Well, I´m sure most know, but a magnitude 8.8 earthquake hit Chile on the morning of Saturday, Feb. 27 at 3:30. This quake was felt thousands of miles away. The area near the epicenter was greatly damaged. Many buildings collapsed, and many more were left unusable. I personally have not seen much besides what I´ve seen on the news, but my host-brother went down for a week to help, and when he went, a week and a half after the quake, they were still struggling with getting water and food distributed to everyone. Most areas still do not have electricity. I´m not sure what the medical care situation is like. You also must understand that Chile IS definately doing all that they can to help there own. Chileans are very proud of their nation. Immediately they had a telethon to raise money, and they raised over 57 million dollars this way.
So my story is that when the earthquake hit, i was a good ways in the south on a spring break field trip with my program, and we were about 400 miles from the epicenter. Some of the students woke up when it hit, but the majority did not, me being one of them. So in the morning, there was no power, no internet, and no phone, so we weren´t to sure what was going on. During breakfast we found out what happened, but we still really had no idea of the effects it had. So our trip went on as planned, nothing really changed, and as time went on, we kept finding out more and more... Besides the power being knocked out for a half a day, there was no problems at where we were at, and so our trip continued on as normal, more or less. I wasn´t able to get ahold of my host family at all, but the exchange program had gotten ahold of all the families, and relayed to us that they were all ok! The airport in Santiago had taken some damage, so we got to stay a couple extra days on vacation while waiting for a flight back home. My apartment building at home was fine, just a lot of broken plates and glasses, and drywall dust coming off the ceiling and walls. My mom had everything cleaned up by the time i made it home. Our church took a pretty good hit, lot a plaster that fell off and/or came loose. There is also a large crack in one upper corner of the building, which is fixable, but we need some money and materials. Until then, we are meeting in a back building behind our church. (which you´ll see in one of the pics)
Here´s a couple of crazy facts:
1.)Chile has a one hour time shift just like the US, except they are in the opposite directions, so until now we have been 3 hours ahead of central time (2 hours ahead of eastern),but when the time shifts happen, it will only be 1 hour difference with central (and the same as eastern)!
2.) US already did their time shift, but Chile delayed theirs until april 1 because of the earthquake, to allow relief teams one more hour of work in the evenings.
Alright, so when i was uploading these pics, i wasn´t thinking really hard, and i did them backwords. The newest ones are on top, and the oldest ones on the bottom, you may view them in anyway your heart desires. If you want to see the pic full screen, just click on it, then when you are done, hit the back button on the browser =)
We went out to a mall closeby to my school for lunch the day after my birthday to get some icecream. The oppur
This is my family! Top Left: My brother Cristián In his arm: Marcela, his girlfriend In the middle in yellow: my mom, Verónica Bottom left: My uncle, Cesar On the Right: My aunt, Carmen Gloria and my cousin, Visante Top right: me
Delicious cake my mom made for me! We were lacking a one, so the wine bottle candle sufficed. It was ironic to me, but the drinking age in Chile is 19, so no one else felt that way =)
This is the back building at our church where the services are being held right now
This is our church. We were having a work day to get everything cleaned up, which first involved getting all the loose plaster off the walls.
The last time seeing volcano Osorno on our plane ride flying back up North to Santiago after our field trip to the south.
We went ziplining when we were in the south, it was quite fun! It was just as much fun watching the others go as actually doing it =)
We took a fairy ride across a lake named "All Saints Lake" because it was discovered on All Saints Day. Beautiful fresh water lakes surrounded my hills with water falls coming into it, very very cool trip.
A waterfall nature reserve area on the way to All Saints lake. The water fall was cool, but the color of the water was incredible. That morning was so beautiful with the water and the hills and the morning mist, this spot was probably my favorite of everywhere we went. I also found a bamboo shaft that had just been cut laying on the side of one of the trails. I kept that bamboo shaft for the rest of the trip =) (and then forgot it in the hotel...)
Same spot as above picture, just thought it looked cool =D
Beautiful sunset. This is looking off the back emergency escape at the hotel we stayed at for 5 nights, it was so beautiful. That´s Volcano Osorno in the back. People in this pic are Top, left to right: Michaela, Alex (only other guy on the trip out of 28), Michaela, Nora, Chastity. Bottom: Me and Sarah
Same shot as above, just without the people!
One of the towns we visited on our adventure in the South, don´t remember the name. Way in the back, the white, are actually the Andes mountains, not clouds, it doesn´t come through to well online here. People in the picture in clockwise fashion starting with me =) : me, lexie, hanna, michaela, kate
crazy huge, all wood church in one of the towns we visited
morning mist rolling away!
First night in the South, the night of the earthquake, beautiful sunset!
Playing around on the beach, running around looking for sea shells. Who doesn´t love doing a little bit of treasure hunting? =) This pic is us just being goofy =) (we did find some really cool sea shells!)
There was a lot of really cool colorful fishing boats all over the place in the south. These ones looked particularily Brazilian =)
This the group as we are arriving to our first hotel!
This is in Valpariso, a port town about 1.5 hours from Santiago. Wiring jobs like this are not uncommon to see at all, whereever you go in Chile =)
Cool vista shot of the ocean
Viña del Mar, sister city of Valpariso, big get away spot for all the Santiago city dwellers, and tourists in general. About 1.5 hours from Santiago on the Pacific coast.
Neat little lizard guy! Saw a lot of them on a trip I took into the mountains right outside of Santiago. In reality, most of them I didn´t even see, just heard as the moved into their hiding spots, but this guy was nice enough to pose for me =) They definately blend in pretty good!
Pic of me as I was climbing up a valley to see a glacier in the Andes. One of my favorite hikes ever! =)
This was a big event that we had going on in Santiago for a week. Because it is Chile´s bicentenial this year (they won´t actually be 200 years old until September), they were doing all sorts of special events, and this was one of them. The guys who put this on are from France, and I guess they travel around the world doing shows. (they were actually headed to New York after Santiago). It was pretty crazy how excited everyone got over this! This was going for three or four days, i don´t remember, this was the last day, and i found a little tree that was easy enough to get up into for a good perspective(nobody in Chile climbs trees, its wierd). After the giants went by, i had to chill for about 20 min until the crowd had thinned out enough to be able to jump down with out crushing someone, many many people, it was crazy!
