Iquique and tsunami

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March 9
So I had to put my headphones on to fall asleep. I want to change hostels but I don't know if I can be bothered. The swell is supposed die thursdaay and Friday but pick up on the weekend. I'd like to see the place with a decent swell but also like to see Arica with swell ill have to check the forecast hopefully I could get a day or 2 in here and a day or 2 in Arica. 

Well there wasn't much surf when I checked it this am so I went back and had breaky and lied back down fora bit. Then decided to hang on the beach. There was a bit more swell with the higher tide but I thought I'd wait a while so I walked the entire south side of the beach just scoping it out. No other surf spots but a nice walk. When I got back I decided to go have lunch and possibly go out surfing after. Well lunch turned into me mucking on the net and sanding the dings on my board. When I finally decided to go out the wind had gotten on it and it was much smaller. SOB. Haha. I did stop in a local surf shop and had a chat with the guys about the best break, colegio the one I surfed last night, when the next swell will be, apparently the 16th and whither they thought here or Arica were better. They thought this place was better because there are many breaks right in front. Apparently you need a car to get to the breaks in Arica, but could also be everyone likes their home break. Anyway i might have to sit out the flat spell here. Man it's boring no swell and no Denisse. Not enough wind to play around with my kite either and I should have brought my spear gun or some goggles at least there are alot of guys diving for something, I think oysters. I also asked the surf shop about sandbaording but they said they don't do it, which is weird because my book said they do. Maybe I'll stop in the backpackers place and see what they have info wise. 
I'm catching up a few days. So I think I decided to go workout that avo since i missed the surf window. They have one of those cool little parks with exercise equipment. Why dont we,USA, have more of them. Anyway I jumped rope and did push ups, pull ups, and sit ups. Everyone was staring at me the crazy gringo with no shirt on. Haha anyway I decided to go check out a few hostels. The backpacker hostel was cheaper and very nice so I saved a room for tomorrow. I stopped in another it was nice but more expensive. I think I just went back to my hostel then made dinner and nicked off to bed. 

March 10
So I got up had breaky then packed my stuff up and lugged it all down to the other hostel. Mucked around for a while to wait for the tide to change then went for a surf. It wasn't amazing but I think a bit bigger and pretty fun plus there were only 2 other guys out and after a bit one went in. The guy that stayed out was super friendly local but had lived in new zealand for 4 years and England for 2 because he had sisters there. We ended up surfing for 4 hours or so, catching waves and just chatting. When I got in a made lunch and chilled out with the people in the hostel. I thoght about doing another sessh but was sore from my workout and the wind got on it abit so I didn't bother.  I made a grocery run then made dinner and nicked off to bed. 

