As Claudio worked during one of the public holidays in December, he got a Monday off last month to compensate, and I also cleared my schedule on the same day so that we could have a long weekend. We decided to spend this long weekend in Papudo, one of the beach towns in
the Valparaíso region that we hadn't visited yet.
When I started my previous job back in March, I had to complete several hours of training. One part of the training included an article about lesser-known tourist destinations close to
Santiago, and I remember that Papudo was on the list because of its geography that gives it a warmer climate than other beach towns in central
Chile. Claudio and I had also seen some nice pictures and videos of Papudo, so it was an easy choice to go there!
One of the pictures we'd seen showed some amazing apartments on the beach, surrounding an enormous swimming pool! We hoped to stay there, but it was a bit too expensive for our budget at the moment. (Hopefully we can stay there in the future!) But luckily, I was fortunate enough to manage to reserve a little apartment in a cabaña for a good price, just a few days in advance!
The place where we stayed, Cabañas Aquario, had everything we needed and was close to the beach. To make it even better, there was an adorable resident cat, who greeted us soon after we arrived!
After checking in, we headed for the beach. On our way there, we were lucky enough to meet another lovely cat!
We had lunch at a nice restaurant on Playa Papudo, the town's main beach, and then relaxed and sunbathed for a little while. After that it was time to swim!
Entering the chilly water of the
Pacific was certainly a shock after our time in
Brazil! But to be honest, I find there's something quite nice about having that cold shock on a hot, sunny day and then feeling yourself adapt to it within the first couple of minutes. And after that, it's perfect!
We had a nice swim for a short while, but then the waves started to get a bit too big and rough so I got out to spend some more time sunbathing and reading. (We found out over the course of the trip that the other beaches in Papudo are better for swimming.) However, it's still a very pretty beach with a beautiful backdrop of green mountains and palm trees, that reminded me a bit of photos I've seen of
Colombia, actually. (My experience of Colombia currently consists of just passing through Bogotá airport, but I'd love to properly explore the country in the future.)
When evening arrived, we went on a little sightseeing walk. Probably the most iconic sight in the town is this German-style house next to the beach. Like
Zapallar, Papudo is quite affluent, which is why you can find this kind of European architecture there.
Not far from the house, you can find the town's church, which is very small and pretty.
We also walked along Playa Chica (Little Beach).
Here we found a nice café, where we had our once (the evening meal in Chile). We had an amazing view of the ocean and the town, and it was a great way to finish the first day of our trip.
Afterwards, we booked our places on an exciting activity for the following day, and then went back to the cabaña, but not before passing through the town's main square.
The following morning, we headed down to the pier for our activity: a boat trip to Isla Los Lobos, an island full of wildlife. I was feeling very excited about the trip, until the boat appeared - well, I say "boat", but it was actually more like a dinghy with an engine. It was definitely not what I'd expected!
I got on with some trepidation, and we set off. The speed at first was fairly moderate, but then the driver asked if we were ready for an adventure... Everyone shouted "Sí!", and then we really went at full pelt! I was clinging on for dear life, and hoping that neither I nor my bag (which had my phone in it) would fall into the water!
Then all of a sudden, we reached our first stop: a little rocky area between Papudo and Zapallar. We had stopped here in the hope of seeing someone very special...
And then all of a sudden, he appeared - he being a tonina, a Chilean type of dolphin! It was absolutely incredible to see this beautiful creature appearing above the waves. Neither Claudio or I had ever seen a dolphin in the wild before, and it's something I'd always hoped to experience one day, so it was just such a memorable moment. Claudio even managed to capture a video of him!
Sadly, the poor dolphin has quite a tragic backstory - he used to have a partner, but she was killed by a fishing net, and now he's all alone. Hearing this story made me really want to do something to protect these magnificent animals.
After spending several magical minutes watching the beautiful dolphin, it was time to say goodbye to him, and sail on towards the island.
However the journey there wasn't so straightforward; at one point the driver and the guide noticed some plastic in the water and decided to fish it out. This meant doing a u-turn at speed, which lifted the boat nearly on to its side! While I admired their commitment to protecting the ocean and its inhabitants, it was a bit of a scary moment for those of us on the boat!
I was very happy when we finally stopped at Islas Los Lobos, not only because it was a chance to catch my breath, but also because there were more incredible animals to see there. It was lovely to see Humboldt penguins again (we'd previously seen them in
Algarrobo), but it was my first time seeing sea lions in the wild (they are actually called lobos marinos - sea wolves - in Spanish, hence the name of the island). I'd seen seals up in Northumbria many years ago, but these creatures were so much bigger - in fact, some of them were huge! It was really funny to watch them flapping and sliding around!
It was then time for the third and final stop of the tour. Here we had the opportunity to jump into the water at the most beautiful beach in Papudo. This area is really isolated and is surrounded by forest.
The ocean was a beautiful turquoise colour here, and jumping in was a great experience!
It was a bit of a relief to arrive back at the shore of Papudo after the tour - it had been a much more adventurous experience than I'd expected! But it had also been an even more incredible experience than we'd been expecting, and it's definitely something we're going to remember for a long time.
As we walked back to the cabaña, we were lucky enough to spot some more wildlife. Lots of pelicans had arrived on the beach, and some had even taken over a nearby boat!
After lunch, we had a walk along the beach, up towards the northern part of Papudo. This part is a really picture-perfect paradise beach, and even has a small lake actually located on the sand.
We did attempt a swim here, but there were a lot of rocks, seaweed and jellyfish floating around, so eventually we headed all the way back down to Playa Chica, at the other end of town, and had a really nice swim there.
The day ended with us meeting another lovely cat!
And the next morning, we were lucky enough to meet yet another lovely cat when we were eating our breakfast! Her name's Selva, and I think she lives at the café we were at. She was so friendly and cuddly!
We didn't have much time left in Papudo, as we wanted to move on to our next destination fairly soon, but we managed to fit in one last bit of sightseeing, starting with some pictures at the big letters!
Then we went for a walk through some interesting rock formations between Papudo and Zapallar. Unfortunately, there was some graffiti there, but it was still a nice place to explore, and a bit of a workout climbing over some of the bigger rocks!
Finally, we arrived at the area where we'd seen the dolphin the previous day.
And guess what... he appeared again!
This time, he entertained us with some proper jumps, where his entire body came out of the water! It was absolutely amazing to see!
We spent many minutes there, waiting for him to emerge again and again, but to be honest, we could have spent the whole day there. He's such a beautiful creature, and we felt incredibly lucky to have seen him twice. Hopefully we'll get to meet him again in the future!
Overall, it was a fantastic couple of days in Papudo - we saw so much amazing wildlife on this unexpectedly adventurous trip. Papudo is definitely one of my favourite beach towns that I've been to in Chile, and I'm sure we'll return at some point.
After saying goodbye to our dolphin, it was time to go to our next spot along the Chilean coast:
Valparaíso. It was my second time in the famous, colourful city, nearly 5 years after my first visit, and it was great to explore it again, this time with Claudio. I'll be writing about it next!
