Earthquake in Chile, 5th largest

Chile was hit by a large 8.8 Richter scale earthquake on Saturday 27 February at 3:34am. This is the 5^th strongest ever recorded.

The areas most affected are the regions of Maule and Bio-Bio, from the cities of Talca (254km/158 miles south of Santiago) to Concepción (509 km/316 miles South of Santiago) and is where most of the casualties have been registered.

Santiago City, while also affected to a lesser degree, resisted well but some highways and bridges have been partially destroyed. The Government has been working on alternative routes and the city is getting back to normal quickly today.

The airport of Santiago remains closed, due to the building terminal suffering some damage. It is expected that within the next few days it will re-open using a temporary terminal.

The major tourist destinations like Patagonia, Lake District, Easter Island and Atacama did not suffer the most severe effects and communication systems there are slowing recovering;

All clients currently in Chile were contacted on Saturday and are being kept updated of the latest developments and on flight arrangements for the end of their trips.

We of course appreciate the news pictures are dramatic but nevertheless, for those that wish to continue with their travel plans once the airport is re-open, we can confirm that major tourist destinations and highlights of the country were not affected. The only area we are evaluating at the moment is the heart of the Wine Country (Colchagua Valley) that was closer to the regions affected and we will inform any clients with programs to this area of any specific change once the hotels and vineyards are checked.

We also want to thank you for the hundreds of e-mails sent by friends, colleagues and clients from all over the World with their support and kind words.