Shana Bearden

We are back home now and tired but fine…

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:33:48 +0000

3-8-10 Arlington, Texas
I am sorry to be late updating this but we are pretty tuckered out with all of the traveling. First, our overall trip was great and we have some super photos. Carnival was unbelievable and the other cities we visited were beautiful and friendly. Brad loves Buanos Aries while I liked Rio best. Saw too much to really go into here but it was quite a trip that allowed us to cross 6 borders in 14 days before the earthquake and to see a whole lot of south america. South America is not like Mexico. It is modern and generally very clean except for a lot of grafitte that relates to political issues. It seemed to be everywhere except in Chili. Most cities were very modern but with a nice mix of colonial architecture and laid back ways. We had a great time until the earthquake.

I left a message from the hotel about the earthquake. To say it was powerful is an misnomer. It was unbeleavable. During the quake the concrete beams were bending like venitian blinds and they somehow held together. Furniture, plaster, glasses and dishes were all flying around the hotel room during the quake. It made me feel pretty puny as a human.

After the quake we spent a nervous day running in and out of the hotel room during the aftershocks. Some were pretty bad. There was some damage to the part of town we were in but overall it looks like it weathered it pretty well. However, a building down the street from our hotel, a highrise, was reported yesterday to be slowly leaning and falling because the top floors have pancaked and the weight is too much for the pillers on one side. I think it was a 22 floor building so that will be really bad if it falls.

We waited around to get information for a couple of days to see if the airport would reopen. However, the second floor of the airport collapsed and the government kept extending when commercial planes could be taking off. As far as I know, no commercial planes have landed or took off even though emergency flights are landing at the attached military base using the military control system. We started looking for a way to get out and finally heard that some of the neighboring countries were flying in planes to Mendoza, Argentina. So we decided to try to make a break for it to Mendoza. Easier said than done. We were originally going to hire a van but they wanted to be paid in cash and we had only $40 cash to our name. All of the ATM’s in the country were down and were useless. Even after many were fixed they could not do international transactions or the subsequent run on the ATM’s took all of the money in the machines. Finally, we discovered that the local bus terminal had some buses going over the Andes mountains to Mendoza but there was a lot of worry about the riots that were starting now and the possiblity of bandits robbing the buses. We were able to charge the bus tickets in Santiago so that allowed us to get bus tickets but then we had to wait in the terminal for 10 hours to catch our bus. Then the bus took another 10 hours to go over the mountains overnight. Until you have ridden in a foriegn bus over dirt roads in the Andes with drops of thousands of feet on one side while the bus roars up and down the mountain roads, you haven’t lived. We were stopped at the Argentine border and the bus was searched for about 2 hours while we stood outside on the top of a mountain waiting. This was really bad on Brad and I as all we had to wear were shorts and T shirts so it was really really cold. However, it was really pretty too because there was a full moon and we were in the snow on top of the world with the whole Andes mountain range laid out before us. Magnificent.
We fell asleep when we got on the bus and slept most of the way to Mendoza. We had to rent a taxi from the bus stop to the airport and that cut into our available cash significantly. One of the real heroes of this adventure was TAM airlines, the brazilian carrier. They were our master ticket company and once they found out we were getting out, they bent over backwards to accommodate us. Many of the South American Carriers actually flew in planes for their countrymen to carry them out without charge. These guys really tried to help each other. Not true for American Airlines who raised airfare from a normal rate of $800 to over $5,000 per person and was callous about helping out anyone. Most americans who were trying to get out really were angry over the way AA behaved. Greed is a bad image.
Anyway, TAM rescheduled us and did not charge us for the rerouting that was required and made sure that we got a complete itenerary of our new passages. They were great. Once at the Mendoza airport we were able to get our tickets confirmed all the way back to the US and we flew to Buenos Aires. They kept telling us that we had to change airports in BA but all the maps we looked at made it look like the two airports were close together. Unfortunately that was not the case. They are about 50 miles apart and the buses there were $100 cash. We only had about $35 to our name and were getting somewhat worried when an american we met in Mendoza suggested we all split a Taxi to the new airport. We did and after we each paid our portion we were able to keep $10 to make it to the US.
TAM then did another great thing. We had not eaten for some time so they moved us up to first class where we got a great old fashioned silver service meal which kind of saved us. When we got to Sao Paulo Brazil, we had a fairly long wait for a plane but then got on board and since it was a 9 hour flight to Miami we got two more meals from them. Finally we got to Miami, about 60 hours after we left the hotel in Santiago and by this time we were kind of proud of the fact that we had made it that far with only spending about $30, so we passed on eating there and caught our plane back to DFW arriving here late on Wednesday. Both Brad and I are still pretty worn out but in good spirits and back at work today.
Thanks for all of your concern and prayer and I am looking suspiciously at our Greek trip in April which happens to be on the island of Santorini which is one of the most active volcanic islands in the world. Brad seems a bit leary about going with me but I bet he does when all is said and done.
Jim

