Hiking into Chile’s secret valley

French hiking addict Romain Martin takes in the view of Mt Trinidad over the Cochamó river in Chile's fabled Cochamó valley. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/60 seconds @ f9 ISO 500

This post comes to you from a fabled valley hidden deep in Chile’s Northern Patagonia.

After a five-hour slog through dense temperate rainforest, contending with eight-foot mud trenches and precarious river crossings, my friend Romain and I arrived at an awe-inspiring Garden of Eden: Cochamó Valley. No car has ever penetrated this valley, no road has ever been built and the forests have never been felled. By a river of pure sapphire that splits the valley sits a sleepy mountain refuge and camp-ground. Flanked on all sides by thousands of metres of hulking granite mountains and ancient forests (gigantic patagonian cypress up to 4000 years old dominate the valley walls) it is a paradise for climbers, hikers and horseman alike. It is also a place where for 150 years local arrieros have moved their cattle on a small scale and maintained a unique tradition of horsemanship. However as we soon discovered it is a paradise under threat and for a decade an inspiring battle to save the valley from road building, forestry and hydro-electric development has been waged by a small but growing team of locals and expat climbers. Banding together they have formed Conservacion Cochamó, a non profit organisation dedicated to preserving the valley’s natural and cultural heritage and promoting sustainable tourism.

Muchas gracias for reading, if you enjoyed the photo why not leave a comment? On that note I’m also thinking that today is the perfect day for you to throw me a like on my facebook page if you feel so inclined.

Cheers,

Cam.

Abandoned in Chile!

A neighbour's cow meanders past an abandoned settler house in Reloncaví Estuary in Chilean Patagonia. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/125 seconds @ f7.1 ISO 500

Hi guys, here’s another post from down in Chile’s northern Patagonia.

I don’t often photograph architecture but this scene just really captured my attention. I was being shown around some remote subsistence farm properties in the Relconcaví Estuary when I noticed this house. It is an abandoned settler home that is now boarded up and potentially harbouring a deadly infectious disease (hence it being boarded up, though apparently the disease is easy to remove and does not pose a significant threat). I really like the wooden shingles typical to the architecture in the region (made from ancient Alerce timber, a type of long living Patagonian cypress) and the turquoise colour used to paint it. There is no road leading to this house and no electricity, the only access is by sea, followed by a steep climb to where now only the neighbour’s cattle and pigs roam. The scene was beautifully backlight and a light coloured exposed earth embankment directly behind me was reflecting a rich warm light into the facade of the house. As I stood evaluating the scene I noticed a cow headed for the narrow path by the side of the house and I knew it would perfectly complete the scene if I could capture it as it passed. I leaned back against the embankment to squeeze in as much as I could with my 24mm, the afternoon sun caught my lens producing a kind of dreamy lens flare as the cow passed. Click.

Hope you like it, more shots from Chile coming this week!

Cam.

Encounters with Patagonian Fisherman

Fishing family aboard Don Jason II aproach Agartha for a chat in Chile's Reloncaví estuary. Volcano Mt Yates rises 2111m directly above sea level in the background. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/320 seconds @ f9 ISO 400

Here’s another quick post from northern Patagonia. This time from the Reloncaví estuary which sits directly south-east of Puerto Montt in the the lakes district of Chile. It is a stunningly beautiful landscape dominated by ice capped volcanoes, sheer granite cliffs, impenetrable four thousand year old rainforests and an almost entire lack of roads. Travelling by sail allowed us to visit places and meet people that we would just never have encountered trying to explore the region by land. Like many in the region this family depends on the sea for a living, their small hand-built home sits perched on an isolated strip of land beneath a steep haulking mountain thickly clad with temperate rainforest. No road reaches the small subsistence farm upon which they live, rather a small natural pebble beach serves as their ‘driveway’. They supplement their diets with vegetables grown on their plot and home raised lamb, chicken, beef – that is when the pumas don’t descend from the national park above and steal their feed! For electricity the family has recently invested in a small water-turbine that harvests the energy of a nearby cascade, of which there seems to be an inumerable number due to the steepness of the terrain, the permanent ice caps towering above and plentiful precipitation. This photo captures a brief meeting of our vessels Don Jason II and Agartha for a chat in late January.

Hope you enjoy the photo, don’t forget to leave a comment and more coming soon!