Lista de Deseos: Terremotos

Hola todos!

I have a bucket list that I want to try and achieve by the end of my exchange, which you can see here. One of the things I wanted to experience in Chile was the earthquakes or los terremotos in español.

Geographically, Chile sits on the edge of the Pacific tectonic plate, on what is known as ‘The Ring of Fire’, which is a large area that is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcano eruptions.

Chile has 105 volcanoes, all in differing ranges of activity levels. When I visited Lican Ray (you can read the blog post here), I was lucky enough to see Volcan Villarrica.

But, what Chile is more widely known for is their earthquakes (or los terremotos). Every 20 years or so, Chile experiences a very large and often destructive earthquake, such as the 2010 8.8 magnitude earthquake and the 1990 7.7 magnitude earthquake before that. However, they frequently have very low magnitude earthquakes all throughout the country, with at least one a day, but often so small you can’t feel them.

But luckily for me (yes it’s luckily because it’s an experience I wanted to feel jaja), there was a 4.9 magnitude earthquake on the 23rd of May and I was able to check that off of my list of experiences in Chile.

I was in bed when it happened, and so I was startled because the bed started shaking a little bit, and my window as well. Everything felt unstable (well duh) and the best way I can describe it is as if everything was kind of jelly; still in its shape but just jiggling a little bit. It wasn’t a very strong earthquake, and so my host family was very blaisé about it, but I rushed into my host sisters room frantically, asking, ‘es un terremoto?!?!’, and her laughing at my overreaction jaja. The entire earthquake only lasted about 30 seconds, if that, it was very quick, and really nothing was affected.

In the next few days after that, there were one or two more just like it affecting the Santiago area, and it was interesting to just be sitting down doing something, and then all of a sudden the windows are rattling and the lights are very lightly swinging. Honestly, they’re kind of fun to experience if they’re just small ones.

A fun fact to end the post on: Chileans have a cocktail drink called ‘El Terremoto’, which you can make with alcohol or without it as well (the second option is all I can have here jaja).

This is the recipe if you’re ever bored:

100 mL of Pisco (NOT pisco sour) or Rum or Fernet (liquor of your choice)
700 mL of pipeño o white wine
200 mL of pineapple icecream

Mix the pipeño or white wine with the pisco (it’s better and more authentic with pisco), and then serve the pineapple ice cream on top, like you would a soft drink spider. And done! This recipe is for more than one serving, so please drink responsibly and share it around. You can also mix in some sugar to the drink if you like it sweeter.

And the kids version:

100 mL pineapple juice
700 mL soft drink – something like sprite
200 mL of pineapple ice cream
Ice (however much you want)

And you make it the same as the alcohol version really.