I Left Bariloche on the 17th, hoping to hitch some rides to Chile and northwards, where the earthquake caused most of the damage. The news that arrived through the Argentine media were that the city of Concepcion, near the epicentre of the quake, was destroyed. I arrived in Concepcion at midday on the 18th. My first thought was “yeah, something clearly happened here, but there’s not nearly as much damage as I imagined.” I asked around where a volunteer would be needed, the council referred me to the military base and the military said there was a town that would definitely need my help, Dichato. This town is about 100km North of Concepcion on the coast of the Pacific. It is a fishing town located on a bay, and when i arrived here, my first thoughts were “this really is destroyed”. I went to a church first where they said volunteers were being organised. They told me to wait for a lady named Caroline who would be able to sort me out, and so i did. I waited and waited but after about half an hour of sitting there i decided i didn’t travel across an international border and 1000km to sit at a church. I walked out in search of something more direct, this is when Lucas arrived and we were told by an Argentine girl to go set up camp where she was – she was leaving at the end of the day. We walked up to where we were adviced to camp, and once we set up we realised we didn’t want to depend on someone to organise our help, we were going to do this alone. With Lucas, a 21 year old from Puerto Montt who had just arrived into Dichato much like i did, I walked down to the area where the town once was situated.
There wasn´t a lot left, the earthquake didn’t cause much damage but things got bad when three tsunami waves hit the morning of February 27th. We quickly found somewhere to help, and our work schedule consisted walking down the “road”, finding someone who needs help, helping them – be it tidying their house, removing rubble left from a house or even removing valuables (or belongings still worth keeping) and things that could still be used such as doors and windows – and once this was done moving on and helping another man, another woman, another family. By doing this we helped people directly, talked with them, got to know them, got information regarding other families that were in need of help. It was apparent to us that a lot of the mainstream help being organised by groups such as Fuerza Chile was not getting to some people, but we could find such people by walking around the town and asking.
After the second day we walked down to the beach and had a look around, the sunset was just amazing, the calm water gave a feeling of paradise, yet it was this same water that destroyed the whole town just two weeks ago. The beach was covered by scattered belongings, shoes, doors, fridges, cars, clothes, houses, the list goes on and on. They say the water is contaminated and no one can go in for at least another six months, their explanation is that there was a chemistry university that got partly washed out by the tsunami, but for the locals it is simply the fear of such a powerful force coming from the sea that will keep them away.
The camp we were at was made of people that lost their houses, they had nowhere to sleep therefore were living in “camps” on the site of the road. We made friends with one group of neighbours that consisted of two or three families, they were extremely thankful and kind to us, we had no food or money but this was not needed as in exchange for us helping them and they invited us for breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day.
We heard their stories of what happened when the quake hit, when the people ran to the hills in fear of a tsunami. They said that the reason so many died in Dichato – over 100 - was because the president told the authorities there was no tsunami, and therefore this message was passed on down to the people, and when they returned to their houses, a series of tsunamis wiped the town out. Some say the USGS advised the Chilean government that there was a tsunami coming. Why they authorised the people to return to lower ground we do not know. As a result of this people are now constantly living in fear of another tsunami, aftershocks of the quake occour daily, and some of these reach over 6 on the ricter scale. Some were told their house will be demolished due to their inhabitable state after the waves, some were told to wait, and others were given the all clear to return and continue living in their homes.
We met a northamerican guy named Ben, he was working with people from Fureza Chile but after it became apparent to him that these people, who were living in cabins, were doing little to help Dichato, he decided to join us helping out directly. We also found a dog, Lucas and i were walking down the road when we saw the dog in between some rubble, it looked like this was his home that had collapsed, we called him over and he came to us expressing a high level of joy and happiness, we took him with us, fed him and gave him some water, he drank litre after litre and ate a lot too. We named him “Derecha”. We had a lady who was willing to look after the dog after the two that she had drowned in the tsunami, but Derecha found a female companion a day before we were leaving, we left him at camp whilst we went to help in a town about 10km away, when we returned he was nowhere to be seen, we hope he went off with this other dog and nothing happened to him, but we will never know.
We were able to give a great deal of help the people of Dichato during our week staying there, we made a lot of friends, we have contact details of all the families we helped and we hope to return in July, when the harsh winter sets in, and help them even more. We will need as much money as possible to buy equipment and tools to help them build better shelters, we can go back to Dichato in July and keep doing what we were doing, but with a little help from all of you reading this we can help build shelters, get bedding to help them keep warm through the winter, set up water and electricity supplies so that their quality of life is not at its lowest form.
You don’t have to give us anything, but our help in Dichato can go a long way with a little bit more money, we are going to be working for the next few months to raise funds for this, personally by getting a job and earning as much as possible, but also by accepting help from friends who can donate, however small the amount may be, it can all help out a lot.
