I caught the 11am bus in Santiago for Pichilemu so I could enjoy a lazy breakfast at the Happy House. The buses here are great! Modern lazyboy seats with plenty of leg room are a nice contrast to what we had become used to in South East Asia.The bus left the city and wound it´s way through rolling hillsides dried out by the summer heat. I imagine these are the perfect weather conditions for the countless vineyards we passed on our way to the coast to create those great Chilean wines. After only 3 hours we arrived to dusty Pichilemu. Siesta time and pretty quiet. I dragged my gear up the street to la esquina and soon was on a local collectivo for the last 6km´s to Punta de Lobos.
Dropped off in another dusty parking lot I looked around and had no idea where the rumoured campground was. Plenty of expensive looking cabañas dotted the hillside looking out over the point with a black sand beach heaving with a summer crowd. The surf was onshore and small so I wasn´t rushed.
After asking a few people about camping and receiving vague answers and even vaguer directions,( probably only vague due to my lacking any local language skills whatsoever) I eventually met Señor?¿?¿ El Caballero de Churro´s. He and his wife were selling churro´s filled with dulce de leche out of a van on the clifftop. Yes, I´ve had more than one so far. Mmmmm..... We talked for awhile. Actually, he rattled off directions and instructions to me in Spanish while I nodded my head pretending to understand all the while feeling like a complete idiot. I guess I understood enough because soon I met Italo and Anita. After explaining to them that I was an old friend of Señor Churro and was looking for a place to camp near the surf, they generously agreed to let me set up my tent behind their ramshackle shack in a grove of trees. Perfect! Shaded, protected from the wind, inconspicuous, and only 100 yards to the surf!
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