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Published: February 28th 2010
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So we arrived in Santiago at 8.30 in the evening and made our way to the hostel where we met the rest of the people in our dorm. We were pretty starving by now and headed out for dinner and organised to meet Matius who we travelled with in Brazil.
After dinner the three of us headed into town and had a few drinks but we were falling asleep so headed back to the hostel and retired to our beds around 1.30am. I think I must have been asleep within 10 minutes.
At approx 3.30am I woke up to a deafening noise and for some reason my bed was moving crazily against the wall. I tried to look around and could see someones light outside. I looked quickly at my watch and noticed it was half three in the morning. I then realised that it was not just my bed that was moving but the whole building seemed to be bouncing around and moving up and down. This all happened in around 5-6seconds as I was waking up. I suddenly realised it was an Earthquake and jumped out of the bed as Anne was shouting to me if I was ok.
Everyone quickly made their way out of the hostel onto the street to get away from any immediate danger. We stood outside not really understanding the extent of the quake. After 1 hour we retreated to our beds and went back to sleep feeling the occasional aftershock.
The following morning was when I realised the severity. I turned over and looked at my mobile and was greeted by txts asking me if I was I was alive and ok. Everyone then started to gather in the hostel and discuss what had happened. We soon realised we had just experienced one of the strongest Earthquakes in recorded history and we are indeed lucky to be alive.
On that day we were due to fly to Australia and we soon realised this was not going to happen even though Qantas were telling me the flight was still on Schedule. As the flight was due in the evening we headed out for the morning to survey the city. It was not a pretty sight with many wals collapsing and windows smashed through to the street. Many street were covered in rubble. The church around the corner from the hostel has completely lost the
top which is now on the ground.
That afternoon we decided to find out once and for all if our flight was cancelled and kindly Matius brought us in his car to the airport 20km away. On the trip were saw the most shocking sights in Santiago as many of the bridges of the highways had collapsed crushing the poor drivers in their cars that happened to be on them. Unfortunately all these cars are still there upside down and hopefully the bodies have been removed. Once we finally found the airport it was impossible to enter and we soon found out it would be closed for at least three days. We then headed back to the hostel and I immediately called Qantas and the helpfully arranged for us to board the flight that leaves on Tuesday 2nd March. Hopefully this one will leave.
We opted for an early midnight sleep and slept very well.
I woke up at 8am and at 8.30am felt a strong aftershock but nothing like the day before. Apparently there has been over 100 aftershocks in the last 24 hours!!
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