F: Coast/ Curanipe

After the Lircay National Park, we drove straight to the coast (Constitucion) to travel south along the coastal road for the next few hundred kilometers. Wow! It was like the opposite of the Caribbean, but beautiful: black sandy beaches with jagged rocks in grotesque shapes, icy cold water, a sea-green ocean, and waves much stronger than those in the Atlantic in France. The waves crashed against the shore with such force that I didn't want to go in the water in many places (aside from the cold).

In Constitucion, we encountered the first strawberries, and they were incredibly good. Huge, blood-red, and incredibly sweet! I melted away, and especially since it's not easy to get the usual amount of fruits and vegetables while traveling, all I could think about after this appetizer was strawberries. We stopped in one of the villages we passed through and wanted to buy 500g. We could pick them ourselves in the greenhouse (most stands were closed because it was New Year's Eve) and ended up with 2 kg. They were all gone in less than 48 hours!

We stayed in a cool eco-hostel, a wooden house (100%, including all furniture) by the sea, run and built by a young family who lived right next door and shared the kitchen with the guests.

We paddled up the Rio Chovellen with a kayak. The landlord didn't say how far we could go, so we paddled until we would have had to carry the kayak. It was like a fairy tale: a completely natural river, sometimes deep, sometimes shallow, mostly crystal clear, with herons and trees along the banks whose branches hung into the water. The pace of paddling is perfect for observing and enjoying the landscape. I found it so enchanting that this tour ranks high among the highlights of the trip. Unfortunately, there are no photos because we didn't dare to take the camera.