Oops, kind of forgot about the blog. I'll try to catch up with everything that's happened but for now I'll stick to the most recent stuff.
After an amazing trip to the Atacama desert in the north of Chile, I still had a few days left of my spring break. So some friends and I decided to go south. We originally planned on going to Pucon, but the weather forecast was bleak so we decided on the small seaside surfer town of Pichilemu just three hours south of Santiago. Well, it was supposed to be only three hours, the bus we took had some cooling problems and constantly overheated so the trip took more along the lines of five hours. Still not bad, it was a morning bus so I went to sleep for most of it.
The actual town of Pichilemu is really cool. It has a great local vibe and very friendly surfers wherever you look. Combine that with great seafood, an amazing beach, awesome waves, and cheap surfing and you have a winner. The only downside to the whole trip was that I had a bad sore throat, but it wasn't anything a little advil couldn't help.
Our first day there we just walked around, found a hostel and then explored the town. The hostel we stayed at is called the SurfHostel and is built on the beach in the shape of a boat (check out the pics here http://picasaweb.google.com/navrdd/Pichilemu#). It was a cool hostel, with plenty of great people there. For dinner that night, we decided to cook in the hostel so we had a nice group dinner of pasta with chorizo.
The next day, we wanted to go surfing but the weather wasn't great, a lot of wind and fog. So we opted instead for a horseback ride through a little forest and along the beach. I have never ridden a horse before so I was a little apprehensive but that quickly passed once I was on the horse and trotting along the beach. I didn't know what to expect, but it was an amazing experience. We walked through a beautiful little forest and then back along the beach. On the beach we were able to get the horses into a little gallop. It was awesome flying along the beach with the rhythm of the horse kicking up surf. A great experience but it left me fairly sore after.
That night a couple of friends and I decided to camp on the beach. The girl in charge of the hostel told us about a cool place to camp so off we went. Lee, one of the friends, luckily has a tent and backpacking stove so we loaded up our packs with food and water and off we went. We left at about 7 pm and it took us about two hours to reach the spot. So for most of the time we were walking along the beach with a gorgeous sunset to keep us company. After eating dinner we were able to enjoy a deserted beach at night with moonlight lighting the waves and stars above our heads.
After a decent rest, I still had a bad sore throat, we went back to the hostel and just relaxed for the rest of the day. We had an awesome dinner at a little restaurant across from the hostel. I had things called 'locos' I don't know what the translation is but they are mollusks but have a very meaty texture to them, they find them locally and they were delicious. I was also able to try another local specialty, razor clams, which were amazing as well. All in all, a great dinner. Before we went to bed we decided that surfing was something we would have to do tomorrow.
Our last day, and we wanted to at least try surfing once. So we did. I decided to take the little school program so I got a little training before getting in the water. Now, the water is very cold so we had to put on full body wetsuits. They work very well, I was never extremely uncomfortable in the water. As far as surfing goes, I managed to get up a couple of times and that's about it. Still pretty fun though, wouldn't mind trying it again.
After a well deserved shower and lunch we walked back to the bus station and rode back into the city of smog that is Santiago. It was kind of nice being back in my own bed though, I forget how much energy traveling takes out of you sometimes.
