Traveling through the Earthquake Area - Part 1

We waited until Monday to return to Santiago when the most severe damage to the roads had been identified usually with one or two red cones and there was some gas available. At the first open gas station we found, we waited in line for 45 minutes to get 10,000 pesos worth of gas (about 4 gallons), but they ran out with the car in front of us (actually they had orders to save the remaining gas for arriving military crews and turned off the generator to insure that it was done). We then waited at another station and got our 4 gallons. That time we sent Kalindi, one of our adopted Indian daughters who speaks good Spanish and doesn't look like a Gringo, in separately with an empty gas can to tell them that her dad had sent her to get gas. That worked, but only because she was wearing a Colo Colo shirt (a popular local soccer club). It took us over 21 hours to drive 575 miles to Santiago, a trip that shouldn't take more than 10 hours. After 15 straight hours on the road with numerous very slow detours, we camped Monday night by the light of the full moon next to the highway not far from one of the many tollbooths, all of which were empty or had signs indicating free passage. Lots of bridges were out, so detours ranged from lane changes to avoid large cracks more than a few inches tall to missing pavement often a lane wide. In places, half the highway had slid down several feet. As a precautionary measure, many bridges deemed usable were reduced to one lane of traffic with northbound traffic alternating with southbound vehicles. Some detours were as long as 40 miles. Along the main highway (Ruta 5) we saw many homes still standing and many that had been reduced to rubble, Traditional tile roofs within 200 miles of the epicenter frequently slid off and ended up as piles of broken fragments along the sides of the buildings. Rock falls were a common site on the roadway. We traveled inland which avoided the worst of the damage along the coast. All along the way, we were reminded that Chile's spectacular natural beauty directly results from these sometimes harrowing geologic processes.