The Chilean Earthquake
I’ve been asked a few times about traveling in Chile after the earthquake, damage I’ve seen, etc. The bottom line is that during a month in Chile I didn’t see any. I heard the Belles Artes museum in Santiago had some damage to it’s face but I didn’t visit there.
In Pucón, when we visited the waterfall, we were given a lift back to town by a couple from Concepcion who were living in their summer-house in Pucón due to the damage or destruction of their house in Concepcion. From what I heard, the majority of the damage was located in the area around Concepcion although some places as far as Santiago were also damaged. I didn’t visit Concepcion because I heard that the bridges were out, electricity and water were spotty, and generally the situation was focused on rebuilding.
I had also planned on trying to arrange a trip in Valparaiso to Robinson Crusoe Island, more correctly known as Archipelago Juan Fernandez. These islands supposedly have some great scuba diving available, and it’s possible to visit by making arrangements with the Navy to go out on one of their supply ships (or you can just fly, but where’s the fun in that?). Unfortunately, every building on the island was destroyed by a tsunami caused by the earthquake. The story of how almost all the inhabitants were saved by a 12-year-old girl is amazing, if you haven’t heard it.
When I went to visit the Chuquicamata Mine, which I’ll talk about a few posts from now, I went to the mine with two local residents of San Pedro who worked at a luxury hotel. My hostel was $16 a night, their all-inclusive hotel is $2200 for 3 days. So it’s used a bit by travelers looking for top class accommodations, but mainly by corporate groups on retreats (often US companies). They told me that lots of groups were canceling their bookings and that the hotel was only about 20% occupied despite it being high season. I would have to think that the state of the economy is playing a role here, probably a big one. But one example they gave was LAN Airlines, which canceled a booked conference to move it to Argentina. This is especially absurd in San Pedro…it’s incredibly far north and probably didn’t even feel a tremor from the quake, and even if it it did the attractions around San Pedro are the desert, which is impossible to damage! And for LAN, an airline based in South America, it seems especially inexcusable.
My advice if you’d like to help out Chile would be to visit. Everything you want to see is fine, and it would help to offset the lost tourist dollars from people who have been scared away for nothing.
