La Playa y Las Dunas

For those who were concerned, I edited the last post. The moral was supposed to be that we are not 17 anymore and jet lag is pretty harsh after 14 hours of flying and a five hour time difference. Sorry Dad...

We made it to las dunas in Concòn yesterday were we got to run around amongst the New Years trash and enjoy the view of the ocean. The weather was so-so unfortunately and it wasn´t until much later that we got some sunshine. Martin, Thea, Henrik, Emma, Ildi and I walked from the dunes to a wonderful restaurant in Reñaca that was built into the cliffs overlooking the bay. The waves were huge! I am going to go out on a limb and say they were somewhere around ten feet or bigger with an impressive undertow. We ate mariscos (ceviche y otros) while basking in the sunshine listening to the waves. Later that evening we taught everyone Kings and listened to American music at a bar called Cafè Journal in Viña del Mar. Martin enjoyed Kings so much he requested a game played with tea at breakfast. Successful dispersion of American drinking games - check!

From Viña del Mar we made it safely via micro and Pullman bus to El Quisco, a popular and beautiful beach town to the south of Valparaiso. Along the way we say another Pullman bus with the rear end crushed by a semi and people being taken out on stretchers and another that was a burnt out shell on the side of the road. Then we found out our seatbelts were broken. Whoo! That aside, we´re fine! The earthquake didn´t phase us this far north and despite the universal love-hate relationship with foreigners towards Americans, all is well.

Ah yes, and we have seen focas (seals) playing in the waves and leones marinos (sea lions) chilling in the waves on rocks outside Reñaca. I am getting a warm-up in Spanish names for animals. The next couple of weeks will be spent with Emma visiting beach towns to interview fisherman for the most part. We are going back to Santiago Wednesday night so that we can go to Cajon del Maipo (and climb!!!) on Thursday before Ildi takes off for Boston on Friday.

Until next time, paz y amor.