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| Please note that the
author Brian Pearson is an American residing in Chile.
Dear Friends: Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. We would like to thank all the persons who have written to express their support to our offices and the Chilean people in this time of tragedy. We are happy to report that everyone on the Santiago Adventures’ team, our guides and drivers, family and friends are fortunately doing fine after Saturday’s devastating earthquake. Our offices are undamaged and we are currently operating and assisting those travelers in Chile trying to get home. We share in the tremendous
grief felt by the peope of Chile for their country and those who lost loved
ones. In support of rescue and recovery efforts we will donate 1% of our
sales over the next 3 months to earthquake relief efforts.
The response of the government has been efficient and well coordinated and they have dedicated unlimited resources to their efforts. Aid from foreign countries also began arriving today. Given its strong economy and fiscal discipline Chile has a tremendous revenue surplus to provide needed assistance. Chile is a strong, well developed country and outside of the Concepcion and Maule regions the damage was much less severe. The situation here is much different than what happened in Haiti. Chile, with a history of many strong earthquakes, has very strict building codes and Santiago, a city of 6 million, withstood any catostrophic damage. Sadly, many older homes and those which did not comply with the building codes, in the poorer parts of the city, were damaged. Chile will hopefully recover quickly from this tragedy but will mourn the loss of their loved ones always. We hope for better reporting in the presentation of Chile’s current situation. As expected, the international media has focused only on the most severely damaged areas. They have done this without clear indications of the geography of a country that is 2,800 miles long. This has led to confusion and much unnecessary worry regarding the 6 million people in Santiago where very few people were injured. The major damages are 3 to 5 hours south of Santiago where, sadly, there were many deaths and there are many people still missing or trapped in buildings. It is also unfortunate that the US government has recommended not traveling to Chile for tourism. Approximately 5% of the Chilean economy is based on tourism. The best way to help the people of Chile is to make sure that the world is correctly informed that Chile is open for business despite the country’s current effort to restore the areas affected by the earthquake. The main tourist destinations San Pedro de Atacama in the north, Patagonia in the south and Easter Island were unaffected by the earthquake. People should consider Chile very safe to visit once the Santiago airport is fully operational in the coming week. With a few minor inconveniences, we are very confident in our ability to deliver the same level of service we have always provided to our customers. How you can help? If you would like to offer your assistance to Chile earthquake relief, please donate to the Red Cross which has committed to assisting Chile with their relief efforts www.redcross.org. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or need assistance with travelers trying to leave Chile at this time. Best regards, Brian Pearson
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