Ritoque stole our hearts. This small community of houses clings on to the Playa Ritoque bay which contains a beautiful secret beach which many locals from the nearby town ignore due to it's out of reach destination. Out of reach is perhaps an exaggeration considering this amazing little world lies only a ten/fifteen minute car ride out of Quintero, the nearest town to Ritoque. But to Quintero locals this is too far, which is just fine by me!
Ritoque couldn't be described as a village as there are not many people who live here. A lot of the houses are beach houses of the rich from Santiagio who only come during the summer. You feel immediately welcomed by those locals who do stay the year here though and who are more than willing to have a chat and tell you all about their hometown. Although there are no shops in this little community there are two restaurants, one is oversized and ugly and ran by an outsider who only cares about making money and is generally avoided at all costs. The other is an awesome little seafood bar that sits right on the beach selling the freshest food and offering the best views of the beach. When you look around and see how close all the houses and bars are to the beach (all within around 15 meters max) it is amazing to think that none were destroyed during the tsunami which hit earlier this year. Angie our hostel owner told us it is because the sea took it's natural path which was luckily down the road and towards Quintero, leaving all of the other houses, even those right on the beach, untouched.
The hostel we stayed at is probably one of the nicest places we will ever stay. Ran by German born Angie and her Chilean pro surf boyfriend Morris, Ritoque Raices is an off the beaten track hostel but a haven. Built a mere 10 meters from the beach we awoke every morning to see and hear the sea crashing on the shore, a pretty nice way to wake up. We spent our days chilling in the sun at the bar, playing on the beach with Angie's adopted street pup Took Took or taking surf lessons with Morris. At night we would all huddle around the Bosca for heat and exchange stories in english, spanish and german once Nicky from Germany arrived the day after us.
A highlight of our stay was the asada chileno Angie and Morris put on for us. This is the Chilean way to BBQ and man is it cool! We all hopped in to Angies sweet VW van and headed to the butchers where Morris bought over 2kg of the biggest slabs of steak we have ever seen! Once back at the hostel Morris built a coal fire and cut the slabs of meat in to smaller parts that got thrown on the BBQ. Once ready he would cut in to slices and pass around the group until everybody had a slice, chuck another slab of meat on the BBQ and repeat the process. We were all stuffed after this and Angies amazing avocado dip and retreated in to the living room to drink Piscola and Cervezas. It was probably one of the best BBQ's we have ever been to and definitely a style we shall be adopting in the future.
When it came to leaving Ritoque we both felt sad. It was easy to see how Angie had come to travel South America and ended up never getting further than Ritoque two years later. We have vowed that we will return as to never see this place again would be a great shame. A true hidden gem of Chile, and for me a defining moment of falling in love with this country.
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