Concón Dunes, Mar 1st

This is one of those little adventures that is not necessarily a hike but still worth mentioning like one of the walks in Aruba. While visiting family in Chile, Val and I spent a couple of days in Concón visiting my aunt and uncle. Almost next to the building where they live, is the Santuario Natural Campo Dunar de Punta Concón (Punta Concón Dune Filed Natural Sanctuary), a natural dune field covering about 110 Acres of which about half is currently protected. There’s been a lot of debate trying to close the protected area to prevent the public from practicing sports that can damage the dunes. Some of that damage can be seen as you drive alongside the dunes on Camino Concón - Reñaca where they tend to practice sand surfing. From the north side though, there’s an area you can walk in and do a bit of exploration. After a very delicious lunch we decided to burn some calories with along with my cousin and his kids by taking a walk on the dunes. We started from the parking area at the end of Avenida Costa de Montemar heading south and uphill. It was quite a workout from the get go as each step up meant half a step backward sinking in the sand. It took no time for our shoes and socks to get full of sand making it even harder. As a compensation though, the views were just magnificent. With a clear, warm blue sky day, the ocean and dunes looked beautiful.

A lite breeze was blowing some of the surface sand so it was easy to imagine how the dunes move thru the day. We followed a line towards a ridge that opened a view of a slope down to the coast. Way down in the distance we could see another place we wanted to visit, the only issue was that it was across the road, way down the dune. We didn’t know if we could get there and cross the road. We gambled it thinking that if we didn’t find a way around, we would have needed to climb back up the hill. Going down was a blast. It was very similar as going down on a snowfield. With each step we took, we slid a bit downhill making it feel almost like skiing. On the side of the hill seagulls were sun bathing and soaring in the breeze. Then we found a fence. For a bit we couldn’t find a way around until we descended a bit more and found a foot path that abruptly jumped down to the road. Once on the road, we crossed and explored the Mirador de Roca Oceánica, a rock view poi9nt on the ocean. It was a great contrast to the dunes we had just come from. After a while, it was time to head back, one option was to hike up on the road and come around behind the building which would have been a longer loop but on the way there, we found a wooden staircase left on the side of a building when it was under construction. We had to use a side fence to reach the stairs and then climb back to the dunes. Once on the sand, we switch back and forth a couple of times to regain the elevation we had lost and get back to the starting point.



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