January 12,

Up and about by 0730, and readied, having our Javas and breakfast. We ate ¾ of a fantastic honeydew-type melon. Ohh my… it was so good and flavorful!! We should have only had ½ of it but we could not stop!!! Natural candy.😋 We did a bit more laundry (forgot some).

Around 1030, we set out walking back to the Laboclin- the clinic for vaccinations. Jeff got his 3rd Hepatitis B shot, since we had “found” his paperwork. While he was getting his shot I watched a news program of some people in San Antonio, Chile protesting eviction. Seems that they were living wrongly in a water intake area. Anyway, when he was done, he paid the 17,000 CLP ($19.22) bill in cash as their credit card machine was not working. We haven’t had to use much Chilean Pesos and are still using the first ATM amount we withdrew. But it was a good time to use it as our time in Chile is coming to an end.

We set out walking to a nearby bus stop. We caught the next bus going north to the city of Concon. It is ~ kind of ~ in the metro of Vina del Mar. Anyway, we got on paying 500 CLP (57 cents) to go around 11.2 km or 7 miles. Concon is a coastal city and has many high-rise condos. Jeff had looked at places for us to stay up here instead of in Vina del Mar. Along the bus route we passed some tall sand dunes on the coast that people can sandboard on. A rare few places were steep enough that you could board down, but we did not see anyone boarding, rather just trekking the dunes. The bus turned off the coastal road, but on a parallel upper road. We got off the bus shortly after this.

We walked down to the coastal road and found a restaurant. The one Jeff had found on Google was called Calipso Restaurant. It was overlooking the ocean and great to watch the water. We both ordered fish- a Grilled Swordfish and a Grilled Tuna. Both were steak size portions and excellent. We also had a side of mashed potatoes each, (but we could have shared an order… very large portions) and a salad, which was ½ a sliced avocado, tomato slices, and (pickled?) leeks. To accompany our food, we had a bottle of Casa del Bosque Chardonnay. We were also given a starter of pico de gallo with sliced bread and lemons. So much food!!! We had to get the salad as takeaway. The bill was the highest one we have had yet… 73,480 CLP ($83). But we left happy. As we were enjoying the meal we were entertained by various birds and some water activities: people paddle boarding, kayaking, and even a banana ride being pulled along by an inflated motorized boat. It made for a fun, good outing.

We walked back to a bus stop and caught the next bus back to Vina del Mar. As we were waiting for the bus we were glad we’d come up here. We had a good vibe, but it was a different feeling then where we are at. We both were glad we chose where we were. It has a more “local” feel. Anyway, we arrived at the nearest stop and hiked back up to our place. It was around 1530. We relaxed. I blogged and Jeff had a siesta. (He awoke at 0530 this morning). Later we had the avocado and tomato (with extra avocado we already had) and a guac. mix on toast and crackers for supper. We just listened to music for the rest of the evening. Good day!