What sounds like the best way to relax after building the walls to a house? How about a 1000-km road trip the next day??? No? Well, that's what we did.
On Sunday, we left the straw house project around 4pm, only to rush home, shower, put something classy on and attend Nick's grandma's 95th birthday party. Normally this would have warranted a post all of its own, but I was so wiped out and thinking of the upcoming trip that I barely have any recollection of the party (except that I FINALLY got to wear this cute strapless red dress I found at a thrift store in Cleveland for $5).
Monday morning, we hit the road in the farm truck at 7:30 am. We were trying to beat beep-o'clock but it started early that morning, so there was lots of traffic and noise trying to get out of the city. Just on the other side of the mountains that form the border of the Region Metropolitana and Region VI O'Higgins, we encountered our first earthquake-related delay. Both the bridges on Route 5, the Panamerican highway, had collapsed, so we had to take a detour through the country. The upside of this was that they didn't charge tolls, so we didn't have to stop and wait in the toll line every hundred kms or so.
The whole way down, we passed many bridges that had completely collapsed or sides of the road that disappeared. Here's one where the other lane just fell off:
Another where the bridge just snapped off:
This is the old bridge over the Rio Claro that broke as well:
I was a bit disappointed when we got to the South because it was cloudy from farmers burning off their fields. Burning stuff is one of my biggest frustrations here. No one seems to care about the environmental implications of burnings acres and acres of vegetation, let alone the quantity of garbage that is burned. I read reports from the tsunami ravaged areas that said they were dealing with the debris by burning it all in order to avoid a health crisis. Avoid a health crisis? It just changes what type of health crisis you will have! But I digress...
We got to where we were staying, outside Puerto Varas on the shores of Lago Llanquihue, late in the evening, but the skies had cleared and we were greeted with one of the most spectacular sights I have ever seen in Chile. Above the grand Volcan Osorno, a full moon had risen and was wrapped in a beautiful halo.
I know this looks completely fake, but this is an unretouched photo (long exposure obviously) I took of the situation
1 comment:
wow that is so pretty!
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