You can donate by clicking the button under this post, it is done through PayPal so you run no danger of fraud, the money will come directly to us and help us when it comes to buying tools and equipment to help the families we met this past week.
We hope you can all do your bit and help us fight for the people of Dichato who have simply lost everything. A slideshow below will show you some of the photographs we took, and give you a better idea of how run down Dichato is after the earthquake and tsunami.
I am hoping that after my week in Chile, Traviajero.com will no longer be just a blog where the readers can be updated on things that I go through, but also a way for these people to put their heart into what they read here and help those in need.
Visiting Dichato has changed a few things about how i look at life, I am hoping by raising funds and going back to Dichato in July I can continue to help those in need.
There wasn´t a lot left, the earthquake didn’t cause much damage but things got bad when three tsunami waves hit the morning of February 27th. We quickly found somewhere to help, and our work schedule consisted walking down the “road”, finding someone who needs help, helping them – be it tidying their house, removing rubble left from a house or even removing valuables (or belongings still worth keeping) and things that could still be used such as doors and windows – and once this was done moving on and helping another man, another woman, another family. By doing this we helped people directly, talked with them, got to know them, got information regarding other families that were in need of help. It was apparent to us that a lot of the mainstream help being organised by groups such as Fuerza Chile was not getting to some people, but we could find such people by walking around the town and asking.
After the second day we walked down to the beach and had a look around, the sunset was just amazing, the calm water gave a feeling of paradise, yet it was this same water that destroyed the whole town just two weeks ago. The beach was covered by scattered belongings, shoes, doors, fridges, cars, clothes, houses, the list goes on and on. They say the water is contaminated and no one can go in for at least another six months, their explanation is that there was a chemistry university that got partly washed out by the tsunami, but for the locals it is simply the fear of such a powerful force coming from the sea that will keep them away.
The camp we were at was made of people that lost their houses, they had nowhere to sleep therefore were living in “camps” on the site of the road. We made friends with one group of neighbours that consisted of two or three families, they were extremely thankful and kind to us, we had no food or money but this was not needed as in exchange for us helping them and they invited us for breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day.
We heard their stories of what happened when the quake hit, when the people ran to the hills in fear of a tsunami. They said that the reason so many died in Dichato – over 100 - was because the president told the authorities there was no tsunami, and therefore this message was passed on down to the people, and when they returned to their houses, a series of tsunamis wiped the town out. Some say the USGS advised the Chilean government that there was a tsunami coming. Why they authorised the people to return to lower ground we do not know. As a result of this people are now constantly living in fear of another tsunami, aftershocks of the quake occour daily, and some of these reach over 6 on the ricter scale. Some were told their house will be demolished due to their inhabitable state after the waves, some were told to wait, and others were given the all clear to return and continue living in their homes.
We met a northamerican guy named Ben, he was working with people from Fureza Chile but after it became apparent to him that these people, who were living in cabins, were doing little to help Dichato, he decided to join us helping out directly. We also found a dog, Lucas and i were walking down the road when we saw the dog in between some rubble, it looked like this was his home that had collapsed, we called him over and he came to us expressing a high level of joy and happiness, we took him with us, fed him and gave him some water, he drank litre after litre and ate a lot too. We named him “Derecha”. We had a lady who was willing to look after the dog after the two that she had drowned in the tsunami, but Derecha found a female companion a day before we were leaving, we left him at camp whilst we went to help in a town about 10km away, when we returned he was nowhere to be seen, we hope he went off with this other dog and nothing happened to him, but we will never know.
We were able to give a great deal of help the people of Dichato during our week staying there, we made a lot of friends, we have contact details of all the families we helped and we hope to return in July, when the harsh winter sets in, and help them even more. We will need as much money as possible to buy equipment and tools to help them build better shelters, we can go back to Dichato in July and keep doing what we were doing, but with a little help from all of you reading this we can help build shelters, get bedding to help them keep warm through the winter, set up water and electricity supplies so that their quality of life is not at its lowest form.
You don’t have to give us anything, but our help in Dichato can go a long way with a little bit more money, we are going to be working for the next few months to raise funds for this, personally by getting a job and earning as much as possible, but also by accepting help from friends who can donate, however small the amount may be, it can all help out a lot.
You can donate by clicking the button under this post, it is done through PayPal so you run no danger of fraud, the money will come directly to us and help us when it comes to buying tools and equipment to help the families we met this past week.
We hope you can all do your bit and help us fight for the people of Dichato who have simply lost everything. A slideshow below will show you some of the photographs we took, and give you a better idea of how run down Dichato is after the earthquake and tsunami.
I am hoping that after my week in Chile, Traviajero.com will no longer be just a blog where the readers can be updated on things that I go through, but also a way for these people to put their heart into what they read here and help those in need.
Visiting Dichato has changed a few things about how i look at life, I am hoping by raising funds and going back to Dichato in July I can continue to help those in need.
Thank you for reading and helping.
Santiago.
