from surfing to the dessert

Hi,

Want to say that I have been kind of busy so I did´t have time to post anything on the blog but how can that be true if your are having vacation for a year... Let say that time is going fast when you are......haing a great time

Anyway a quick update on things I have been doing over the last week. I followed spanish and surfing lessons in Pichilemu (the surf capital of Chile). Initially it was very very quiet with almost now other tourists but finally I ended up spedning the week with a nice guy from Switzerland that also wanted to surf, (and still needed to learn .
So combining surfing with Spanish kept me busy enough. And after lots of psychical and mental training i was ayway too tired in the evening to go out etc. Surfing is cool.....but so difficult. (like spanish) but overal I think I didn´t do so bad. I was able to catch some pretty big waves but I also crashed many times. And just the paddling can be so tiresome. Even though Pchilemu is the surf capital this does not man that the sea is warm. There is this cold gurlfstream brining cold water from Antartica along the coast of chile and you need a thick wetsuit for keep you warm....and the paddling works. It was nice and sunny most of the days but one day there was this huge storm that kind of flooded our hostel. So because of this we moved to some,much better,  private rooms where i had some very good and long night of sleep.
Now I can also finally speak some spanish ,(mas o menos) At least I can ask for things and get things done. But now I need to start practicing. And that actually happened when I took a bus on Sunday to La Sarena (more to the north). I met this woman with who i talked for 7 hours........ wow that is even more tiresome than a good night out.
I actually decided to go to la Serena since the drive to the North of Chile is simply to long to do it at once. And by making this stop I was also ale to visit a national park where the endangered Humbold penguins are breeding... How cool are these animals... but I dont understand why evolution did not give penguins normal feet.... moving like that on land simply does not look comfortable.
 Beyond that we also spotted sea otters and many many sealions.

Now ready to move futher north to the atacama dessert. In an hour I will take the bus that will bring me in 18 hours to the San Pedro de Atacama. Fortunately I met up with an  irish guy, so at least I have somebody to talk to in ......english. Because practicing spanish for 18 hours is a bit too much..

And beyond the facts of wha I am doing......I am having an amazing time... so do not worry