It’s been hotter than earlier in the week so going to the beach was definitely in order.  The other day we went to black beach – at first we were walking along and not seeing anyone – then we turned the corner and yikes – lots of people.  We carefully carved out our 8′ x 8′ spot with our towels, the umbrella guy came over and put up an umbrella for us and we were in business.  The sand is black – basically small ground rock – very rough, not fine like sand at the beach.  We all swam and hung out and had some fun.  The boys have been bugging me to go sailing – but every time we go it’s blowing 25 kots of wind and not a good place to let them sail.  But the other day the wind died down and we went out – it turned out to be a great 10+ knot wind – easily making way and not heeling over too far.  We spent a magical hour sailing and got done around 8:30 when the sun was starting to orange against the volcano – very cool indeed.   Chilean’s have now found speed boats, jet-ski’s and other power toys so the lake has lots of things zipping about, as well as wind surfers, parachutes, para-gliders and more.  Since it’s high season – everything is going – and every means to make a buck in the sun is being offered.  We aren’t really “Miami Vice/Beach Goers” so we were glad when we found a different beach today.

Today we went to “White Beach” – which is at a lake and about a 25 minute drive from our house.  It is at a much smaller town – similar to what Pucon was many years ago, but the beach is also smaller with less people as well.  We launched into action – quickly swimming out into the water – enjoying the lower quantity of people.  What I love about the culture here is that on the beach if there’s a spot in front of you it’s ok to walk in take that spot and make it your own.  We watched in a slight comedy as a family came in front of a couple in front of us – who were making sand castles and watching their kids in the water.  Then the “jones family” moves in.  The proceeded to put up 5 umbrellas, chairs, tie down umbrellas with side walls, etc.  The lady putting up all the umbrellas actually moved a guys towel so she could put her tent stake and connect her string to her umbrella – unbelievable.  The dude was actually sitting right there watching her do it.  It was funny, but when done you couldn’t see through their entourage of shade.  They only stayed about 2 hours which was nice.   We let the boys rent a tricycle water thing for 1/2 hour and they had fun paddling around.

I happen to love trying new things and taking the family to find new things.  We stopped the other day and found a new drink from a small cart (which was awesome), pulled into a small local empanada shop off a small farm (awesome), so today we were driving by a cheese stop and I said – when we come back I’m stopping there.  So we did – bought two rounds of fresh cheese – which is very good – we have eaten 1/2 of a round already.  Each ‘block’ of cheese costs about $7-8 – compare that to wholefoods.  The lady selling the cheese looked German – spoke fluent Spanish, but there were German flags all around.  My guess this is one of the descendants of many WWII Germans who migrated to Chile during/after WWII.  We sampled the cheese, made our acquisition and made it home.  I promptly proceeded to cut some local bread, melt the cheese and put tomatoes & avocados on top – excellent – except for burning the bottom of some of the bread… All natural & local.

The final chapter for this blog post is our find of our dessert spot – sometimes in town we have been waiting for shops to open – they close from 2-4 for lunch – so you need something to do right?  Well for us it’s dessert and/or lemonada time.  The lemonade they make from fresh lemon/limes – and the ice creams are wonderful.  So some pictures of these as well.

this is black beach – at about 1/2 capacity – usually by 4 pm it’s stuffed with people. All the open space is nice – but it quickly fills up.

Sailing with the boys in calm winds.

Just getting started – not much wind, but it picked up about 15 minutes later.

This is a waterfall we stopped at on our way to White Beach

Huge pool below the falls – very clear water.

Another huge pool of water – this is so deep you cannot see the bottom – and bright blue.

White beach – less crowds – more comfortable.

The boys on the tricycle water bike on a cruise.

The family by the waterfalls.

Farm Cheese – PULL OVER!

Fresh round of cheese anyone – it’s so good!

Hey dad let’s sample the other ones! ok… now we have to get two bricks!

Cindy enjoying her lemonade – fresh as you can see and “chunky”

Milkshake! Gavin ordered his in spanish without issue – even picked his fruit in Spanish after the lady asked him different fruits. He’s doing well.

And our Spanish liason figures out the secret ordering technique for his combination shake. Handmade milkshakes with fresh ingredients are wonderful.