Week 3: A taste of the Pacific Ocean

This weekend was met with a number of firsts.  After a short 4 days of classes, I was ready to get my weekend underway.  It began in traditional Chilean fashion, with a good empanada.  I´m not partial to this pastry type dish filled a variety of ingredients, but when you´re hungry, on a budget, and in a hurry to get the night started, it gets the job done.   We made our way to a chic salsa bar which was tucked away on a side street.  The conclusion of the night was: we NEED to sign up for salsa lessons.  This isn´t to say it was a disaster, but it would be a lot more pleasant if I knew which direction my feet are supposed to turn and when the flip is coming.  One more thing to add to the ¨to do¨list.

The following day came with an early morning and a new destination for the evening.  I FINALLY  found a pair of trekking boots that I hope to get a lot of use out of! You can´t imagine how difficult it is to find a pair of boots for a size 8 foot.  I would go to a store, pick up the model size 5 or 6 boot and ask for my size.  Without fail I would get the response ¨that’s the only one we have in stock¨.  Seriously who has that small of a foot.  And when I asked if I could order it, a common question in the US, they said it would take 2-3 months.  That response was then followed by a laugh from me, a ¨muchas gracias¨, and on to the next store.  Needless to say, it was a huge relief to find a good pair in preparation for my upcoming trip to Bolivia.

The hunt for trekking boots was followed by a 5 hour bus ride to the Chilean coast!  Pichilemu was the setting for the weekend.  This small town is a destination for world class surfers.  The intention for the weekend was to go relax on the beach and maybe watch some surfers.  Let´s just say the weekend turned out much different than anticipated.  Relaxing on the beach turned into squeezing into a wet suit, and watching some surfers turned into learning how to surf!

Being a water person I was thrilled to learn Pichilemu wasn’t an impossible place for a beginner to learn.  I guess I just assumed because people from all over the world go there to surf that it was out of the question for me.  Turns out the real waves are a few kilometers (yes I´m now forced to think in the metric system) up the road.

An Australian surfer warned us ¨these are by far the coldest waters I´ve ever surfed in¨, but we didn´t listen.  We suited up in our wet suits and booties, grabbed a board, and headed for the water.  There was a bit of hesitation with the talks of the cold water, but once I was adjusted to the 12 degree Celsius (54F) water there was no pulling me out.  With a little bit of help and instruction, I managed to get up on the board a few times.  That’s really all I needed to fulfill the weekend.  My friends and I finally got out of the water to brag to the Australian that it wasn´t THAT cold…only to determine we probably had to work a lot harder than he´d ever thought of just to get past a couple of waves and up on the board.

Eventually I regressed to Santiago late Sunday evening to satisfy my exhaustion with a good night´s sleep.  A weekend filled with dancing, shopping, and surfing served its purpose in getting me into the Chilean groove.