One of my very good friends insisted a lot on me about visiting her aunt, who lives in Reñaca, near Viña del Mar. So, eventhough I was really lagging behind my planned schedule, I thought my friend's comments on her aunt were reason enough to try to visit her. And I'm certainly glad I did.
Reñaca and Viña del Mar are the typical summer resorts that are quite lively during the summer but where ther isn't much to do the rest of the year (the water is too cold to go swimming and there isn't many people). However, spending three days with Mónica (my friend's aunt) and her family was a wonderful experience. They have a beautiful house on a hill overlooking Reñaca from where you can also see Valparaíso, and they treated me like another member of the family. I felt as if I was home again, which was great after 3 and a half months of traveling.
I had a lot of fun and lot of laughs with her and her son Lucho, learned a lot about Chilean history (Lucho's uncle turned out to be a very interesting person to talk to), drank excellent pisco sours, ate delicious food and visited very nice places nearby. Who could ask for anything more!
One of the places we visited that I really liked is Horcón, a lovely fishermen village where horses are used to pull the boats from the water, which turns into a hippie hang-out site in the summer. However, my favorite spot was Con Con, just north of Reñaca, where you can see truly spectacular rock formations on the coast. Not to mention all the wildlife you can spot on those rocks, including sealions and lots of pelicans, one of my favorite birds.
The highlight of my stay with Monica's family (in addition to having my own private room with cable TV, a luxury I hadn't enjoy since my days as a consultant :) was going sand-duning (is that correct English?) with Lucho and his jeep. It was a lot of fun and a bit scary because we went up some vertical dunes and across some side slopes that really seemed impossible to do in a car. But since that's one of Lucho's favorite hobbies and he's run several times the Atacama Rally, I guess I was in good hands. Well, at least I have no incidents to report :)
So, eventhough I didn't get to enjoy the nice beaches of Viña del Mar or Reñaca or its wild summer night life, my stay with Monica, Lucho and the rest of the family was truly memorable.
¡Muchas gracias a todos por haberme cuidado tan bien!
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