By Vicki Lansen

Starstruck, moonstruck, landstruck, struck, or just plain stricken - by the beauty. Screaming mountains, thorny rhubarb, snaking rivers, crashing waterfalls greet us just 3 kilometers outside of Chaiten on the four-hour bus ride to Futaleufu. And even at the end of summer, laces of snow drape higher mountain peaks, skirted below along the road with wildflowers. We cannot "not" come here. The pavement ends several kilometers from town and becomes a carefully graded gravel road. The awesome scenery never ends and four hours is gone before we know it (Bus ride from Chaiten to Futaleufu is 6,000 pesos).

A walk around Futa is an easy stroll, and if you get lost, you should be ashamed! The town sports a fastidiously kept central park, a radio station, a police station with extremely friendly, helpful police (who seem to often serve as information officers), a small, but tidy hospital, a large, fabulously new school, two internet cafe/call centers, fly-fishing and rafting/kayak guide companies, hospadajaes, restaurants, two in-home laundry services, a seamstress and a bank with an ATM (warning: Master card only) - while still keeping it's other-century charm. One end of town is blessed with Lago Espejo (Mirror Lake), a great place to have a picnic and relax.

There is no place to rent a car here, and no gas station if you've ventured here with one. Your nearest pump is in Chaiten (four hours away) or Trevelin, Argentina (a little more than an hour).We arrive in the tiny hamlet of Futaleufu as dusk hits. Founded in the early 1930's, the legacy of hearty pioneers who came to this "valley painted by God" around 1903, this lovely town boasts wide streets and avenues lined with carefully tended picket-fence lawns, and quiet wooden houses, most several decades old. You can stand in any spot, on any street, and turning 360 degrees, see snow-capped mountains. Each and every street is adorned with prolific rose bushes; white, red, yellow, even lavender.

The cabin we have rented is a small, two-bedroom house and it will be our home for two months as we endeavor to learn the history, the ways and traditions of this incredibly unique place. In the coming weeks I will learn what ava's are, help neighbors butcher a sheep for a birthday party, and attend a get together where I will learn some history, some politics, and participate in dancing and singing like I've never seen or heard before.

Our first morning in Futaleufu (hereinafter referred to as Futa) is chilly, and drizzling rain. Last night's frenzied shopping left much to be desired. Shopping in Futa is not shopping in Santiago, or even Osorno - no, here you will most likely only find "the basics", and you'd better get them while you find a store open! Stores in Futa are most likely home-front enterprises; the hours unpredictable. But you will definitely find everything you need here.

The general stores carry things like laundry soap, rice, oil, beans, butter, boxed milk and juice, beer, wine, personal hygiene products. Some general stores sell chicken, beef and pork, eggs, but not all. One store also sells sauerkraut, pickles and salami, and almost all have a large slab of cheese which is the local fare. You should try it. The hardware stores sell - of course - hardware as well as light bulbs, batteries, clothesline, tape, pots and pans, even shoestrings. There is one true carnaceria, and if they have meat - they put a red flag out front to let you know they have the product. The panadaria is the only place for fresh bread and baked goods, and after sampling the fare, I know why no one else would even bother trying to compete! The pizza shells, rolls, and pastries are fresh daily, cheap and some of the best I've sampled in my travels. The proprietor will even top your pizza for a bit extra - ready for the oven at home. You must get there early for the strudel as it sells out quickly.

Stores generally open around 8:30 or 9 am, then close with the towns' noon siren. Usually you can expect them to re-open around 4, or 4:30 pm, and close again around 7:30 pm - although this is not certain, and some do stay open later - sometimes!

The clouds and drizzle dissipates around noon, and the sun causes the zinc roof on our cabin to pop and snap as it warms. Across the street I watch as a neighbor readies his horse for a trip. In the yard, as in most yards here, the red, and yellow plum trees are laden with fruit. Not a block is absent a pear, or apple tree. Artichokes not picked are now flowering. The lilacs have finished blossoming, which I'm sorry I missed. If the Futa Valley is a "place painted by God" as the locals are fond of saying, this is surely the garden of Eden - at least until the snows come!