21 – Chaiten

Arrival in the little town of Chaiten was a tad anti-climatic. After the long sea voyage and the buses, the bizarre foliage like something out of Jurassic Park,

The town itself was a small one reminiscent of a logging town. Maybe ten streets in total, none of them paved. Really had that “outback” feel.

Had met a couple from France at the hostel the night before. They seemed rather nice. We had started the day together with a walk to the bus terminal and had cruised together all day. They had said they wanted to hike the volcano there in Chaiten. sounded like a plan. It had erupted in 2008 and was the largest eruption in recorded history. It had had a plume 32 kilometers high. The shock wave alone had instantly killed thousands of trees in the blast radius. The night before Perla had helped me contact a tour operator in Chaiten by the name of Nickolas who was to help me figure out the Way south and accommodations. He said there was a good hostel around the corner from the bus stop.

He met the bus at the station, if you could call it that, one wooden building with a little office. He was handing out brochures to the arriving people from the bus trying to get tour business. He looked a little like a homeless guy. Woolen cap and saggy pants. Introduced myself. He continued to try to drum up business. The volcano tour would cost 25,000 Chilean for the van regardless of how many people took the tour. Nick said he had another two for tomorrow so that filled up the van and brought the cost down to 5,000 each. Ok. Meanwhile a guy across the street was eyeing me as he had a hostel there. When he gave Nick the eye, he buckled and said I could stay there instead. The guy wanted 12,000. Not too bad, went up to check out the room. It had a nice 2nd floor view of the harbor but otherwise it was shabby with a bed that looked like an old horses curved back. Figured the air mattress would take most of that out. Optimistic. Began to feel bad about the deal. Asked earlier if he had a kitchen. He said yes. Walking around the town took all of five minutes. Bought a chicken thigh. Thought it would go well with soup and noodles which were in the kit. Took the deal in spite of my misgivings. Later found out there was no internet there to book future reservations. That should have been a clue right there.

The French couple had said they would be camping so they had started off in search of a campground while the hostel was checked out. Went back across the street to finalize the details of the rest of the travel south. It was then Nick told me that the couple I had traveled with did not stay as the next bus was not going south for another week, a fact he may have neglected to inform me of when he booked me on his tour for the next day. It wasn’t just that now the cost of the tour would be more…there was no way to continue the trip and make the flights! Hitch hiking hundreds of miles was not a viable option for me. He told me that I could go to a town called Frutaleufu, a four hour bus ride away, after tomorrows trek, stay the night there, then backtrack three hours to continue to the next town south, Coyahaque. Really…nice…lose a day of travel time AND this was going to cost another 50,000 Chilean pesos with an additional 7 hours of travel. Wasn’t going to stay there for another week…or even a day for that matter so that’s what I did.

Wandered out and about the small town.  Found a shop and bought a chicken leg to cook for dinner. Back at the hostel checked out the kitchen…what a mess. Dirty dishes piled everywhere. Obviously not a hostel kitchen…but his personal restaurant kitchen. Meanwhile there were no other guests here except for a few of his drinking buddies. He kept saying “’Merican”, in some kind of accent he thought was American. “Again and again with the “’Merican” stuff to his buddies endless amusement.

When it came time to make dinner, I had to scrape out a large pot and wash it twice as he had no smaller ones to cook the soup in. Eyeballed the ingredients, no measuring cups. An onion and some pasta helped to fill it out. Had to turn the chicken over and over as there was not enough water to cover it as the pot was so big. and the guy had set the flame on a high setting as it was an industrial stove with large burners. Like cooking in a wok, constant attention, but failure was not an option. It was with great pride that the soup-like stew was taken out and eaten in front of his buddies. Even got a nod of approval as they saw the finished product which tasted as good as it looked! To bed early in a cold room while he and his buddies drank and watched soccer until at least midnight…earplugs helped…but not much.

Up early for the tour. No breakfast. Made my own. Then the guy had the nerve to cook eggs for a couple of Chilean guys who were also staying at the hostel. Had planned to leave the gear there while hiking the volcano…but didn’t trust the guy. Took the gear over to the tour office instead. Turned out to be a good move as the place was closed when we returned from the hike with only minutes to spare to make the four o’clock bus to Frutaleufu. But enough about the travel woes. These are to be expected now and then. Gotta be tough.

The silver lining to be found the next day was the happy couple sharing the tour. As it happened, the luck of the bumbler was with me. Where do you suppose they were from? Copenhagen, Denmark! The next bumble destination. And they would be back there by the time I would be visiting. To make matters better, they both spoke English. Other silver linings would soon appear. After some research it turns out that Frutaleufu was the home of the fastest water for rafting in the world…this could be good, we’ll see.

Parque Pumalin is the largest privately owned nature preserve in the world. It covers about 800,000 acres and shelters the largest – and one of the few remaining – intact alerce forests in the world. Alercers is the second longest living tree in the world at up to 4000 years. Parque Pumalin encompasses some of the most pristine landscape in the region, if not the world. It also hosts a pristine set of mountains, temperate rain forests, volcanoes, lakes, and rivers. It is located about 37 miles north of Chaiten. This is where Nick of Chaitur Tours was taking the three of us for the ascent.

The Sendro Volcano or trail to the volcano was moderately scenic. Nick kept up a dialog about the assorted vegetation as we walked and informed us of many geological facts. He left us to ascend on our own. Couldn’t blame him…it was quite a walk all uphill and steep in some places. Took a few hard hours. The good thing was that the weather was cold and windy making the hike much nicer than if it had been hot.

We hiked up at a pretty good pace. At the top the views were good, some would say spectacular. As this type of lava was a very dense type called ryolite, it had built up it’s own cone inside of the blown off top of the mountain so it was not possible to look down and see the lava, just the resultant cone inside the massive crater. Only the steam which has constantly vented since the eruption gave a clue as to how active it still was. The steam is a by product of rain water seeping down into the cracks of the new cone. It has never stopped steaming since the eruption in 2008.

The way back down was relatively easy compared to the other hikes in Pucon in the snow. Only a little snow on the top of this mountain. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the top while discussing Copenhagen. We also ran into a young French fellow from the ferry boat the day before who had camped at the park near the base of the volcano. He told us that the park staff had left for the weekend and that they said it was all his and didn’t even charge him a camping fee.

We began the long trek down enjoying the views on the way. Nick was still waiting in his van in the parking lot playing guitar. Felt this surge of urgency to get back to Chaiten where the 4:00pm bus would soon arrive to transport me to the next destination…Futaleufu. As it was now 3pm and we had sixty kilometers to go on gravel back roads, the feeling was not without cause. This did not stop Nick from another few songs on a different instrument with a lengthily explanation of the Luther who crafted it. Then it was time for a quick stop at a local black sand beach. Wouldn’t want to miss the sights.

As it was we made it back with minutes to spare. Bus pulled up, said goodbye and off for a quick hundred mile 4 hour bus ride to Futaleufu.