One week ago I was in Santiago. Perfectly at ease, Emily, Laura, and I relaxed on the rooftop terrace of our hostel, sipped cheap yet delicious wine, and chatted with two acquaintances who were studying abroad in the city. This was one of the few times in the recent past, but one of many on this trip, where I found myself fully aware of what it feels like to be free from worry. 6 days later, much of Santiago is shaken and broken, the surrounding areas, especially Concepcion, now toppled, flattened, and devastated by the recent earthquake. The contrast between seeing Chileans so infectiously vibrant and free-spirited as we walked through the streets of Santiago, to imagining the heartbreak and sorrow suddenly thrust upon them is difficult to stomach.

It’s impossible not to feel personally affected by this situation, even miles away in Buenos Aires, when just over the Andes mountains more than 400 lives were lost and 2 million people displaced this weekend. However part of this connection I feel stems from the fact that I was in that city less than a week ago, that I explored it just before this tragedy, and that my friends and I easily could have been there that morning, caught in the chaos and fear that so many are struggling with now.

Discussing this over dinner last night with Emily, we both contemplated the idea that if our program had started one week later, this upcoming Monday instead of last, we can almost guarantee that we would have been in Santiago at the time. What compounds these curious thoughts is that this is the second close encounter we’ve faced with natural disasters on this trip, which we avoided through a few seemingly meaningless decisions and the luck of timing. When torrential rainstorms poured onto Machu Picchu, dangerously flooding the Urubamba River, Emily and Laura were supposed to be traveling to these sacred ruins from a nearby town. Days before, I was struggling with the decision I settled upon: to postpone my trip yet again and skip the intended meeting point in Cusco, where I hoped to join the girls and explore Machu Picchu with them. Fearing altitude and the amount of activity involved in this leg of the trip after being out of commission for so long, I decided instead to meet them in Lima. This change of plans encouraged them to then alter their schedule. Unlike Chile’s six-day gap, we missed this catastrophe by one or two days. Though this mystery doesn’t need a resolution to explain the luck we’ve experienced, there is something to be said for the number of people thinking of the three of us as we travel alone through South America. Members of all three of our families, close friends, and distant acquaintances, have sent us their thoughts on a daily basis since the start. Sometimes simple thoughts have powerful repercussions and we can’t dismiss that so much positive energy being sent our way may have contributed to keeping us protected. My last post was about safety in Arequipa and I believe the same idea applies there too, that through the thoughts of distant friends and family, we were guided through another potentially threatening situation. Regardless of whether or not this point is valid, I find this an appropriate time to thank the people that have kept me in their thoughts since I left El Paso for this adventure. Whether it was through a concerned message on Skype seeking to confirm I was OK, to various facebook messages and wall posts, to phone calls my mother received this weekend, thank you to the many who directly or indirectly thought of me and my safety at this time as well as throughout the past 5 weeks.

As a tribute to a country I am grateful to have explored for 10 days, north to south, I am including a slide show of scenes and moments I captured on my trip. In the face of catastrophe lies an opportunity to reflect upon and appreciate the beauty and charm of such an incredible country and to keep Chile and its people in our thoughts as they emerge from the rubble. Adopting the proud chant of a dear friend who fell in love with this country while studying abroad there: “chi chi chi le le le VIVA CHILE!”