Thank you Ros for sharing with me your incredible adventure through Chile. The Earthquake seemed like quite an experience.
I'm glad you're home safe with amazing stories to tell.
Now, without further a due, please read on for Sunshine & Raine's first guest post!
Jazz
Chile in September
The first few days, we did a boat tour of the Fjords to visit the Serrano and Blameceda Glaciers, followed by a trip to see the famous Torres del Paine National park, which you may have seen on the cover of National Geographic. The weather varies here more than I have ever experienced anywhere else. It would go from beautiful sunshine to a blizzard within a 2-hour span. This would happen several times throughout the course of a day, leading the local joke that it’s not uncommon to see all four seasons in a day.
The red dust covering the area gives it a very Mars-like feel. Nothing survives. There are no weeds, birds, lizards or bugs. Nothing. Yet there is plenty of industry in the area, which mainly consists of copper mines and smelting plants. One of the locals had mentioned that copper makes up >30% of Chile’s GDP. So their economy is very commodity driven (not so different from Canada!).
After the Paranal Observatory, we drove from the coast to San Pedro de Atacama, which is a cute tourist town close to the border of Argentina and Bolivia. The town itself was not what we were expecting. Nearly all of the buildings appear to be clay/mud huts with the exception of a few buildings and the streets are unpaved. The town is effectively an Oasis; it’s built along a small river that runs down from the Andes and is the only source of water for miles. Although the town was small, it was busy with tourists, especially international travellers.
The next day, we went to visit the Atacama Salt Flats, known as the Salar de Atacama, which extend for 100 km from North to South and are the largest salt flats in Chile (3rd largest in the world). It also happens to be the world’s largest and purest active source of lithium, with 27% of the world’s lithium reserve base (which is quite significant considering the growing demand for energy storage). The lagoons in the area have a 40% salt content, which we got to swim in! It required absolutely no effort. Anyone, or anything for that matter, can float effortlessly.
That night, the temperature dropped quite significantly so we dressed in our toques and mitts for some world renowned stargazing as the sunset. The Canadian Astronomer leading the tour, led us into some great discussion of various constellations (including the Zodiac) and we were able to look at 12 different objects in the sky through high powered telescopes. What surprised me the most was the visibility of the Milky Way. I had expected that kind of clarity to only show up on a long exposure camera lens, but to my pleasant surprise it is in fact possible to see it with your very own eyes. It makes sense why there would be so many Astronomy research facilities located in this area. The view is simply incredible. After admiring the stars, we went in for some hot chocolate along with a question and answer period with the Astronomer. I wish I had some photos to share with you of the wonderful night sky but alas, my camera could never do the galaxy justice.
The next day, we drove into the Andes to experience one of the highest elevated highways in the world, with its highest point reaching approximately 16,000’! It was an incredibly scenic drive as we were surrounded by volcanos and mountains as we drove along to Valle de Luna, the Valley of the Moon, an extremely appropriate name as the entire valley looks like a moonscape with sand dunes. It is absolutely beautiful but too harsh of an environment to support life.
The next day, I wasn’t feeling so great so we stayed close to the hotel for the morning and early afternoon while Brian finished up the electronic form for his Visa application. Our flight didn’t leave until 5:45 that evening and I only managed to feel marginally better by the time we boarded the aircraft. As you may have been able to guess, my stomach required me to visit the wonderful airplane bathrooms twice over the course of the two hour flight. Not one of my finer moments... (Jazz note: see! I'm not the only one with poop stories!)
Once we finally landed at 7:45 (what a relief!), we got off the plane and boarded a transit bus to take us back to the terminal. Within seconds of getting on the bus, the vehicle started to rapidly bounce against the tarmac. At first we thought that someone was jumping on the bus until we heard a local mention the word "earthquake", which instantly alerted us to take notice of our surroundings. We looked out at the airplane, its wings were bouncing and a few tall poles outside swayed back and forth aggressively. We were almost concern they would snap! We quickly got off the bus but walking on to the flat ground felt similar to walking in a canoe. Once it was over, we started taking bets with the Australian couple about how big they thought the earthquake had been. They figured it was at least a magnitude 5 on the Richter scale, we guessed that it might be as high as 6. We later found out that what Santiago felt was 7.9 and the epicentre was a whopping 8.3!!
After we were allowed back into the building, we waited for our luggage (ahem...while I visited the bathroom again). There was a sizeable aftershock that forced everyone out of the building again so I quickly ran from the bathroom back to where my Brian had been, with a fear of being split up if the building were to collapse. After the scare, things calmed down long enough for us to grab a cab and head over to our hostel. On the radio, we could hear the announcer frantically declaring Tsunamis’ would hit various parts of the Chilean coast line as an aftermath from the quake. They were also reporting that there would be a chance of a small Tsunami hitting the coast of Hawaii and California the next day.
The aftershocks continued the remainder of our trip, making it very difficult to sleep through the night but luckily the city of Santiago has been built for these natural events and thankfully, we didn’t witness any damage throughout the city other than a bit of rubble, crooked street signs or cracked windows. Life continued on.
Chile is a beautiful country with so much variety. I will never forget the fantastic landscapes, wonderful people and how quickly such a small country was able to handle such a massive quake...incredible!
-Roslynn