Expat Learns the Argentina Culture! No Small Project!

El Tigre Train Station

One thing I like about this part of the world is the respect that people usually show to each other. It may not always be real, but it is consistent.

The challenge is that, when you are here, you are expected to follow the protocols. If you do not, someone is likely to ceremoniously correct you.

For those of us from the United States, this is not easy. For example, if you were on the street in the U.S. and a stranger walked up and said, “Good afternoon, how are you?” you’d wonder what he was up to, wouldn’t you? And what would be the attitude of the very busy clerk in your power company business office, if you walked up to their window and casually greeted them and asked about their health? Impatience, right?

We all know what the U.S. is like. You don’t bother people with all that. Everyone is short on time. You state your business and get on with it or you are likely to encounter irritation.

Well try to get over that before you arrive in Latin America.

In this part of the world, you have to do the amenities. There isn’t much choice. Some people will not answer you if you don’t.

Every time I have been back in the States and then returned with my son to the southern hemisphere, he has to remind me. If I walk up to someone and ask directions without the preliminaries he says, “Mom, you can’t do that here.” With him, it is as if he flips a switch and changes cultures. Not his slower mother. It always takes me a few days to make the transition. And I can still lapse into old behavior at any time.

But I guarantee you if you don’t get it pretty quickly, the locals will help you. And it will not be their usual, gentle approach either. If you are impolite (by their standards) many will treat you like an unruly child.

Here are some examples. I live on the 6th floor in Buenos Aires. For security, the door to the building is locked. Only residents have a key. If someone comes to see me, personally or on business, they ring the buzzer downstairs for my apartment and wait. I answer, “Hola!” from the apartment. They state their business and, if I am open to the visit, I take the elevator down, unlock the door and greet them on the planta baja (ground floor).

Well I was expecting a package and the postman rang. I told him “Uno momento” (one moment) and I quickly was out the door with my key. But alas, someone else called the elevator first and I had to wait. And whoever it was was not in a hurry to close the door at their floor so that I could use it. When I finally reached the ground floor, I didn’t see the postman at the door. I saw the maintenance man and I said, “I think the postman has left!” as I hurried to the door. The maintenance man said, very pointedly, “Bueno dia, senora! Como estas!” (Good morning, senora! How are you?”) while glaring sternly.

He was making his point. It is unimportant if I miss my package. The only important thing at that moment was to greet him properly. And that would have applied to anyone else present if there had been others. For me it is a challenge to do all that when the postman is getting away with my package!

No matter!

It was only after I had responded appropriately that he let me know that he had taken the package for me from the postman. The lesson was, it doesn’t matter what is happening, the priority is to give him a proper greeting.

In another example, I take a backpack shopping with me a lot. It is so much easier than carrying items in my arms. If I decide to buy a watermelon, for example, no problem getting it home. I just wheel it behind me.

But there is also little trust here--and for good reason. If you carry a container big enough to use to steal, they want it stored in a locker near the front. My backpack is just a little too large for the locker. So, upon entering the store, I stopped briefly to show the security guard that my “mochila” was empty. He told me to “adalante” (go ahead). I said “Okay” and turned. From behind me came this clear, crisp voice in perfect English, “You’re welcome!”

Saying a quick okay is not sufficient. You must say “Thank you” before you move on.

There are expats here who resent this, but I like it. There are things about the culture that I do not like, but this is not one of them. But will it ever become second nature for me as it is with them? As North Americans from the U.S., our focus is on speed and efficiency. It is built in. I sometimes think that in this part of the world, those factors are the least considered.

While being pretty particular about certain things, the people here are also sweet almost to the point of being funny. For example, yesterday I decided to attend an English-speaking church I heard about at Martinez--located on the train route to El Tigre. Martinez is a subdivision of Capitol Federal, Buenos Aires. I had never been there before and was following directions for the first time. I was afraid of missing my stop, missing church, and ending up at El Tigre waiting for another train back. So I asked the man in the next seat on the train if he would help me get off at Martinez. He told me this was not the right train to Martinez.

I really think he just didn’t know where Martinez was. If they don’t know, some of them will tell you anything rather than refuse to help you.

