Terremoto

Let me allay everyone´s fears. I was actually really touched at how many people were worried about me, but I am just fine. I was probably 1000km from the epicentre and the most that some could say was that at 3am (half hour before the tremors started to shake and shatter glas and stone and cement, opening holes big enough for cars to be lost in, and throwing massive bridges into the water) dogs howled in Futaleufu (the little border town that I was in).
To me this sounds like legend, and it likely is but it might be a way for people to feel connected to the suffering. It is bizzare how this works because really, I am no closer to the destruction that any of you. I see it on the tv and hear it on the radio and the closest I get to seeing real reverberations of the quake, are the long lineups at LAN Chile (the national airline).
I am actually poorly informed about the earthquake, in terms of human cost. I know that infractructure damage has ben masive but I think that (and the last thing that I want to do is downplay deaths) the death count is around 700.
Indeed, speaking of anything else seems cheap right now, when there is so much suffering and loss. But if this makes anyone feel better, this is not unheard of - Chile has no poisoness snakes, no tropical diseases, no civil wars, but it does have earthquakes and about every 25 years there is a big one. For many this is new and for all it is painful but it is not a surprise. The question was never if, but when and the clock is ticking again.

As for me my ankle is still swollen (especially after my 12 hour busride, which later I shall write about) and I spent two days with only a few dollars in my pocket and no way of getting money... indeed my bus was on trust that I would get money when we arrived in Coihaique. This area of the country, I think, is the most beautiful, it is the area that I most wanted to explore but lamentably I have to hold back. I could go out and hike but this will ruin my ankle so I am sitting around itching to move but being smart so as not to ruin my trip!

I was walking around Coihaique, a confusing town in the middle of absolutely nothing (for hundreds of kilometres of gravel road and ocean and ice and mountains in every direction there is nothing!!) looking for an internet cafe and there I saw, walking toward me Yani!! My friend from Santiago who bought a motorbike to go around south america like Che Guevara! I had not seen him since november!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thats all the little news that I have and I will post something more later, until then stay safe, and I will too!