Tal Tal

So my trip to Tal Tal was very nice and relaxing. I successfully gave my presentation and met the Tal Tal volunteers who are friendly and fun. Tal Tal is a small beach town that fills up in the summer with people from the Atacama region and all over. It has a nice main street and apparently nice beaches though we didn't go to check them out. Like Antofagasta it is built right against (and on) the surrounding hills. It was used to be bigger with a railroad line during the Atacama's saltpeter and nitrate day, but has condensed itself into a pretty little tourist town with some fishing. Because it was late fall, the town was rather empty.

While I feel I have a good set-up here in Chile, I am a little jealous of one of the Tal Tal volunteer's living situations. She lives in a huge 1 story mansion right on the water. Part of the house is a classy restaurants with good food (many restaurants in Chile are just lightly decorated rooms, with food that is slightly better than how my host grandmother cooks). As a result she enjoys chef cooked lunches and dinners. We ate at this restaurant Friday night and I really enjoyed the food (fish empanadas, swordfish, artichoke hearts, french fries with plenty of lemon) and the good wine. (pictures to be posted soon of Tal Tal and the restaurant.)

Her host family have been around since Tal Tal was founded. I was interested to learn that one of the ways her host great grandpa made money was pumping water from the sea to water down Tal Tal's dirt roads so that dust wouldn't get everywhere.