A flood in 1985 left the old cemetery in Carhue in ruins (Argentina)

Carhue is located some 520 kilometers south-west of Buenos Aires by Laguna Epecuén. The lake overflowed its banks in 1985 when the dam broke. This led to a flooding that caused a lot of damage to Carhue and Villa Epecuén. The reason we rented a car and drove to Carhue was to visit Villa Epecuén. This town almost disappeared under 10 meters of water and it stayed under water for 25 years before emerging when the water startet to recide. It has become a deserted ghost town. Carhue seems to have been somewhat located on higher grounds, so that this town survived. The town's old cemetery lies right down to the shores of the lake and thus became flooded. We only had two nights in Carhue, which meant only one day at our disposal to visit Villa Epecuén. What we hadn’t taken into account was the weather. Our first and only day in Argentina ( 4 weeks) with rain, was this one day!

This morning my sister and I were woken by thunder and rain. The plan was to drive the aprox. 6 km to Villa Epecuén. But it was raining heavily. We weren't sure that the dirt road would be passable. We therefore started the day with a walk down to the lake. It was so windy that the light disposable raincoats we were wearing were of no use. There was water everywhere, making it difficult to cross the road without getting in ankle-deep water. With all the water that had come during the night, we could almost imagine what it must have been like when the dam broke causing the water to rise.

A couple of streets leads directly to the shore of the lake. At the crossroad to the old cemetery there is a statue of Christ. A sign next to it shows pictures from the flood in 1985. The statue, which is a few meters high, was almost hidden by water. Look at the photo in the right upper corner on the sign. You only see the top of the statue. On the sign there is a text, which we have tried to translate:

«The Christ of the road: Christ was placed here in 1937 under the leadership of municipal commissioner Juan Marcalalin. The prize for this statue of Christ was donated by his wife. It was given to the city to be placed on the road to Epecuén and the old cemetery. Its authorship correspond to Arg.E.S. It was declared a "Municipal Arguitertonic monument" and in 2014 it was declared a point of interest and an artistic place».

Selfie together with my sister. Wet and windy.

We walked a little way out along the beach, but the wind was so strong that we turned around and went back. I filmed with my mobile phone, but the film is somewhat uneven because the wind took hold of it. We went back to the hotel to wait for the rain to stop.

We returned to our hotel trying to work out how to get to Villa Epecuén by car. The rain didn't calm down before after lunch. Then we drove down to the lake and decided to try to drive. We did manage by driving slowly. I will show you photos from the ghost town as well, but I will like to show you the old cemetery and the same walk by the lake in the afternoon, as in the morning. The weather was completely different. No wind either. In the soft afternoon light, we were able to continue along the road leading to the old cemetary.

Gradually the water has receded. The trees are completely leafless and look completely dead. We did noe walk all over Carhue, but from what I saw, there is little evidence of the flooding. The old cemetery is the only place we could see what had happend. As we were standing here and lookeda at the remains in the cemetery, the lake and the landscape, we realized that it has been 37 years since the dam burst and the sea overflowed its banks.

The cemetery is not so big. But we took time to walk around and study the graves and small details, like some of the small statues. There are different types of burial sites, so we understood that some are very old. We saw fresh flowers by some of the graves, which means that people from the city still come here. There is a new cemetery further away.

Before we walked the same way back, we went out towards the water. The pink birds are flamingos. We couldn't get any closer because it was too wet. We sank into that soft sand.

Laguna Epecuén has a salt content ten times higher than seawater. That is what made Carhue and Villa Epecuén spa towns for a multitude of visitors. There are still spa hotels in Carhue and you can choose from a variety of different treatments. The town itself is possibly worth exploring. We may have missed something by not selecting more days to stay here. But at least this one day gave us the opportunity to walk by the lake and see the old cemetery in addition to Villa Epecuén.

As soon as I have sorted out pictures from Villa Epecuén I will come back with a selection. It is a very special place, which I think is being worked on to become a tourist attraction.

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