Chaitén, Chile - Polarsteps

We were looking forward to do nothing! And that's what we did in Chaitén! -end of this post. 😴 Just kidding! However, for two days we didn't do much. We enjoyed having a place with a fire stove, a bank to lounge on, a real bed, a 'bathtub' and our homemade Arretjescake! (Life can be so simple:) 🥳 About the village; in 2008 Chaitén was surprised by a sudden eruption of the -as they thought- sleeping vulcano.🌋 Fortunately, no one was hurt, but several houses were destroyed and the river flow changed. Some relics are still visible in a small open-air museum. It was quite fascinating to step inside those houses, almost buried in ashes. Household relics like curtains or a fridge were still visible. The eruption also changed the riverbed, which now cuts Chaitén in two and deposited so much ashes that the beach now extends for an additional 200m! This all gave Chaitén a very confused layout. On our last full day in Chaitén the weather cleared up and we went to explore the surrounding area with a visit to the sendero del las cascadas escondidas (something with waterfalls). Since there is hardly any public transportation, everything here is done by hitchhiking. A friendly Peruvian truckdriver gave us a ride, quite cosy with four people in one truck🚛. Frank was kind of squatting all the time and was happy when we arrived at the spot. The waterfalls were hidden in a temperate rainforest, which was super cool to walk through. So many plants, ferns, mosses, etcetera. We adored the wooden pathways that criss-crossed through the forest and were in awe by the waterfalls. Back to the drop-off point the waiting started... The other side is connected by a ferry, our only hope! Since we didn't know whether those small amount of cars that passed were from the last ferry, we were a little bit worried.... Will we have to stay the night in this jungle? But in good company of a Belgium guy we passed our time. Excitingly, we waved at all passing cars, however it took us three hour waiting time until an autobús took us back to Chaitén 😊

Country Guides:

Chile