Chile Forum

Vicki and Greg Lansen wrote:... OK, now I need some coffee.

With a generous helping of Chilean aguardiente no doubt

eeuunikkeiexpat wrote:

Vicki and Greg Lansen wrote:... OK, now I need some coffee.

With a generous helping of Chilean aguardiente no doubt

That aguardiente is NASTY stuff! I bought a bottle just to see what it was like and egads, almost passed out from the fumes! Great, but dangerous to start a fire with. Even an old booze hound like me would rather have cafe con leche on a Friday night than choke that stuff down!

I hate to even post this, as my beginning query for this thread lead to the volcano blowing, but...two nights now, the house has jumped, the dog is nuts and slithering under anything he can to hide and shake. Last night we heard at least three big slides on the ridge behind the house even though we've not had any significant rains.

There have been no updates on the volcanism blog since July 31st, and no USGS loggings of earthquakes. But I suspect there are significant movers and shakers going on these past two days. It's been lovely, with some blue skies, and fabulous light, big fluffy snow. But the animals are funny (as in nuts) and things seem odd.

It may be the standard weather pattern here in Futa, but it's odd that within an hour we go from rain, to freezing sleet and snow and freezing icicles to almost warmth. It's like 40F, drops to 31F, to 25F, then zips back to 42F. How odd is that withing an hour? Twilight Zone, I tell ya!

Vickie, I'm sure you know this news....

AUG. 14 Volcanism Blog- Looks like Vol. Chaiten is predicted to die down or increase activity.
http://volcanism.wordpress.com/?s=chait ... tton=go%21

Such an unpredictable science. Trust your dogs.
There is also an Alaskan volcano spouting off, way at the end of the Aleutian Island chain. Interesting.

You may also want to know this 'recent' info.on the Futa re: local environmental organizations & intentions.
http://www.futafriends.org/threats.html and....
http://www.futafriends.org/action.html

take care, Jill tip

Hi Jill! No, I did not know the latest on the volcano...I'm in NC visiting my mother then on to Florida. I didn't bring my laptop so didn't have all my favorite links to obsess over things! I am very interested in what the volcano is doing, and glad to see that the latest ash plume did not settle on Futa (although that means someone else got it).

Without Chaiten as a jumping off point to the rest of central and northern Chile, we headed over to Argentina were stuck for a couple of days waiting for the pass to open so we cold get from Bariloche to Osorno. Talk about a hair-raising ride through the mountain!!!! It was stunningly beautiful, but the amount of snow was incredible. From the time we left Futa, to the time we landed in Atlanta GA - one week, almost to the hour.

Thank you for the links, again!

Vicki
(currently in lovely NC- missing my Futa)

I contacted Dr Ralph Harrington over at the http://volcanism.wordpress.com/ and he very kindly published a notice about the Chile forum and placed a link to this thread on the front page of his blog. Big thanks to him for that, and keeping the data flowing in English.

The Volcano is very very active today, and there are renewed fears of a major eruption. Check out the satelite image showing the ash blowing to Puerto Montt. Just when you think everything is quiet.
http://www.inglaner.com/images/chaiten/ ... ten_88.jpg

The web cam at the Chaiten airport has been amazing all day it was so clear,
http://www.aipchile.cl/camara/location. ... ationID=34

I am so disconnected while I am in the us, it's ridiculous! But anyway, I've reached an internet connection and checked up...the volcano is spewing and now appears to have two vents. But, all in all, I'd rather be there. Our trip up from Futa took awhile...two days waiting for the pass to be cleared so we could travel from Bariloche, ARG to Osorno and onto Valdivia...in total from our house to Santiago, five days. Spring must be creeping in in southern Chile, and I'm so anxious to get back, finish the house and get on with life. I've no first hand news of the weather and elements in Futa.

Max is gone now, and the Vet graciously took him out and buried him at our place. Wish we could have snuggled with him one last time, but that's just how things go.

I had plans for bringing back things (wood-splitter, food dehydrator, etc.) but just felt so overwhelmed and disoriented here in the us that I can't even focus on anything but going back and stepping out onto the porch and listening to nothing but the screaming river. Probably time to get busy with wood chopping.

Vicki

Vicki, I'm so saddened to read that Max died! What caused his death?

RWS, Thanks for the thought. Max went to straif and chase chickens in the sky! It was a difficult adjustment for him in Chile, and while we tired, it just didn't work. He went to sleep peacfully and waits for us to return home and plant some goofy flowers on his little piece of Patagonia dirt!!!!!!!

Vicki

Ten days and counting for our return to Chile, then a couple, or three, or five days to make our way south to Futa. I remember our first trip to Futa in 2006 in September...the roses were starting to bud, as were the lilacs. There was snow, significant snow, still on the mountains and the rivers and streams were bursting. It was icy at night and smoke stacks puffed in the cold mornings, but by mid-day it was light sweater weather. We stayed at Eva's, a little hostel in town. We'd walk out and turn 360 and almost fall down in awe (not because we had too much chicha the night before although that probably added to the vertigo). It was the season for the rhubarb-type stalks sold in store-fronts, the beginning of the start of the season.

Can't wait to get back.

Do you mean to say, Vicki, that just over one year elapsed between your first visit to Chile and your actual removal there? You're one determined person!

(I don't know how many years elapsed before my first trip to the far South and my intended move next February. But it'll have been about five or six, if not more, between my determination to move and the actual removal to Chile.)