So I got off immediately and went to the ticket agent. He said that it was, indeed, the train to Martinez. He kindly walked back with me to the train and, just inside the door, showed me a map of stops all the way to El Tigre. Martinez was eight train stations from the station where I was boarding.

So I sat down. We were soon under way. After about two stations I decided to go and check the map near the door and read the specific names of the stations en route to Martinez. When I got up to check the map, two people near me said, “Falta! Falta!” (Wrong! Wrong!) and pointed for me to sit back down.

My Spanish is not good enough to explain to them that I was not going to get off. I was only going to read the map. So . . . I obediently sat down.

About two stations further all those people got up and exited the train so I thought; NOW I can go look at the map. I stood up again and a man across the aisle became alarmed and said, “Falta! Falta!” and he, too, pointed for me to sit down.

So . . . sit down I did.

Finally everyone had exited my car but one very attractive lady with long reddish brown hair near the very rear of the car. NOW I can go read the map! Apparently everyone on the entire car knew I was going to Martinez because, as soon as I stood, this lady became alarmed and started calling, “No! Falta! Falta!” and thought I should stay seated. So . . . I sat down again.

A few kilometers later she came and told me it was the next stop.

I never did get to read the map, but I did get off at the right stop—with a LOT of help!

I love it!

Hoping to see you soon—in Latin America!

Uruguay Asset Tax Update

As we promised, we have stayed in touch with one of the top attorneys in Montevideo, Juan Fischer, regarding the status of the proposed asset tax in Uruguay and we are passing his report along to you, verbatim.

You will notice that there is no tax levied on foreign residents in Uruguay. However, if you were to become a citizen before 2017, this new law would affect you. But if Uruguay abides by their word, this tax will be phased out anyway by 2017.

The current report is as follows:


In May of 2010, Uruguay announced it would make some adjustments to its tax laws.

Unfortunately, some unnecessary panic was generated when an early draft of the law that was still under discussion within the cabinet surfaced.

The aim of the tax changes is (and was from the start) to tax interest on deposits and dividends that Uruguayan citizens hold abroad, not to tax foreign residents living in Uruguay. In fact, the final draft of the law makes specific distinctions to ensure that those who relocate to Uruguay do not face extra taxes as a result.

Shortly after announcing the tax changes, the government made four successive announcements, to clarify matters:

· On May 28th, the Ministry of Finance issued an official statement ratifying that there will be no new taxes on Uruguayan companies, and that their offshore assets will not be taxed.

· It also clarified that there will be no taxes on assets owned abroad by foreign residents in Uruguay. The tax on assets is only for citizens (at a very small scale; and remember that this asset tax is gradually being phased out since 2007, and will disappear by 2017).

· On June 1st, another official announcement was made, stating that the law will in no way jeopardize the country’s policy of attracting foreigners to relocate in Uruguay. And that their income will not be taxed or double taxed.

· And finally, on August 3rd, the Minister of Finance announced, when submitting the final draft of the bill to Congress, that it contains an explicit solution to avoid double taxation: a tax credit is granted to those who pay income tax abroad. This ensures that foreign residents in Uruguay are not double taxed.

In sum, then, the tax changes that will result, and will likely be effective from 2011 onwards, if the bill is voted, are:

A) On assets: Citizens (not foreign residents) will face a small tax on overseas deposits, securities and loans. The rate is 0.07% to 0.5%. (Between less than a tenth of a percentage point and half a percentage point). This tax, the asset tax (known as “IP”) is being phased out, annually, and will disappear by 2017.

B) On income: Only three types of income generated outside of Uruguay will be taxed: interest on deposits, interest from loans to a foreign company and dividends. The rate will be a flat 12%.

But, if a person already pays income tax abroad, on any of those three types of income, he or she will not have to pay in Uruguay. The person gets a tax credit, to avoid paying taxes twice.

Any other type of income generated abroad (besides the three listed ones) is excluded. Thus, salary, capital gains on sale of shares or property, pensions, lease, income, or any other type of income are all untaxed.

