Chile Forum

you got to understand, the community loyalty is strong in that part of Chile. We just visit, vacation, and do business down there and it is very infectious. I could see some police and others that are stationed there being infected by that sense of community loyalty fairly fast.

there is a special about the volcano on http://www.chilevision.cl at 10 pm we believe. It can be viewed online.

xxx

Hope everyone is ok when the volcano erupts near chaiten, got the news from this morning papers ....

el P! You are right on the money with that post. About the people, the Carabineros, and especially the oxen. They are working pets. I almost seriously damaged my relationship with my neighbor when I asked if they eat ox in Chile. She almost fell down!

The post truly describes here.

Thanks,

Vicki

From the May 8 Santiago Times:

"Areas now being covered with up to 40 centimeters of ash are practically lost," Universidad de Chile
engineer Wilfredo Vera told Radio Cooperativa. "The ground will need much more than five years in order to
recover. Decades could pass before natural vegetation begins to grow again. These areas will be starting from square
one."

eeuunikkeiexpat wrote:From the May 8 Santiago Times:

"Areas now being covered with up to 40 centimeters of ash are practically lost," Universidad de Chile
engineer Wilfredo Vera told Radio Cooperativa. "The ground will need much more than five years in order to
recover. Decades could pass before natural vegetation begins to grow again. These areas will be starting from square
one."

Why do they always adopt the doom and gloom line? Within 3 years, 90% of the plant species were growing once again on Mt St Helens. Ritzville, Wa is a wheat farming community in Eastern Washington. The ash drifts received several feet in the aftermath of Mt St Helens. Recovery time was measured in months, not years and certainly not decades.

And yes, after Mt. St Helens, they said the same things.....that areas would never recover or would take decades to recover.

P, nailed the descriptions of futa in both the animals and the police. I have exchanged horses and photos in the mountains with the carabineros outside of Futa on patrol, just a short ride from the Argentina boarder. They ride out once or twice a month to the remote ranches and check on the old farmers, pass along the news, ask about their health, and so on. When I would go out fly fishing in evening and find myself at the end of the day too far from town and hitchhiking, the chief would pick me up in his truck and give me a ride in to town.

I watched the special on Chile vision tonight, and just had to stop at one point. It was just too sad.

The plant life might come back, but we are all afraid that what might grow in its place first are dams and mines. The economic and political vultures are circling. Among others a bunch of senators from the south signed a joint declaration supporting dam development in the Patagonia as a means to recover, a resolution was introduced including the money for the road through Pumalin, and we are expecting any day now to hear word of the mining industry buying up land. None of these long term "economic aid" plans are going to aid the people that live there. They are going to aid Santiago. This area was already fighting for its life economically, and this is just a blow we are afraid they are not going to recover from.

The life the people in the campo have is very subsistence type farming and ranching that is a delicate balance from season to season. These people don't have the means to withstand even say two bad years, and the drought this year had already put many on precarious footing for the winter. We are afraid that many will never return once they start taking jobs and getting settled in places like Puerto Montt and Osorno.

The fly fishing is likely done for at least 5-10 years. It takes at least 5 -7 years for a trout to grow to a size you can catch, 10 years to be anything that might be considered sufficiently world class to catch international fly fishing guys. The drop in the PH levels and the videos we have seen of the thick gray water now has most certainly killed many. We have reports of dead fish on the banks of some of the lakes and rivers in the area. The trout in those areas where already under heavy pressure from over fishing because the rivers are naturally too clean to support a large population.

On the up side, the rafting industry (if they don't dam the rivers) will likely hang in there. They can run those rivers still. Unfortunately not a lot of that money was making it in to the community before the disaster, as the international rafting companies tended to keep the money outside the country.

Still, it is just too early to tell. If the volcano stops now, with no more ash being dropped on the region, there is a chance.

I understand that at least one vulcanologist believes an eruption -- lava flows, poisonous clouds, the whole "Pompeiian thing" -- is imminent.

And at least one other volcanologist doesn't think so! It is not a volcano with a known pattern.
The earth is pretty good at healing itself, be it oil spills,hurricanes or volcanos, it is always faster than the merchants of doom predict. They are like lawyers, go with the worst case scenario and prepare for that, no one remembers when your wrong in that situation.

Yea, there is a reason they loose a few volcanologist every year. It is far from an exact science.

Seems there was another major eruption last night.

So, we wait.

Louis wrote:F..... Why do they always adopt the doom and gloom line? Within 3 years, 90% of the plant species were growing once again on Mt St Helens. Ritzville, Wa is a wheat farming community in Eastern Washington. The ash drifts received several feet in the aftermath of Mt St Helens. Recovery time was measured in months, not years and certainly not decades.
And yes, after Mt. St Helens, they said the same things.....that areas would never recover or would take decades to recover.

Doom and gloom sells newspapers and keeps people watching TV. Not to minimize the suffering and loss of the residents, I dont mean to do that at all.... but the doom and gloom is overdone, the area will recover in a few years. Nature is like that. The main problem is the government and business entities coming in and raping the place with mining or other ventures while the people are away. Maybe thats a factor, they want to keep the residents out as long as possible to consolidate business control of the area before they let the residents back in.

I was having lunch with our own Mr. zulu789 in a restaurant in Valpo yesterday, they have a huge screen TV in the corner. Him and I were the only people watching the volcano news coverage, (the two gringo`s) everyone else was studiously ignoring it while eating their lunch. Was about 50 people in there too. But when the farandula or whatever its called came on, the celebrity gossip, "who is doing who" etc. all heads turned towards the TV and the room got quiet. We just looked at each other and laughed.