Pichilemu

Thank you, Chile. You give me long weekends, cheap buses, great company, and wonderful places to see. What more could I ask for? We had four days off from work, and the last thing I wanted to do in Santiago was waste it going to carrete after carrete, feeling sluggish though the days because I stayed out too late and slept in too much. When my skin is wrinkly and my hair is gray and my grandchildren are sitting at my knee, I want to be able to describe the country I lived in for a couple of years not the nightlife or parties. All that said, Becky and I headed down to the bus station, located the ticket counter, and purchased four pasajes to Pichilemu with no return.

On Sunday, after a morning of packing and scrambling around Grace, Becky, and I all met at the bus terminal. Daniel joined us on Monday. After several traffic jams later, we arrived in the slightly chilly beach town of Pichilemu only to find that there was no return ticket left for Tuesday. We had to extend the stay another night and get the bus home on Wednesday morning. By the time we located the hostel, the internet cafe (to notify our Wednesday students we would not be in class), and the supermarket, it was dark. What else could we do but join the barbecue and enjoy the night? Monday and Tuesday we spent the majority of the time roasting in the sun on the black sand beach. On Wednesday, we tiredly and sunburned-ly waved good bye to the empanada-packed, surfing beach town.

A small conversation between friends and an example of my selfishness:

Grace: I didn't bring a towel to sit on the beach.
Becky: Me neither.
Katie: I have mine. You can sit here, but after a while, I'm going to be taking up the whole towel to sunbathe.

Significant life marker: I waded knee deep into the cold Pacific ocean for the first time.

black sand + cankles?

Aw!

Freezing, but fulfilling!