There’s been a lot of mis-reporting and mis-understanding in the wake of the earthquake which hit south-central Chile on Saturday morning.

Besides massive destruction and general chaos in the areas of Concepcion, Talca, Chillan, Curico and Colchagua, the rest of the country is just fine. I don’t want to belittle what is going on in these hard-hit areas, where the situation is dire.

But from winery owners to bike guides to innkeepers, more and more of my friends and contacts in Chile are writing to say that ‘everything is fine’.

The best explanation of the situation in Santiago comes from Brian at Santiago Adventures here.

The big stumbling-block, from a tourist’s point of view, is the Santiago airport. Final reparations are underway, however.

So it’s important to remember that now, more than ever, is a great time to come to Chile. People there rely on tourists; they need them to keep their business working, their staff employed and their sense of identity intact.

If you want to help, here are two organizations that do very good work in Chile. Both work directly with Chileans in need; there are no middlemen or foreign ‘advisors’ clogging up the chain.

• ·         Un techo para Chile: Started with university students doing social work in the winter. They gather Tetra packaging and process them into material to build pre-fabricated (and earthquake-resistent!) housing. www.untechoparachile.cl
• ·         El hogar de Cristo: Founded by San Alberto Hurtado in the 1960s. Works with street people and homeless. They currently have homes for street kids and orphans, for senior citizens and also have schools. A highly-regarded organization that works well and has no corruption whatsoever. The people working here are very prepared, organized and have a great commitment of social justice.           www.hogardecristo.cl