Las Peñas, Chile (Week 1)

The slaves of luxury.

Because our last Workaway was a little light on perks, we've signed up to another. This time however, we've learnt from our mistakes and upgraded a little (okay a lot) in our free accommodations - granted that wasn't hard to do. Tumuñan Lodge is a luxury lodge complete with vineyard, walking tracks, horse paddocks, pool, spa, numerous gardens, cabins, barns and other utilities. It's located in a valley in the middle of the Chilean countryside, a wee jaunt from Las Peñas - the nearest notable village (if you can call one shop a village). By car, it's about two hours south of Santiago. We've locked in two weeks here where we'll be helping out wherever no paid employee wishes to help (read: shovelling horse shit).

The lodge is run by an Englishman named Will and his lovely Chilean wife Carolina, who have built and owned this place over the last ten years. They have a nine year old daughter and an eleven year old son who we don't see all that much of. They also have two enormous St Bernard dogs who love attention and two horses who have taken a particular disliking to me despite my attempts to win them over with food. Also living and working on site is Yanet (the maid and Colombian refugee) who shares our cabin and a Huaso (cowboy) named Juan who comes and goes on his horse with a chainsaw and is so intimidating I am yet to speak with him.

Our little home is perfect. It's the gatekeeper's cabin at the entrance of the property and modestly hosts four bedrooms and a nice kitchen and bathroom as well as an outside laundry (finally we can do washing without paying by weight!) It's well built but not well enough to withstand the valley's chill which can get down to minus 6° at night! We do battle with the cold for about 20 hours of the day (inside or out) and have taken to burning disgraceful quantities of firewood and kerosene in attempts to temporarily gain the upper hand. For the remaining four, an enticingly warm sun heats the estate leaving even the eskimo in nothing but a tee. We're provided with most of our groceries to cook and eat three square meals in our cabin, occasionally with Yanet when our hours coincide.

I think we both agree that this is largely an exercise in reminding ourselves how good travel is. We haven't done real work in at least six months and even though we're only working six hour days (a demanding six at that), knowing that we have to is a killer. Our first week of work has had us raking, pruning trees, feeding animals, shovelling shit, gathering and stacking firewood, barrowing stones, doing dishes and our least favourite but most time consuming - carrying rocks. Almost unbelievably, we're clearing the horse paddock of rocks. Many, many rocks and it's grueling and unrewarding work. Even the horses think it's a joke; excreting intentionally in our work area and refusing to accept our love. Cat has also offered up her teaching skills and gets two hours off her physical torture to teach Yanet English. I don't remember learning English but last time I checked it wasn't all tea and giggles! (Yes that is jealousy you sense.) Outside our work hours we spend most of our time cooking and cleaning our cabin and trying to heat it. There's no internet and the tv is in spanish so we're starting to get cabin fever. Speaking of fever, Cat is coming out of a pretty hardy cold which hasn't been helped by the freezing temperatures. I'm sure you can imagine where she stands on this one!

But we wouldn't be here if there wasn't something in it for us. Free accommodation and food are the obvious draw cards, but we could get that at home without the six hour days, right dad? Actually - don't answer that. Spending time with the family is giving us insight into life in Chile, as well as what it takes to run a lodge and a vineyard in the middle of nowhere. Speaking of wine, we got a tour of the vinyard (post harvest so it's a bit of a mess) followed by a free wine tasting which escalated into dinner followed by liquers. Turns out Will likes a drink! We are also forced to practice our Spanish daily, largely with Yanet but also with just about everyone who enters the property. It's interesting to note we can have dinner conversations with Yanet who speaks Colombian Spanish ("the best Spanish"), yet for the life of me I cannot understand a word of Chilean Spanish - which according to Yanet is a disgusting butchery of her beloved tongue and she doesn't blame us for not understanding. She actually has a point.

But I digress. On our days off we get to explore. We did a day trip to a lovely town called Santa Clara for a delicious lunch and a fantastic museum which covered the history of Chile from about 9000 years ago until the day 33 miners were rescued from the bottom of the San José mine. It was thorough, fascinating and emotional with free english audio guides. We also have all the wilderness to explore. We did a short day hike up into the hills for some amazing views of the valley and surrounding mountains. We had the whole place to ourselves (even got a break from the dogs!) which is a real advantage of getting off the gringo trail. Mi gusta.

The cold weather may be painful at times but it's been stunning almost every day - cloudless skies and incredible stars and moon. If you look carefully on the last photo, I miraculously caught a shooting star for you all to wish upon!

Whether we like it or not, it would appear that we passed the test. Will and Carolina have deemed us responsible enough to run the show while they go to Argentina for the week - guests, cooking, animals, contractors and all. That escalated quickly! Such is life with no written contract. I think things are going to get pretty hectic around here quite soon.Read more