Volunteering in Torres del Paine

After trekking in the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, I spent nearly another three weeks in the park volunteering with an organization called AMA Torres del Paine (amatorresdelpaine.org).  One of my goals for this year of traveling was to: a) spend an extended time in at least one place, getting to know somewhere more in depth and less in breadth, and b) to give back to some cause that I feel strongly about.  In this instance, protecting and preserving natural areas.  During my three weeks with AMA we made new signs, marked trails, cleaned up garbage, worked on a new translation of the website (not uploaded, yet), hung out with the workers at the Hotel Las Torres (lastorres.org), cut wire, and generally had a good time working and laughing.  While I was with AMA several other volunteers passed through from the US, England, France, and Brasil.  It was fun to get to know some other foriegners, as well as Chileans who worked at the Hotel, and enjoy lazy nights around a wood burning stove in a refugio.  I also became friends with some of the baqueanos (think Patagonian cowboy) and enjoyed riding some of the Hotel Las Torres horses in the evenings after "work."  It was a hard life.  :)   Another bonus of being in the park for more than the normal 4-8 day "W" or "Big Circuit" was not having to worry about the Patagonian weather in the context of trekking...if it rained one day, well, there was always another day of sun that might come.  My month in the park flew by - time had wings - and it´s definitely a place I´d like to return to.
http://picasaweb.google.com/andriadhautamaki/ALittleMoreTimeInTorresDelPaine?authkey=Gv1sRgCIK69N-688y6iwE#