I feel the earth move under my feets

A strong 7.8 Richter earthquake shacked our city, the neighbor Iquique and several small towns lost in the middle of Desierto de Atacama, it was pretty deep (about 100 km.) so their effect was mild in both cities, however catastrofic in the villages near the epicentre, with 80 to 90 percent houses falled down.

I feel sad about Huara, a small village with clay houses where I used to stop frecuently when I traveled trough the desert between Arica and Iquique, I had developed a sort of romance with this tiny town since time ago, when my truck broked in the middle of nowere and I was oblied to spend a couple of days there while the fixing process was made (nedless to say, towing broken cars is the biggest buz in Huara: in the middle of desert you will barely bargain prices). Those days I discovered the way of life of people living in a tiny, sunny and bored town year after year, I made some friends there and -as I said before- I tried to stop there everytime I can. I cannot remember better siestas in my life other than I slepp in the cementery, near the town, in the most impressing silence.

Well, most of Huara has falled down, nothing to do except to remember how lovely it was. Anyway this quake is not the big one which we are waiting for since 1877, but it serves us to be prepared in a sort of excercise, when el grande comes we will be accustomed.