Let's go back to the days before the earthquake rocked Chile, we were in La Serena in northern Chile. We managed to catch the tail end of Chilean summer right before all the students go back to school, so the beaches were packed. The earthquake hit around 3:00 a.m. and to say that we weren't prepared is grossly understating the situation...it's not fair really, how are you supposed to know that you shouldn't enjoy a couple bottles of wine with the owner of the restaurant on a beautiful beach in Chile until 3:00 a.m. right before an earthquake! I mean of course you are supposed to "help" the owner close the restaurant, it would have been rude to refuse his generous hospitality but can I just say that the earthquake detection research centre just found itself a new supporter. Some warning may have been helpful, even if it was just to swig some water and brace myself, oh and perhaps run up hill from the beach!
The airports were damaged and we found ourselves stranded but when life hands you lemons....so we rented a KIA and decided to take a road trip (mmm lemonade), maybe a little more than your average road trip because we decided to drive to Argentina via the Elqui Valley and of course let's no forget that the Andes are sort of in the way too.
