Spanish School in Pichilemu

A week ago I left my job, sold my furniture, put my clothes in storage and flew to Santiago, Chile. Here’s a photo of me on the way out:

The photo was taken by a nice woman whom I met on Facebook Marketplace. I gave her four curtains and requested the photo in exchange. She took the task seriously, produced the photo, gave me a hug, took the curtains, and wished me a great trip.

Once in Chile, Spanish School was first on the agenda. My research had taught me that a basic understanding of the Spanish language (which I do not have) would be essential. This proved to be true on my very first morning, where I had hoped to order a small latte with double espresso, but walked out of Starbucks with two small lattes plus two single shot espressos. Not good. Spanish was needed.

I enrolled in a week-long class at a school in Pichilemu, a coastal surf town that’s three hours by bus from Santiago. This quote from another travel blog sums the place up well: “a very special town in which not only surf, but a wide variety of activities and characters can be found.” This was certainly all true.

There were five students at the Spanish school this week, one in my class and three at a more advanced level. The student in my class, Chris, was also in the early stages of a long-term South America trip and had just left an engineering job in Australia. Chris and I had both had demanding careers just one week prior, but now spent our days battling phrases like “that dog is brown.” Here is a photo of the school (building on the left) and our classroom (table on the right):

Apart from Spanish, Pichilemu days consisted of some combination of surfing, running along the beach, reading, and cooking (more on that shortly), all with fellow travelers from Sudeste Hostel where I stayed. Sudeste operates a bit like an unstructured adult summer camp (as many hostels do), with an interesting cast of characters arriving and departing each day. This morning for example, a Canadian rolled in on a motorcycle that he had ridden from Vancouver, and plans to ride to the southernmost tip of Argentina. The crowd is constantly in flux, but a handful of us were at Sudeste all week and were good friends by Friday. We are headed back to Santiago together this afternoon. Below are photos of Sudeste. For context, I paid $18 a night for a shared room with two bunk beds. They have private rooms as well for $50 a night.

While at Sudeste I also learned a key new skill (in addition to Spanish). Those of you who knew me in New York are aware that I don’t really know how to cook, or rather, didn’t know how to cook until this week. I quickly learned that a reliance on takeout didn't exactly work in Pichilemu. There were no restaurants in the general vicinity of the hostel, but there was a massive communal kitchen, a bunch of friendly international folks with plenty of time to teach, and a basic market down the street. Below is a photo of the market and one of my creations (veggie burger):

As I mentioned, this afternoon I will take the bus back to Santiago where I’m staying at a hostel that has a Christmas celebration planned for tomorrow. Then I’ll continue South, probably Monday.