Stupid temblors!

I would like to say this right now: I am massively, incredibly tired of the buildings I'm currently in shivering like a dog just out of water. That's four more shocks today, and any number of little ones I'm not going to bother to count. It's like someone is following me around with a forklift, picking up the house or store or boardwalk by its foundations, and doing wheelies. All day. Every day.

Nature: I appreciate your attempt at a funny joke, but it's only funny the first time!

Much to my chagrin, I somehow ended up sleeping most of the day. It started with me sleeping in until 12. I woke up just in time for lunch. To my surprise, there were two more people in the house: a niece and a nephew of my host folks. Over to visit, apparently.
We ate bread, cheese, and fruit juice, then walked to the beach (all seven of us). It´s not terribly far from here, but it took us some time to get there because we walked all through the city, too, along the way, and looked at various buildings that had been damaged by the quake (and speaking of quakes, hello tremor). One skyscraper was leaning sideways, with all its balconies askew, and an old house was missing large portions of the roof above its door and the walls were cracked. I'm learning the words surrounding "terremoto" very quickly: things like "grieta" and "disastre" and "damnificado," meaning "crack," "disaster," and "condemned," respectively. Any time anyone drops something or something falls over after being bumped, we say "terremoto." Earthquake, it's all your fault.

There's been two more "temblors" offshore of Valpo-- one a 5.6 and the other a 5.5.

The beach was... well, an actual beach. The kind you see in films. All sand and boardwalks and people lounging under umbrellas and massive waves. It stretches for miles and miles (along all of Chile, as a matter of fact) and we must have walked two or three miles of it. Myriam was planning for us to walk back, too, but we took a bus instead after receiving word of new quakes and a possible "maremoto," or tsunami. Three dogs followed us almost all the way, hoping for a handout-- I wanted to feed them because they looked so sad, but I suspected such an act would have been met with disapproval. There's millions of dogs, after all; no need to help them breed, I suppose.

They still looked sad and I felt bad :(

Didn't wear enough sunscreen, either. They say Chile ranks a 12 on the 12-point "Sun Power" scale, and they weren't kidding. Both my arms are red, and so is my nose and forehead.
Must remember to wear more sunscreen. And my hat, no matter how doofy it might look to the locals.

After the beach and after we returned to the house, unfortunately, I went straight back to sleep. I don't know why. I just felt really tired. When I woke up after about an hour, there were two more people in the house and I told Myriam that I didn't know why I was so tired: she blamed it on being in a different time zone, having to keep up with a new language, and the stress caused by being in an earthquake and subsequent aftershocks.

Stupid terremoto!

The new folks were the mother of the two cousins and the neighbor woman whose shower we'd borrowed two days earlier. They set about making dinner while I wandered upstairs and watched YouTube videos of the quake with Ramiro (host parents' kid, the guy whose name starts with an R) and the cousins. I was rather useful, all things considered, since I could point out videos described in English about the quake that we might have missed otherwise.

...Another tremor. Seriously, now.

Dinner was bread and mashed-up avocado and milk and cheese. I'm starting to detect a pattern here. And also my grapes, which I bought, and which we've just about finished off between me and Cristobal. Did my best to follow the conversation (plenty of time to do so, since every meal takes an hour or two due to rampant and rapid blabbing between all concerned) and afterwards said my goodbyes to the cousins, mom, and neighbor before hanging out in Cristobal's room for a while exchanging musical preferences.

Checked my email, found multiple Do Not Travel warnings from the US State Department and ISA. More shocks. Myriam appeared and told us that the safest place in the house is right in the middle, away from all the windows. I personally prefer my doorframe, myself. Laptop started to run down, went to my room, and now.... I write.