Typical Chilean coastal countryside - a lot like I assume California was 50 years ago.
1) Lefts - There is a perfect lefthand setup around every bend in the road. Insane! In CA these waves would fetch million dollar gated houses and crowds above 100. Here they are empty of surfers and costal land lots cost around $15000 USD.
2) Food - After gorging on empanadas y completos (footlong hot dog with saurkraut, tomato, avocado) we have finally found our rythym getting good produce and meats in the market. The food is good here, and cheap.
3) Roads - The roads are in good shape, when there are roads. We spent 4 hours on washboard dirt roads that I thought would shape my fillings loose (thank you Dr. Benyami, they did not). We were rewarded with 4 hours at a sand bottomed left with nobody around. Big fast hollow and fun. I kept saying to Genji "Where are we?" and "is this real life?" or when we would be running back up the point watching sets pour in we'd say "well would you look at that!" (inside joke). Big green mountains with pine trees right down to the water. Cows, chickens, dogs, sheep, farmers, horses, ox and carts, everything has a very old world feel and uncrowded. One Chilean finally came out and said we could stay in the house on the point for 10 bucks a night. We may return there after we get our own car.
4) Chileans - They are friendly and helpful. We stumbled upon a left hander hidden to the south of Constitucion. We hoped in the back of a truck to get a ride and check the camping situation, and driving it was Ramon Navarro, Chilean surf legend and big wave superstar. We took that as a good sign we were in the right spot. The wave was not working but he said it would improve. We paddled out to 2 ft onshore junk, and watched as it turned into reeling 6 to 8 ft left barrels. Ramon was killing it doing airs, getting barrels, and hooting for us on our waves. There were four of us out. Again I was saying "Is this real life?" We ended up camping there for the night, drinking chilean wine and BBQing fresh fish. We have benefited from having a local guide show us some waves, and we are also looking forward to being out on our own, with our own schedule.
Hitching a ride with Ramon Navarro.
Learning by doing - We did not have dinner one night but we had a bag of black beans and some tomatos and some of Genji's spice mix. The Chileans were laughing at us but several hours later we got the nickname "Los Gringos Frijoleros" and everybody ate the beans. We are also learning Chilean Espanol the easy way (i.e. the hard way - full imersion). The pronunciacion es muy differente de espanl mexicano. En Mexico chicken es pollo (poy-yo) but here it is Pollo (poe joe). We have been lost several times and laughed at for our spanish even more times, but we are getting better.
Pescado fresca ($2 from the fisherman) y gringo frijoles.
At one point an all the way drunk Chilean with one eye handed a halfway drunk Genji a chainsaw and said to "corte un poco madera para la fuego". A group of all the way drunk Chileans was delighted as Genji took to dismantling several downed trees working with headlamp and vino tinto. He got the nickname "El Maestro".
This morning the crab were running, and we watched a small village work together to catch them. They would run the boats all the way up the shore at full speed and everyone would work the get the crabs out of the net. Then they would hook the boats to a two ox team to pull them off the beach. We will buy crabs from them for dinner, later when we return to surf the low tide.
Chilean Boat Ramp.
We have been in the Epicenter of the Tsunami damage since yesterday, there is a lot of destruction. The Chileans give a confused look when we drive by, but a wave or head not is always returned with a warm smile or wink. Juane says the people are happy to be alive after all the destruction and loss of life. Later today we are helping a non profit that is building homes for the victims paint a few of their houses.
Chilean Segway
La China Fuerte! Our rental car is a trooper and depite my dislike of Chinese made products it is standing up to the punishment. We have driven it through mud puddles, up dirt roads, down side alleys, on the beach, in the city. Our guide Juane lost his lisence due to a traffic accident so we are doing the driving. He also tends to lose his wallet, the keys, his trusty blackberry, and his mind once a day. We think it is from too much pakalolo but he is putting us on good waves we would not be able to find without him, so no complaints. It will be interesting if we can find the waves when we are on our own. That was a lot, time to get some food and check the surf. Cheers for now. - El Gringo Alto.
thank you. beyond words. janet
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