The Chilean Earthquake - A First Hand Experience

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Craig and Linda Martin

Craig and Linda Martin are world-travelling Kiwis, blogging and podcasting at the award-winning Indie Travel Podcasts. ...Find out more!

The Chilean Earthquake - A First Hand Experience

South America has had its share of disasters this year. Everyone heard about the floods in Peru which closed Machu Picchu for three months, and only a few weeks later Chile was hit by one of the largest earthquakes since records began. We'd been in Chile for just over a week when the earthquake hit at 3.34am.

Carnage on the Motorway

The four of us were travelling in the south of Chile, a whistle-stop tour since my Chilean friend Moroni only had a week off work and the rest of us had a deadline to meet other friends in Lima. We'd taken an overnight bus from Santiago to Temuco, then made our way down to the island of Chiloe and back up to the lakeside town of Puerto Varas. It was our last night of the trip - the next night we were due to be on a mammoth overnight bus trip from Puerto Varas back to Santiago.

We were staying in a guesthouse about five minutes' walk from the lakefront, and had a pleasant walk along the lake before heading back for dinner at home. We had a private apartment - two bedrooms and a bathroom linked by a galley kitchen, which meant we could try out our newest favourite thing - pebre. It's a salsa made from onion, tomato, and coriander, and we kept getting it wrong!

We all had trouble sleeping (mostly because Moroni was snoring) but being woken up by the whole building shaking was something completely new. It took me a few seconds to work out what was going on - Janine said later that she woke up thinking she was on a boat. I knew what I was supposed to do - my Civil Defense training in primary school in New Zealand had been drummed in well - but the movement didn't seem strong enough to warrant getting up to stand in the doorway.

We found out later that while the earthquake registered at 8.8 on the Richter Scale at its epicentre in Concepción, it was only about 5 in Puerto Varas - not enough to do much damage. But we felt the full duration of the quake - all 90 seconds of it. A couple of minutes after the shaking stopped, Janine and Moroni came into our bedroom to see if we were okay and to let us know what they'd found out through Moroni's Blackberry. The electricity had failed and soon Moroni's Blackberry was offline - there was no signal at all. We decided there wasn't a lot we could do and went back to bed.

Terror of a Tsunami was as realistic as the 8.8 earthquake

In the morning the electricity was still off but we had a gas stove, so we could make coffee and decide what to do. Janine and Craig went to the supermarket to get supplies - everyone there was calm so that was a good sign. We walked down to the bus station, to find that our bus that night was definitely cancelled - we were just glad that we hadn't been on the same bus the previous night.

Eventually the power came back on and Janine and Craig found a cafe with wifi so we could let our friends and family know we were all right, then we all sat around in our room watching the TV coverage of the aftermath. Santiago had been badly hit, and a lot of roads and important bridges were down. But it was worst in Concepción. Whole neighbourhoods were destroyed, there was no power or water, and people couldn't get access to basic supplies. We saw footage of people looting supermarkets for food (and in one case, a television). It was mind-numbing to think that so many people had died, and that thousands of others were homeless and desperate, while we were comfortable in Puerto Varas.

We had a lot of trouble leaving Puerto Varas, actually - the bus company gave us tickets for a bus that didn't run, and then could only put us on a bus several days in the future. Eventually (after two more days in Puerto Varas) we managed to get as far as Temuco, where we spent two more nights before finally getting back to Santiago.

"Fuerza Chile" (strength Chile) flags appeared as the post earthquake support movement gathered strength

Everyone was affected. Moroni spent hours online trying to get in touch with lost friends (who were all okay in the end) and our friends in Santiago have a large crack in their wall as a memento. The airport and main bus stations in Santiago and other centres were closed for several days, disrupting travel plans for thousands of people.

But it was awesome to see the people of Chile band together to help each other, while the government took longer than expected to take action. All supermarkets had volunteers standing outside collecting goods for the relief effort, and more and more "Fuerza Chile" (strength Chile) flags appeared in windows and on cars.

Now, five months after the disaster, life is back to normal for many Chileans, but the relief continues. Concepción and tsunami-affected coastal towns are still being rebuilt, and it doesn't help that Chile is still being hit by earthquakes.