Juan Federico Fischer
Managing Partner
FISCHER & SCHICKENDANTZ
Tel: (+598) 2 915-7468 ext. 130
Cell: (+598) 99 925-106
jfischer@fs.com.uy
http://www.fs.com.uy/

Bed and Breakfast for Sale, Piriopolis, Uruguay

$170,000, furnished

Here is either a lovely home, or a ready made business for you in Piriopolis, Uruguay. The home has been operated as a Bed and Breakfast and, in fact, earned recognition of Garden of the Year in this beach resort town in 2007.

The building is situated on an approximately 891 meter lot just two blocks from one of the most beautiful beaches in Uruguay. The walk is lined with plenty of aloe plants so be careful not to get a sunburn. But if you do, just pick up your aloe on the way home!

The house is of concrete construction, as most are in Uruguay, with walls approximately 16" thick, with four bedrooms, three baths, 2 kitchens, a screen room, a shed, and outdoor barbecue.

Piriopolis is a high tourist area during the season, is a short distance from Punta del Este--the Miami Beach of Uruguay--and an easy commute to Montevideo. There is a possibility of financing with 50% down payment.

For more information contact Rex Febus at rexfebus@yahoo.com.

Street Smart Spanish

View of Volcan Villarica from the writer's home in Patagonia, in the South of Chile

One of the aspects holding many North Americans and other native English speakers back from living in South America is the language barrier.

Let’s face it. Once you are out of school, your time is taken up by your job, family and just regular bookkeeping and household chores. And if you’re on our wavelength you’re cramming your day with research on how to escape the ongoing economic crisis and collapse of western civilization…no small matter.

So learning Spanish is right up there with going to the dentist and doing hand wash with Woolite.

If you enroll in a class, unless you are lucky enough to find an excellent and unusual teacher and teaching method, you’ll spend the first three months of the class de-clenching irregular verbs—or maybe that’s your teeth—getting mired in a maze of verb endings and hours of homework, studying grammar rules.

Oh please! Enough torture. Trust me. I know. I spent my first three years in college studying Mandarin Chinese. And, for example, here are two sample sentences from my level one Chinese language book.

“I’m thinking of studying Chinese or American Literature.”

And here’s the sentence that tells it all, “In studying Chinese, Mr. King is good in every aspect of pronunciation, sentences and grammar.”

I can laugh now, but I can tell you it was basically a waste of time. On my first day in Taiwan I realized I didn’t even know how to ask where the bathroom was! I had spent three years with a bunch of ivory tower professors and I barely learned anything practical. I couldn’t pull people over on the street and discuss literature or grammar with them when I needed to find a toilet or the bus station. In our upper level classes we even learned the vocabulary we needed to discuss communist revolution and concepts of “universal love”. If I didn’t know better (looking back) I might think that they were trying to indoctrinate us.

Do you really think this style of learning will help you order food in a restaurant or ask for directions? No, me neither. So much for experts.

Here’s my suggestion, based on my own experience. Get a copy the following materials.

First, the language guide titled 30 Words: Start the Conversation: South & Central American Spanish Language Guide for Travelers. I bought mine from Magellan’s at
http://www.magellans.com/store/Translators___Language_TranslatorsCL247?Args=

This is a 5 x 4 inch, 10-page, double-sided, fan-fold guide that is made from nearly indestructible material. It is full of only the most highly practical list of words you’ll need to start your gorilla learning methods.

Next is Latin American Spanish (Phrasebook) by Lonely Planet, available at
http://http://www.blogger.com/www.amazon.com/Latin-American-Spanish-Lonely-Phrasebook/dp/1740591704

This book is broken up into logical sections by topics such as, shopping, going out, etc. . . . you get the picture. Within the book are three mini dictionaries: a Spanish to English dictionary, an English to Spanish dictionary, and the third is a separate food dictionary.

Both are small, light and compactly designed to fit in a woman’s handbag or mens jeans pocket. Use these, not only as your textbooks, but carry them as guidebooks, which is their principal feature. You will become quite used to working with them without fumbling around with unfamiliar material in a hurry. Remember, the key in my unorthodox method is to build up as large and practical a vocabulary as possible in the speediest time. Forget about verb usage, declensions and grammar. Your goal is to make yourself understood, try your best to understand the answer you receive, and just get the job done! You might also want to check out the web site at http://www.30words.com/.

