¡ PUPPIES !

On Friday afternoon as I was heading to the bathroom to take a shower after working the morning making bricks, I heard squealing. Abby had come home with a boxful of three puppies that she had found abandoned on the side of the road, baking in the extremely hot sun that day. The puppies couldn’t be older than four weeks, and were probably even younger. Dazed and lethargic, they weren’t drinking water much on their own, so we fed them by letting it drip down our fingers into their mouths. Apparently, this is a frequent occurrence in the area – especially with girl dogs because people don’t want the hassle or expense of getting them spayed or having future litters. All three were girls. And all three were very, very cute.

(Self-portrait: me and the tiniest one.)

I hitched a ride into town to go to the store and got some canned beef liver. We mixed it with some brown rice and those puppies went to town. Suddenly they had a burst of energy. We set them out on the lawn and they growled and bit and rolled over each other. So young, they walked unsteadily and sometimes couldn’t figure how to change directions without backing up first. But they could cuddle, lick our faces with their tiny little tongues, and wag their tiny little tails. 15 minutes later, they were fast asleep, all snuggled up together – with one always sleeping right on top of another’s head.

Josephine told us that the outdoor craft and food market in El Bolsón which happens three days a week is a good place to adopt out animals. They had recently taken kittens there with success. We had been planning on heading into the market Saturday morning so all four of us caught a ride in with the family.

(Drying from their bath, the fluff balls were looking their cutest for the craft fair.)

By morning they were extremely playful. The biggest one (above left, with white fur patches) spent 5 minutes figuring out how to get over the 2 inch rock barrier between the little patio and a plant bed and then began crying because she couldn’t figure out how to get back.)

Juan told us what to write on our sign … “Regalo Perros” (free dogs). Josephine wrote out a little note for us to hand people when our Spanish failed us … “We found these dogs on the side of the road yesterday. Because they are from the street, they can be spayed for free… etc.” And so we became part of the market for a moment, carrying our puppies through the crowd saying, “regalo perros.”

We, or rather our puppies, were pretty much irresistible to most passersby. Honestly, it was a super fun way to experience the market.


Within half-an-hour, we had our first takers, below. The kid with the skateboard literally skipped and danced away SOOOO excited about their new puppy. Within the first hour all three had found new homes.


It was both exhilarating and sad. They were so frickin’ cute and we hoped the homes we found for them were good. We all agreed that had we not lived many thousands of miles away and been months away from the ends of our trips we might have become new doggie parents, despite our better judgment.


Now we were free to enjoy the market. We sampled many different local craft brewed beers, tried the local artisanal ice-cream (mmmm… mascarpone and raspberry on top of bittersweet chocolate with candied orange peel), ate berries (blackberries and raspberries … by themselves, in fresh raspberry juice, and on waffles with whipped cream and raspberries), and sampled some good empanadas.


The market has a rule that everything must be handmade – so there were all kinds of wonderful crafts, wonderful foods, and good people watching. El Bolsón is Argentina’s more rural version of Berkeley. It’s a nuclear free zone, an ecologic municipality, and prides itself on its beauty and agriculture.

(El Bolsón: “Here the magic is natural.”)

(The town also became a “smoke-free city” in 2009, banning smoking in many public buildings and locations.)

One big observation we have made both in Chile and Argentina is how few people smoke – not what we expected at all. Even places such as cafes that allow smoking will often not have anyone smoking in them or maybe one table. The two governments have clearly been waging their own anti-smoking campaigns – and apparently seeing good success. We imagine that without the power and influence wielded by big tobacco, they are freer to implement strongly worded messages … such as the one on cigarette packs in Chile (below).

Would the Phillip Morris lobby ever let this photo end up on its cigarettes?

(“In Chile, tobacco kills 6,000 people a year. The next could be you.”)

On Wednesday evening we leave for a couple of days up in Bariloche, then some refugio-style backpacking in the Lakes District. After that we plan on heading up to the northern, Salta area for around a week before making the plunge into Bolivia. It´s feeling really hard to leave the farm. I could stay here for months.

-- Blake