We're okay! (again)

1 April 2014
12 April 2014

A few weeks ago, there was a major 8.2 earthquake in northern Chile. Chile is a really, really long country, and here in the middle we didn't feel a thing, nor did we get the tsunami we were warned about. However, lest we forgot that we, too, are in the Ring of Fire, there was a little one right here in (or near) Viña a few days later.

In the same way that Inuit have multiple words for snow (which I know is not quite true but go with it), folks around here have multiple words for "earthquake." What happened up near Iquique was a terremoto. What we felt was a mere sismo, and turning on the news was about all the action our housemates took.

A sismo preparedness meeting w/ our housemates. Yeah, that's it.

This past Saturday, Kat and I visited Valparaíso for the Tall Ship (Velas) Festival. We took a boat tour of the harbor, and on one side, tall ships.

On the other side were the cerros (hills) of Valpo. There are 42 hills, and one of them had a lot of smoke wafting up.

Shortly after the fire started

There were several fire trucks responding while we were downtown. By the time we headed home, there was a huge plume of smoke trailing out to sea, and the hills were glowing.

The glow is sunset; the fire is out of sight to the left.

Winds were strong Saturday night, and the weather has been dry. Here's an example of what city planning looks like in Valpo.

 

In case you're wondering, this area did not burn

It makes for charming photos, but how in the world are bomberos (firemen) supposed to get a truck anywhere close to a burning building through that?  I feel very lucky that the only effect I felt of those winds was that my underwear fell off the clothesline. The homes that were destroyed were mostly poor; why is that always how it works?

I have learned a new word this weekend: damnificados. Casualties; victims.  It's Holy Week, and that feels like an important translation somehow, like it's closer to its English cousin than it first appears.