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.....

Mirasol

We scored the last car at our rental place Friday morning and joined the throng of people heading to the coast.  After unloading our stuff at the Cabañas Canadienses in Mirasol, which were almost exactly next door to where our friends were staying, we met them for a walk around the neighborhood.

The main square of Mirasol serves as public meeting place, playground, exercise area, flower garden, and vegetable garden.  Here's a tomato plant among the roses.

At the park the girls started playing with some kids who spoke both English and Spanish.  When we told the mom we were from Pittsburgh, she shouted, "Go Steelers!" and gave me a big high-five!    She and her husband had both lived there, doing their masters degrees at Carnegie Mellon!!  Small world.....

Our friends have purchased property in the neighborhood for a future beach house.  Around sundown we walked over from the square to check it out.  Here's the view from just up the street...

And another....

Here we are at the property--just beyond the visible roof there's a cliff down to the ocean, so no chance of a tall building blocking their view in the future.  The sound of the surf is incredible from the property!

The whole property was covered over with this succulent plant, really juicy and funny to walk on!  :-)

On a whim

Returning from the airport on our last trip we asked Carlos, our taxi driver, what people in Santiago do for Semana Santa (Holy Week), and for Easter.  He paused a long time and then said, "Umm.... pack up and go to the beach?"

Since apparently there's nothing of note going on in Santiago that we should stick around for, and we had an offer from J's colleague to join their family in Algarrobo...... we are packing up our Easter bunnies and heading to the beach!  We decided spontaneously last night at 10pm and are leaving today at noon--that is, if we can nail down a rental car.  Our normal online reservation scheme wasn't coughing anything up last night.

Given Chile's 2653 miles of coastline, it's only reasonable to dedicate a visit to it.  Our only beach time so far has been an hour or two on the sand after prowling the illustrated streets of Valparaiso. So--barring any unexpected tidal waves--we'll be back on Monday morning.

We are stoked.  Aloha, dude!  (Oh wait, wrong beach lingo....)