You’re not being graded on grammar or pronunciation so feel free to massacre the language. And don’t be shy. The less inhibited you are about it the better you’ll fare. In Chile, unless you are getting professional services such as medical or legal, virtually no one outside of Santiago speaks more than ten words of English so you’re on your own, really. Don’t believe what you read elsewhere. But on the flip side, the people are generally very patient, non-threatening, and treat you with respect, so you don’t feel like a dumb-dumb.

Start with a segment of the book that interests you. It helps to be working on words you like or find useful. I started with the food sections. Go through and just look at the words, without trying to speak them. Familiarize yourself with the vocabulary by sight (the whole word method). It’s easiest to learn to read/recognize Spanish words before attempting speaking and listening comprehension.

Next learn the vocabulary by using a memorizing trick I picked up and customized to use here. My trick to learning Spanish is to look for the “root” (real or imagined) in the word. Use an English word to connect the new Spanish word in your head to a meaningful word in English. We aren’t trying to do a lingual-anthropological study of words. It’s just a gimmick to help us learn faster. So here’s my root sample below:

necesitar (root= necessary) to need
contratar (root=contract) to hire
salir (root=salutations/salute) to leave
encontrar (root=encounter) find
escribir (root=scribble) to write
dormir (root=dorm, dormitory) to sleep
fumar (root= fumes) to smoke
linterna (root=lantern) flashlight
cacerola (root =casserole dish) pot

So there you have it. It’s just an adaptive word association method. By associating the Spanish word to a word in English that is already in your memory, you will make your recall of the translation faster.

Next step, use the anglicized pronunciations given in the book. It’s pretty good. Now go through the Spanish words and read the pronunciations out loud, over and over. This will help to train your ear. Imagine yourself in different situations. Put the book down and try to figure out how you would ask questions. Test your memory of vocabulary and recall. See how you do. Stand in your kitchen and see how many items you can label from memory. Work with your partner or children and quiz each other. Have one read the words and the other give the definitions. And then swap. Have fun. Tease each other. Just keep at it. Don’t expect immediate results, it will take time.

Work in one of the sections of the book until you feel accomplished in that section. Then move to another section. If you have difficulty in one area, skip it for a while and go back to it later. Don’t let it become drudgery. Try to keep it fun and challenging. Try to devote time each day to the task, even if it’s just 20 minutes. Remember that even if you just learn two words a day, by the end of a year you will have a sizable vocabulary.

Eventually, when you get the basics of practical guerilla-communicating down, then consider yourself ready to take a class and start to tackle grammar and verbs. You will be much more motivated because you will already have a base of learning to add to and that will remove a lot of the feeling of drudgery. You will not feel overwhelmed.

Well that’s it and good luck.

Jeanette Schnall

Editor note: After investigating several Latin American countries, Jeanette and her husband, Martin, chose the beautiful southern area of Chile. Jeanette will be using her own hard-earned lessons to help others who are considering relocating to Chile. Her web site is http://www.southernchileproperties.com.

You are invited to add comments by clicking on the "comments" section below. If you have questions, feel free to post them.

©Arlean Kelley 05/21/2010 All rights reserved.

Petty Thievery in Latin America

Palermo Alto

Capital Federal

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Or How I Managed to Get My Wallet Stolen on the Subway in Buenos Aires

Last week I was a crime victim in Latin America for the first time. I have been in and around Buenos Aires for extended stays several times in the past few years without even a suggestion of a problem.

But that all changed last week.

I rented an apartment in Buenos Aires. I paid the real estate woman out of my wallet, put the wallet in my purse, zipped the purse, and left for the subway.

The subway was at capacity. The expression “packed like sardines” has a new meaning for me after that trip. People were pressing me on all sides. When there was no space left for even one more person, ten more got on. It was pretty amazing.

A very lovely young woman stood to my left. I was holding to the rail overhead, but she tapped me, smiled sweetly, and indicated she was making room for me to hold on to the vertical post she was standing next too. I thought, these Argentina people are so sweet. Well they are. But it pays to be a bit skeptical. I did reach for that post. My purse was on my shoulder.

