One more day on the rippio of the caraterra austral and Ill be at the town of Chaiten, thence to catch a ferry back to Puerto Mont and "civilisation". :)
My experience with Patagonian Rippio has been that its definitely hard work to ride on, requiring your utmost attention and effort. But I have to say that for the most part, the rippio over here on this highway has been far far better...
Almost "Rippio correro"! (my effort at saying racing gravel :) )
Id say that about a third of it has been "super-well-packed" and had no loose stuff on it at all... excellent for riding on with low effort. And most of the rest of it has not had too much loose stuff and there have been good bare tire lanes from the other traffic, so that hasnt been too bad either :)
Only about an hour or two of the riding over the last 3-4 days has been in the deep loose stuff that is very slow going and very hard work... really quite nice :))
And given that, Ive been able to enjoy the views of the forest and mountains and streams... And even the roadways have been nice. They are lined with lots of temperate (but still very large) ferns, and some enormous leafed Nettles.
And when its not ferns and nettles then its 3-4m high bushes of Fuchsias!... Yep, it seems that far southern Chile is the native habitat of one of the commonest and prettiest (in my opinion) garden flowers of the western world... Its "Fuchsia Magellanica" Im told, and its the root source of all the many different varieties of fuchsias that have been bred by horticulturists over the decades!
But Im not the only one who likes them... Back home in Vancouver, the humming birds love these flowers and the brightly coloured males spend all summer long jealously chirping and dive-bombing each other trying to defend their territories based around these plants... And it seems they do it here too because whenever I camp I can hear their angry chirpings and see them flitting from bush to bush ... Obstreperous little fellows that they are! :)))
And then I reach the pavement again and I know I only have about 10-20Km more to go before I reach the bustling little tourist town of Chaiten that my guide book says is where I can get a ferry to either the mainland or to the island of Chiloe for a couple of days more (Ill decide later)...
But, I get to the town and its all very strange!
Its deserted and it looks like a ghost town in a desert or a mining waste dump!... What the heck is this??
I ride around a bit and the whole town is covered in sand and dust, and most of the houses are dug out but damaged and seemingly abandoned. But Ive figured out whats going on now... Its all ash... There is a funny looking cloud in amongst the rest in the blues sky and its shrouding a nearby peak... Cone-shaped Volcanic peak... Its still streaming and smoking away there... This must be the culprit.
Yes, indeed its Volcan Chaiten, and it erupted in May 2008 and covered the town in heavy ash. And if that wasnt enough, it killed lots of the trees on the mountain sides (choked in the ash) and then when the rains came the whole valley got really badly flooded (clogged by the silt etc) and another good chunk of the town got destroyed by that... And the houses that were before just covered in ash, now became filled with it after the flood waters went through!
And so, what was a bustling and growing little tourist/port town was literally "snuffed out" virtually over-night!
The few houses that remain occupied are marked by a Chilean flag flying in the front yard, and the grass in the central plaza is being kept trimmed by a couple of horses wandering around without holters or hobbles... Its all really quite tranquil... Though quite forelorne too.
But, people are resilient and many of the locals wanted to move back and rebuild etc... But apparently the government has been really slack on its feet and after two years of waiting, the township still has no water or electricity supply! And its tough to live without those things... for two years... So, many of the towns folk have given up and moved away.
It used to have about 10,000 inhabitants, but now its down to a few dozen occupied houses and only a couple of stores and hospedages... No pub, no hotel, no tourists any more... Very sad.
Its also sad for me because when I do find the ferry office, I find that the ferries have mostly been cancelled and its a long long way back to Argentina on the gravel from here!!
But, its not quite that bad... I abandon the Chiloe Island idea and I find that I only have to wait 30hr before the next ferry departs for Puerto Mont....
Hmmm, thats OK, but gee, It would have helped if my guide book had mentioned this!
The book is dated 2009 edition and its updated almost every year and has a good reputation.... Guess they just missed the minor issue of the whole town having disappeared :)))
No real problem though, I can amuse myself for a day and a half easily enough.
I head up the road another 10km and find a lovely little bay with a camping spot right there near the beach ... And a few other tourists are doing about the same as me while they too wait for the ferry.
So, I set up and then go walk along the black sand beach and check out the very photogenic boulders with an incredibly rich yellow lichen on them and the tangled piles of kelp seaweed on the beach... really quite nice :))
And then in the evening, I have a bit of a chat with some of the other tourists and I learn more about the sad situation with the township...
Apparently the Government does want to help and are not being the lazy, corrupt, obstructive entity that the locals I spoke to suggested...
Apparently the government feels that the current site of the town is too dangerous with the volcano being active and the main catchment and river valley running right through the town... They think it will all just happen again (quite rightly Id guess!)
The government wants to move the whole town to the little cove where Im now camping... And they are offering quite good financial packages to move the people...And yes, they are being obstructive... They are not rebuilding the water and power stations if they are moving the town or if they are just going to be destroyed in a couple of years... Seems to make sense to me, an outsider...
But the people dont want to move.... They want to stay there despite the dangers and counter-incentives...
... Isnt it just like people... They just dont make "logical" sense a lot of the time... We are mostly running on emotion and instinct...
And so there is an ongoing struggle and both sides get frustrated and "dig their heals in".
And its typical too that the people on the one side only tell their side of things and dont mention the other sides argument... As if that will make it invalid or make it go away or something...
... Oh dear!... Sometimes I despair of hope for us as a species :(
But, what this little story does do for me is that it reminds me that whenever I hear about or even more so, experience something that seems "horribly wrong"... There's probably a whole other side to the situation/story... And I should make the effort to find out what that other side is!
But for now I can enjoy this beach while I wait for the ferry :)))
