I,ve tried to put the photos on but it,s a slow connction and it does not work so yu,ll have to wait til tomorrow when I,m in Santiago
The journey north from Pucon was delayed by all the diversions that we had to take. They were caused by damage to mainly bridges and the ramps up onto them. In several places the bridges that failed have already been demolished and the foundations of new ones been put in place. These road problems and diversions are a minor irritation to the Chillian population. What has been devestation for them is what has happened in the towns and to peoples houses.
I am at present in the city of Chillan, which is about 60kms from Conception where over 300 people died not only from the earthquake but from the Tsunami that rolled into their town without warning!(the navy who had the rersponsibility to give the warning, forgot or didn,t think it nessecary)The hostel owner informs me that over 80% of the town has been distroyed and people are still living on the streets.
Here in Chillan the death toll this time was only in single figures. This is in contrast to the 1930,s earthquake when the whole town was distroyed and over 30000 people died.
Buildings built after the 1930,s quake have to be built to withstand quakes which is why very few people died. Even so many building have been damaged. The large building have cracks right down them and wall have fallen down,brick facade have collapsed and one shopping centre is closed as it might fall down if another quake hits town.
Peopple here are resilient they have no option but to carry on and little by little they are repairing the damage and will eventually get back to normal.
I,ve put in a few photos but to be honest I felt like a vulture picking at people suffering whilst I,m OK Jack.
The Cross by the damaged Cathedral is 30mts tall 1 mt for each 1000 victims of the 1930,s quake!
I,ll be in Santiago tomorrow before setting back to Argentina for a few days to visit Mendoza and the wine country till then: Chow
