Chilean Coast

Just a day after the arrival from the south, we headed west...to the coast of Chile. Since the country is long, but very narrow, it only took us a few hours. Our principal goal for the day was to reach Algarrobo...a small village where there was an island where a clan of Humboldt penguins (or pajaros-ninos) have settled some years ago. Of course, for those who know me, I had pretty much become obsessed with seeing them.

Well, before we reached Algarrobo, we had an unexpected, but a welcome detour....we stopped at Isla Negra where Pablo Neruda spent a good number of his writing days. We visited his house to discover that he was really a lover of the sea and all nautical things judging by his collection of ships in a bottle, conch shells, maps, and other sea-related things. His desk was in a room overlooking the Pacific ocean (hm, I think I could be a great poet myself if I lived there). His grave was also there, along with that of his third wife.


Our next stop was Algarrobo....our excitement was building up, but was bitterly crushed when we got to the beach and realized that there was not a single boat that could take us to the penguin island since the local fishermen decided to take a day off after working the long holiday weekend. The matter was complicated by the fact that, even though the island was connected to the mainland, that part of the beach belonged to a private yacht club. Our last hope was to try to convince the guard to let us on the island...however, it was to no avail. We tried to climb the nearby hill and try to search for the penguins through our 12x zoom cameras, but we couldn't see any penguins. After inquiring around, we learned that since it was getting warmer and warmer (beginning of spring in Chile), the penguins were already underwater. Oh well, there was still the Santiago Zoo. In any case, we really enjoyed Algarrobo.

Our next stop was Valparaiso, the seat of the Chilean parliament and an important port. The city was distinctly different from Santiago and to Sarita and myself had a strong resemblance with La Paz with its hills and narrow streets. We visited the harbor, had a delicious lunch during which I even tried some sea critters, and visited several lookouts to see the whole city.



The last stop of the day was another coastal city Vina del Mar and its suburb, a beautiful beach called Renaca. We could smell the ocean in the air and enjoyed watching the huge waves crushing against the shore.