I was amazed the next morning when I opened my purse and my wallet was gone. I couldn’t believe it. WHERE could it be? The subway was the only explanation. But how could they have gotten the wallet without me having a clue, with my purse right there on my shoulder?

A companion who was with me thinks there were three people working together. He was a short distance from me but could not see well enough to know for sure. But the woman was to my left, there was a man close behind me, and the man to my right had a heavy winter coat folded over his arm. What was he doing with a heavy winter coat in the middle of summer in Argentina? It was reason for suspicion but I didn’t even notice the coat. My friend thinks that the coat helped to shield their activities, and that was how the wallet was taken.

In my case, I think that after so much exposure in Buenos Aires with absolutely no threat, I got careless. It is human nature, when nothing happens for a long time, to think that it never will. Not so!

Fortunately my serious money was in a pocket zipped into the lining of my purse. The wallet contained only small bills and cards that just needed to be reported and replaced.

The worst of it is that my passport was in the wallet. Since I am not leaving the country any time soon, there is time to replace the passport without stress, but it is inconvenient and there is a cost.

Since this incident I have observed other women. Some apparently have a high level of trust, carrying their purses swinging freely. But most hold the purse tightly under their arm (even though most are shoulder purses) and if they have a fold down flap with a catch, many hold the purse in front of them with a hand on the catch.

Remember that I am in Buenos Aires, a city of twelve million. One should not be surprised to find pick pockets in any city this size. There are capital cities in South America that I would call dangerous, but neither Buenos Aires, Argentina, nor Montevideo, Uruguay, would be included on that list.

For those of you who have lived in New York or Chicago—or maybe even London—all of this is old information. But for those of you who are used to a smaller, less crime-ridden area, I have collected the following stories from other expats—especially for you--so that you will have more than just vague and general information. Our hope is to give you a more specific idea the things to watch out for.

One expat tells of knowing that she should not hang her purse on the back of a chair. So she put it on the floor between her feet in an upscale restaurant in a supposedly low crime area. Two well-dressed (don’t let that fool you) men came in, sat behind her, and managed to get the purse from behind. She had had someone take a picture of her and her companion at the table and when she saw the picture later, there were the faces of the two men right in the picture. (Hint: If the purse had a strap, she could have wrapped the strap around her legs. But the safest place for it was in her lap.)

The Buenos Aires bus station is one place to be very careful. One man told us about losing his backpack there when someone with an ice cream cone “accidentally” bumped into him and got ice cream on him and his backpack. The “careless” person was hugely apologetic, went and got napkins to help him clean up . . . while an accomplice stole his backpack. And if you have more than one bag and someone gets one of them, what do you do? Chase after him while the accomplice takes the others? If you are traveling with a companion, you might want to decide ahead of time, in the event something is snatched, who will stay with the other luggage and who will give chase, if anyone.

One street smart traveler told me if there is anything unusual—someone spills something, someone trips and falls—whatever—gather your things immediately and step back and survey the situation. Do not allow yourself to be distracted by the incident. Focus on your possessions until you can determine what is going on. Any incident can be a distraction for a set of thieves working together. And they do work together. Even if they did not create the incident themselves, there are opportunists. One of our friends who operates a hospedage* in Chile had a fire break out in a neighboring building. While everyone ran out to the yard to look at the fire, a thief came in from the street and stole a number of items from the house.

Other things that people have lost are: a camera taken from a backpack stowed under a bus seat with the backpack opening to the rear. We heard of one entire backpack, stowed under a bus seat, that was taken from behind. Many bus seats have a bar underneath at the rear that prevents this. But not all do.

Our group once had a backpack taken in Peru when a man tripped and spilled a bottle of water beside our seat on the bus. Since the backpack was on the rack directly over our heads, it is amazing that there were three of us sitting below it and none of us saw the backpack leave the rack. Our street-wise companion who knew to be careful of “incidents,” checked above our seats almost immediately and saw that the backpack was gone. He was able to retrieve it before the next stop while it was still on the bus--and regretted for days that he didn’t give the man who was involved a good taste of Yankee retribution. But he didn’t know if he might spend his vacation in a Peruvian jail. (Hint: When several of us are traveling together with backpacks stowed overhead, we now detach the straps and refasten them so that all packs are tied together, as a precaution.)

