Student abroad shaken by quake

VALPARAISO, CHILE — The last drink my Chilean hosts introduced me to last night after dinner was called a "terremoto." English translation: Earthquake.

The aftershocks continue seven hours after an 8.8-magnitude earthquake rumbled and rolled through Chile early in the morning, sending shock waves and ocean waves to the west coast of Mexico and the U.S. and the east coast of China and offshore islands.

Another aftershock, the tenth, gives me pause as I write this dispatch. 

Around 3 a.m., a little after our Friday night of getting to know our host family better over dinner and a Chilean concoction called "terremoto," we woke to the sounds of rumbling walls and honking cars, their alarms set off by the motion of the earth below. It took a few seconds before I realized that I was neither dreaming nor a passenger on one of the city’s rickety microbuses that swerve around the curves and steep hills of Valpariaso. But then I was abruptly awake.

My roommate and I dashed to look out our window at the city as the tremors continued. The scene was a chaos of sounds and lights as we watched from our window. The earthquake lasted about 30 seconds. As the shaking subsided, the hillside in front of us flickered into darkness.

We collected our thoughts, everything that I had been told about what to do in case of an earthquake flooded back into my mind. It was a little late to stand under a doorway, but we went out into the hall where several people poked their heads out of their rooms. Glancing out my window, we noticed our Chilean neighbors fleeing their houses to go to the streets. Figuring that they would know what to do, we followed. 

The streets became congested with people and cars. A mix of shouting and honking created a feeling of panic. As we waited outside, other students said they’d seen cement walls begin to crumble. As we watched fire trucks and ambulances weave in and out of the traffic toward who knows where, we worried about how severe the earthquake’s damages were.

We heard reports that the epicenter was south of Chile’s capital near Concepcion, the country’s second largest city, where the US Geological Survey reports a magnitude of 8.8 and 350 miles from us. Buildings and bridges collapsed, more than 200 are dead so far — four in Valparaiso. Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet has declared a “state of catastrophe.” 

The power remained down until around 10:15 a.m., but has returned, although we have no water. We seem to be recuperating, and assessing the damage, although the possibility of aftershocks remains on everyone’s mind.

Interesting that a drink would celebrate a catastrophe. After meeting my host brother for the first time last night, we ventured out for typical Chilean foods and drinks. After empanadas and pisco sour, the last thing we ordered was the "terremoto." A pitcher of white wine with blocks of pineapple ice cream, it is typically shared between friends while hanging out at a bar. Refreshing and sweet, it turned out later that Chile’s other "terremoto" was soon to also be on my menu.

This report comes from a journalist in our Student Correspondent Corps, a GlobalPost project training the next generation of foreign correspondents while they study abroad.