17 Jul

Life at PICHI

Hola, I am Pame, first guest and co-founder at Pichi, so you could say I am co-creator and subject of the same experiment.

I’ve been living in Pichi for a year now, and yes, I came here like many others taking refuge in nature after a long year of confinement in the city because of the Covid pandemic. I arrived here not only looking for a place to live, but for a different way of living. From previous experiences I had living in rural places, I knew everything that is gained by moving away from the city when deciding to embrace a slower life. Also, It was the perfect moment, I was finishing writing a doctoral thesis that had drained my energy for years, so a green scenery, a lagoon, plenty of silence and nature, was all I needed to recharge my batteries.

But how it all started? To answer that I need to take you back five years, when my good old friend and now neighbor and business partner, Juan, changed urban life for a small seaside city called “Calbuco” – which means the city of blue waters – where his family lived. Twenty five minutes away from Calbuco, he found 5,000 square meters of land right in front of a lagoon and he knew right away it was the perfect place to build the more sustainable and enjoyable life he envisioned when he left his life in Santiago.

From there, everything snowballed. A group of faithful friends – me included –  proud of what in those years was still seen as a burst of originality and an act of rebellion rather than a trend, planted our support flags in the shape of constant visits to the lagoon.

For Juan, distance only strengthened bonds with friends and his house became a kind of shared reality where we all came back dreaming of a community life where each one had a place. 

And so it was, in these visits where a constant exchange of experiences and dreams was the only constant, little by little the idea of creating what we affectionately called a Pichi life, made way. Pichi, meaning “small” in Mapuzungun dialect, which we interpreted as simplicity or “just enough”, became our mantra and inspiration and without our full awareness, slowly started changing our corse in life. This fresh outlook was fueled with the inspiration of the tiny house movement and the attractive idea of co-inhabiting small spaces in rural communities, giving us the creative impulse we needed to search for well-being and harmony in more creative ways. 

Settling into Pichi I as it was still in the building!

Pichi is my home today and like Juan and our community of friends, who is today a mix of the old and new local ones, I enjoy the tranquility of silence, the proximity with local traditions and having wild and alive nature at hand every day to put life in good perspective.