Hotel Surazo in Matanzas, Chile

During my stay at the new Hotel Surazo, I fell asleep to the sound of the Pacific surf pounding the sand. Located in Matanzas, a village on the sparsely populated, mountainous central Chilean coast, this low-slung, modern surf lodge is about 50 feet from the waves. The friendly Chilean owners, Andrés Tobar and Felipe Wedeles Tondreau, built two bunk-filled dormitories and eight minimalist, wood-and-glass private rooms equipped with terraces, ocean views, and hammocks. Daytime activities include sport fishing for merluza (hake), surfing, or windsurfing (lessons arranged by the hotel), and strolling along lonely black-sand beaches strewn with giant cochayuyo (an edible kelp that Tobar cooks for guests). At night, soak in one of the Surazo’s wood-fired hot tubs.

Hotel Surazo, 56/99-744-2439, bunks from $28, private rooms from $60. Photo courtesy of Hotel Surazo. This appeared in the March/April 2010 issue.

Vanessa Gregory

I’m a journalist and an associate professor at the University of Mississippi. My work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Politico Magazine, The New York Times, The American Prospect, Runner’s World, Bon Appétit, and Men’s Journal, among other publications. I frequently write about travel and culture for Garden & Gun magazine. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, I was also a 2010 Middlebury Fellow in Environmental Journalism and a Mississippi Arts Commission Fellow. I live and work in Oxford, Mississippi.