Curico, Central Chile 2-6-2010

Odometer: 6020.4 miles

Los Saltos, Central Chile 1/6/2010 Odometer: 5835.5 miles

As I come North through Chile, from about Pucon to San Fernando and Pichilemu, I can not help but notice the damage done by the earth quake a couple months back. It first can be noticed along the freeway and its bridges, there are road crews at every bridge along the way. Most of the bridges now have at least 2 of the 4 lanes open, though I did come across one that was pedestrian only. The head engineer let me cross with the motorcycle. The main body of the bridge still spanned the 100 yards of river bed, it appeared only the starting and ending sections had fallen. The engineers had built temporary wooden gang planks of 2x10s, 3 planks wide, with wooden hand rails across the short 25 feet sections, out to the main bridge. Only one hand rail had to be pushed over to let the saddle bags fit through. The drop off was only 15 feet or so to the rocks and water below. With the entire road crew watching, I ease the la Poderosa into motion and we cross the planks. There is a lot of give in the planks as they bow under the weight. When I got the bike out onto the main bridge I thought it was all good till I noticed that at each expansion joint of the bridge was gapped about half a foot not half an inch, and sometimes the road surface was raised or lowered 2 to 3 inches across the gaps. It was strange going over the wide and uneven bottomless canyons, dust and debris falling towards the river 20 some feet down below. I thought “this ain’t Iowa.”

In the town of Curico, the damage is quite noticeable. At least one, if not 2 buildings, per block is completely down or severely damaged beyond repair. The hostel I stayed in still had ½ the roof missing. Most people seem content and are trying to rebuild.

One cute part of the day came after lunch. I had just finished eating and was giving my bike the simple pre-start check when I felt eyes watching me. I looked up to see a young boy’s face peering at me through the back window of a school bus, stopped at a red light. His big black eyes in full stare. I make a funny face. He makes one back. I up the ante a little. He triples it with a full on pig nose, fingers in his mouth and tongue out. Not to be out done, I set my helmet down and really contort my face adding shoulders and back into it. He taps his buddy on the shoulder and now two little faces start in. I begin to contemplate my next move as to not be out done. Then, as if on cue, the light turns green and the bus lurches forward. Two small foreheads whack the glass. Four little eyes start to water. All three faces involved start laughing, enjoying the moment, and then all 3 faces contort one more time, giving it one last college try. The bus rounds the corner and I can’t see them anymore. I think, “This could be Iowa.” Huh TVG?

Uncle Walter

The 2 photos are of a canyon outside of Curico where they are dumping all the destroyed buildings. Most are adobe. A bull dozer comes past every so many days and pushes it all over the edge.