Playa Juan Lopez

Medio enero, como es solo 35 kilometros al norte, yo decidí que debemos ir a Juan Lopez. Solicite recomendaciones para como pudimos ir sin un auto y alguien me dijo que puede tomar un bus del centro. Bueno, falta mucho tiempo tratando a identificar exactamente cual bus sin una mapa de las rutas y un estación central, lo descubrí con la ayuda de mi maestra de Español.

After a slow morning and about 2 hours en transito (para ir 35 kilometers), llegamos en Juan Lopez. El bus nos llevo a una casa de colores en el sur de la ciudad. Acuerdo a los ciudadanos, los colores exoticos son comun en los puertos porque los ocupantes reciclan la pintura de los barcos. Personally, I just thought it was refreshing considering the constant background of sun-bleached rock and dust as far as the eye can see.

Having been once before with my coworker, Domingo, we opted for a quick walk through the city that would drop us in on the North side of the beach.

Fortunately, we arrived just a low tide so we were able to pass through among the tidal pools. You can see the tide levels on the rocks behind me showing just how much the water level rises. Yes, my hat looks dorky; but, with a well documented UV radiation problem, I thought it prudent.

 While these tidal caverns were cool to check out, we were both hesitant to linger in their presence given the high tectonic activity in Chile. Even though we had yet to feel any tremors we decided to play it safe. I would venture to guess that the frequent earthquakes in the area explain why these caverns were not all that deep (no more than 5 meters). The strangest part of such an earthquake prone area is how many people work underground in the mining industry...

Look but don't touch. The low temperature water (15 degrees Celsius) appeared to be ideal for sea urchins. We found small colonies of them in almost every nook and cranny.

Coming around the corner you start to see the charm of the pueblo and where all of that brightly colored paint came from. All of these fishing boats usually disappear early in the madrugada to collect everything from swordfish to mussels. By the time we got there the motors were already cold.

The amazing thing to keep in mind while observing this picture is that the city has neither running water nor electricity. None of the inhabitants live here year round. In fact, for 10 months out of the year, despite the amazing weather with a high of 75 and a low of 50 and zero chance of rainfall, Juan Lopez is practically a ghost town. Unfortunately, as you can see we happened to show up on one of the busiest days of the year. 

Further down the beach we finally managed to ditch the crowds and find a bit of sand for ourselves. There we finished off our day with some nice rolling waves, a little body surfing, and a few Solo cups of delicious Chilean wine.