Chilean Main Tourist Attractions Escape Earthquake with Little or No Damage

Though the U.S. State Department is urging Americans to avoid travel to Chile, the fact is that many of the country’s major tourist attractions—Patagonia, the Atacame desert, Easter Island—escaped with little or no damage after the 8.8 magnitude earthquake Saturday.

USA Today reports that a spokeswoman for Turismo Chile said the airport in the capital, Santiago, hopes to reopen for commercial flights Wednesday despite structural damage to the customs and immigration area and other terminal facilities.

LAN Airlines, the country’s biggest carrier, will resume 15 percent of its international and domestic flights into and out of a makeshift Santiago terminal. Airlines offering waivers for flights to Chile include American, Copa, Delta and LAN.

International flight departures will move to the domestic flights sector of the current terminal. International arriving passengers will clear Chilean customs and immigration formalities in a makeshift facility set up in tents to the west of the current terminal.

Word from Santiago, the country’s capital, is that phone service and public transportation have been restored. Minimal damage at the country’s cruise port Valparaiso was also reported, and Princess Cruises planned to call there as scheduled on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, the popular tourist towns of Pucón, Puerto Varas and Puerto Montt in the Chilean Lake District are operating normally, according to Turismo Chile. So, too, are such destinations as Torres del Paine, San Pedro de Atacama and Easter Island.