An Update on the Weather

"If people think nature is their friend they sure don't need an enemy." - (the ever quotable) Kurt Vonnegut

So a huge volcano violently blew up pretty close to my town last Saturday and I thought maybe it wasn't actually that big of a deal or something until Tuesday, when I started getting questions about it from up North.  Apparently ash travels faster than news from Nowheresville, Southern Hemisphere (zing!).  If  you happened to read something on the internet (like this or this) and wondered if that was anywhere near where I am, it is!  Here are some photos taken by friends of mine from my town:

 Thanks Max!

Thanks Stefan!

Awesome pics, guys!  I read somewhere that the plume is something like six miles high which is just nuts.  Also, we can't see the plume anymore because it's been raining intensely since Sunday.

Luckily,  the wind was not blowing in our direction, or we would be covered in literal feet of ash, like Argentina.  The cloud reached Buenos Aires yesterday, shutting down the airport and mucking up the air (sucks to your ass-mar!) and water.  This is insane because BA is hundreds of miles away.  Hundreds!  People are being evacuated and we are all on high alert for any post-eruption earthquakes.  But something positive did come out of all the craziness.  I learned that the word 'eruptar' does not mean 'to erupt' ('explocionar') but rather, 'to burp.'  Can you imagine if I would have left Chile without learning that?  Me either.