Maitencillo

What is the best cure for the flu? A weekend at the beach, of course. After taking a few days off to recover from my illness, I packed up my bathing suit and followed the rest of Santiago to the coast last weekend. We rented a house on the beach for ten and let the fun begin.

Our party was quite the international crowd hailing from the US (of course), Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Spain and oh ya...a Chilean that lives in Milan. Just when I thought I was getting the hang of Spanish, I had to through Portuguee into the mix to make life more confusing.

Chilean baby walking back from the beach

Maitencillo is a quiet little beach town about 2 hours from Santiago that reminds me of the way California was back in the day before it became commercialized. If you ever have a chance to go, it is a MUST. We had an asado on Friday night and headed to the club Ice for a loooong night of dancing. Saturday, we relaxed at the beach, enjoyed a late lunch of seafood and champagne sours at Puntamaira, and went home to nap. After an adventure with the ladies at the grocery store in Omar's stolen Audi (we stole it, not him), it was taco time!

After dinner, we glammed up and headed out to Milcao for drinks before returning to the VIP section at Ice where we danced until dawn.

View from our lunch table in Zapallar

Sunday morning we packed up and headed north to Zapallar, a town that made me feel like I was on the Amalfi coast. We had an amazing meal at Chiringuito of machas (Parmesan clams), locos (grilled abalone), and Chilean sea bass so fresh they must have been caught that day.

I could really get used to this. Sure beats the cold weather in February in the United States!