Not quite either! The final "e" is a short sound, like the "e" in "egg", not a long "ay" sound, and certainly not an "i" sound! Chile is a country, not a condiment to spice up your dinner!My radio today in Australia has been arguing about the pronunciation of Chile. i.e Chilay v Chilli.
By the way, back on the subject of the earthquake: Santiago is pretty much back to normal, but down near the epicenter things are still pretty bad, even now, nearly a month later. There are still several after-shocks per day, the power is mostly back on but water is still out in many areas. Only about 30% of stores and offices are open, and many of those that are open still are not running anywhere near normal capacity or normal hours.
I have some photos that I scanned from the Sunday newspaper last week, so show some of the damage. It is pretty shocking.
I had to drive down to Concepción (very close to the epicenter) a couple of days after the quake, to pick up my youngest daughter. She had been to a summer camp down there, and was supposed to take the bus back home on that Saturday morning. The quake hit at 3:34 AM on that same day. Fortunately she was staying at the home of some very good friends of hours, and they took good care of her (thanks Chamy and Maie! I owe you, big time!). My daughter is fine, but certainly has some stories that she'll be able to tell her future kids and grand kids! ("Back in 2010, I was at the epicenter of the seenth-largest earthquake in history!"...)
Anyway, I drove to Concpeción to pick her up, and the trip was an eye-opener. It is one thing to see the destruction on TV, and entirely another to see them first hand. The magnitude is beyond belief. Entire fishing villages just wiped off the map entirely. Not by the earthquake, but by the tsunami that hit just a short while later. It is normally about a 5 hour drive, but it took me nearly 8 hours to get there, as there were many detours around fallen bridges and heavily damaged sections of the freeway, and several other sections where the traffic had to slow way down to get across large cracks or warps in the road. The trip back was even worse: well over 10 hours, much of it crawling along at walking speed.
Anyway, I'll post some photos shortly.
- Stuart -
