierd when they put up a picture of the flight path and …