Day 124

     After a long debate and calculations I decided that Brazil is not going to happen and will have to be saved for a separate trip hopefully to be combined with Machu Pichu in not to distant future. Yes I haven’t left this country yet but I am already scheming to come back.

     As soon as I decided that I wasn’t going to go (which was the only reason I had come to Santiago and stayed in Santiago) I hoofed it to the bus station to catch a bus to Pichilemu and begin my weeklong surfing adventure. There was a little drama because after boarding my bus and sitting for 10 minutes the driver told all of us that we had to switch to the neighboring bus do to mechanical problems. I could see 95% of the luggage under the new bus but my bag wasn’t one of them and I tried asking to make sure that all the bags had been transferred but no one would give me the time of day so I had to board the bus and tell myself that in 3 hours I would arrive in Pichilemu and my bag would be one of the three I wasn’t able to see and not to worry about how I would go about finding it if it had been accidentally left on the bus in the Santiago station.

     Luckily the three hour bus ride went by quickly despite being squeezed between the largest Chilean I have seen and the window and when I got there my bag was indeed on the bus.

      I went to the hostel to find the smallest hostel I had found with only a few guests staying and the minimum amenities possible. The name is called Surf Eat Sleep. There are two Americans staying here. Kevin who is from Boston and is a chef back in the states, and Mike who is from NY and just quit his job as a consultant after 6 years to travel South America until he has spent all his savings. They asked if I wanted in on the dinner they were preparing which of course I agreed to. It was spaghetti with grilled shellfish and a white wine sauce. Kevin had my attention. We all sat outside on the ground by the BBQ because there weren’t enough chairs. Really interesting beginning to this adventure but I totally am digging the minimalist approach to the hostel here.