Quintay is a seaside small village in Chile located in the vicinity of Valparaiso and 122 km from Santiago. It was once the most important whaling in Chile. Sperm whales were among the victims of these huntings. Fortunately, Quintay activity was concluded in 1967, the Government of Chile signed the international treaty to ban whale hunting. Chile signed the moratorium, along with most of the nations of the world. Only they refused to sign Norway and Japan.

Nowadays much of its inhabitants live of fishing activities. Fishermen keep seafood restaurants on the banks of the creek. Chileans come here for their summer vacations where they can do the usual holiday stuff like walking, hiking, sea bathing and scuba diving if you’re not afraid of cold water.We visited Quintay in June, meaning winter during that period in the south hemisphere. Hence there was only a few visitors, the restaurants were almost empty and not much to do. Nevertheless, after paying a visit to the old whaling facilities next to the ‘Centro de Investigaciones Marinas de Quintay’, I went to visit Carlos, my father’s fisherman’s friend(*) who lives and work in Quintay. After eating a delicious ‘Sopa de Congrio’ in the restaurant ‘El Gato’ he invited us to go fishing in his boat. It was an interesting experience to witness a moment of Carlos fisherman life in Quintay.

(*) No bad joke intended here 😉

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