Hot drinks and kayak repair

The boats dropped us off at Punta Rachel, a nice little beach on the south side of Isla Merino Jarpa.  The Island of Merino Jarpa is nestled between the Northern and Southern Icefields of Patagonia.  An icefield is a huge conglomerate of glaciers that covers an enormous piece of mountainous terrain... and the reason those icefields are there is because there is a huge amount of precipitation throughout the year AND cold temperatures.  We experienced both!  :)  But, that being said, we did get a handful of dry days and even three or four sunny ones!  We appreciated them both.

During the first ration we focused on getting to know one another, learning how to camp in a wet/cold environment, how to cook and bake, how to kayak and we also got started on some of our leadership curriculum. 

Feathercraft kayak repair.

 After our first day of skills training we began to notice that a few of our sea kayaks had been damaged during transportation.  These kayaks are designed to be collapsible and are made with an internal aluminum frame and a rubberized outside "skin".  They also have two inflatable tubes that run along the sides which when inflated help tighten up the skin around the frame.  Well, a couple of the inflatable tubes (called sponsons) were punctured, so we had to patch those, and one boat in particular had a damaged frame.  So we got out the little hacksaw and some aluminum tubing to use as a splint and we went to work.  In the end the boats worked great and stayed afloat! :)

In the picture on the left you can see Lloyd and two students working on the boat repairs (Jack and Isidora).  When these boats are taken completely apart they can be packed into a large piece of luggage and taken on an airplane.  Pretty cool.

Paddling west in Canal Baker.  Fresh snow at 500 feet.

 After a couple days of basic kayak training and paddling around our protected bay, we decided we were ready to venture out into more exposed waters and move our camp to the west further along Canal Baker.  We had a strong headwind and were only able to make about seven nautical miles that first day.  Then the next day we made about another seven miles.  Eventually we got to a good camp where we decided to take a layover day and do our re-ration and teach the students some necessary classes to prepare them to be Leaders of the Day. 

Dinner and hot drinks.

    
This campsite is in a small bay called Puerto Lorenas.  We took one intentional layover day here but then the wind picked up for a couple of more days and we weren't able to move... well we tried... got all packed up and paddled out to the mouth of the bay, but the waves were 2-3 feet tall and breaking.  We got a little feel for it, but turned around and went back into our sheltered cove.  We affectionately named that camp "Ewok Village" because for the most part we were camped in the woods.  Abbey, one of the other instructors, is a very good cook, and made some excellent meals... can you tell what that one is?  Looks like bow-tie pasta something-er-other.  Delicious.  She and I quickly learned that to keep Lloyd happy we had to give him several hot drinks per day... you can see him here enjoying one in his Nalgene bottle.  He likes hot cocoa the best.  He and I will also be working together on the backpacking section coming up in seven days.  

Punta Ana... arriving and unpacking the kayaks.

 This is a fairly typical looking "beach" in the area we were kayaking.  This area around Isla Merino Jarpa has so much fresh water coming into it that the water isn't very salty and therefore the intertidal life is sparse.  As we traveled further east we saw more and more barnacles, mussels and other marine wildlife.  After pulling up on a beach we would unload the kayaks completely, move the kayaks up into a safe spot above high-tide and then begin setting up camp.  Sometimes there was space on the beach and other times we had to look for little nooks and crannies in the woods.  The "Chulengos" got to be very good and very creative campers!