One last walk on the magic beach. One last look at the penguins. One last hike on the little trails with views of … everything… Then, pack up Hank and drive off with a big smile.
My next destination is the tiny Chilote West Coast village of Chepu. I am staying with a family of inventors. They have a working train, handmade canoes, clocks that tick backwards, handmade nativity scenes, driftwood furniture, a sweet if giant dog and a very chatty assistant whose husband drives a very fast motorcycle.
I park my car and head straight to the big wild beach walking along the river which, at the beach, dissipates into the ocean. First farms, then dense forest with the river always on the left. Then sand dunes. Cross the deep wide river barefoot. Walk for 3 miles along the ocean on the prestine beach lined with the most Jackson Pollack-painting-like cliffsides…
Walk back in high tide, wading through the cold ocean as the sunrays get narrower. Bliss!
Back at the house, I fire up Hank and take a sunset drive to try and see the submerged forest. After a recent earthquake, the river moved and covered what was then a forest. So now, the trees grow out of the water looking like the petrified trees I photographed in the Namib desert…
The tiny village of Chepu is very small and, at this hour, completely still. An old couple fishes together off the “town dock”. Love!
The dirt road takes me on and I follow it. We arrive at a house that has food signs up front. The lady of the house opens the door and unlocks a little store or is it storage? I buy everything edible she is selling – mainly these peculiar little tree nuts that the lady packaged herself. Then I munch it all while driving… Man, I love this life!
Vagabonding Zwindling 