My Journey Round The World

So I missed my flight… But this time this isn’t my fault! I reached Santiago on time but couldn’t go to the airport: closed! No way to go there… I ended up standing in a queue in front of LAN office in order to get information about what to do… When I could finally speak to someone, she said to me that I needed to go to Qantas but they are now close, wait until tomorrow 9am.

I needed to find a place to sleep, didn’t feel like doing anything, kind of waiting for a miracle… Thing is, miracle never arrive when you need it! So I went to internet and sent a message on CouchSurfing – CouchSurfing is a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit. http://www.couchsurfing.org/ – after one of the Ambassador sent me a message, asking if I was safe and giving me a link to the Chile & Santiago groups if I needed help! What a surprise and realease to receive this message!!! So I sent my request and after not even 2 hours I got 2 replies and one really close from the Qantas office I needed to go the next day… Ceasar – a Peruvian living in Santiago – welcomed me and helped me to get info for my flight! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I’m suppose to leave tonight – Tuesday March 2 – for New Zealand!

What an adventure… I have to say that beeing alone during this travel was sometimes hard but manageable… Yes, I was missing a lot Ariane & Gregoire after they left Perou but nothing compare to that… Beeing all alone after my first – and I hope my last!!! - earthquake was the hardest thing I experienced so far - hopefully nothing worse would happen! I never felt such a fear in my life! I guess I can even say I was absolutely terrify! Such a weird feeling!!! As I said, I didn’t feel the earthquake, even if we were so close from the epicentre - lucky me! – I was sleeping. Waking up in the bus with such anxiety was strange, seeing cracks on the road, houses and bridge completely destroy was impressive but somehow fine… I was more worried about what the media would say to scare the rest of the world as I couldn’t contact anyone…

However the next day was a nightmare, even if I was safe!

• Feeling the aftershocks at 8am and later on during the day & night, in a house with all the cracking sounds was scary,
• finding out that I might not be able to travel was alarming,
• beeing in the city bus when someone scream that a tsunami is coming was absolutely frightening!!!

At one point, I found myself not beeing able to do anything else than crying… Crying for what?!?! Don’t ask! I’m still wondering… The only thing I wanted was to see a face I know… I was so glad to meet the bus driver
- Victor! It was a realease!!! When he was called to drive back to Santiago on that evening, he even offered me to come with him! An angel in a middle of this mess!

Where I was, nothing too bad happen, mostly materials problem. However all around Concepcion city is a disaster area! And I can tell you that medias are the same everywhere… Informing yes and alarming too…