Earthquake aside, Santiago de Chile is really a charming city with some great people. Christopher, my CouchSurfing friend, couldn't have been a more hospitable host. I arrived at his apartment nearly two hours after I said I would because the bus from Mendoza was late. He wasn't at all annoyed. In fact, he gave me my own key to his apartment, which is something I would NEVER think of doing in Buenos Aires. His apartment was in a great location, and had a fitness center and a pool on the bottom level.
He regaled me with his story of making it through the first earthquake that hit back in February (it was stronger than the one that hit Haiti). He said for five minutes (at 3:30 am), the whole building rocked back and forth, knocking paintings off of the wall, etc. Before the first aftershock, they evacuated his building and he said people were literally in the lobby wearing virtually nothing. Many in his building fled for the countryside for an indefinite period of time in the fear that another tremor will come (it did).
The city of Santiago itself is very clean and well kept. The residents clearly have a pride of ownership and there are Chilean flags all over the city. The pictures above include my apartment I rented for a few days, as well as random shots from the city as I walked around exploring it. It's definitely a city I will return to when the opportunity arises.
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