The ocean came right in at the second floor level. Notice the siding ripped from the very top of the building, and the corner of the second floor blown right out!
With "Jack" the Police dog and his Partner
Testament to the level the water rose in Dichato, Chile during the Tsunami. Notice the damage to the leaves by the salt water. The damage reaches about fifteen feet. This picture was taken from a point approximately ten feet above sea level! Add that to the tree.
Pelluhue, Chile
Mon. Jan, 16
This past weekend was a busy one with a total of 1550km (963mi.) registered on the motorcycle since Friday at 2:00pm. The time we left Santiago. Luis, Vonchi and I headed to Rancagua to meet up with Guillermo and Veronica and continue on to Los Angeles, a six hour ride from Santiago. Just like last year we got nailed by the cops for speeding, but this time it was Luis that was the target. After humiliating himself by begging and pleading, the cops let him go. They didn’t nail me this time! We arrived in Los Angeles around nine at night and rode right to Luis’ brother’s house where we were expected for what turned out to be a very nice cookout poolside. We all had a great time but in the morning my head was still spinning.
Around 10:00am Saturday, we left Los Angeles and rode south west to the small town of
Capitan Pastene where we had reservations at an Italian restaurant called “Don Primo Restorante Italiano”, a small but very popular eatery. After lunch in Capitan Pastene, we rode northwest to the coastal city of Concepcion that was very hard hit by the 2010 earthquake that I managed to miss by only 24 hours. Much of the damage has been repaired but some is still visible in places. Luis and his wife Vonchi stayed overnight with family just outside of town and Guillermo, his wife Vero and I took rooms in a very nice hotel called “Ibis” near the airport. We had dinner at a fancy restaurant next to the hotel called “Solo Carne” (Just Meat)….my kind of place. We were seated in a VIP room all to ourselves. The meal, the wine and the service was five stars!
Next morning, after a late start as usual, we rode to the small fishing village of Dichato. If you followed the news reports of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami of Feb. 27, 2010, you may remember that the majority of Dichato was literally washed out to sea by the Tsunami. I looked at Dichato on Google Earth, and was shocked to see what it looked like before the tsunami and then to actually stand in the very spot that it all occurred and see the magnitude of devastation that took place. At one spot in town, we were standing on a road approximately ten feet above the present sea level, and could see damage to Palm trees at an elevation of an additional ten feet or more. Thousands of homes and buildings were lost along with some loss of life.
After leaving Dichato we continued north to the town of Pelluhue were we stopped for lunch at another very popular local restaurant. Unfortunately I don’t remember the name of the restaurant, but I will get it and update this. The food was excellent and if you enjoy seafood, this is a must stop. The panorama above shows the view from the restaurant overlooking the popular bathing beach. After a wonderful meal, and with the day now early evening, we left and headed back to Santiago approximately four hours away. An extremely long ride when you are already dead tired. I arrived back home at 1:00am and had never been so glad to get off the bike and get some rest. Soon we’ll do it all again! (more pictures here )
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