The hostel is located in Calle Santa Maria intersecting Calle Dionisio, a two-storey yellow ochre-coloured building. From the outside you do not notice it, there is no sign that is a hostel, no advertisements, it looks like any other house, luckily we had the directions!
Here, in Latin America, "Buena onda" is the translation of good vibe. In that particular state you feel good and there is a certain atmosphere that you feel like you already know the place a the people since long time, even if you just arrive few hours ago. People are nice, welcoming and having fun together, involving and sharing with you a piece of their life. José, the manager of the Hostel, welcomed us with open arms and when he knew that we were Italians also opened his hearts.
He tells us that five years ago he married an Italian girl, of our beautiful Sicily, and they have two children. While he was travelling around the world, he met her through a couchsurfing experience and since then they were together fo ever. But a few months a year he feels the need to return to his land, to his family, to breathe the air of Pichilemu, to see the waves of Punta de Lobos.
On the other hand Pichilemu has something magnetic, you think you'll stay two days and you stop a week, people come and go and come back again, because you feels like at home. It feels good.
And this is the effect of the Hostal, perfect location, close to both the centre and the beach. It has a nice kitchen in which you share recipes and you cook together proposing dishes of your country or inventing new ones. Wifi at disposal to be connected with the rest of the world and a beautiful outdoor terrace furnished with sofas and tables, music, barbecue, hammocks, where people share their stories, play guitar or ping pong, partying in the evening till the sunrise for those who have the strength to resist!
One of these days José took us by car for a tour, to visit the salt pans of Barrancas and the lagoon of Couhi. But he is very concerned because since the summer began the fires in Chile are increasing at an intense rate, the worst in the last 50 years. The government has declared a state of catastrophe in the regions where the fires are propagating, it is particularly difficult to extinguish them because of the heat and the blowing wind is not helping. On the TV any good news and often the population has to be displaced. In Pichilemu, for safety, the light has been switch off a couple of times. In the afternoon a dark cloud of smoke overlooks the sky and obscures the sun, as if night was falling but instead of stars drops the air is filled of dust and ashes carried by the wind.
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But tomorrow is departure day for many of us so this evening party and pizza! What better way to bring back the good humor of being in company around a laid table?
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The photos are of the author.
