Terremoto y Tsunami

An 8.8 magnitude earthquake, the fifth strongest ever recorded, and its resulting tsunami struck the central Chilean regions of Maule and Bio-Bio in the early hours or madraguda on February 27th. The outgoing government of Michelle Bachelet was quickly criticized for underestimating the extent of the disaster, not warning coastal residents of the impending tsunami, and failing to prevent looting of stores and burning of a mall in Concepcion, the second largest city in Chile. Hundreds of lives, 1.5 million homes, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been lost as a result of this tectonic shift.

The incoming president, billionaire businessman, Sebastian Pinera, successfully campaigned against the incumbent socialists on the promise of 6% economic growth. Those hopes have now been dashed and the losses to the economy appear to be about 20% of GDP. As Pinera takes command today, gaps in government assistance to the victims are being filled by ordinary Chilean citizens.

Reports from friends in Pucón tell of their efforts to drive supplies up to the affected areas in their own pickup trucks. Our Pucón neighbors, Kenneth and Anne Long, Tren and Linsie Long, and Tom Long of Cascade Raft and Kayak Company have called upon friends and have raised over $2000 to aid about 100 needy families in a coastal town called Tirua. The town survived the earthquake okay only to be demolished by the tsunami. The Longs are driving their own fully-loaded trucks to the area themselves.

Look here for a video of the Longs visit to Coliumo.

Look here for a link to read their blog and make a direct donation.

Coming Home to Utah's Wasatch Winter

We left our southern "summer" behind and arrived back to "winter" on a warm afternoon in Utah on January 31, 2010, exactly one year after leaving it for our Chilean sabbatical. Our Pucónino pussycat, Wellington, also endured the three flights with us. He traveled in his air cargo kennel to Los Angeles, where we collected him with our luggage, cleared immigration, then flew on with us to Salt Lake City where he will become our "gringo gato" at the Holladay homestead. Henry joins the ninth grade in progress at Mount Olympus Junior High, so we will soon be back into the usual routine and, sadly, thoughts of our year in Chile will begin to fade along with many of the friendships we have with the people we met there.

We will continue to post updates about these distant friends to this blog and promise to fill in the missing events from our extensive travel over the last months, so please check back here and look back occasionally to see those older photos and updates, too.

One of our first excursions (after getting some sleep) was up Little Cottonwood Canyon to Alta and Snowbird ski resorts. We collected our season passes and headed out into the familiar terrain, once again relishing the spectacular Utah scenery and superb skiing here in our own backyard.

Susan's ski group, the Wild Women of the Wasatch, welcomed her back wearing dresses of Utah's "sister-wives", the polygamous pioneer women who tamed this territory.

Hello, Utah. We're happy to be home once again.