In Peru this type of crime is so common that it is almost the national sport. When you tell Peruvians about a loss or attempted theft and how it was done, their eyes often light up as if you are telling them how close their soccer team came to winning the game and what their strategy was. The more southerly countries are not quite that bad. But don’t underestimate them either.

Even George Bush’s daughter had her purse lifted in Buenos Aires from under the table where they were eating. And what were all those secret service men doing at the time?

A businessman here in Buenos Aires told me about putting his briefcase on the floor right next to his chair in a restaurant. Two men in suits walked in and sat near him. He noticed them and moved his briefcase to a “safer” place between his feet. When he got up to leave and picked up his briefcase, the men had switched cases with him.

How these people manage these feats is beyond me. But they do. I asked the briefcase victim what he could have done differently and he said either keep your possessions in your lap, or leave them at home in the safe!

Here is another scenario: A young man comes running down the street. No big deal, right? Maybe he is about to miss a bus. But . . . maybe not! As he goes by at full speed, he grabs the strap of your purse. With such momentum it is impossible to hang on if he gets a good grip. For this reason, many women wear shoulder bags, put the strap over their heads to the opposite shoulder from the side the purse is on, and then keep the purse in front. This has a couple of benefits. Just the fact that it doesn´t look easy is a big deterrent to a thief.

Another situation for caution is with your bags in a taxi. Stay with the taxi driver while he (and perhaps you) load your bags into the trunk. Time your entrance to the taxi for after the trunk is securely closed (when an accomplice or stander by cannot take something out unnoticed) and your driver is entering the taxi. When you arrive at your destination, don’t just jump out. Take your time until the driver is exiting the taxi also. Don’t get out with the driver behind the wheel and your bags in his trunk with no companion left behind in the taxi. If you have a companion, your companion can delay a bit exiting the taxi. Particularly if you have bags inside the taxi as well.

Some people say that, in Buenos Aires, it is best to take only the Radio Taxis and not the taxi of an independent operator. But I suggest being careful in all of them.

Thankfully most of what you need to be cautious about in this part of Latin America is petty crime. But it is still important to be cautious on every level, as you would be in any large city.

I find Uruguay a more honest country than Argentina. Yet Montevideo has its corruption as well and one Uruguayan woman I know of has lost her purse to snatchers twice. Others have lived in Montevideo all their lives and never had it happen even once. Even once is one time too many for most of us.

I hope that from these scenarios you can get the idea and you can use your own good judgment from here. Just think cautious, be aware of your surroundings. If you don’t see the young man running down the street in the first place, or like me, you don’t notice the heavy coat over the man’s arm in the subway, you won’t take necessary precautions.

Be nice and enjoy the wonderful people here because there are many. But don’t let your guard down. There are challenges here to mitigate against, but it’s a beautiful and interesting place.

We look forward to seeing you one of these days . . . in Latin America!

*Hospedage = A hospedage is similar to a hotel, with rooms for rent to guests, but normally the owner and his or her family live there as well. Some are similar to what is often called a bed and breakfast.

© Arlean Kelley 3/25/2010

Earthquake Hits Chile

8.8 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Chile



On Saturday, February 27, 2010, at 3:34 a.m., an earthquake of 8.8 magnitude hit Chile, with the epicenter located 70 miles northeast of Concepcion and 200 miles south southwest of Santiago, Chile’s capital city.

Tremors were also strong along the cordillera of the Andes Mountains in Argentina and felt as far away as Buenos Aires. At present there are reports of 800 dead in Chile.

Chile has a long history of earthquakes, with 13 quakes of magnitude 7.0 or stronger in the last 35 years. According to the United States Geological Survey, the May 1960 earthquake, at magnitude of 9.5, was the largest quake in the past 200 years.

We include here a report sent to us by an expat who was, along with her husband, in Santiago, Chile, the night of February 27, along with the account of another expat living near Bariloche, Argentina. Our special thanks to both for sharing their experience with us! First the account from Chile.

We are now at the Don Eduardo Hotel in Temuco. I was very worried about coming here with all the reports of looting etc., but I wanted very much to get out of Santiago in case one of the aftershocks took the power out again or a second quake happened. I think that, with so much structural damage to some of the older buildings, like our hotel, another mild to large quake or aftershock might bring some of the already damaged ones down.

