1st day going South
Trip Start
Jun 11, 2008
1
246
349
Trip End
May 14, 2009
Pichilemu,
Chile
Sunday, February 1, 2009
There were about 11 of us on the bus including :-
Niall, Colm & Kate from Ireland
Catherine & Alex from Wales
Leoni from Switzerland
Christina from Germany
Kelly from the USA
Paxxi from Spain
We were due to pick up and drop off people as we went along.
The first place we stopped off at was Pomaire (which means 'Cave of Refugees'). This was a small town full of local handicraft shops, very quaint.
Me, Lorna, Niall, Colm, Kate & Kelly headed into a little café to try the local snack of empanadas. This is a lot like a cornish pasty, but the wrap is not as flaky. It was really nice and we will definitely try some again as you can get different fillings.
After stuffing our faces, we had a little walk around town before heading off to Rapel Dam (Rapel meaning 'clay mud'). This dam provides electricity for most of Santiago. It's quite an impressive sight, but the views are the main attraction here....oh and the strange persistent smell of urine everywhere!!
Next place we got to was Picilemu (meaning 'small forest'), which is where we will spend the night. We checked into our hostel before heading to the beach.
We decided to go horse riding along the beach. It then occurred to me that I have never been horse riding! Should be fun.
Safety standards were not at their highest. There were no helmets and no instructions, you were just helped on your horse and then sent on our way. Five of us gambled with our lives, Me, Lorna, Niall, Colm & Kate. It was really good fun actually and we all seeemed to get the knack, although the horses were pretty tame. Then suddenly Lorna's horse decided it couldn't be bothered and just darted off into the distance with Lorna in tow! One of the horse owners came galloping along to guide it back to us.
We then all trotted along as if on our way to rid the local saloon of some no good pistol wielding trouble makers! YeeHaa!
After re-writing how the west was won, we decided a swim was in order. The waves were huge here and me, Colm & Niall decided to accept natures challenge and charge right in!! Nature pulled a sneaky move on us though......even though we handled the crashing waves - we froze instantly in the ridiculously cold water! The sea was absolutely freezing! Even our ooobie jooobies went into hibernation!!! But, we couldn't look like pansies in front of the onlooking natives, so we stuck it out for about 15mins before returning to the warmth of the sands!
This process continued 2 or 3 times during the afternoon, before we finally surrended and headed back to our hostel!
After a shower.....a long hot shower at that.....we thawed out, got changed and headed to Punta De Lobos. Here we got to see some twilight surfing dudes and a fabulous sunset.
We then headed back to the hostel for dinner. This was a fantastic meal of shark! It seems to give you some self satisfaction to devour a shark knowing that some day one of his brothers might be doing the same to you!!
After our ample sized meal we headed over to a local bar to watch the Superbowl. The bar was called 'Cheers', so we knew there was a good chance of the game being shown. We had decided on supporting the Arizona Cardinals and really thought they had snatched it at the end. It was an amazing 4th quarter and there was a brilliant atmosphere in the bar.
After the match we played some drinking games, female arm wrestling, male lap dancing and general misbehaving. It's amazing the things you do under the influence of alcohol and being in the company of the Irish!
We finally made it to bed at 5.30am!
