Our most recent excursion was way down south to Temuco, Chile, places closer to Temuco, and Bariloche, Argentina. The south Chile is GREEN but probably seems so green because our barren, arid city of Arica has just a few spots of green scattered about.
Arica
Temuco
Don't get me wrong, I love Arica, but I did thoroughly enjoy the beautiful sights of the south of Chile and Argentina. Our purpose of our trip was to "conocer el Pueblo Mapuche" or get to know the mapuche population. The Mapuche are the largest pueblo originario that lives in Chile and they primarily live in south Chile.
La bandera Mapuche
During our trip we learned much about the Mapuche world vision and what exactly is their conception of health and health care. For the Mapuche, they view health holistically. Their diseases come not from biological origins necessarily but from an imbalance in some aspect of their life.
Within the Mapuche community, there are "machi" which are the "doctors" of the community. When you begin to feel sick and visit the machi, the machi takes a sample of your pee (or you bring it with you). From that sample, the machi can determine the origin of the sickness, whether its a mental imbalance, if someone made a type of curse against you, or whatever other origin. Depending on this "diagnosis" the machi makes a mate of herbs that will best help the disease and correct the imbalance. To find the herbs, the machi goes to the woods. However, before he enters the area, the machi must ask permission from "los duenos del bosque".
Also, the machi has to go before the sun is in the middle of the sky because "la energia del bosque" is the highest at the beginning of the day. After mid-day the energy is leaving the forest, and all other things, just as the sun is in its descent in the sky. As our director of the program has worked with los pueblos origenarios for a long time now we had the fortunate experience of being able to enter the forest with not a machi, but another member of the Mapuche community who knows the medicinal use of herbs.
El hombre mapuche que nos enseñó sobre las hierbas medicinales.
(Photo Cred: Isaiah Rifkin)
This herb when combined with others can be good for certain types of cancer.
This one helps can help with hypertension.
An interesting thing about finding herbs, is that it depends a lot on their location. What it disease the herb will remedy depends on which area, or which bosque, the herb is found and also on where specifically it is found. In other words, the 3 different samples of the same herbs but one taken from one type of tree, the second taken from a different type of tree, and the last taken from the ground might help completely different types of diseases. Additionally, the machi typcially makes a mate of many types of herbs, so the combination of herbs can bring out different qualities of herbs.
Most of our classes we had inside "rukas" which is looks like a hut but can be pretty developed on the inside. Most have a firepit in the middle, which makes them even more cozy.
Ruka
Inside una ruka
We also visited a high school that has a special emphasis on teaching the Mapuche culture. Most of the students who attend are Mapuche, though not all.
We also got to experience a traditional Mapuche meal.
The round things in the center were a bean mush and the flatter oval things are a type of grain flattened out.
Una sopa with a chunk of meat with cilantro and onions.
Not tea or coffee. This is a hot beverage made from cooked wheat. Some people we met said that it is used as a subsitute for coffee since it provides a similar experience without the caffeine. I actually really like. I think I'll try to bring some back to the states.
After about a week in Temuco, we headed to Argentina. Our trip there was long, to say the least. If you could drive straight there it would probably be about a 6-8 hour trip. However, we ended up spending about 14 hours in the bus the first day of our trip. Our problem was the border. Apparently, there past a new law in Argentina that foreigners (at from the US) have to register and pay online BEFORE crossing the border. This we did not know. Our directors work hard to try to get us registered as quickly as possible, but the Argentinean customs office didn't have reliable internet. We ended up not being able to register all of us before the border closed that night. So we had to go back to Chile, find a hotel that could fit 25+ people, and then get up early the next morning to try to get to Bariloche in time for the events we had scheduled already. Nevertheless, the next day we made it without issue across the border and to Bariloche.
And Bariloche "valió la pena", or it was totally worth it. And I forgot to mention before but the trip from Temuco to Bariloche is amazingly beautiful as you have to travel across the Andes to get to Argentina. Also, Bariloche is considered part of Patagonia and is located on a lake. So more amazing, natural beauty that the camera (or at least my camera skills) simply cannot capture. Although we only had 2 days in Bariloche, I think we all left stunned by what it had to offer.
View from the window in our hotel.
The sunrise.
(Photo cred: Isaiah Rifkin)
My friends Bizzy, Isaiah, Zoe, and Kelsi and me in the center.
