After the long DRY weekend in the desert, a smaller group of us opted for an easy weekend at the beach (yeah, WATER!!!). We hopped on a public bus from Santiago to Pichilemu (about a 3 hour ride), which is a small surfing town on the coast. Several other people from our class had been there during the previous weekends, so we took their recommendations and booked a great cabin right on the main drive. Mark and Zee already had dinner on the stove when we arrived, so we enjoyed a fun evening of guitar music, cards, beer and conversation with a new friend from Scotland who joined us.
Even though we were on the beach and it was sunny, it was surprisingly cold because of the really strong winds. Seafood and surfing are the lifeblood of the town, evident by the beach littered with fishing boats and the huge waves that were rolling in.
We had a surf school and rental shop next door to our place, so Tom and Adam, who knew what they were doing, went out in the morning with first-timer Zee and froze themselves even in wetsuits. Mark, Ty, Colleen and I walked for a couple hours on the beach escorted by three faithful gutter dogs while we waited for the water to warm up for our afternoon surf lesson. I’m really glad we paid for lessons (very cheap, btw), because it’s a lot easier to surf when someone stands behind you and gives you a big shove when the wave comes! We had tons of fun in the (warmer) ocean, but were glad we had little wet suit booties on because we definitely felt pinches from crabs while walking in the water!!
The next day, Mark and Adam rented bikes and cruised around (sans sunscreen…bad idea #1) and then headed back to Santiago that evening.After checking out Punta de los lobos (Wolf Point), where the crazy surfers catch HUGE waves, Ty, Zee, Colleen and I decided we were too close to the world’s largest pool, farther up the coast to the north, to not try to get there. There’s an easy bus from Santiago to Algarrobo, but from Pichilemu it was quite an adventure. Thankfully, our stars were aligned and every bus we needed lined up perfectly! Three buses and about 5 hours later we were standing at the gates to the San Alfonso del Mar condominium resort in the middle of nowhere…with no room.
The resort is not a hotel, but a huge complex of privately owned condos, so there’s no reception desk to ask about a night’s accommodations. But, thankfully the security guard at the gate knew the guy to call to and in less than a half hour we were in a gorgeous room overlooking the most amazing pool we’d ever seen. The guy who rented us the room got us into the “agua caliente” spa for free, so that night we hung out and watched the sunset in the blissfully warm hot tubs, jetted indoor/outdoor pool (donning the mandatory swim caps we had to buy) and sauna.
We spent the whole next day lounging in the sandy “beaches” outside the pool, which covers about 22 acres and is crystal clear but saltwater because they pump the water directly from the ocean that butts up to the edge of the pool. We had high hopes of swimming the whole length of the pool, but just swimming across it the short way was tiring!! There were probably 10 people there total, so it was pretty cool to feel like we had the whole place to ourselves. Definitely a great place to relax!
TIPS for anyone going later or next year:
- The rooms are pretty expensive, but there are 5 beds and a couch, so splitting it between 6 people people can get your cost down to about $30USD per night (remember our crappy exchange rate of 500pesos:1USD).
- When booking make sure to clarify if the rental includes sheets and towels…that was a weird part of our negotiation for the rate.
- Book online through the property’s site before you go so you don’t have to do what we did and negotiate on the spot for a rate.
- Don’t go only on Sunday night and Monday…almost everything was closed. The pool was open, but we weren’t able to rent any of the kayaks, sailboats, or other equipment. Also, there were several restaurants and a cool underwater bar that would’ve been open if we’d gone Friday/Saturday night instead.
- Take food with you. There is a grocery store across the street, but it didn’t have much fresh stuff. The rooms have full kitchens, so cooking is easy.
- WEAR SUNSCREEN…the UV rays in Chile are ridiculous. We got fried!!!
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