Aunt B's Blog: A Day at the Beach

We should have more fotos!

Stairs to the beach at Algarrobo

Main beach that's safe for swimming

Further down the beach

I went to the beach yesterday! (apologies to all my friends who got blizzard-ed on Friday) Mi amiga, Eliana, had been to Algarrobo many times as a child and thought it would be a great excursion. After the initial madhouse at the bus station (summer vacation time):

we had a great trip to Algarrobo. There are lots of bus companies that run between most of the cities in the country, and the busses are generally clean and comfortable to ride in. The trip to Algarrobo (wiki: Algarrobo) took a little over an hour.

An aside (as the authors said in Victorian novels)
There are advantages to living in one of the most litigious societies in the world, one of which is that because most people in the US, if they had an accident, would sue over a broken sidewalk or an obviously neglected stretch of road. Not here! The infrastucture is a more than a bit crumbly in a lot of places. Vina's sidewalks had holes large enough to break a leg or an ankle with one misstep and called for constant vigilance. But, as you might expect, the newer parts of the big city of Santiago are a lot better, which led to my complete lack of concentration in Algarrobo. There was a large chunk of concrete buried in the sand and dirt of a parking lot entrance and I found it with my right foot. Cut to the cartoon footage of someone flying through the air towards certain serious injury... Luckily for me, a scraped elbow was the extent of the problem, a day later and the thing that's most painful is the slow-mo film in my head. A kind man at the vegetable market cut a piece of aloe for me and the scrape has been healing wonderfully.

The day was a complete delight. It was one of those perfect beach days with a breeze, some high clouds and lots of sunshine. We had almuerzo (lunch) at a great seafood restaurant:

Our table in the corner (you can actually see the water)

After lunch we took a long walk along the seafront down to the world's largest swimming pool.

The world's largest swimming pool

It IS actually big enough to sail or kayak in, in fact, there were a couple of Hobie Cats sailing down at the other end. The pool is popular because the ocean is chilly, as in really cold. The Humboldt current comes up the coast from Antarctica and keeps the temperature down. The pool is salt water, but it warms in the sun and is filtered. The resort is absolutely huge. There are 10 buildings, and another under consideration because the property is so well liked. The condos start at $200/day, but everyone of them has an ocean front view and balcony.

The good news is that the beach in front of it is close to deserted even in the height of summer. There's a walk alongside the pool and we strolled north, then sat for awhile and watched the water and the birds. (those are the pics up top)

There are other beach houses and a resort further north, much quieter than the southern end of the beach. Yikes, I forgot to mention there's a yacht club and there were a bunch of boats out sailing, even a few racing!