So one thing that has been completely, totally, 100% confirmed is that I love the sea.
Middle Chile (the part in which I live, and the part in which we traveled last weekend) is cold right now. Again, a reminder: it is late autumn these days here (making it really hard for me to cognize 90+ degrees back home in Los Estados Unidos). It feels especially cold because, just like Mexico, there is no centralized heating ANYWHERE. It’s not that the temperatures are that low per se (it never drops to freezing), it’s just that the humidly chilly and overcast 50 degrees outdoor times translate into humid, 45 degrees, nose-dripping, dark indoor times. A confession: my favorite part of my days in the city right now is being squished into a metro train during rush hour on my way to my volunteer position at a school for the blind. Being completely bereft of personal space and essentially spooning strangers on the metro is the ONLY time I ever feel close to warm and toastified. Um, that’s kind of pathetic.
Let’s get back to sea. We traveled to a small, sand/dirt road, beach town called Tabo last weekend because our Chilean friend has a getaway cabin there. He invited a group of us expats, plus another Chilean friend of ours to accompany him and his family. So very, very nice of them. We’re so lucky. So, like, it is autumn, it is cold (it was super-cold in the cabin), it was sometimes raining, but that gorgeous Pacific Ocean with its big waves crashing into the rocky shoreline was totally and perfectly palliative. The best part? The added peace and calm due to it being the low season. The beaches were deserted, making the walks and exploration that much more serene.
The old, massive cabin (it had AT LEAST eight beds)! It was rustic, barebones, and perfect:
Rocky coastline...
...mixed with strange, unique, and lush vegetation:
Close-up, the green stuff looke like this (succulent, aloe-style plantlife):
This patch was rocking its autumn colors:
We took a day trip to the port town of San Antonio (where we saw those amazing sea lions):
Pelicans scrambling for fish guts thrown into the water by fish-cleaners at the market:
