Unless you have been hiding under a rock, by now, you’ve probably heard about the monster 8.0 earthquake which pummeled the southwestern coast of Peru on August 15. The epicenter of the quake (terremoto in Spanish) was about 100 miles south of Lima, the major population center and capital of Peru. In particular, the earthquake wreaked most of its fury on the coastal cities of Pisco and Ica. All told over 500 people died from the quake and countless others were injured and left homeless. In Pisco, it is estimated that 70% of city was destroyed - many of the houses and buildings that were made of clay or adobe crumbled to the ground from the force of the quake. Lima got shook up pretty good but did not experience any significant damage. If the epicenter were a lot closer to Lima, this earthquake would have exacted a considerably higher toll in deaths and destruction.

Believe it or not, I have a friend of mine who thinks that I am jeopardizing my life by traveling to Lima right now. Nay, i say! I know he has been watching the extensive quake coverage on CNN and has seen the many images of death and destruction (over and over again) that resulted from the quake. He just doesn’t understand that the images he is viewing are not from Lima but from the aforementioned cities of Pisco, Ica and Mallao. He cautioned me to be careful of crumbling buildings and debris in the street. Unfortunately when a natural catastrophe like this happens, there are many people besides my friend who get confused and jump to conclusions about the scope of the damage. I can imagine what their thought processes are - If there is an earthquake in this small third world country, then traveling anywhere in this country must be unsafe. Ring the Alarm! Such fallacious thinking, sort of guilt by association.

Undeterred by the recent catastrophe, I will be commencing my three-week South American Adventure on Tuesday, August 21 when I arrive late night in Lima, Peru. I will be Lima for a brief 2 nights before continuing to the Andean Highlands, the Peruvian Amazon, then onto the Ecuadorian Highlands. During my one full day in Lima, I will be taking a private tour of the city and will report back to you on the state of affairs of Peru’s capital city in light of the recent quake. For the rest of my journey, I will be share with you my own unique insight and commentary about the culture, natural history and places of interest of these two South American countries. Stay tuned…

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 8:38 am and is filed under Commentary, Peru, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.