Meliquina To San Martin

Time to leave ....the morning came …supposedly, the alarm went off at 9.30 am for my drugs …. looking into pitch blackness I thought the android tablet had lost its marbles, clearly it was dark and nowhere near 9.30 am.

It didn’t seem right, we turned on the phone, same time ….WTF, looked out the curtains, nup dark…..SERIOUSLY WTF.

We swung the door open to find Armageddon, it was raining sand, dust and ash, a quick sniff and taste revealed sulphur smells ….WTF, it was deathly deathly unnervingly quiet with NOT a single sound …..the previous night on ADV rider Mike Ryder put a link on our ride report saying a volcano south of us was doing poos.

Putting 1+1 together still made 3, the ash and sand laden breeze was blowing in from the north east, the volcano was 145 km south west of us, we automatically assumed that a volcano close to us had let go.

We had no electricity, no wifi, so no communication or lighting, at 10.00 am we lit a candle being it was pitch black, we wanted to preserve our LED light batteries in case we needed to leave without the bike and in the dark?.

Mega thoughts running through our minds, how cold will it get?, how long will it be pitch black, how long will it rain sand and ash?, how deep will this shit get?, can we ride out or do we have to leave Maya here?…. fuck … too much to think about...my head was already hurting now stressed with a situation never presented to either of us in our life.

To be honest it was very weird, the time and darkness was really screwing with my head which, at this point in time, was already screwed.

It was kinda cool but kinda unnerving, the feeling of fear, the feeling of anxiety leading the charge but we had to take control realizing we were ok, had food, had shelter etc so not a problem yet.

Making some quick management decisions we got all the water we could until it turned brown (the water comes directly from the creek), the sand and ash turning the water brown.

Managing to round up only 9 liters of safe water we have our filters which we could use if need be.

Plans of leaving today became apparent was not a happening thing, at 11.34 am it was still dark but we reckoned we could see light above in the sky but neither of us knew if it was our eyes playing games or not.

P1240714 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

By 1.00 pm the sand/ash cloud had settled and we could start to see, we put on our face masks and B lined it to the bomberos (local fire and ambulance station), it is about a 2 km walk, still raining sand and ash we both turned white walking down, the bomberos said the roads were closed so that confirmed we were there to stay, they also confirmed it was Calbuco that had blown it's lid with fury.

Pity there are no banks here

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The entry stairs

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This is what 1.00pm looked like

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The dust varying in deepness from 5 - 25 mm

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IMG_8415 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Down to the shop we bought a 2.25 L Coca Cola which boosted our liquid supply by 30% , the shop owner saying if we needed water he has a clean bore from the ground so all was good.

The volcano delayed our departure date by another day, and that was already after being there for about 10 days trying to sit out me being ill.

I felt the world was against me at this point, seems that every time we ride past a volcano it explodes …."starting to get a complex" now

Sitting out the day behind glass drinking Coke we slowly watched the cloud dissipating and seeing the extent of the event unfold, dust storms came and went and as the cloud cleared the wifi signal started and we got some information which saw us in the middle of an epic international crisis event with state of emergencies declared etc, the magnitude far greater than we realized.

The mid afternoon gloom

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Then the dust storms set in with a yellow tinge from the sun behind/above

IMG_8420 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

The night was one of anxiety as the authorities said brace for more, luckily it did not happen and we woke to a day that was promising so we made a break for it.

It was like riding through a bag of flour, powder everywhere and every step we took making a cloud.

Face masks were definitely the order day and with me still not right I was not taking ANY chances.

Does this mask make my nose look big?

P1240736 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

A slow trip to San Martin, now looking into the lake was brown and murky so I was very happy we took the time before the volcanic ash changed things, now we are riding in a grey monotone nuclear fallout looking place so very spooky, again still deathly quiet.

Hitting the main road which is paved made no difference, if anything it was worse to ride due to the 15 - 20 mm layer of superfine ball bearings supplied by mum nature, coupled with this when a car went past we had to stop and wait a minute literally as we could not see a thing, another fear playing on my mind if a car coming from behind not seeing us and taking us out .. fuck it does not get any easier, with this in mind we stopped hard over to the edge of the shoulder.

P1240736 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Pulling over to stop before the cloud swamped us

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Arriving to San Martin was WW3, dust storms, twisters and grey EVERYTHING coated.

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Airy feeling, signs everywhere saying “Despacio” which means “slow” in Spanish, any and every movement creating a dust storm, people with shovels mounding up all the ash, every shovel load creating more dust.

It seemed like a fruitless effort nonetheless the spirit of cleaning up was alive and well.

P1240750 by twomotokiwis, on Flickr

Lucas and Andrea from next door at the lake said come stay the night so we caught up with them, Ellen making Chinese dumplings as a sign of our appreciation for their help and friendship.

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Andrea, (my angel) washed our ash and dust laden clothing in their washing machine reverting them back to their original colours, the little things that make a big difference.

That evening more ash and sand came down but very little and not enough to cause any more trouble for us thus in the morning our plans to head over to Chile were welcomed with an almost clearish day with dust in the air but good visibility.