For backpackers, a desert means sandboarding, and sandboarding means obnoxious tour companies that try to turn it into a party with tank tops and pop music. Las Dunas de Concón is a precious exception nobody knows about. Loved it. It’s cheap, the slopes are on the beach, and it’s cheap.

 

 

 

Getting There

From Santiago, we took the red metro line to the Pajaritos bus terminal and got a ticket for Viña del Mar. Busses depart every 20 minutes, $5-10 depending on time of day, 2.5 hours.

Once in Viña, the super cheap super frequent micros were a couple blocks away and we hopped on one labelled Concón.

Locals bring their own interpretations of sandboards. Rentals, a sweet $1.50 per board per hour, are only around on weekends when it’s not raining. The Facebook page didn’t post anything the weekend we went, but they were there nonetheless.

 

 

 

Day 26

Sandboarding is life.

I told our micro driver we wanted to go to “la duña,” and watched him zoom right by rows of sandboards for rent 45 minutes later. We jumped off and walked the highway back to the giant pile of sand.

We rented one for sitting and one for standing, includes chopped up candles for waxing the boards. It was the first time for both of us, but it was easy to get stuck on the slopes which was good for self-teaching, fear-facing, character-building, superhero-training… but we soon moved onto steeper big-girl areas.

Tara was the best wingwoman and we were in a situation where having a buddy was ideal. I was so happy my Swedish hostel roommate was interested in tagging along with my vague plan of that day. We took turns being photographer/board waxer/valuables guarder/audience laughing at the other taking face-fulls of sand.

An hour into rolling around in the sand, Tyler appeared out of nowhere. Taylor was very lost, but eventually made it as well. T and T were the American students I met in Easter Island exchanging in Chile, living with host families in Viña.

I sandboarded Tyler’s favorite run with the “extra curve,” without shoes as recommended by him, and Tara and I headed back to the capital. But not before inhaling McFlurries.

Love Chile? Be sure to check out Valparaiso and San Pedro de Atacama. 

High on surfing? Check out my post on how to shred the slopes of an active volcano in Nicaragua. Or read about my favorite destination in Brazil, a quiet surf town with one of the best hostels in the world.