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I never thought I would experience the Vertical Earthquake Ramiro had told me about. I had no idea there were two different types of earthquakes.
Now, neither one of us are experts on Earthquakes so we use a common explanation. The one we know.
The most common earthquake or tremor, causing the most amount of damage is - what I call - the Horizontal. The earths shakes back and forth, left and right, braking up roads and shaking buildings. The other one I call the Vertical; The earth moves up and down. Not that I was waiting for either one, but experiencing the Vertical one, sort of completes our adventure, and just in time because today we are leaving.
After a busy day, we are enjoying an American movie in bed. all is quiet and very relaxing.
All of a sudden we hear a bang, that can be compared to a lightning strike. Immediately following was the strangest feeling. As if the bed was pick up and dropped two inches...... PLUNK!!! ....... and that was it, after that everything was quiet again. I did hear a few car alarms go off in the neighbourhood but no other sounds or sensations. WEIRD. We turn to the news on TV and learn that the epicenter was Valpairio at 5.5 and 4.5 in Santiago.
It took me a while to fall a sleep, not knowing if there would be other surprises, but everything remained quiet after that.
The bags are packed. We have the whole morning and part of the afternoon for ourselves.
The sun is shining it is a beautiful fall day in Santiago. Leaves are falling of the trees. Temperatures of 24 C are expected and will increase to 27 over the next few days. Let’s take it all in while we still can.
We start walking and end up on Providencia, the main street, which was so quiet the last few days. Today, it looks like New York. Buses and taxis fill the streets. People walking, rushing to work or to go shopping. All the stores are open again. We just go with the flow, and are shocked by the number of people at the pedestrian crossings ignoring the red lights. Especially the elderly.
They walk as if the lights do not exists. While many wait patiently until the light turns green. We watch an elderly lady cross while the light is still red. A taxi approaches and she is waving her hands signaling him to stop. The taxi driver honks his horn, we shake our heads, others just take it as a normal occurrence.
The street is lined with little kiosks, fruit, candy, magazines. Even the shoe shine is busy. Ramiro puts him to work on his shoes.
The centre is usually open along the sides are tiny little stores, you can reach by following the walkway shaped like a snail, leading up to the various levels. Once you reach the end, you walk back again along the same spiral. This area, however is filled with antique shops. Ramiro is having the time of his life and wants to show me everything. There is jewellery, furniture, statues, art, lamps. china and lots of silverware.
I patiently tag along, hoping Ramiro will have the same amount of patience when I take my turn at the many ladies wear shops.
We have difficulty deciding where we can eat lunch today. The best places are usually hidden and you don’t easily see them from the street.
I keep my eyes open and spot a small passage. It leads to an open area with little boutiques and Bingo, a number of restaurants.
We pick the nicest looking one and find a wonderful outdoor patio on the second floor.
We both agree, that we should have one more Pisco Sour, before we return to Canada.
We have a Taxi bus take us to the airport well in advance, knowing that it is still chaos at the airport as a result of the earthquake.
The arrival hall is in a temporary tent on the parking lot outside. There is no way for the taxi to approach the departure hall. We need to find a cart for our luggage and walk a long way to the entrance, where we take the elevator to the third level.
There is construction everywhere. Restaurants and stores are either in temporary locations or under construction.
It was so neat to see the donation box from one of the Rotary Clubs in santiago with the End Polio Logo. What a great idea.
While we wait at the departure lounge, we feel one more tremor. I will be so happy to be in the air and leave the shaking behind. Oh, but I forgot about the possibility of turbulence. During the entire 11 hour flight the plane did nothing but shake. Most of the time we were not even allowed to get out of our seats.
With an overnight flight we usually hope to get some sleep. Instead we watch movies, three of them.
After a four our wait in Toronto, where back in the air again with an hour delay and more turbulence. The last leg of the flight and one more movie.
We’re happy to have our feet back on Alberta ground again. Liz and Robert have been waiting for us and welcome us back with flowers and food in the fridge. It’s wonderful to be home again.
These were four amazing months. The places we have seen, the people we have met, the lessons we have learned. We will never forget.
It is nice to be able to go to the blog every now and then and see the pictures and read about our own adventures. We hope that this blog can also be a guideline for those who consider making a similar trip.
We’ll probably never have such and adventure again, but then on second thought: Our motto is: “If you do it at half the price, You can even do it twice”.
Perhaps you will follow me again?
1 comment:
Thanks so much Elly for your wonderful account of a very special trip. I will miss your stories.
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