Santiago de Chile (Part III)

Aaah, what a good ski-day that was, yesterday! We were aching and tired the next day, but also ready for more adventure. So it worked well that I had organised us a horse-riding expedition in the Ritoque Dunes, on the coast near Concón. We left Santiago early, with the 8.30 am Condor Bus (CLP 3500) and arrived at the Condor Bus office in Concón, next to a shell station at 10.45am. From there we were picked up by Maria of Ritoque Expeditions, who took us and 2 gringos, to a beautiful house on a beautiful hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Next to the house were pastures with horses being saddled for our 3h horse-riding tour. There were about 15 people all in all, of which 5 people from the Ritoque Expeditions including the 5-year old daughter who galoped away like crazy (what a mad little girl that was!), 3 gringos from Florida, the gringo couple from the pick up, a chilean couple and their 2 daughters, and us two. The halfday riding tour costs US$24 and the fullday tour is US$56.

We set off around noon, Yannick on "El Sanguinario" and me on Peluzzon. Yannick was amongst the last ones all the way until the dunes, whhile I was practising my trot enlevé. You don't normally trot with these chilean horses because they were made for taking people to work and you either walk or galop to work, you don't hop on your ass for miles. Because of that, it's fairly usual for the horse to go from walking to galoping, but mine seemed to like trotting quite a bit. Chilean horses are also quite small (but not like Shetland poneys!) and the saddle is a bit different, as well as the reins which you are meant to hold in one hand as there is an end bit with which you whip the horse (don't worry, it doesn't hurt him) to go faster.

We went through wild bushy open spaces, through forests, we crossed rivers, and finally we arrived in the bare sand dunes, with desert vegetation here and there. By the time we took a break, after about an hour and a half, my backside was already sore. We stopped in a little oasis of coniferous trees, tied the horses to the branches and enjoyed some water, fruit juices, mandarines and galletas (biscuits). Then we set off again, walking/galoping through the dunes. After making a slow start, El Sanguinario had really woken up and Yannick was galoping away, often first in line. My Peluzzon turned out to be a follower, so whenever a close-by horse would start trotting or galoping, Peluzzon would trot after it (remember Peluzzon liked trotting, not so much galoping).

Arriving on the beach was like being in a movie, galoping in the shallow waves, hearing the whole group of chilean horses going as fast as they could, with their riders yelling "Yyyaaaaah Yaaah!". On top of that it was a brilliantly sunny day, all day long, and it wasn't too warm, nor too cold, nor too windy - just perfect. Yannick's horse seemed to be scared of the sound of the waves because it was always galoping towards the dunes, inland. And even though the expedition leaders had told us to galop a bit then walk a bit to let the horses rest, El Sanguinario never wanted to stop. And my Peluzzon was happy to follow anyone galoping in fornt of him, I just had to push him a bit to speed up from trot to galop.

After returning to the beautiful house on the beautiful hill, Maria dropped us at an empanada place in Concón, La Casa del Mono, as empanadas are the local gastronomic dish in Concón (and you'll see from the town's website that they call themselves a gastronomic town, which wouldn't exactly be my chosen words as the only thing you'll find is emapandas...). With our stomachs full, we took a local bus to Viña del Mar and then to Valparaiso where I had booked us a sweet little hotel in Cerro Bellavista: Hostal Caracol. What a nice hotel that was, and how relaxing to finally have a warm comfy room to rest in on our last night...  Hostel Caracol is US$43 per night for a double room with private bathroom incl. breakfast. Check-in at 2pm, check-out at 12 noon.

More new photos in Santiago de Chile.

En Français:

Après notre excellente journée sur la neige hier, je nous avais organisé une balade à cheval (comme si on avait pas déjà assez mal partout!). On a pris le bus de 8h30 de Santiago à Valparaiso, une ville côtière avec un des ports les plus importants du continent, et j'ai dormi pendant tout le trajet! On est arrivés vers 10h45 à Concon oú Maria, de Ritoque Expeditions, est venue nous chercher. Et vers midi on enfourchait des chevaux chiliens. Ils sont un peu plus petits que les européens, et les rennes se tiennent dans une seule main parce qu'il y a une extrémité qui sert de fouet (et qu'on agite avec l'autre mian, restée libre). Ce sont des chevaux "pour se rendre au travail", càd qu'ils ont l'habitude de marcher ou de galoper mais pas de trotter. Je dis ça mais mon Peluzzon aimait quand même bien trotter, ça m'a permis de pratiquer mon trot enlevé! Yannick, portant son chapeau de cowboy pour l'occasion, chevauchait El Sanguinario (Le Sanguinaire!) qui, bien que lent et endormi au début, n'arrêtait pas de galoper à toute vitesse à la fin. On a traversé des forêt ombragées, traversé des rivières, des landes désertiques, et des grandes dunes de sable, avant d'arriver sur la plage oú on a galopé dans la mer - comme dans les films de cowboys avec John Wayne! Yannick criait d'ailleurs "YAaaaa Yaaa!" comme un vrai cowboy :-)

Après la balade, Maria nous a redéposé à Concon, ville gastronomique (ah bon?) célèbre pour ses empanadas (il n'y avait franchement rien d'autre). C'est donc le ventre repu qu'on a pris le bus pour Valapraiso pour loger au bel hostel Caracol (Escargot), bien au chaud cette fois, puisqu'à Valparaiso il faisait doux et ensoleillé (enfin, pas tout le temps, comme on le verra durant notre 4ème jour...).