Testemonial from Drew Waterhouse, EEUU, (April/May 2008)

Its been almost 2 weeks now and I think i´m only just starting to come
to terms with the fact that i´m on the other side of the world, and i´m
the one speaking the wrong language.

The flight over was ok, but I really can´t say it was the
best......ordinary food, and pretty lame service, matched with a pretty
old airbus. But good company of a couple of retired teachers from
Melbourne doing the big SA Adventure too....well, 1 month worth anyway.
Hi Helen and Viki....hope you´re having a ball!

Checking out through Customs and getting a bus had its moments, but i
made it into Santiago and stayed the night at La Casa Roja, a really
cool Hostel run by an Ozzy who stayed there a few years back, and never
left...now he owns it. Met some cool guys, Sam from the UK and Bas from
Holland, who made me feel pretty comfortable on my first
night....considering this was the first time in my life that i´d stayed
in a Hostel. Shared diner shopping costs and had a few welcoming beers.
Went to bed at about 9pm, having been awake for almost 20hrs.....then
woke up again at 2am, wide awake! My battle with jetlag had officially
begun!

Next morning i headed off early to post back about 4 kilos of stuff i
decided (1 day in) that I coud do without, considering my pack was
pushing 30kg at the airport! After that I wandered down to catch a bus
to Pichilemu, where i´d be studying spanish and hopefully surfing for 10
days. The trip took about 3.5hrs and cost a tad over AU$8...and it was a
luxury coach.....they travel in busses WELL in Chile.

Pichilemu is a sleepy little fishing village in the winter, which was
nice for me, but apparently is a really tourist party mecca in the
warmer months. Population of about 15000.

I linguistically bumbled my way to the language school upon arrival,
where Val instantly made me feel at home, along with everyone else
there. It was a really warm and friendly atmosphere that I felt at ease
with straight away and excited to start learning (nerd). Val introduced
my to Patty, who would be my host along with her family for the next 10
days, and we walked the 2 blocks to their house for a late lunch. First
cultural challenge (apart from the whole ¨....no hablo mucha
español.....¨ thing) was having a big hot lunch in the middle of the
day, and i mean big, and then just bread and cheese, or bread and jam
for breakfast and diner. Good thing Patty was such a damn good cook. I
found myself reminiscing about my childhood when I lived next door to a
Chilean family in Sydney and I´d have diner with their kids. Patty´s
family consisted of 2nd Husband, Claudio, daughters Patty Sue and Patty
Pas, and eldest son Patto, who´d be back from University in Valparaiso
that weekend. Yep, thats Patricia, Patricia (Sue), Patricia (Pas), and
Patricio....and Patty´s first husband was called Patricio
too........Chilenos Locos! Cozy little house with a woodfire....I really
loved staying there, and really loved my time with Patty and the
Family.......she even gave me a hand-knitted beanie to say goodbye
(dammit, my first goodbye and i was alreay welling up).

Managed 3 days of fun surfing, but the point called ¨La Puntilla¨, at
Pichilemu, although an awesome lefthand bank that breaks clean for 2
minutes, was really hard to get used to and took soooo much paddling to
get to the peak, and then hold position.....seriously 20minutes of solid
paddling to get to the spot. The water was probably hovering around a
rather fresh 14 degrees and even a 4-5mm wetsuit couldn´t help stop the
eternal icecream headaches every duckdive, or your hands and feet from
totally numbing out so that pushing up to stand felt like pushing off 2
wrist stumps, and standing felt like 2 ankle stumps......3 or 4 waves
and my legs were just working, but by then I was so tired from all the
paddling that I had to call it a day. By day 3 i was surfing a lot
better and managfed a couple of 20-30 second rides.......pityfull by
Pichilemu standards, but EASILY the longest waves of my life.

I managed an afternoon of photography at Punta De Lobos, a renowned Big
Wave surf spot just a few minutes south........probably the biggest
wave´s i´ve personally seen ridden, live......and again, it was pretty
small by their standards.

Spanish lessons were fantastic, with my amazing teacher Trinidad
(¨Trini¨). I couldn´t believe that I was actually enjoying verb
structures.......somehow the Chilean Craziness was rubbing off. I
definitely could have done with more lessons to improive my
conversational skills, but now it was up to me to keep up my studies,
and try to speak with people about different things as often as
possible........Thanks Trin, and I really did kick your ass at Jenga
too. Thanks to everyone who made my stay in Pichilemu so awesome, Chris,
Allen, Scotty......cheers!

Patto, Patty´s son, invited me up to Valparaiso to stay for a few nights
after Pichilemu, and I arrived here last Friday night. I have to say,
that Valparaiso is the most beautiful city i´ve ever walked through. A
port city full of universities, it is completely surrounded by hills,
that are covered, all the way to the top, in colourful,
victorian-through-shanty style houses and apartments, clinging
effortlessly to every cliff and curve. By day, the sounds and colours
and character of this place are spellbinding....by night, it is young
and vibrant, and totally cradled by the twinkling lights of the hillside
homes. Patto lives in a Catholic Church Dormitory, and the Padre here
was kind enough to also give me a room (with bathroom) for as long as I
wanted to stay.....very cool. Just did a couple of days of walking
through the streets and lower hills areas, that are filled with mosaics
and galleries and cool cafes, and sneaky little ¨pasajes¨or stairways.
There´s even cable cars scattered through the city to carry you up the
really steep parts for 50c. We went to a really nice club called
¨Huevo¨or The Egg, with some amazing dance spaces.....unfortunately the
music was really horrible. Managed to dance very drunkenly to retro for
a while before giving up.

Just up the road from Valparaiso is Viña Del Mar.......like a beach
panorama rivalling the Gold Coast, with highrises all the way along the
water´s edge. But the place was too clean, too ¨western¨, devoid of all
the colour and charisma that Valpo ooozed behind it in the distance,
sprawling up into the hills. I was bored to tears today walking around
Viña.

Back on a bus tomorrow to Santiago to do a day or so of sightseeing
there......as well as plan my trip (around the volcano) to the South of
Chile.

Hope you enjoy the photos, and please please please shoot me a quick
email back to let me know how things are in your world.

Hasta Luego,

Drew.

TESTEMONIAL FROM SARAH LOVE, AUSTRALIA, MARCH 2008

Hi Chris and Val,
Just a quick email to thank you both for your support and help during our 2 weeks in Pichilemu.  We really enjoyed the spanish classes and the 2 weeks homestay with Patty and family.  We are sorry we didn´t get to say goodbye to you on our last day but you were both busy doing other things at the time.
We hope your both well and enjoying the surf. 
Thanks once again.  The spanish classes have been a big help in day to day life here.
Cheers
Sarah and Nathan