Other things near Pichilemu

Aside from learning to surf, there were plenty of other things to keep us busy in Pichilemu and the surrounding area.

Upon arriving we used the bikes from the hostel to visit the town and surrounding area.  It was mainly a beach town, but a lot was empty since it was off-season.  Things in town seemed to slow down during the afternoon so we adopted a siesta  schedule, meaning we ended up taking a nap or resting nearly every afternoon.

 We decided that there could be an entire National Geographic episode about "The dogs of the streets of Pichilemu."  When we first arrived, and were greeted by gangs of wandering dogs, we were a bit wary and timid, but we soon realized that they were a special part of the town.  The street dogs were pretty amazing; They were everywhere.  Lots of them. and they were beautiful.  They appeared groomed, shiny, and well fed.  The dogs wandered wherever they wanted, including inside many of the stores and their manners were fairly tame.  When you had food they might approach, but they didn't beg.  If they proved bothersome you could shoo them away and they would actually yield to your command.  They almost seemed better trained than many domesticated pet dogs.  This is a picture of Shea with her favorite street dog.   

We also went to Santa Cruz, Chile to go to a wine tour.  The winery that we toured was called Viu Manent.  It is a family owned winery that was established in 1935.   We toured the winery's 627 acres in a horse drawn carriage and were able to taste one wine during the tour as well as five others after the tour.  It was a wonderful first wine tour visit.

 The wines that we tasted were a white, a Syrrah, a Carmenere, a Cabernet, and a Malbec.  It was a first tasting for both of us, so I can not share any written notes about the exact tastes of the wines because I lack the vocabulary.
 The weather during the trip to Pichilemu was not what we originally expected.  It was a cool and cold when the wind picked up.   We had lots of coffee, tea, and mate to keep us warm.

 Staying at the hostel worked very well.  We met lots of people and the owner was able to help us set up and coordinate everything that we wanted to do.  The hostel had a wood burning hot tub, which led to a fun and relaxing evening.

 This is the owner of Sunset Hostel, Eduardo.  He is a Chilean from Santiago.  He relocated to Pichilemu because its an awesome and relaxing place to be.

 

In Pichilemu we found even more seafood than in Santiago..... 

 I don't have many pictures, but one of the most fun parts of the trip for me was horseback riding.  While I had previously done tours when I was younger, this tour was unique in that they trusted you a little more with the horses.  We took a tour throughout the town and some country areas and at the end we went to a beach.  Although the horses knew some of the route, we were not traveling "head to tail" the whole time.  We were allowed to go as fast or slow as we wanted and were responsible for moving out of the way for cars or any other obstacles.  When we were on the beach, we had free reign to trot, cantor or galloped as we pleased.  I galloped on a horse for the first time and ran through a couple of puddles.  My horse was named Cholita, or "blackie," obviously she had a beautiful dark coat.

 This was from our last and semi-rushed meal before leaving Pichilemu.

Surfing for Beginners in Chile

There is a lot to write about from our trip to Pichilemu, Chile so I am going to start with the motive for the trip:  Learning to surf.

 I think I have had a vague dream to learn to surf in the back of my mind since I was very young.  The movie Blue Crush came out in 2002 and I think it really brought this dream to the front of most girls' minds.  Living in Wisconsin, I never thought it would become a reality until one day I was thinking:  People always go on ski trips during the winter to Vail or other destinations and it seems really great, but I love the sun and the beach and the water.  Why can't I go on surfing trips instead?

Shea and I decided to go on our first surfing trip to Pichilemu, Chile and we couldn't be more pleased with the results.  I don't know if I will continue the theme of surf trips, but we were happy to try it out and succeed.  Since we have returned, we have dabbled with the idea of jointing the surfers on Lake Michigan, but still think it is a little absurd.

Back to the story at hand, we stayed at a hostel called the Sunset Hostel (that was a shout out to Eduardo the hostel owner) and as you would expect, the hostel keeper helping the owner also happened to be a surfer and was able to give us our own private lessons.  The lessons were a blast.  Our instructor's name was Phil and he was from Australia.  I think he was a phy-ed teacher by nature, but decided to spend a few months in Phichilemu to surf during winter.  With a true blue, real life Australian surf instructor at our side we were ready to go ride the waves. 

Here is a picture of us combing and waxing the board before we go to surf.  You have to comb it to get the old wax off and wax it to make it grippy for your feet. 

If you can't tell by our clothes, summer was winding down in the Southern Hemisphere and winter was creeping in.  It was very sunny, but the water was cold and the evening temperatures dropped drastically.  When the wind was blowing, I had to wear two jackets.