March 11
So I woke up to a few texts and emails from mom and dad telling me about the earthquake in japan and a possible tsunami headed our way. So I spent most of the day reading news online watching the news on tv and talking to Denisse, trying to figure out what to do. The women at my hostel said the safe zone is only 5 blocks from here and laughed at me when I wanted to try and find another hotel on higher ground. The worst thing was the surf looked really fun but everyone was telling me not to go in like i would get hit by it hours before it was suppose to come. They said it was suppose to hit around 11:38pm. So why couldnt I surf now? Well after spending most of the day worrying I finally decided to paddle out for a bit. I went out bare back so that would force me to not stay out that long. It was pretty fun surf think it picked up a bit I got cold after half hour or 45 mins and headed in. I made dinner and heard they finally told us to evacuate by foot but we didn't have to start until 9pm. So it was a boring waiting game. Finally a bit before 9 Alex, another American, and I decided to start walking higher because everyone else in the hostel was so relaxed about it, they were just going to walk 5 blocks to the supermarket. If a tsunami did come I don't see how that would help it wasn't and higher, Denisse agreed and really forced me to go higher and further. Luckily Alex was keen on hiking up a bit. Anyway we walked and chatted away until we reached a woman that told us not to go up the street we were on because it was dangerous there were guys up there who might rob us, something I didn't think to much about before hand. So we made our way over to a main road and there was a cop there, we asked where to go and he just replied higher. So we followed this main road up to another large intersection and couldn't figure out where to go we took a few roads but decided to turn back in fear of being robbed.  After some time we finally made it to massive circle on the top of a hill at the base of the pass over the sand dune mts. There were lots of people and some cops there so we felt safe. Until a group of pakastsnis came up to us and only one was talking to us the others were just creepily watching. About the same time we noticed the cops had left. So we decided to change scenes. It was probably12:30 or so by this time. We had heard they changed the time it was suppose to hit until 12:40 or so. We decided to head down a little anyway since we were super high. We found another park to hang out in. Alex had an unlocked iPhone and was trying to find out what the deal was because the whole situation was really weird. After a while we noticed there were less and less people around. I called Denisse but she was out to dinner with some friends and hadn't heard anything. We eventually heard on a radio some one had blaring that it hit Arica, a town a few hours from here, and nothing happened so we decided to start walking further down because at this point i was more worried about getting robbed then the tsunami haha. So we got to a police road block and they said we couldn't go down any further but we could go spend the night in the school. Well we didn't want to do that but we stopped in to hit the toilet. We decided to just wander around abit and before we new it we were about a block from the beach and 2 from the hostel. During our walk Denisse contacted me and said it was all over so we decided to stop in the hostel to see what was going on. Everyone was there and had been for a long time. They went to the super market for about an hour then went back to the hostel. Haha crazy interesting night. I texted mom and dad to let them know I was ok and I called Denisse then nicked off to bed. 

March 12 
So my ears finally started hurting yesterday rather than just being itchy so I decided to try and see a dr. However the clinic I went to was closed as was the pharmacy because we were still in an alarm state. I started walking to another clinic  and walked up to the beach to check the surf. There was no one in the water any more and very few people around. I met a very nice chillean woman and ended up talking to her for almost and hour or so. She tried to help my ear problem through meditation I think haha weird but nice lady. I eventually went to check the other clinic but it as closed as well. They cops were all out again and there was a weird eerie feeling. So I headed back to the hostel to see what was going on. Apparently the ocean receded in Arica and they were worried something was going to happen so they closed the ocean and the beach. 
Well nothing happened but the beach was closed most of the day. When they finally opened it the surf didn't look worth it the tide wasn't right and it was super windy. I did maje it to the pharmacy and git some ear drops dad abd i decided i have swimmers ear infection in both ears  bummer, im not suppose to go in the water but i got some ear plugs hopefully thatll help.
So instead of surfing I decided to go for another workout. When I got back I had dinner and just hung around the hostel and called Denisse before bed. 

March 13

So I got up around 8:30 to check the surf it didnt look that good and it looked a bit smaller at least from the top of the hostel. So I decided to wait for the tide to switch and I'd have breaky first. I went out around 10 and surfed the right hander colegio apparently they left I had been surfing and what I thought was colegio was la uracas. Anyway there were some guys at uracas and no one at colegio so I got to surf by myself for a few hours. It was super lumpy and bumpy though. It must have had another swell mix in because it wasnt windy to make the chop on the face of the wave. My first wave was a sweet barrel but my the nose of my board got stuck in a chop bump and I got tossed. I had a few other good ones but it's a super short wave and it was so bumpy it was hard to do anything basically just a fun drop. After my surf I had some lunch then set my hammock up on the top deck and took a nap. The french guy Paul, I think, came up and we chatted a while he said we was gonna go out in about an hour I told him id go with him. So we went out and surfed uracas I wasn't as bumpy this time around so i got some good ones but I wasn't surfing great and a number of guys followed us out. After this sesh we went in and I made dinner.  I had some un cooked chicken from 2 days ago that smelled terrible. I tried washing it and steaming it up well but still smelled and tasted terrible so I had to throw it away. It was from the butcher in the grocery store so no preservatives or anything. I had to just eat my rice and veggies for dinner I couldn't bother going out. I watched some tv and called Denisse then went to bed. 

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