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1 Jul 2025
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Description
Hi there! We're Gonzalo and Rayén, a couple who love climbing and nature, and we live in San Fabián de Alico, a beautiful spot in the Andes Mountains in central Chile. This town is "a magical place nestled between rivers and mountains", where you can find amazing biodiversity in the Mediterranean climate forest, an interesting "arriera" (herding) culture, and lots of outdoor activities like kayaking, rafting, trekking, climbing, horseback riding, biking, fishing, and more! We also live with our dog, Kuyul, who's the queen of the house.
We're currently finishing up building our house (just the final touches now) and improving our garden. There's a lot of ecological restoration work to do on our half-hectare property, plus gardening, irrigation, and some minor construction. We're also starting a rock climbing lesson business at our mini climbing wall, so we're doing some work to improve that space too.
We're a laid-back family, and we love spending our free time in nature, going for walks, and hanging out with our friends in town. So far, we've been working on this life project mostly by ourselves and some people from the town, but we're really excited to share our dream with other people, have a great time, and learn about different cultures.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Language practice
Help with Eco Projects
Teaching
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
House sitting
Interests
Technology
Events & social
Farming
Movies & TV
Culture
Pets
Sustainability
Animals
Plant care
DIY & crafts
Gardening
Carpentry
Adventure sports
Hiking
Mountain
Nature
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
We're a couple really interested in multiculturalism. Rayén is half Chilean and half Canadian, and Gonzalo is a travel lover who's been to and seen many countries. At our home, we enjoy talking about all sorts of topics – we definitely consider ourselves open-minded. We love languages! Rayén speaks French well, Gonzalo speaks English well, and we both speak 'Chilean' Spanish. We're also really into climbing, but also love trekking in nature. We think we can share great conversations, practice languages together, and share what we've learned in our self-building project (we wanted our house to be as sustainable as possible, so we get our water from a well, we have solar energy, we do our best to manage our waste, and we're experimenting with growing our own food). We also think it's important to connect with the culture of San Fabián de Alico, so we share work, participate in activities and celebrations with people from the local community, when it’s possible.
Help
We're looking for motivated and enthusiastic people to join us and help with various projects! This could include basic construction and carpentry, gardening, helping with climbing lessons, and more. We want people who love nature and enjoy working outdoors. We really value an open-minded, responsible attitude, and someone who appreciates a peaceful, simple, and sustainable lifestyle. Plus, we truly believe we can always learn something new from our visitors!
Skills in gardening, construction, and sport climbing are definitely a bonus, but we also need help with general household tasks like cleaning, organizing, cooking, and taking care of our super spoiled dog!
Throughout the year, we have little projects going on: finishing touches on our house, maintaining and cleaning the climbing wall, equipping new routes, and tending to our plants and vegetable garden.
In the garden, the tasks change with the seasons:
Spring: We'll be maintaining the yard and getting the vegetable garden ready, including planting seedlings, transplanting, and setting up the garden infrastructure.
Summer: We'll be watering parts of the garden, caring for the trees, and taking the opportunity to chop and organize firewood for the winter.
Autumn: We'll be pruning, planting and transplanting trees, and general garden maintenance.
Winter: We'll be cutting back invasive saplings, planting, doing small construction projects in the garden, and preparing pots for spring.
Rayén is a lawyer and works most of her time remotely from home, and Gonzalo is a civil engineer but is currently focusing more on our constructions and the gardens. Our idea is to share this work with our visitors!
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: Fluent
French: FluentThis host offers a language exchange
We really like to practice languages, specially our english which is beggining to be intermediate.
Accommodation
We have a nice room with a double-sized bed, a desk, and a comfortable bathroom with a shower and hot water. There's also the option to go camping (we have tents, sleeping mats, and sleeping bags to lend, but we don't recommend it in the winter because of the rain and cold) or to use your own RV. The house has a shared desk space and good satellite internet connection. If you like climbing, you can use the climbing wall as much as you want. We're not vegetarian or vegan, but we like healthy, homemade food and don't eat much meat. We usually eat 3-4 times a day, we like to start the day with coffee, and we definitely think it's important to share the work in the kitchen.
What else ...
San Fabián is located about 400 km (around 250 miles) from Santiago, the capital city, and there's a direct bus that travels daily and you can get off just a few meters from our house. We live very close to the town (san fabián) so you can get there walking in no more than 20 minutes; we also have a bicycle to get around, and we're just a few meters from the main road where public transport passes by several times a day. From Chillán or San Carlos, which are the closest cities to our town, there are buses that will drop you off here several times a day.
We are non-smokers, but we have no problem with people smoking, as long as it's done outside (there are several designated areas for that).
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
We have Starlink as ISP.
Space for parking camper vans
If you want to park there’s plenty space.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
My animals / pets
Kuyul
Photos
