Desert camping

Penguins in the impact zone...
Trying to fly...
Me floating...
Jimmy´s sneaky pit...

Surfing all day and jammin´all night...
A baby whale in the line up...




Jimmy eyeing off the asado...

Looking at the swell report, I noticed a couple of smaller days approaching - and I found out from some local boys in Iquique that there was a spot in the desert a couple of hours south that was great on smaller days. The very next morning we packed out tent, boards and many tins of tuna and headed into the dusty abyss. Jumping off the bus at the spot we were described, we lugged our boards, guitar and tent a couple of sweaty kms to the coast and set up camp on the beach. The scenery was out of this world, just our tent, towering volcanic mountains and nothing else.

I´v never felt so alone with the ocean that evening as we surfed surrounded by the vast frigid open ocean and desert - with no civilization in sight. We paddled over to a floating object in the water to find a dead penguin bobbing about - it was pretty creepy and I definitely had sharks on my mind...

That night just as our little fire produced its last snap, crackle and pop - a car came plowing out of nowhere and pulled up rite next to us. At first we were kind of paranoid of randoms showing up in the middle of the night and didn´t know what to make of our unexpected neighbors. After debating whether to say g´day, and then after an awkward "Hola, que onda..." we were soon best friends and they ended up feeding us delicious meats from a Chilean Asado they cooked up and plenty of beers and Pisco Sour (famous Chilean concoction). They turned out to be minors on their week off from Iquique, and the next couple of days it was nice to have some company in the water and at night around the fire...