I made two day-excursions to Concón, a small city on the coast, with a beach facing northward. The beach is habitated by an increadible army of seagulls. I've never seen so many in one spot - must be many thousands. They tend to sit in the same spot, making the beach look like a black-and-white carpet, until one of them starts to get nervous and fly away, and thousands follow. Very impressive. Concón beach is really very good for surfing. Its large, very flat,...

Spent two days in Vina del Mar at "Regina and Carlos House", a lovely little hostel run by a very nice german/chilenian couple. Vina is a nice beach city, with a beach facing west (good for sunsets). There's great fresh seafood here, and the people are much more relaxed compared to Santiago.

Last night we had a big BBQ at our hotel - Gary, Sheree, Dan, Heather and Tim came. I prepared the salad, Tim brought the fish and Gary was the grillmaster. That worked well, only that we could have fed another 20 people or so :) Today I'm flying back to Santiago. Good-bye easter island, I had a blast! For the interested reader, I can recommend easter island if you do engage in a lot of activities and you have the chance to meet people in the place you're stayin...

This morning I took part in another dive, probably the most exciting but also frightening one I had so far. Tim (my dive buddy from Kiel), a brazilian couple, a french diver who is obviously very experienced because he has his own total pro-equipment and I go, and it's two dive-masters leading us. The boss of the diving center, a french diving veteran who used to be in the team of the great Jacques Cousteau himself, and one of his employees. We go diving to Motu...

After all the diving, snorkeling and chatting with fellow travelers, I still have 70% of easter island unexplored, but only half a day left. So I need to move faster. Could rent a car, but that would be boring and expensive, so I collect all my courage and rent a Quad, which I've never used, but people tell me it's easy. Indeed, it's just throttle and brake, so after overcoming the first bit of anxiety I'm quite comfortable with it and it's a lot of fun. Especial...