Daytripping in Quintay/Picture of the Day 18

I've been kinda lazy about exploring lately and my time here is winding down, que lata. So the other day I decided to start taking some small day trips and remembered several people telling me to go to Quintay. It's about an hour south of Valpo and was the epicenter of Chile's whaling industry in the late 1800s/early 1900s until 1967, when whaling was officially banned worldwide due to hunting the poor things until near extinction. (Everyone signed the treaty but Norway and Japan, what's up with them?). Quintay also has a number of good seafood restaurants, so no one had to twist my arm to get me there!!!

I tried to go last week but I got to the bus station at 11:20 and the bus left at 11:15, since when do things happen on time in Chile? Pucha! The next bus wasn't for several hours and since winter is approaching, the sun sets early and I decided to wait for another day. Monday broke, gloriously sunny and oddly clear. I could see all the way to the snow-capped Andes, past Santiago, which I have never seen from this far away.

On the bus ride, I watched the beautiful interior glide past me and I realized I had become complacent about how gorgeous Chile is. I noticed that the other day too, walking down a street in Valpo and it just seemed like a street to me, not a fascinating, ramshackle, South American alley. So it was a good reminder not to lose my sense of wonder and HOLY SHIT, LOOK AT THIS PLACE AND TAKE IT ALL IN!!! Just before we got to Quintay, we were treated to the most breathtaking view of the beach and cove below from the incredible height of the incoming road, I couldn't take a picture because, well, we know how well pictures through windows turn out. Trust me though, my day would have been complete just seeing that view.

The town is pretty much nothing but if you walk down the path to the harbor, you can see the old whalery??? Is that a word? I don't know the word in English. 500 pesos got me into the old place, there was a pretty uninspiring exhibition hall that had pictures of starfish and excerpts from Moby Dick pasted on warped cardboad. But touring the old, abandoned complex was totally worth it, the day was perfect, the camera was behaving, sort of. Magnificent.



The water had a brillo especial about it.




Eerie.




Sky.




Whales are big.

I wrapped up my afternoon with a big pastel de jaivas, which I could describe as a an enormous dish of local crabs, baked au-gratin style. Mmmmm. On the way home, I realized I completely missed walking along Playa Grande, which is supposed to be quite lovely. Maybe another day...