The Earthquake

As I’m sure you all know by now, I was not present in Chile for the earthquake, but just barely. I left the morning of Friday, the 26th and the quake happened the following night/early morning. I was preoccupied by Mario’s struggle to enter Peru (see Mario’s Epic Journey) so at first I was not as effected as I could have been by the news. As the day passed however, the reality of my fortune began to sink in. Had I decided to leave just a day later I would not have been able to fly out of Santiago for God knows how long. It still isn’t at its full capacity several weeks later. Plus the idea of being there alone and trapped in a terrifying 8.8 quake still gives me the chills.

I wrote to Mark to make sure all was well at sea. Since they were about 200 miles offshore the tsunami wave (which travels along the sea floor very rapidly) had passed beneath them without the slightest hint of anything unusual from where they sat. Had we been in the marina, or the place where we’d passed Concepcion by only a mile offshore, it would have been an entirely different story. I joked that one of their lucky charms aboard (perhaps the dried seahorse) was doing its job, but with any other timing this could have been the end, or at least a major setback to the project.

Next, I set about writing to all my new friends in Chile. Everyone was well but the marina was a mess, several boats lost and major damage sustained. Pictured here are the before and after shots of the marina. Also, most of the people we met are among an upper class and would have been living in homes that were up to pretty high standards.

Chileans are amazingly resilient people and they seem to be rallying from the disaster remarkably well. Still, it gives me pause to think of the power of nature and those that were unfortunate enough to be paired against it.