Zapallar: Redefining "Retreat"

Season's Greetings from Chile!  I hear Minnesota has gotten some snow.  I can imagine fire places, hot chocolate, sledding, and snow angels as you all prepare for Christmas.  Here things are a little different.  We approach 90 degrees every day, and this past weekend we went to the coast, a beautiful town called Zapallar, for the annual ChACE retreat.

I suppose our accommodations were ok.  We  had a giant house with ample bed space for all 15 of us with a roof that had a jacuzzi and a view of the ocean.  The beach was a short walk down a path lined by palm trees.  Wow.

But our home base for all retreat activities was even more spectacular.  Owned by a friend of St. George, this family has a plot of land on one of the most beautiful seafronts I've ever seen.

They have an infinity pool so you can sit and stare out at the ocean with no visual break between the pool and the sea.

The retreat was structured around an Advent theme, asking why God has brought us here and what He wants us to do with our time in Chile.  Mostly though we had lots of free time to listen to the waves crash against the shore and reflect.

This porch is where we had mass the first night and a few discussions throughout the weekend.  I love having mass and being able to look out at the ocean.  I find God most in nature, especially in fire and water.  This venue was unbelievable.

Friday afternoon we went for a walk on a path that has been constructed to connect a series of beaches along the Zapallar coast.  It's a little tough to tell here, but it's quite an engineering feat.  The path is stone, and it's built up with walls and bridges for maybe 5 miles.  The coast is particularly rocky so the path is necessary to walk the shore.

I have never been in a place where the waves truly crash against the rocks in such dramatic fashion.  The water would sometimes splash upwards of 20 feet straight up.  It was mesmerizing, and I spent several hours over the weekend just staring at the waves and letting my mind wander.

Here's most of the crew above a narrow and very turbulent gorge along the path.  A great group of people!

Another animal I've never seen in the wild before: penguins!  There was an island just off shore that was full of them.  I had no idea they lived this far north but there were TONS hanging out on this rock.  Pretty cool!

Here I am with the penguin island in the background.  Apart from the mornings and evenings which were brisk I didn't change out of this outfit.  I was in and out of the ocean, pool, and sun for 3 days.  No complaints.

Sunset Day 1 with a glass of wine.  Not bad.

When we arrived, Fr. Lou's first comment was "Gosh, don't you guys think you could have chosen a beautiful country?"

Sunset Day 2.  I spent maybe 3 hours on Saturday afternoon in this kayak.  The cove was delightfully turbulent which made navigating the narrow channels between the rocks a challenge.  At the same time heading out to open water and bobbing up and down was very peaceful.

Sunday morning we had mass and headed back to Santiago.  I ran errands in town Monday morning and have since been back at school planning for next year.


Lots of exciting things coming up!  I have most of my travel plans set for the summer and I'm going to start dropping hints as to where I'm headed.  Guesses are welcome!  The hint this week will be my plans for the coming weekend.  I'll be heading to Los Molles, a little ways north of Zapallar, to complete my PADI SCUBA diving certification.  I'll be going alone, and I'm excited to have a relaxing weekend away from everything--a true retreat--with some spectacular diving mixed in.  The SCUBA certification will definitely be put to good use in January.  Watch for a recap of my first SCUBA experience next week!