Chile Forum

They are reporting that the volcano is entering a new phase. They are not being very clear about what that means, but there seems to be signs that the volcano might be moving towards a closing act. Will look for more info on it.

I have been wondering how Futa is connected to the grid. I was surprised that power was available so steadily since this all began. Here they off the power whenever anything even threatens, just to mitigate damage. Where does the electric in the region come from

Hi Helen...Futa has a massive generator for backup. I'm not sure if that has been our primary source during the past couple of weeks, or not.

Vicki

Being in China we've been engrossed by the recent earthquake and never realised until today the scope of the Volcanic eruption. Thanks for all the invalubale information. We are very sorry to hear what has happened to Chiaten and hope the best for its people. We have been wondering if Hector Quichajual (ESSAL) and Matt and families are still in Futaleufu? Thanks again for the blog postings - I tried searching a few places for up to date info but only found it here.
Go well
Paul and Konomi presently in China.

Hi, Paul. We where wondering when you would check in. We figured the Earthquake was getting much higher attention from you guys. 60,000 official dead. I think Futa is in fairly good shape as disasters go this month.

Between the dictators in Burma not letting aid in, and the scale of the devastation in China, the Chaiten volcano is looking to be a fairly small disaster. Still remember, for the people that lost everything but their lives it does not feel small.


Yea, Hector is in Futa off and on according to word we have. We spoke to him some time ago.

The power grid comes up the Austral highway from the south to Futa. I take it they have switched communications also, as Chaiten use to be the regional hub.

earthwalker wrote:Being in China we've been engrossed by the recent earthquake and never realised until today the scope of the Volcanic eruption. Thanks for all the invalubale information. We are very sorry to hear what has happened to Chiaten and hope the best for its people. We have been wondering if Hector Quichajual (ESSAL) and Matt and families are still in Futaleufu? Thanks again for the blog postings - I tried searching a few places for up to date info but only found it here.
Go well
Paul and Konomi presently in China.

Hi there! Hope you are fine there. I just saw Hector two days ago, he's good, his family is still in Puerto Montt and fine. Hector is busy with the new water filtration system that was brought in and set up down by Lago Espejo. His right-hand man (is that Matt????) at ESSAL stayed through the entire ordeal running the Bomberos water truck around town, testing water samples and helping everyone.

Today is Sunday. Last night were some of the strongest rain storms we've experienced yet, with incredible thunder, shaking and today we have a nice river of clay slip running under the back door again. We've had a few earthquake-like rumbles over the past few days...USGS puts them on the Chile/Argentina border north of Esquel.

The foot and a half of snow that came early this past week seemed a little early...and it's still here.

How funny is this from the volcanism blog:

http://volcanism.wordpress.com/?s=chait ... tton=go%21

"UPDATE: Alan Sullivan at Fresh Bilge points out that the position I give above is not quite accurate: it’s 70 kilometres north-east (my fault for blogging in a hurry and not checking my facts, or rather my maps). He describes the quakes as ’Probably tectonic, but one cannot be certain’, which is a fair summary. I’d continue to lean towards a tectonic interpretation. By the way, a correspondent from Santiago e-mails to say that people in Argentina ‘always like to blame Chile for everything when they can’, so the natural response of the Argentine press would be to say that these earthquakes are all the fault of Chile’s badly-behaved volcanoes."

Today, all day, was an awesome, sunny blue day. I went about to buy some food and beer and visited with my neighbors, and it seems more families will return in the next weeks. More cattle were brought in these past couple of days, but it seems just as many are still in el campo and hay is being transported out to farms.

I hope that earlier reports of the government buying animals for 20,000- 30,000 pesos a piece is not the case (seems like a "fire sale" to me) and that the critters shipped up to Osorno will be given fair-market value. We met Ricardo Hevia in Osorno a couple of years ago, a big rancher in that area. I will try to call him this week and get his take on the whole thing.

So...believe it or not, there are still some blooming roses defying the ash, and snow and freezing rain. No one is yet to the point of frivolity in snow sculpturing, but I sense the urge.

