The beach at Algarrobo

The next morning we went down to the beach near our cabins to have a picnic and take a walk.  The surf is dangerous in that area, and not suitable for getting in the water (it was too cold anyway) but we had a fun time frolicking in the sand.

The cliff in the distance behind the girls is where our friends' property is.

We were walking along the beach where the biggest swimming pool in the world is found.  This is a picture of it that I found on the web.  From the beach you can't see into the pool area very well because the pool is about 6 feet above the beach level.  However, we caught a few glimpses.  This pool is so huge that you can sail small sailboats on it!  Crazy.

 

The waves were often taller than J and I took about 100 pictures trying to  (unsuccessfully) capture the effect.  This was about the best one I managed to get.

This one gives an idea....

Kelp sculpture....

Later in the afternoon we joined our friends again and went down into the Humedal at Mirasol, just a few steps away from their property.  The beach there looks like the Oregon coast--completely different from where we were in the morning, and it's only about a kilometer away!

Towards the top of the trail were cacti and other desert plants, and as we descended into the valley the foliage was lush and almost jungle-like.

We even saw some wild plants that looked a lot like corn.

One one of the promontories there was a house made out of a boat.  We enjoyed seeing people para-sailing around above us.

What you can't see in this picture is that when I sat on the beach, the entire seat of my pants ripped out from about 3 inches below the waist band, vertically down to about 5 inches above my knee (there's a danger in wearing your favorite pants until they get that threadbare.....).  Thankfully I was able to strategically tie my sweatshirt around my waist for the remainder of the afternoon.  Ooops!  Haha!

Our friends were shocked at how many people were on the beach--they said on this particular beach they've never seen more than 10 people.  I guess it was because of the holiday weekend.....