On Easter Island, protected by the moai, waiting for the tsunami that won't get here

This is the translation of my article been published on the online version of La Repubblica. It was the 28th of Februay, right after the terrible earthquake in Chile. This is the link to the original article.

Tomoyuki wakes me up in the middle of the night. From his broken English I can only understand that the airport in Santiago is closed and his flight canceled. It's 5 am, and I wonder what goes through his head, waking me up to tell me he's forced to stay on the island. Then I hear sirens, dogs barking, chickens in the garden of the hostel which seem to have rabies. Only now Tomoyuki cares to say that there is a tsunami warning on the island. I arrived two days ago and I got a tsunami warning?

In the lounge of the hostel the TV is already turned on the special news. First reports, data, statistics. start to arrive But, understandably, everyone thinks about relatives and friends.

We are told that there is the chance that a tsunami may arrive here around 9 o'clock, but the island is two hours behind compared to Santiago and they don't tell us on what time zone we should rely. The clock on the TV screen is only good to get on our nerves. Apparently, only Anakena beach in the north east part of the island has seen a slight swell. The inhabitants of the coastal area were transported for safely reasons to the island's hinterland. Some tourists do anything they can to annoy the authorities and head for the beach because they "want to see the arrival of the waves." Some people still have the cellophane around their brain. Luckily the waves don't get here, they have already lost all their strength before being able to travel the 3700 km that separate us from the Chilean coast. The island does not even have time to fully awake, everything already came back to normal.

Even from these contingencies, one learns many things. The hostel owner is unable to contact his parents in continental Chile, but he smiles and apologizes for not having yet prepared breakfast. The Chilean and Japanese tourists are more relaxed, being the only ones here to have an anti-seismic awareness culture, the one they are taught in school. A few days ago I was in Valparaiso, hosted by Alejandro, engineer by profession. He told me how the Chilean houses are built using the same amount of cement that in Europe is  used for a bridge. There are things that a traveler cannot understand. One of the strongest earthquakes of the past thirty years is causing "only" a hundred victims. In Chile the infrastructures are anti-seismic for real, an Impregilo (Italian construction company which built the houses that fell during the last year earthquake in L'Aquila) here could never exist. I also learn that the numbers fired at random from TV do not help who is on the disaster site, nor distant relatives, they are only useful to arouse the compassion of those who are not touched, and to increase the share.

The smiles of the islanders, their tranquility and the pace of life of the island make me feel confident and safe. I'm still waiting for a message from my traveling companions left on the mainland, and from at least another dozen people known here and there in Chile. They say the moai are faced inward the island to protect it with mana, their spiritual energy. But there are also seven statues facing outward, toward the sea. If I have good news from all my friends I think I'll start a new religion.