City water is on, and reported to be potable. The streets are cleared but a shitty mess in my opinion. But then it's been a long, long time since I've seen snow melt, and never with an underlying layer of ash!


I'm looking forward to hearing from Gloria and Jill about their relocation experiences SOON. And Charles and Zandra about the feedback they are getting from prospective movers and shakers. NO pun intended.

Vicki

Hey Vicki
And how about the laundry? Must be nice to take a deep breath.
I have been glued to the volcanism blog and fresh bilge, since this all started, and have corresponded with Alan Sullivan about you guys in Futa. I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't been over here to our forum ,for a visit. . He really seems to be on top of the volcano stuff, very interesting.
Helen

Hey Helen,

I finally braved the machine and did a couple of loads of laundry. I'll see how the washer holds up. First I beat the hell out of the clothes to get rid of as much ash as possible. The worst stuff is still hanging on the line outside, frozen stiff, encrusted with gray clay! Maybe I should just fire them in a kiln and pretend it's art.

We seem to have a brief respite from rains, snow and ash now. The day was clear, but cold!!!!! The coming forecast is for rain, rain, rain, so we re-dug the trenches out back. Bosque, our landlord returned just minutes ago from Rawson, Argentina. He wanted to know if I enjoyed my "first snow"! It's so nice to have him back...already the world doesn't feel so small. He's got his chimney smoking and water boiling for Mate!

Vicki

Vicki
Good to hear the laundry thing is being resolved, its the small stuff isn't it?

I guess it was a hot time in the old town, last night, My husband who is one heck of a fingerpicker spent the last two evenings in Santiago (on his way north from Lago Ranco) with the a good portion of the teaching staff of El Nido and Santiago college (I appears music,especially guitar is a requirement ), playing Blues, Buffet, Simon , and Dylan, he is (how do you spell "siked") and ready to spend a whole lot more time down south.He arrives in PR late tonight.

It was funny when you posted the Buffet song. Jimmy had just left Vieques. he was here for about a week trying to bone fish, he got rained out. I have to think he has been to Futa,he is so nuts about fishing.
Helen

Helen, wow! If you could find out how to get a couple of new guitar parts to me, I would owe you forever! My old, very old Epiphone was busted either by bad handling, or extreme temperatures during our trip from Panama to Chile. The parts that were cracked and broken are the small ivory bridge just before the peg holes, and the bridge at the very top before the strings go over onto the tuning peg area. Yeah, I'm ignorant as to guitar lingo, but love my old Epi! Greg and I used to sit on the deck on Anna Maria Island and after a few Guinness, sing "Storms Never Last", or any one of John Prine songs that happened into my mind. I was heartsick to find the guitar pieces broken, and a gash in the body of it. It's just waiting for a little tender loving repair, and parts. Let me know, anyone if I can get parts here and how.

(Jessi Colter)

Storms never last do they baby
Bad times all pass with the wind
Your hand in mine stills the thunder
And you make the sun want to shine.

You followed me down so many roads baby
I've picked wild flowers and sung you soft sad songs
And every road we took God knows
Our search was for the truth
And the clouds brewing now won't be the last.

Storms never last do they baby
Bad times all pass with the wind
Your hand in mine stills the thunder
And you make the sun want to shine.

Storms never last do they Vicki
Bad times all pass with the wind
Your hand in mine stills the thunder
And you make the sun want to shine...

Dennis will be home tomorrow morning, he may even have those parts,(i think we have about 15 instruments) If not ,we will find them and between family and forum members we can get them to Chile.
My cousin plays guitar also, as do all the his friends (that is who Den was with for the last few days), so we do have resources there that we can ask about guitar stuff in Santiago. His son,our nephew is a university music major also, so lots of people to ask.
Great Song.
I should have have known you played, what else does one do who moves to the solitude of a cabin in the woods.

Vicki, they are going sing songs about the crazy blond gringa in Futa long after the volcano has gone extinct.

You mean the one who didn't shower for two weeks during the volcanic ash fall, killed chickens and dragged bird feed all over town, bought out the beer supply and "supposedly" had a husband holed up in a cabin down by Lago Espejo? I have no clue who you are talking about!

yea, that one.