We originally planned just two nights at the Oceanic, with a scheduled tour with Michael the German Pirate of Valparaiso. On Friday night, after a great Valpo tour, and two nice days above the pacific surf, we were thrown out of bed by the earthquake. We lived through two terrifying minutes, a 7.3 quake there in Vina. The hotel, and the whole area, lost power, and many people stayed up afte 3:33am. At 10:00am the next morning, power was restored, we ate a nice breakfast, and optimistically went ahead with our plans to go south to Santa Cruz. (Below from an earlier email we sent to family)

Well, we went back to the Hotel Oceanic in Vina Del Mar. In retrospect, we were really optimistic to drive south to Santa Cruz only hours after the quake. Major roads are closed, bridges are down, and road ways torn up. After a winding ride, including down dirt roads through the countryside, we arrived at Santa Cruz last night to find a town with some (10%) collapsed buildings, no power, and no water. They had experienced an 8.5+, and continued to have severe aftershocks while we were there (in the range of 5 to 7 on the scale). We bought fruit and melons for dinner, washed down with Chilean wine. While our little hotel was open, it had some damage, and we ended up sleeping in our car's front seats.

A British couple had experienced the earthquake there, and were a bit in shock. They were really happy when we showed up, and we led them back to Santago this morning on our way back here. The Chileans are coping quickly, but travel further south then we went is just about impossible.

In Vina Del Mar, there is power and water, and we can have our room with a balcony over the breaking waves for as long as we want. The Oceanic staff and manager have given us every help and couresty. This beautful little hotel above the breaking waves will stay in memories forever.

Poor staff, overpriced restaurant, pool of cold water, unconfortable rooms, noisy nightclub nearby.

I spent last week 3 days at the hotel, just to find out that members of the staff are a bunch of thieves. When I went down to the restaurant for breakfast, in those exact 20 minutes someone came into my room and opened my bags and took $300 in cash. When i ask to speak to the manager, the receptionist called him and he was rude, unapologetic and basically said that he couldn't do anything about it. My Chilean partners are trying to solve the situation with the owner, but we havent receive anything positive so far. STAY AWAY FROM THIS HOTEL AND ITS CREW OF THIEVES!!

Spent five days at this great hotel during a business trip in March 2009. Would recommend this friendly and clean hotel. The service is great and the food was very good and kept me coming back. Good atmosphere.

The rooms are very clean and the atmosphere was safe and relaxing. (Wish there was a hot tub, but you can't have everything).