Chaiten / Chile

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So I am in Chaiten, a town that was nearly destroyed by a volcano in 2008. Think about it; 2008 is not so long ago and one can still see houses that are totally covered in ash. But more to that later…

So after an eventless night in Puerto Montt I got up rather early to catch the 7 am bus out of the town, direction Chaiten. The bus station was complete deserted and I thought that they must have cancelled the bus or I got the time wrong. But punctually at 7 am the bus rocked up and I stored my stuff and got to my seat. And then a little bit of waiting was in order. Remember, I am in Chile and time is a fluent thing here; German punctuality doesn’t go down here very well.

After a while the bus took off and the trip was ok. The roads were sealed so no problem. After about an hour we had our first ferry crossing and it was nice to see the Andes in the morning with the sun trying to break through the clouds.

From that point onward the roads were just dirt roads so the trip got very bumpy and sleeping was pretty impossible. But the landscape made up for it. One has to see these impressive mountains in person to really get an idea on how fantastic they are. Words cannot describe them.

After another three hours we hit the second ferry crossing. And what a crossing it was. For 4 hours we crossed and again the landscape was fantastic. And the sun eventually came to the party as well. You cannot imagine how peaceful it was just sitting there taking the views in. In the water there are fur seals everywhere. Overall I have to say that the wildlife in this area is incredible.

At 6 pm, as promised by the bus employee, I arrived in Chaiten. After finding a hostal that is not too expensive I hit the road to get something to eat. I have smelled a BBQ on my search for the hostal so I headed back that area only to find a restaurant open. So what do you do when you find an open restaurant? You go in so I did. There were only a few people in the place and I ordered a can of beer. And as soon as I had it open I was asked, well better said dragged by the arm, if I want to join the BBQ I was smelling across the town. Of course I didn’t say no so I joined in. Again, nobody spoke any English and my Spanish is still very poor. But we had several conversations about the area and what to do. I spend a good 2 hours there and when I asked for the bill I was told that the restaurant was actually closed and it was a private BBQ from the owner of the place. Good one Welf, still knows how to gate crash a party.

Now let me tell you something about the history of Chaiten. The town was unofficially founded it the 1930’s and only became an official town in 1957 when the Chilean government opened a port here. At its highpoint it had only 5000 inhabitants. That was in 2008 when a nearby volcano erupted and caused absolute havoc in the area. All the inhabitants left and were not allowed into the town for weeks. During that time everything got covered in volcanic ash. You can still see areas here that are covered even now. The government didn’t want to reopen the town and abandon it; but the locals had different ideas and moved back illegally. For nearly 3 years they cleared up the ash, rebuild their houses and all that without electricity and water. So you can imagine that the people living here now are a hard bunch. Currently the population is around 1200, so there are plenty of empty houses around.

The next morning I was searching what to do as the travel book has as good as no info about the town. Just how I like it. I found a guy named Nicholas that runs a small bus booking agency and he offered me to show me some places. For a price of course, but he has to make a living after all. So we hopped in his clunky car and off we went.

The first place we visited was the area where the lava was running down the volcano and what a sight it was. The blast from the eruption uprooted most trees and stripped the rest of its branches. And where the lava ran down you can see all its destruction and it must have been horrific. Nicholas was very informed about the different rocks and he explained to me how they were formed by the volcano, where they were located and everything about the different tectonic plates and continental drifts. Now that was very informative and while I had a basic knowledge about them this trip made me a bit wiser.

After the volcano area we went on to have a 2 hour trekking trip through some amazing Chilean rainforest. Everything was green and since it rains here about 2000 mil a year there is moss everywhere, even on the trees and their branches. We saw a real nice waterfall deep in the forest and I just sat there for a while thinking about how great this planet is we live on and how we constantly abuse it. But also how certain people use the environmental challenges we have to social engineer society.

The last stop on the trip was the place where some of the oldest trees in the world are located. The alerce tree can grow over 70 meter and some of them are over 4000 years old. They are majestic and the size is very impressive. And of course they are all covers in moss which is pretty impressive to see. Nicholas explained me everything about the fauna and the different trees and again I learned a lot.

Then it was time to go back to base. So all in all a very good two days with plenty of experiences and some friends made on the road.

Tomorrow I will stay here as they are only 2 busses out of this town every week into the south of Patagonia. I think I will explore the houses covered by the ash and just have a look around this town.



Have a great week wherever you are and don’t take life to serious. Until next time……

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