We surfed in wet suits and booties the whole time.  It was surprising how warm they kept us. I am in the blue and Shea is in black and gray.

 Below we are warming up a little before we "get our hair wet." (That is a surfer expression, i think).

Although there is no actual photo-evidence that we surfed, we did.  These pictures were all taken from the second day when the water was a little bit rougher and we were able to stand up on the board less.  Shea, however, was able to stand up and surf on her very first try.  I followed and caught on quickly as well.

Here we are out in the water with Phil, getting ready to hang ten, whatever that means.

In the picture below we are hanging out in the water with all the other rookies, waiting for the waves to come in.  I think that this was one of my favorite parts.  It felt really good to stop and enjoy the moment, just hanging out on our boards under the sun and rocking in the mild waves of the ocean. 

 As luck had it, there happened to be a big surf competition on the Thursday that we were in town.  I think it was a Chilean competition to qualify for nationals and it took place at a world famous surf spot called "Punta de Lobos."

The two rocks you can see are the classic view of Punta de Lobos.

If you look very closely in the lower right corner of the above picture you can see a surfer in green.  In order to make it out to the waves they had to cross the channel and get onto the land behind the big rocks.  It was almost as exciting to watch as the competition.  Below you can see one surfer sitting on the rocks watching the others who are surfing behind the rocks.

I felt really bad even asking this guy for a picture.  He was toast after coming in from competing.

And one last important detail for anyone who has seen Blue Crush, yes they did have someone on a jet ski who went around to help the surfers.

Santiago Chile

I never finished the last segment about Estonia, but I am onto the next because it is more fun, interesting and recent.

I ran my first solo conference April 5-7 in Santiago, Chile.  Man was it tough! but boy do I love my job!  I am so lucky to have gotten the right job for me and very lucky for a certain special someone who helped me find my way to it.

After a horrible 9.5 hour flight from Dallas to Santiago, I looked out the window and was greeted with mountains, horses, field workers, sunshine and junkyards.  I knew that it was going to be a special trip.
 The first few days were filled with work, but this was my office.  Meetings, dinners, set ups, registration, classes, lunches, busses, patients, clean ups, presentations, transfers, paperwork, payments, etc.

This is my work all packed up and ready to go for one day.  Yes, I had 7 briefcases.  Now the truth is that I really make it sound like I'm important and the students do often think I'm a doctor, but I am not.  I suppose I am just trying to prove to the world that I was not playing during my whole trip and I DO work hard.

Anyways after 6 straight days of work, I was on vacation and Shea was down in Santiago, ready to go and planning our week long adventure.  Santiago was never on my radar previously, but I soon learned that it should have been.  I was only there for a short time, so I don't have too much to share about the actual city.  I am more left with a lot of curiosity and half answers.  I think that after nearly every trip I say "I wish I had known more about this place or done more research before I got here."  With google at my fingertips, I'll keep the same resolution in mind before my next trip.

However, not one trip will ever go by without important trivia. 

Hands down, one of the more important obvious facts about Santiago is that it is home to the tallest building in South America, yet at the same time it is also the cite of many strong earthquakes.  In 2010 a strong earthquake toppled an entire building.  

                                                                            

Aside from an obvious fact, everywhere has a shopping product.  Lapis and Copper are the important purchases in Chile.  I was on a quest to buy Lapis the entire trip, but I failed.  I was found running to the airport on the last day of the trip.  No Lapis in hand.    

                                                        

The next obvious cultural exposure is food.  Along with all sorts of food, Razor Clams are noteworthy in Santiago and we kicked out trip off with beer and a tray full of clams.

For the Santiago portion of the trip, we headed off to a famous hill/mountain in the city.  The hill has a cable car that goes up the side to a statue of the Virgin Mary overlooking the city.  Halfway up the hill there is a zoo.  We walked the first half of the trip up to the zoo.  They had all the usual animals, but it was very interesting because the whole zoo was on the side of a hill that went straight up.  

 Since the zoo is on a hill, you can see the Santiago skyline behind the animals.  I don't think that they appreciate the view very much, but it is pretty unique.  In addition to the uniqueness, it was 100% not handicap or stroller friendly.  Everyone was basically carrying their strollers up hills and stairs.

 After the zoo, we rode the cable cars to the top of the Mountain where there was a giant statue of Mary overlooking the city.  We hung out up there for a while and took in the view.  The city was huge!  Santiago has a population of 6,000,000.  Milwaukee has a population of 600,000. Whoa!

 After finding our bearings and learning the currency and dialect in Santiago, we headed off on a 3.5 hour bus ride to Pichilemu, a small surfing town on the coast of the Pacific.  There we would fulfill the great Blue Crush inspired childhood dream to learn to surf.