Road Trip!! Pichilemu Edition

We left on a road trip across Chile...a van (11 people in a 12 person van) and a truck (4 people in a 5 person truck) with 20 boats (A white-water kayak for all plus 5 or so play boats).



The first stretch was to Pichilemu, an awesome Chilean beach town. After close to a full day drive which was fairly uncomfortable after the first 2 hours, we got there and found our hotel (the same place the Longs have been staying at for years...). We changed in their general changing area, skipped moving into our rooms, grabbed our boats, and headed to the beach.

I learned how to surf. I understood the basic principle from miniature waves on the Main Payette and watching people at the Gutter and on videos, but I never quite had the nerve to do it. But as Tren (one of our instructors put it), in the ocean, you have the fun of the hole, the fun of getting slightly trashed, then you get to roll up in flat water. We were on the San Antonio Beach or the Main Beach (yay for Wikipedia!). So I got to learn how to surf by experience. I was generally with Nico (our Chilean friend on this adventure) and Christan (our Chilean instructor). The goal is to get on top of the white pile of water on the wave, and ride it. As you get better, you go bigger and actually do tricks. I just worked on catching the wave and not flipping. The first time I flipped, the first thing I noticed was the salt. I rolled back up (apparently with this completely comical face), spluttering "La sal! La sal!" (The salt! The salt!), and got laughed at.

I kept thinking back to my Spanish teacher's assignment to blog on if we preferred the beach or the mountains. I originally always put the mountains because mountains have rivers and rivers can be kayaked. But then I was drawn--because frankly surfing is pretty awesome when it works. But then I got trashed, and driven into the beach/sand one to many times, and made one too many mile treks up the beach (due to the current taking us down) with blisters, a heavy boat, and a wind. Oh. And the continuous salt, which stung the eyes eventually. But surfing remains awesome. So now in response to the blog, I would still respond mountains, but for a different reason...fresh water.

The next day we went surfing again (I got better) and I got power driven upside down into the beach (the wave left me upside down, with my boat on top of me, in the middle of the beach, totally unable to move with a mouth, nose, and two ears filled with sand and salt water). So although the surfing was awesome, by then I was exhausted, and decided to go with Carly (our horse-back-riding teacher) and Mackenzie and ride horses on the beach.

Now I ride horses a lot as those who know me, know quite well. Aka: Once around the corall on my Mom's and Dad's friend's horse. Six years ago. Like I said: I ride horses a lot. So Carly (in Spanish) communicates her desire for a fast horse, Mackenzie's for a medium horse, and mine for a slow horse. Carly's horse didn't stop, mine didn't go, and Mackenzie's was just right. Yet, the few times our guide did get my horse to run, left (I imagine) huge bruises. Here is an apology to the horse for needing to deal with a random rider who had no idea what she was doing!! And here's a thank you to the guide for being patient as I searched through the file cabinet in my brain of Spanish and attempted to communicate. I think it generally worked. Yet despite having no idea what I was doing, and not getting the horse to do what I wanted it do do (walk a little faster), it was pretty cool to ride a horse on the beach.

Later, we went to La Barracuda Disco Theque (completely sanctioned by the Longs...with Tren there as one of our chaperones). Basically a night club for 16yrs+. The thing is, you have to look it to get in...so actually being 17 does me no good...but we all got in!! The rules were: No drinking, No smoking, and no grouping. It was dark, and loud, with pulsating lights. Yet, I managed not to get a headache until 3(am)...it opened at midnight. We mostly stayed in our lovely gringo group (AMERICANS). But it was interesting...I couldn't get the smell of smoke out of my shirt for days... It was interesting...it was better than homecoming was, and people kinda legitimately danced (not just vertical jumping)...