It has taken us 12 hours to take a normally 7 hour trip to Temuco from Santiago. Our exit route from Santiago was down the Pan American Highway (Route 5) to Temuco. The road is inland so we didn’t see Concepcion, which was most affected by the quake and tsunami. Some of the coast supposedly was hit by a two-story wave after having been hit by the earthquake.

I heard stories of people falling out of 12 story buildings and surviving.

The night of the quake, I really thought it was time for me to meet my Maker. We jumped out of bed at 4 a.m. and ran the few steps to an archway in the room. Both of us felt the building starting to lurch. We held onto the walls of the archway. The shaking was tremendous. Everything—lamps, books etc.—fell to the floor.

I was trying to decide if we should lie on the floor near the bed or get near the window so that we wouldn't be under so much rubble if it fell when Martin suggested we dive into the closet.

Then suddenly it stopped moving . . . phew!! Chunks of wall plaster fell. There were vertical cracks all over the hotel and a significant ten-foot horizontal crack just at head height over our bed. I had brought flashlights but there was enough moonlight that we were able to gather a few important things and book for the lobby four stories down.

Most of the guests and staff spent the night in the lobby. There were over 130 aftershocks but only several were large enough to send me running again. I slept the next night with my shoes on!

We are now two hours away from our house in the south of Chile. Thankfully that area was hit very mildly as far as damage, although there was looting in some places. But the power is back now and people have water again. There are long lines for gas with 30 or more cars in queue. There are shortages of things here because the roads and bridges were damaged.

Of the people we saw on the news here, many were apologizing in the beginning about looting the shops. They hadn't had any food or water for more than 24 hours and were feeling desperate. Women were crying that they had children to take care of, the government wasn't giving them any support, and they had no idea when help would arrive. Many had lost everything and only escaped with the clothes from their backs.

Then it got out of hand. People were raiding department stores, taking washing machines and other items. That was just plain opportunism then.

The police here are excellent. They are not corrupt and between them and the military they got things under control quickly. I still don't understand why they had water canons to spray the looters but didn't have any water to give them to drink.

The people here are really lovely. This is a country with a good work ethic. There is no doubt a lot of poor but they have a large middle class for their income levels. There is petty crime in this country but they generally don't have major or severe crime. I was amazed at how tranquil and accepting the people have been--really laid back and taking it all in stride for the most part.

The hotel staff has been great, helping the tourists as best they can. People are constantly trying to help us out (not invasively so) in ways like pointing out the direction we should take on the subway when we look confused and are digging through maps and looking like scatterbrained tourists. One man at the bus station stopped me on the street and was scolding me. I had no idea what he was saying. Finally he walked over and, in a very fatherly manner, pulled at my backpack showing me he wanted me to wear it hanging in the front so I could see it. I didn't feel worried but did it obligingly.

We are cautious travelers, but we haven't felt threatened or in danger of any kind except as previously mentioned.

I was surprised that they are already busy working on the road to get traffic moving down the main highway. The pavement is buckled and many fissures in the road make for lots of drops and we got rerouted through many, many small towns.

Regular flights out of the capital may be delayed for up to a month.

Next an account from Patagonia area near Bariloche, Argentina. Bariloche is in the cordillera of the mighty range of Andes Mountains which lie along the border with Chile.

There was an 8.8 Richter earthquake in Chile this morning . . . actually quite a distance from my house . . . but I woke about 4 am to my house shaking, things rattling around, etc. This is a big solid house made of blocks and concrete. with large timbers in the ceilings.

Still half asleep, I thought the house was going to break off the cliff and fall into the ravine . . . after a little while it stopped so I went back to bed and soon it was doing it again.

So, I rounded up my laptop and my passport and decided how I should get out of the house. Then I remembered I was not dressed! I heard a few voices of the neighbors. And if the house fell it would crush my car and there I would be on the street with my computer in hand, but no clothes.

Well, it stopped soon. So I put on my clothes and went back to bed.

You can see a list of previous earthquakes in Chile by going to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_Chile.

©Arlean Kelley 2/28/2010