Quintay

Yesterday's adventure was to a small beach town called Quintay, about an hour south of Valparaiso. We caught a colectivo, a shared taxi, from near the bus terminal to get there. Quintay is on a peninsula, so the colectivo headed inland along to road to Santiago, then exited onto a small road that wound through the hills back to the coast. The steep hills are heavily logged and replanted with a mix of pines and eucalyptus. I asked how long ago landowners started planting eucalyptus but the driver just said it was a very long time ago. There is also a native palm tree, and it is very odd to see palm trees growing among pine trees.

Quintay is a small town with a central plaza surrounded by dusty dirt and some paved roads. A short walk downhill is playa chica where there are several seafood restaurants and a small beach used mainly by divers and fishermen. We found a path and stairs that led back up the hill towards and followed it towards Playa Grande on the other side of town. The path led to a paved road that ran along the top of the hill past some pretty grand looking houses behind tall privacy fences. At the end of the road we continued along a dirt path but decided to scramble down the hill to walk along the rocky coastline. The scramble involved avoiding the abundant cacti and ducking under shrubs. There were some nice tidepools along the coast (see photo of odd sea creature like a starfish with a zillion legs) and the beach was covered with an assortment of smooth rocks of all colors. Cormorants, gulls and the occassional pelican perched on the big pointy rocks that stood out in the surf. We picked up a path again at the end of the rocky beach that eventually led us around to Playa Grande. After the solitude and long walk, it seemed funny to end up in a parking lot next to a beach filled with families! Most people were crowded in a small sheltered area that had calmer shallow water for kids to play in. The main beach had red flags out prohibiting swimming. There are many more houses, even a few small highrises, by Playa Grande, but surprisingly no restaurants. So we followed the road from the parking lot up the hill and eventually came across another dirt path that led us back over the hill to where we had started from.

We had lunch at one of fhe seafood restaurants on Playa Chica. I had "pastel de jaiva", a huge mound of crab cooked in cream and butter - eat your hearts out eastern shore friends! (see photo). Jake had a slab of grilled salmon served with rice.

We headed back to Valpo around 4pm to rest and relax. After watching the sun set over the bay, we strolled downhill to Plaza Annibal Pinto at the bottom of Cerro Alegre for a drink. I tried a pisco sour, the national drink made with pisco (like rum), lime juice and sugar. We skipped dinner, still full from our meal at the beach!