Terror-moto

With my dad insisting to know all.. I have promised to write a blog and lets face it..this has been probably the most exciting thing so far.

La Casa Grande and everyone who inhabits it are all fine, well and safe. Our thoughts go out to everyone less fortunate. We have been amusing ourselves since the quake lastnight and have been in high spirits (if you dont have your sense of humour..what have you got ey? except your health i suppose!) Phew!

SO as kerry has mentioned that little high maintenance dog of ours had friggin peed on my bed and I. was. Not. Happy. So off i stropped to another room because i couldnt be arsed to change the sheets at 12am when there were made up beds elsewhere in the house. Managed to snooze off despite obvious excitement for hitting the beach at 4am (we had planned to go camping but none of us have sleeping bags or tents so it was definately going to be an interesting trip) when I felt a tremor start at 3.30 roughly am chile time. So firstly, like the sensible person that i am, I decided to try and sleep through it, but after about 5 seconds it was obvious it was getting stronger until I was sat up and rattling around in my bed. So having earlier broken the group dynamic by moving to a different room (did i mention that stupid dog peed in my bed?) I was alone and wondering what the hell to do. So as i listened for movement in other areas of the house I contemplated getting under my bed because:

a) I had small pieces of ceiling falling on me
b)I had visions that this might be what was happening in other areas of the house
and more importantly
c) thats what the little girl does in The Little Princess and she survived so i thought why the hell not

at this moment I see maria swing my door open and shout "Nina Nina get out of the house...RUN!"- Shit. As i run out of the room I can hear stuff falling off the shelves and as I peg it down the corridor I can feel the floor moving under my feet. This really IS like funhouse.

I meet everyone at the top of the stairs and amongst the quake noise i just hear "run run" and as I follow kerry and kerrianne down the stairs I pause to wonder JUST how well kerrianne is managing to not fall down the moving (dare i say swaying) staircase..but 2 seconds later kerry and kerrianne cause a jam by kerrianne frantically trying the front door to find that its locked...to only keep trying the door (kerrianne..its locked) and kerry arms flailing shouting "where am I going where am i going??" I run past them both to lead the way to the back door (ladies remember? This house does have more than one exit) To panic 2 metres from the door as i hear crashing and genuinely start thinking the walls are coming down...thankfully to quickly realise its everything falling over and smashing in the kitchen PHEW - Back door key engaged...door open...freedom. Ah. Simples.

Wait a second...in my haste I have completely forgotten that i am just in a t-shirt and pants. oh lordy.

after the quake passes and im by now freezing my bosoms off...we remember poor little princess lia has been locked in one of the rooms. That will teach her. No I have not forgotten that she peed in my bed. Uncle jaime appears at the door...notices my scantily clad appearance and tells me to go get shoes, blankets and a pair of trousers from upstairs but he adds "be quick...(dramatic pause) another one is coming" "okay jaime" shit.

I run upstairs...grab 3 apprópriate pairs of footwear.
1) green trainers sent by kerrys mother in the post. done.
2) flip flops. theyll do.
3) red strappy sandals. unlucky.

what? jaime told me to be quick. Grabbed the pissy blanket off my bed and whatever i could find in the dark (the SHORTEST hotpants alive) and peg it downstairs.

Still huddled outside...maria is scrambling around looking for batteries and gustavo is rattling off instructions to us girls. Im so glad i can understand spanish in emergency situations quote "well girls, from what i got of that, its either going to get much better or much worse". Jaime continues to tell us that this was no tremor..this was a terror moto. Yes jaime that sounds about right.

As the tremors slighten...we all move back inside...accompanied by the family who have all braved the small travel here...we bring down mattresses and blankets and all huddle waiting for more. Maria freaks us out every time by pegging for the door every time a tremor starts and by this point our poor british hearts cant handle much more. quote - "girls, if anything happens i just want to say I love you" - three british girls getting emotional on kids gym matts. I then break the tension by asking the question that has been confusing me since i was rudely awoken at 3.30 am "so...are we still going to the beach??" No. Ella we are not. Damn shame.

We salivate as maria passes around chocolate and bread (RUDDY LENT) and fall asleep on kids gym mats. By 11am phone lines are still down...still no agua and no electricity. News from home is letting us kids know that this was a pretty bad quake but we were 200 miles from the epicentre. We manage to get hold of friends in valpo who have declared theyre going to nap and then go in search of beer.

We head into the centre to check out the damage: couple of electricity poles ontop of a car...broken windows but other than that La Calera is intact and is not stopping for anything. We pop into abueli, clear up glass and broken plates, look for lost cat (claim to look for lost cat...that thing is evil) and find hoards of food storage...brilliant, we will come back here when all goes pear shaped.

So thats it for now folks. We got electricity back briefly lastnight....and the toilet flushed this morning (that was a relief cause our ensuite bathroom was smelling FUNKY) But water has gone again...apparantly for 5 days this time. Great. We are so glad we all decided to get up early at 4am and shower before we went on our beach trip.

Over and Out,

Ella Touching Cloth Duran