Algarrobo Chile

Goodness our time in Algarrobo has been wonderful! Spent so much time at the ocean. We had lazy late mornings and late nights (dinner at 10 sometimes). Algarrobo has a beautiful coastline. The family we stayed with, Alejandro’s brother Jaime and his wife Victoria live just a few blocks from the beach. We had an ocean view balcony from our upstairs room. 

Tuesday January 7th

The drive to Algarrobo only took a few hours.  Matt had his first driving experience for this trip.  He did great. We still arrived with plenty of time to go walk down to see the ocean. There was a fun beach area is just a few blocks away (downhill though so coming back is straight up). 

Wednesday January 8th

Today we started at a museum called Isla Negra. It is the house of a famous Chilean poet called Pablo Neruda. It is a very eclectic seaside home with some really amazing views.  We weren’t allowed to take photos inside the house, but it’s enough to say he was an expensive eclectic horder. 

After the museum we had a very delicious lunch of fried cheese empanadas and I had a very yummy pina colada juice.  Heading back into town we stopped at a beach area that Matt had run to that morning-El Canelillo. It was gorgeous! Large trees and a perfect swimming cove.  We weren’t prepared for a swimming day, but we did go down to the crowded beach for a few minutes and just wadded in a bit. It was fun just to walk around the boardwalk that was around the trees. 

After getting back to the house and resting for a bit, we played a game of contract rummy or carioca as they call it with Alejandro and Mariapaz.  Jaime, Alejandro’s brother made us a lovely dinner of beef, potato salad, corn, and onions.  Goodness we stuffed ourselves.  We are eating dinner quite late here and then staying up even later, poor Matt. Tonight we ended up going to the beach at midnight. Jaime, who drives mini busses for schools, took all of us in one of his. It was pretty amazing being at the beach so late at night and pretty dang fun riding around town in the bus.  

Matt staying up WAY past his bedtime

Thursday January 9th

Today was reserved as our beach day.  It was a marvelously lazy day spent in the sun.  After a regular breakfast of avocado and bread we gathered all the supplies (luckily the family had all we needed-chairs, towels, umbrella, etc) and walked down to the beach. Victoria and Jaime met us down there just a little bit later. Jaime came with fins and goggles too. We spent about six hours at the beach swimming, playing, reading, and visiting. It was lovely! 

Jaime left the beach a little early to go do some work and apparently to start making dinner. When we got back from the beach there was a lovely dinner of corn on the cob, potato salad, and beef waiting for us.  He also made us some traditional pisco sours complete with the lemon sugar  rim. Yummy! And then for dessert he brought out the sweetest watermelon. We each had a huge chunk. We were stuffed!

Watching the sunset from the balcony 

Sadly Mariapaz forgot to use sunscreen and ended up as red as her drink (Matt got a little burnt too, but luckily I didn’t except for a small area on my shoulder)

We finished dinner early enough that we had time for me to lose at carioca again.  Glaciers usually I win at the card games, but not in Algarrobo.  So it was another late night, but no specific wake up time so that was nice. 

Friday January 10th

Today is our last full day here in Algarrobo.  After a lazy morning for me and a long run for Matt we drove to a town north of Algarrobo -Quintay. Quintay is a small village in a little cove. It was beautiful. Quintay is known for its whaling history. They had a whaling museum that shared the stories and photos of the whales. Very interesting, but kind of sad too. 

Can you fund me looking at a sea star or find Mariapaz and Alejandro on the beach?

Matt teaching Mariapaz how to skip rocks

Sea star

When we got back to the house in Algarrobo(via lots of windy and steep hills) Jaime’s sons, Jose and Jaime jr, were there along with the wife and girlfriend.  Both boys are spear fishers.  They were on the hunt for a specific fish and said it would be in a sea cave close by.  So, off to the ocean again it was. A little chaos but a lot of fun- nine people and three dogs in a mini bus headed to the ocean.  They took us to this beautiful rocky part of the ocean. 

Is the fish we want down there?

Turns out the area where the fish would be was too foamy from the waves to jump in, however there was a great jumping spot just a few rocks away. The boys couldn’t resist jumping in several times while the rest of us watched. 

When we got back to the house, we had a little bit of time to sit and chat. With all the people and dogs it was now a full house. Jaime made us another amazing dinner. This time it was a pasta dish with a tomato sauce and chicken.. 

Again we stuffed ourselves. Dinner was a loud and kind of rowdy experience. It was interesting to mostly be just an observer with not speaking the language very well. You could easily tell the family really enjoyed each other‘s company. One of Jaime’s sons had a new little puppy. Her name was Olivia. It was the cutest puppy ever! 

All too soon it was time to go arrange our suitcases for an early morning departure. Sadly, our time in Algarrobo was ending. Around 8 A.M Saturday morning we had to say goodbye to the Algarrobo family and start the drive back to Santiago to catch our flight to Punta Arenas. Naomi and Sergio were waiting for us there to give us one last goodbye from our Chilean friends.  

Now we’re off to Patagonia!