A Day in Horcon

On Saturday 8 -25 we headed out with our friends Alan and Daniel to explore some of the nearby coastal towns that we had not yet had the chance to see. North of Vina Del Mar there are several popular beach towns including Con Con, Renaca and Horcon, which was our actual destination. The scenery was nice along the way and we stopped along the way at one of Alan’s surf spots and enjoyed a cold beverage and took these photos. The view was great and we could see sea lions playing in the surf, it was very tranquil.

Then we headed to Horcon, a small coastal town best known for its hippie community and nude beaches, but also well known for its incredible empanada and seafood restaurants. We ordered a round of jaiba & queso empanadas (crab & cheese), which run about $2 each. Delicious!!!!! After the meal we headed to Playa Cau Cau to watch the sun set. We got some dreamy photos and it was a great end to the day. We will definitely be back there again soon.

DJ Set at Cafe Journal

Last night I had my second chance to DJ at nearby Café Journal and again it was a really good experience. This time I played in the second room which is where they typically feature techno, house, etc. It’s smaller than the main area but there is a much better dance floor and an excellent sound system. I opened the room up at 11:20 and by 12:20 it was overflowing with people. I played 'till around 1:00 and then local tech-house hero Luis took over and dropped a stunning set that kept everyone movin’ and groovin’. Around 2:30 I got back on stage and we played back to back for about an hour. As they say in Chile, “que buena onda”, it basically means “what good waves.” We had a blast and we discovered that his music and mine go very well together. The crowd was really feeling it and we had them dancing hard until they closed the room down at 3:30. Here are a few pictures!

Zapallar, coastal town north of Vina

Saturday we hopped on a bus to Zapallar, a somewhat exclusive, but very beautiful coastal town about 2 hours north of Viña. On the way we stopped at all the little beach-front towns, which gave us a good idea of where we would like to spend more time. We also passed by some nasty smoke-spewing factories, conveniently located right next to estuaries flowing directly into the Pacific. Ironically enough, there were signs all around saying “don’t throw garbage in the estuary” and that litterers would be given a stiff fine. It’s nice to see that ours isn’t the only government with its priorities askew. :)

There is a winding stone path built out of the rocky shoreline heading north and south of Zapallar beach. There is also a small peninsula jutting out of the south side, which is a nature preserve. We saw a penguin, a couple of dolphins jumping out of the water, lots of pelicans and some really cool plant life, including the national flower copihue.

The houses were totally insane, historic German-style vacation homes mixed in among super modern mansions with infinity-edge pools.