We wake up after a night with torrential rains. We go on to Chaiten, easy: 45 kilometers of asphalt. On this portion, we reach our 2500 km from the beginning, a great selfie is de rigueur.
When we arrive in Chaiten, people inform us of the dramatic night that has happened about thirty kilometers from us. The village of Santa Lucia has partly disappeared under a mudslide. The road is blocked. The
north of the Carretera Austral is small, everyone knows each other and
all the inhabitants of Chaiten knew someone in Santa Lucia. There are several dead and missing people and count is increasing hour by hour (article in English). The atmosphere is very heavy and the locals live to the rhythm of phone calls. The other tourists and us try to make ourselves as small as possible,
but still a little voice inside us wants to shout: "It was close, it could have been
us".
We decide to go to Puerto Montt directly by the Sunday evening ferry, which will allow us to arrive Monday morning.