We caught the virus in 2006 on our first visit. Then we made a determined buying trip in 2007 (March-June) and made the move in October. It's been an awesome, ongoing adventure, and we are just now returning from our yearly trip VACATION (eeekkkk!) trip home to soothe hard feelings of family in the US. Landed this AM, and we will start making our way south. Never has smog felt so lovely as this time when the big metal tube set down on the runway here in Santiago. I just pinched some lavander sprigs from in front of the hostel where we are staying, bought a couple of Cristal beers (I know Charles is cringing right now....) and I am looking forward to a sidewalk cafe supper. Today I stumbled way too many city blocks downtown to explore, and the old hips are screaming for a motorized wheelchair, but the place is just too lovely to sit inside.

We'll stay tomorrow night too, then a salon cama south for 12 hours, then another 12-hour stint, then a five-hour from Bariloche to Esquel, then an hour and a half to the Frontera, or Limite, and a ten minue burst to Futa.

Home. This is home. Even thought I still don't have a command of the language, this feels like home. And the closer I get to Futa, the less the advertising feces is plastered on signs, the bumpier the roads, the sparser the civilization is...the more my spirits sing. I'm almost home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mom..Greg and I have both said, "If we had to move back, we'd move to Murphy, NC."

When I get "home", I'm making a pot of beans with some smoked ribs. I'm gonna kneel down and smell the dirt. I'm gonna thank my lucky stars that we did this move when we did.

Vicki

THE GOOMBA HAS LANDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vicki and Greg Lansen wrote:. . . . we are just now returning from our yearly trip VACATION (eeekkkk!) trip home to soothe hard feelings of family in the US. . . .

I can understand this. The sadness of family and friends at my leaving (and my sadness at leaving them, for I couldn't afford to return to the States frequently), together with the need to save at least a little in order to be able to afford the move, has been, probably, the chief hindrance to my moving sooner.

Hola Fellow AllChileans. It's wonderful to be back in my beautiful, strange Futaland. The trip home was shorter than the trip leaving in August, but long nonetheless. Going found us leaving Futa on a bus to the border and up to Esquel, Argentina. No buses out to Bariloche and over the pass to the Andes back into Chile because the pass was snowed shut. Two days later, the pass was declared open and we hopped a bus to Bariloche (five hours), transferred onto a Salon Cama and began the slow crawl back to the border with a destination of Valdivia (8 hours). Snow was banked up to 10 feet in some places, the immigration and aduanas buildings were completely buried! It was beautiful, but I tried not to think about the icy twisty road. First time in Valdivia, and it was incredible. We spent the night at an overpriced hotel, then the next day hanging out at the fish market watching the sea lions, and wandering around the shops and having incredible seafood. Due to a miscalculation in military time (I should have known better) we missed our late night Salon Cama and had to forfiet our tickets, and jump on a Clasico for an eternally painful 12-hour trip to Santiago. We arrived in Santiago with a day and a half until our flight. To be honest, I was so exhausted I can't remember where we stayed or what we did. From the time we left our place in Futa, until our plane hit the runway in Atlanta GA, it was one week.

The trip home was in reverse, with out a snow delay. However the bus from Osorno over into Argentina and to Bariloche broke down in the pass and we had a four-hour break. Fortunately it was sunny and beautiful. Spent the time with some natives checking out roadside herbs and plants (mint, bay, nettles, and some other thing I didn't recognize). Arrive late in Bariloche and stepped off the bus with way too much luggage on my shoulders, which added to the impact on my ankle as I found myself sprawled on the ground wailing like a little girl. A trip to the dungeon-like hospital the next day revealed it wasn't broken, just badly sprained. The rest of the trip home was grueling for Greg who had to shoulder all the bags, make my beer runs, arrange getting bus tickets, taxi's and hotels. He's a peach, he gets a big gold star!

Home now, I was surprised to see the swirling ash coming into town from the border. I guess the foot and a half of snow when we left disguised the fact that even with all the clean-up efforts, the ash will be with us for a long time. Ran into some tour folks who come for season every year and they've decided to forego season this year because of the ash.

Futa was busy while we were gone, I see several new buildings going up, and more ash collected out of yards and streets in town. Azul, the area where we live received very little ash fall and the rains and snow seems to have mixed it in with the soil and off the trees. Still beautifulsnow on the ring of mountains around Futa, and the Futa and Azul rivers are almost normal looking. All the plum, cherry, and apple trees are flowered. It's lovely to be home. A couple of days now for shedding the constricting fifty pounds of stress we've carried around for the past month, and we are ready to resume our el campo adventure.

We had several friends back in the US ask how they would get to where we live, because they were stunned at how beautiful it is here. Once we gave them the rundown, most often we'd get, "Okay, nevermind!" With 30 aviation deaths in small plane crashes in the past six months, I'll take the old busing it trek anyday.

Now:

Find fuel for the truck
Find an electrician to hook us to the grid
Find someone to make furniture
Air out all the smokey stinking quilts
Plant food and flowers

Happy, Happy, Happy! My soul is singing.

Vicki

Not long after arriving in Chile, we were standing in the dining room of our house in Vina when we experienced a temblor. It was most amazing to see the window and the iron fence outside traveling back and forth in syncopation. I swear that every quake had a sound to it.l A very low sort of grumbling.

Greg