This rock had fallen on the road and had been shoved to the side by a bulldozer. They put the danger tape on it so folks would be sure to see it. Good thing because if you ran over a rock this size you would probably dent the oil pan or something.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Puerto Cisnes 7-8-09
Tuesday we made our first trip to Puerto Cisnes since we’ve been back. We left at 11:30, got gas and met Pastor Victor at the turnoff. We made good time as more and more of this part of the Austral Highway is being paved. We made good time till the Cisnes turnoff that is. The road was closed till 2:00 due to road work. We waited the 10 minutes and then continued on. The next 15 miles took an hour and we arrived at Puerto Cisnes at about 2:30. We ate a greasy lunch at a restaurant and went to check out the house. It had been some months since anyone had been there so we didn’t know what to expect. The house wasn’t in all that bad a shape as someone has been taking care of it. The stovepipe cap had blown off in a storm so there was quite a bit of rainwater in the wood stove but other than that we were quite pleased. There was almost no firewood so our chores were: find stovepipe cap, buy firewood, pay electric and water bills.
Found firewood pretty easily though it’s very expensive, $50 for a meter. 3 meters = 1 cord. The average person makes under $500 a month so imagine what burning 3-4 meters a month would do to your budget. The bills were tougher as most places to pay were closed or the line was down. I’ll try to pay when I get back to Aysén. The stovepipe was typical: “no we don’t have those but so & so does.” Then I get directions to go down the road to where the bridge washed out and look for a blue house. Go behind the house and holler till the guy comes out. He usually has stovepipe caps. We did all that and bought a cap for only twice as much as they sell them for in Coyahique.
Later we went around to tell some contacts about the service that night. We found several and they said they’d come.
5 people end up coming that evening, not bad for this area considering it had been months since they had last met. The people asked Rhonda and I to return and we said we’d try for the 19th, a week and a half later.
Rhonda and I slept on air mattresses downstairs and Victor in the bed upstairs. We kept the fire going all night but I still woke up shivering at 5:30. Air mattress may be the most comfortable but it also transmits the most cold. Maybe next time we can insulate between the mattress and sleeping bag. We manage to get on the road at 9:00 so we can get through the construction area before they close at 10. We just made it and got home in early afternoon.
Found firewood pretty easily though it’s very expensive, $50 for a meter. 3 meters = 1 cord. The average person makes under $500 a month so imagine what burning 3-4 meters a month would do to your budget. The bills were tougher as most places to pay were closed or the line was down. I’ll try to pay when I get back to Aysén. The stovepipe was typical: “no we don’t have those but so & so does.” Then I get directions to go down the road to where the bridge washed out and look for a blue house. Go behind the house and holler till the guy comes out. He usually has stovepipe caps. We did all that and bought a cap for only twice as much as they sell them for in Coyahique.
Later we went around to tell some contacts about the service that night. We found several and they said they’d come.
5 people end up coming that evening, not bad for this area considering it had been months since they had last met. The people asked Rhonda and I to return and we said we’d try for the 19th, a week and a half later.
Rhonda and I slept on air mattresses downstairs and Victor in the bed upstairs. We kept the fire going all night but I still woke up shivering at 5:30. Air mattress may be the most comfortable but it also transmits the most cold. Maybe next time we can insulate between the mattress and sleeping bag. We manage to get on the road at 9:00 so we can get through the construction area before they close at 10. We just made it and got home in early afternoon.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Bridge painting
They finally decided to fix our bridge after the big earthquake 2 years ago. They're almost done and are now painting it a rather bright highway department orange. Be rather hard to miss as they even paint the guardrails that color.
As only one lane is open we have to stop while the other goes. The other day I was first in line, they were spray painting, it was windy...
Now our car is dark green with a light eyesore orange overtone.
I scraped it off the windshield with a razor blade and need to figure out how to do the rest.
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