hola amigos! We write to you from Pichilemu on a blustery but sunny day. Actually Beth writes to you as Matt is currently in the Pacific. I have been shivering since we arrived but most others around town are in shorts and t-shirts. Some people at the beach yesterday were even swimming and baring their skin to the 17 degree day! I was wearing about 3 layers per body part yet couldn’t get warm, and Matt decided he would wear his R3 wetsuit and booties, which he deemed to be a good decision.

Enough about the weather. Our last week in Santiago was a productive one. First (and I would nearly say most important) we found a great cafe called Colmado around the corner, which quickly became our morning ritual. (I just want to add that all the photos on the blog so far are from our phones, so apologies for the quality.)

part of the coffee menu at colmado

Second, we had the opportunity to be tourists for a couple of days. Señor Vánchez went to a 3 day retreat at a service centre in the city for a “servicio completo” before the bed building (and searching for supplies) began, which gave us the chance to actually see some of the highlights of Santiago. Seńor Vánchez’s stay ended up costing a lot more than we had anticipated, however we drove away with new tyres, steering rods, brake pads, all the relevant filters, fluids and belts, and lots of other things I tuned out to when handing over the credit card. If anyone is interested it was Bosch on Francisco Bilbao in Providencia, and the manager Elias (Chilean Ross from Friends) was super helpful and tried his best using google translate to explain all the costs to us. Yesterday we drove to Pichilemu, which ended up taking nearly four hours, and the van purred along nicely, so it was hopefully money well spent.

seńor vánchez getting the deluxe

Sightseeing…. we rode the furnicular to the top of Cerro San Cristóbal, which has a great view of the city. We tasted some pretty delicious morsels at the famous Empanadas Zunino, which has been pumping out amazing empanadas for about 80 years. So glutenous, (and gluttonous!) but so delightful. We slid our way around the slippery floor of the Mercado Central fish market, and ate some delicious dinners in Barrio Lastarria. One in particular Matt claimed, to have served “the best beef ribs” he has ever eaten. Big call. My duck was also the best I’ve ever eaten. Having not eaten much duck this wasn’t such a big call I thought.

empanadas zunino. the cheese filled ones were the best. salivating thinking about it.

mercado central

You can probably tell by my posts to this point that the dining experiences have been the highlight for me of this trip. I’m now enjoying the warmth of the common area in the place we’re staying, which has some super relaxed hosts. The manager Benjamin actually wasn’t here when we checked in, he was out surfing. But the other dude who is helping here is from the Central Coast (of NSW!) and is also really nice and helpful. He is out surfing with Matt as I type this and I’m hanging with the Californians back at the hostel.

nice to be on the coast again. punta de lobos

My camera finally came out of the bag yesterday for a few shots in the afternoon at Punta de Lobos while Matt surfed. The black sand here is a lovely change, but I particularly love the rock-braving cacti. It makes everything feel more real for me, that I’m not just at one of the many different beaches at home, I’m actually at a beach in Chile, South America! Is it odd that it’s taking cactuses to give me a reality check?

Mentionables from this week:

• the incredibly helpful, tiny but loud, nice but bossy, chatty and adorable lady in the hardware store who sorted us (and everyone else) out with our needs, no english necessary
• reggae singer on the bus with portable sound system singing Marley’s “one love”
• empanadas de queso
• viewing the work of Dalí (my favourite) and Duchamp at the contemporary art museum
• stumbling upon a hidden gem that I didn’t even know was a thing… geek markets! i don’t actually know what it was called (and apologies for my title) but the markets were solely for the sale of used (and first edition/limited edition/never been touched) figurines/anime/costumes/old ps1s/nintendo 64s/gameboys/games/posters/wrestler dolls/wigs and other things I had no idea what they were but the buyers sure did and were incredibly excited about their purchases. Excellent viewing that was.

Hasta la próxima!

PS. so far we have spotted 5 goats and 1 llama. All from the car so no photos… yet.