Shake, Rattle and Roll….

admin — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 18:58:50 +0000

Sunday, 2-28-19 1pm Dallas time From Santiago Chili
I somehow got the hotel internet working for a few minutes so here is the down and dirty. On Friday night or early saturday morning actually, I woke up at just about 3 am because the tv was left on and Brad`s favorite movie, Big Fish, was on TV. As the credits were rolling, suddenly the cable went out and then in about 10 seconds the electricity went out. I thought someone had hit a transformer. Then a low rumbling began and my bed started swaying strongly. I have lived through two other earthquakes, including one where people next to us died when the building collapsed, so I knew right away that it was an earhtquake. I yelled at Brad who was very asleep and then grabbed him off of his bed and he became angry because he didnçt understand what was happening. I dragged him to an archway in the hotel room which had a huge concrete beam above it. It was totally dark but I remembered the beam because we had been talking about earthquakes that day with our interpreter and I figured that was the best place to be. By the time we got under the beam, the crescendo started. It sounded like a train was in the room and what little I could see of the room in the dark, the square room became rectangle, then a trapazoid and furniture, beds, chairs, desks lamps etc were flying all over the room. The other two earhquakes I experienced were a 5 and 6, this one made them look like childs play. At times, the floor moved up and down probably 2 feet. The building was creaking and growning and the crashing around us made it sound like the building was falling. The shaking kept building and building until I reached up and touched the 24 inch concreat beam above me and could feel it bending and twisting in my hand like plastic. Plaster was flying all over the room and the noise was unbeleavable. The thing that scared me the most was I could not remember how many floors were above us since we were on the second floor. After about 90 seconds which seemed somewhat like 2 hours the wild shaking slowed and I had Brad make a run for it to the street. People in the hotel were screaming and crying so I went door to door telling people to head to the street. Most were confused but did as told and we eventally gathered togather almost all of the residents in the street for the night. I was really afraid of aftershocks which are sometimes worse than the original and we could not tell how damaged the hotel is in the dark. Most of the guests spent the night in the street and there were some kind of funny stories. One latin male I woke up and told to go to the street was too drunk to understand what was going on so I had to help dress him and lead him to the street. To say that everyone had a fitful night is an understatement. We have continued to have aftershocks every couple of hours and some of them are very strong. The city has shut down and even though we are in the modern financial district and didnt suffer too much damage, getting food and water has been a real challange. we just found a corner market that opened fór the day and there was a wild rush to buy food and water. There is talk of a cholara outbreak in some outlying areas so water is suspect. This super busy town has become a ghost town and all that we meet on the streets now are foriegners and a few bank guards. All the cultural attractions are closed and there is nothing to do here so it is boring and other countries have bent over backwards to help their citizens but not the USA. We are largely in the dark here because of the langage problems and no cable to the hotel but I just got word that riots have broken out because of looting and the military has been called out to control it. People are starving because the stores and restaurants have all been closed since the quake.
The airport was largely destroyed and only emergency planes are allowed in. They are saying it will be closed for at least 5 days now but it could be weeks before regular flights start so we have decided to make a break for it along with a number of other brits and aussies.
We are going to take a van for about 10 hours to a town in Argentina where our master carrier, TAM airline- the brazilian national carrier, is bending over backwards to help its passengers. Right now if we can get to Mendoza Argentina by 10 am on Tuesday, we will have a flight to Buenas Aires and then to Sao Paulo and then to Miami and they will not charge any extra for the extra legs required. Not so for American Airlines who is trying to gouge stranded passengers by charging up to 5,000 per person for flights back to the US. I hate that airline.
Anyway, we are living on aftershocks and have been able to get some food and water and we will start our trek home tomorrow with the long van ride through the Andes mountains. There is a lot of concern about the conditions of the roads and possible banditry thru the mountains but we will just have to see how it goes. Hopefully, we will be home sometime Wed or Thursday if all goes as planned. I am really concerned about the aftershocks here because they are getting worse all the time.
Thanks to Brad who has been a brave and courageous trooper who helped take care of the other hotel guests and has used his blackberry to help out a lot of stranded visitors and to April, Wes and Chrissy who have been really helpful in arranging our exit stratagy.
Thanks for your comments and I dont know when I will be able to check in next. Verrrrrrrrry interesting end to this trip. Shana always said if there was an adventure to be had, I would find it. I am about ready for this one to end.
Jim