Chaiten Workaway
Chaiten Workaway 20th Feb - 2nd March
We stayed with a couple Tommy and Lotta and the little boy Bruno who is 2 years old and the grandma Karin who is visiting from Germany. The couple live 6 months in Chile and 6 months in Germany. Lotta is German along with Karin and Tommy is Chilean. They live next to the beach – a two-minute walk away and we have seen dolphins and seals. No whales but they do pass by if you are lucky enough to spot one. The beach is quite busy with campers who camp illegally but there seems to be no one to monitor it or be bothered about it. We have stayed in a tent that we brought on some air beds with sleeping bags. It has rained a lot, but the new cheap tent has done the job and we have stayed dry.
Tommy and Lotta were great to stay with and made the whole workaway very enjoyable.
Lotta bakes delicious cakes and bread that Tommy sells to campers locally in the Parks that are nearby. They are also setting up a small campground that has a few campers. We helped with the grounds and around the house, just tidying the grounds and odd jobs - very relaxed and we help when we see a job that needs doing.
Time has gone very fast and one day has blended into another so we can just tell a few stories.
The Chickens – very tragic as the mother hen was savaged by a local dog leaving 10 chicks who had to be kept safe, so a makeshift pen was made up in the porta cot and found its place inside. Jim and Tommy then decided to make a chicken coup for the chicks that turned out to be rather elaborate. Thankfully they are now outside and happy in their new home.
A day out to Villa Santa Lucia – we were very fortunate to be taken out for the day by the family and also friends of the family and treated to a traditional Chilian lunch, a type of soup - stew, very tasty. We visited a national park and shown points of interest though the views were not so good as it was a bit cloudy and rained on and off for most of the day. However, we went to a village called Villa Santa Lucia and on the 20th September 2017 most of the village was destroyed by a massive landslide caused by glacier melt. The town had no warning of the slip and many of the community lost their lives, and their homes were buried under metres of mud. Very sad and quite an emotional visit for everyone as we had a look through the museum that is now in the town.
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| The group on our day out. Very lucky |
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| Glacier in National Park |
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| Photos of Villa Santa Lucia and two photos off the web below showing the landslide |
Kayaking – Our host Tommy has a kayaking business as part of the campground. He took us out for a paddle and up to a Sea lion colony a couple of bays around from Santa Barbara. Was a perfect day for kayaking and we felt very spoilt as we are supposed to be on a Workaway for the family.
The Hot Pool- what a hoot – not what we expected but again not totally unexpected. We arrived and the pool was on the side of the main road in the park – 3 others were also taking the opportunity for a dip, and did I mention it was 10 pm by the time we got there. The 3 others, two Chillan ladies and a French lady had biked there from one of the camping grounds and were great to chat too in the rather tepid pools.
Chaiten and the Volcano – Chile has many volcanoes in this region and the town of Chaiten was victim to a recent eruption in 2008 where the lahar from this volcano divided the town in two. Luckily in this disaster no one lost their life, but homes were destroyed. You can still see the significant scaring of the valley and surrounds and burnt trees with the regeneration underneath. The volcano visible from the town and steam still is seen from vents.
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| The Volcano still venting |
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| View of Volcano from Chaitan |
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| Some images from Google of the event in 2008 |
BBQs Tommy is keen on meat and BBQs. We had a couple - one cooking on an open fire and one over hot charcoal. Both turned out great but they do take a while with generous hunks of meat.
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