A visit to the fishing village of Cocholgue

North side of Cocholgue

New friends from the U.S. kindly invited us to tag along with them on a trip to Cocholgue today (Saturday).  It was fun as well as educational in many ways.  The friend is a visiting professor from the U.S. here with his family.  His kids are enrolled in the local school (all Spanish, all the time).  I asked the son how it was going, and he just said, “Crazy.”  That’s all he would say any time I tried to get more details.  We learned how to get the bus out of town, and when no buses are running because the country is *still* celebrating Independence Day/week (Fiestas Patrias), we learned more about the colectivos, which are cars that run the bus routes.  They are a cross between a bus and  taxi, and they are priced in between as well.  Taxis are inexpensive in Chile, and buses are really cheap and really plentiful (except in small towns around the holidays, apparently).

Cocholgue is in two sections, each built on a landslide with a rocky ridge in between.  The main road has recently been closed by a rockslide nicely exposing the headscarp.  Ben wanted to check this out for a potential class field trip.  There was a lot more geology to see, including many interesting weathering features on the beach and a small coal or almost coal seam, which made us feel at home.

The photogenic Crosby family

Wild weathering

We ate a wonderful meal at El Parron, right on the water.  We braved the cold breezes and sat out on the balcony to enjoy the ocean, the view, and the people watching.  The  empanadas de mariscos (seafood empanadas) were fantastic, as was the merluza (hake).

New word for the day: caleta, which apparently can mean little fishing harbor or the equivalent of ”a lot” or the less polite version of “a poop load” in Chileno slang.