Lalo, seated, and Maria have lived on the Baker River for decades.

The starting point for our expedition down the Baker River is a small ranch owned and run by our hosts, Lalo and Maria, who have lived on this river for 52 and 75 years, respectively. Lalo and Maria open their door to us, our cameras, and our microphones. In the down times between the many chores and tasks that make up their daily lives, they share stories of the rewards and challenges of living on the Baker.

True pioneers, they have achieved an efficiency of living within this landscape that is both foreign and inspiring to this city dweller.

During this trip, I've been struck by the the self-sufficiency that I witness in Patagonia, but also by the cooperation that helps ease a hard way of life, lived way off the grid and far from services.  When we arrived at Maria and Lalo's home, half a dozen men from neighboring ranches were helping Lalo run a gravity-fed irrigation line from a nearby creek down to his house. Maria’s shoulders are tired and achy from a lifetime of carrying buckets of water, and the community has come together to help bring her running water.

Lalo and Maria’s house, with the Baker River flowing behind it.

The following day, well fed by stories, soup, and bread, we leave Lalo and Maria, shoving off in our 12-foot raft to explore the Baker River.  The largest river in Chile, the Baker flows essentially north to south, with Lake Bertrand at its headwaters and the Pacific Ocean at its mouth. A handful of rivers contribute to its volume over the course of its 100-plus miles.  Three of these rivers, the Nef, the Colonia, and the Ñadiz, flow directly from the Northern Patagonia Ice Cap, carrying sediments and nutrients carved from the bedrock and suspended in the frigid, gray water.

This section of the Baker runs swift but relatively calm, the water a deep green. But violently boiling eddy lines betray the river's true power, especially when they stop our raft dead in its tracks, spin us around, and suck the stern of the boat underwater.

Our trusted guides: Hector Soto on the oars and Jonathan Leidich at the helm

After two days of travel downriver, we pass the confluence where the Colonia's milky, sediment-filled water merges with the green Baker. HydroAysén wants to build two dams in this area, one well upstream and the other just below this confluence, in the Salton Gorge. 

We come ashore to visit two ranch families whose homes and lands on this remote stretch of river will be changed forever if the Chilean government approves HydroAysén’s plans.

First we visit with rancher Arturo Quinto. Sheep hides drape the branches of a tree in his yard. He welcomes us into his dimly lit cabin, pulls an old guitar off the wall, and plays us a few regional folk songs.  Born on the Ñadiz-Baker confluence in 1941, Arturo has lived on this very ranch since 1963. Although his failing eyesight and age make life increasingly difficult, he has no desire to leave. In fact, HydroAysén offered to buy his ranch and he refused. If the dams are built, he says, he would rather die in the ensuing flood than be forced off his land.

Arturo plays songs for us on his guitar

Across the river, Enrique and his sister, Sara, invite us to camp for the night on the family ranch. They live in the most beautiful house I’ve seen on these isolated sections of the river: two stories tall and built by Enrique’s father.  A trip into town requires rowing across the Baker with a horse in tow, followed by a two-day ride. Knowing this makes their artistically handcrafted home all the more impressive.

The following day, we document some of their work rituals: shearing sheep in the barn, slaughtering one of the animals in the yard. Later, over a meal of roast mutton eaten right out of the woodstove oven, Enrique tells us that a buyer (whose name he doesn't disclose) has made an offer on the ranch. Enrique and his nine siblings have decided to sell.  Their family ranch is too small to divide between all the siblings, Enrique explains. With money from the sale, each hopes to buy something of their own.

Enrique, in front of the house his father built

HydroAysén's dams, if they are approved, would bring opportunity for some, and change for everyone. Of our many gracious hosts living along the river, only Enrique and Sara support the project. The rest of the people we speak with adamantly oppose it. The Baker River is the life's-blood of this region. It nourishes, provides transportation, and offers freedom for those who choose to live as their ancestors, carving a living from the land.

Please keep an eye out for Chapter 3, in which the Baker River washes the Patagonia Rising crew out to sea, and we explore clean energy alternatives to the dams.

Read all the posts in this series, and learn more about saving the Patagonia wilderness at NRDC's BioGems web site.