‘RITOQUE RAICES’– Our brief beach getaway!

We got a local bus from Valparaiso, Chile, 2 hours North to a town called Quintero, and 10 minutes later in a taxi we were on the beach.

There’s absolutely nothing to see or do in Quintero or Ritoque – it’s neighbouring tiny village, which is exactly why we were both really looking forward to this couple of days! Every now and then we’ve needed a break from the everyday chaos, organising & planning, getting on & off buses, all while trying to squeeze in as much exploring & activity as possible. For once we didn’t feel guilty if not up early exploring this new place we’re in – there’s nothing to explore for a change…relief!

The hostel was right on the beach, broken up into 3 separate tiered cabins. Pretty basic but had the necessary things to cook your food etc so we were happy!

We had brought some groceries since we heard there was no shops here until the town and the beach restaurants only open at the weekends.There were 4 lovely girls from Germany sharing our cabin with us in a dorm while we had a private room. We agreed we got lucky here – the cabin is small and I’d imagine unpleasant to hang around if sharing with some not so nice roomies.

We just hung out around the hostel and the beach, relaxing or reading between cooking meals. Patricio, who worked at the hostel, made a bonfire outside our cabin the 2nd night which was gorgeous. Everyone from the hostel sat around with wine or beer sharing travel experiences and finding out about each other. We also saw our first “real” sunset since coming to South America – with no mountains or city scape in the way. It was magical.



We also finally got to see a "real" sunset for the first time since we left, it was breath taking. Especially since any others we had seen were always slightly spoiled by mountains or buildings (I know that makes us sound fussy but we missed seeing the sun set over the horizon!)

There’s really not much to say about Ritoque. It was just somewhere we came to relax for a couple of days and recharge our batteries, but we loved it and would recommend it to any backpacker who fancies a bit of a break, or who misses the sand and salt water between their toes!