So Jen and I wrapped up our trip to Santiago, knowing we had decided on moving to Mendoza, but also that we would likely be back. On that note, we met with Derek Mossman of MOVI, a group of independent winemakers. We met at his house where he poured for us some of his wines from Garage Wine Co and we talked about the Chilean vs. Argentine wine industry. The trippy thing was, that at some point we talked about earthquakes, and I made the ominous comment that I thought Chile was about due for one.
Well sure enough, a very large earthquake did in fact strike Chile. It was so large, that despite being on the other side of the Andes, we felt it pretty good over here in Mendoza, Argentina. Luckily, we had flown from Santiago to Mendoza a mere 12 hours before it struck, but we had very nearly stayed another day in Santiago.
Having grown up in California and lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for ten years, I was no stranger to earthquakes. I woke up to the slight tapping of our hanging closet doors. I must have sensed something was wrong, because I looked over at the window, where sometimes the wind blew in and made the same noise. The curtain wasn’t moving, there was no wind. I bounced up and then I heard a car alarm, confirming my suspicion it was an earthquake. I grabbed baby, woke up mom and we went to the closest doorway, where we sat through an agonizingly long 2-3 minutes of the floors waving and the walls shearing. I tried to make light of it, and downplayed how bad I thought it was for Jen. Siena, born and raised (until now) in San Francisco, slept through the whole thing, and even a diaper change in between aftershocks.
Being from California, we didn’t bother going back to bed until after the first aftershock. It wasn’t too bad, so we went back bed. We woke up for the second aftershock, looked up at the light fixture gently rocking, and went back to sleep again.
The next day we went to the Internet cafe, and tried sending emails, Facebook updates, and so on, so our family would know we were okay. Internet was spotty, as the quake seemed to have knocked out some lines.
We also reached out to our friends in Chile, all of whom thankfully are okay. Matias, of Espresso Bar Cafe reports that there was no damage where he was. Derek was not so lucky, as he writes about here, but the most important thing is that his family is safe.
We are filled with a sense of wanting to help. We haven’t figured out how exactly yet, but I’m sure Derek from MOVI can point us in the right direction.
In the meantime, we urge you to please buy that Chilean wine or organic Chilean strawberries the next time you are in the store. In this small way, you can contribute to rebuilding Chile.
