There is a reason we always try to talk to the locals as much as possible – they can provide great ideas for things to do in the areas. While I had come across the ConCon sand dunes in my planning, they were not on my list of “must-dos” – however, after hearing from several local sources that they are worth the trip – we picked an evening to do it (evening so we could maybe catch a sunset from the dunes). We could even see these massive sand dunes from our apartment – the elevators were glass and we could see the dunes on the north side of the building!
As I have mentioned in previous posts from this trip, the tourist attractions aren’t super-organized. I did find a lot of tips online from various travel blogs and trip reviews, but you never know how that translates to reality or what is outdated information. So, I picked a kids restaurant – named Hello Kids Cafe – it was one of those I found when I searched lunch with kids in google maps. Originally I didn’t think it would be relevant due to location, but it turned out to be near the base of the sand dunes – therefore, a perfect location to enter into Uber to get us up to ConCon!
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Hello Kids Cafe was amazing and my kids are determined we need more like this in the states – yes, we do! Kids played indoors and out while the pizza and empanadas cooked – everyone was happy! Big thumbs up for Hello Kids Cafe 
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Then, we walked a couple blocks towards the sand dunes. I had read that we might find people at the base of the dunes renting out sand boards, but unfortunately we saw no one doing this – they might have packed up for the day or taken off for the holidays. We were bummed, but undeterred – there were massive piles of sand in front of us….the kids took off racing up the dunes! Jason and I followed at a slower pace – hiking in sand is hard!
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What an exciting surprise the sand dunes were – the thrill of making it to the top was met with gorgeous panoramic views of the coast! The sand dunes are actually not connected to the beach – these sands were deposited here thousands (millions?) of years ago – they meet a cliff, then there is a road and more rocky beach below before the water meets land. That means the sand on the dunes was dry (and not as sticky as the beach sand!) Oh yes – sand got everywhere, but it wasn’t sticking to us like the rest of the week at the beach. We were lucky – it wasn’t too windy, so the sand wasn’t whipping around. The kids were delighted to run up and down the dunes – attempt to sand board on something they found (it had been abandoned for a reason – it didn’t work) and observe some other sand surfers from a distance.
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Our hopes for a lovely sunset were clouded over, so we enjoyed the light show the clouds and sun were playing out over the ocean for awhile but didn’t feel the need to stay until sunset (which was close to 9pm because it’s summer in the southern hemisphere). We hiked through the sand across the dunes towards building to catch our next pair of Ubers. We were disappointed to miss what could have been a cool sunset, but loved our time at the dunes and since we had some extra time – we ventured to the fairy cafe back in Vina (which was a highlight of the trip, so it all worked out!)
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