When December arrived, we both finished our jobs and began the process of preparing for the big move... fitting our lives into a few suitcases again. We only had a couple of weeks to do everything, so obviously, that included fitting in a little more travelling.
We took a short 3 hour bus trip to the sleepy beach town of Pichilemu, apparently, the Surf Capital of the world. I can't imagine what this place looks like during January and February, but in the first week of December, it was wonderfully abandoned. This was by far my favorite beach experience in Chile. We also tried our hand at surfing. Having grown up in West Texas, this is the closest I had ever been to surfing:
We walked along the beach and found a surf shop that had lessons beginning at 3pm. We killed about an hour and returned, where we would put on our wetsuits (because the Pacific is like ice yo) and begin what ended up being a private surf lesson in Spanish.
After our instructor taught us the basic moves, he took us to the water, where he helped us catch waves. Michael improved like a natural where I spent a lot of time falling (err flopping) into the water. After our lesson was over (about 2 hours), they let us keep the equipment for another two hours, so we took turns trying to be all Blue Crush, and playing photographer. We were both sore in muscles that we didn't know existed the next day, but we had a great time.
The next morning, we took the collectivo over to Punta de Lobos where many world surfing competitions are held. Here we watched the REAL surfers scale rocks and and ride waves for extreme distances.
It was only a two day/one night trip before we returned to Santiago, but it was lovely. I would definitely list Pichilemu as a "If you're ever in Chile" don't miss destination.
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