Mountain Sports Camping Trip
Trip Start
Jul 13, 2005
1
19
32
Trip End
Mar 02, 2006
Valparaíso Region,
Chile
Friday, November 25, 2005
Well, hopefully you all will enjoy this email, as it will be the last regular one I write. Saturday, I fly to Punta Arenas to begin my trip to Patagonia and the south of Chile. It's with mixed emotions that I write this email. It's been such a wonderful time here in Valpo and Viña. I've met so many really cool people. Had so many amazing times, and so many frustrating ones, from the micros to classes, to weekend trips: it's all been a wonderful fantasy. Living outside of my regular world until it became my own, it's an experience I wouldn't trade for anything, and that will define the way I look at the world for the rest of my life. I'm not the same person I was before.
In the same moment, I am really excited to go to the south and see the famous Patagonia, hike and camp in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine, visit Isla Chiloe, and small isolated cities situated amongst the volcanoes of the southern ring of fire. When I return back to the north, my family will be getting here and then after our trip I will be quickly heading north to begin the 2 month backpacking experience.
Time has never flown by so fast.
So I'll cut the sentimental stuff and get to the adventures of the last week or so! Wednesday night I met up with this 26 year old Chilean guy I met from Techo Para Chile to help him do some translating. He has a girlfriend from Grand Rapids or something and wanted to send her a video from him but in English so she could understand better or something. He of course doesn't really know any English. So we went to Valpo to film the city and him saying stuff. Then we went to his house where he still lives with his family (like most young Chileans,) and I translated all his gushy feelings into English. Then I taught him how to pronounce the words in English, then we recorded the letter on video. It was pretty fome for me, but hey that's ok. It was an experience.
I got home about 1am, and had to wake up to go on our mountain sports final trip at 7. I set me alarm for 6:45, but unfortunately I didn't wake up until 7:45, and I still had to buy food. I packed really quickly and hopped on the micro to get to the meeting point. Luckily there was a supermarket there that was open at 8 in the am. I bought my gorp and stuff and we all get set to head into the mountains. We took a couple busses to get up into the valley above Limache. It's always a great feeling to get off the micro, stow away the wallet, the cell phone and the coins and just survive off what you brought.
The sun was was hot, skies brilliant blue, and the company was great. Guy from Holland, girl from Spain, 3 Chilean guys, about 10 gringos, and the two profs, Jorge and Otto. We began the day with a climb up unmarked trails made by cattle through the sparse vegetation that at some points gets rather difficult. Using Otto's GPS to guide us in the general direction we zigzag up a small mountain, only to find out that we have been going off course, so we have to summit and then head across the ridge. We finally arrive at an old quartz mine up on a mountain where up above us floating on the thermal updrafts are two huge Andean condors!! We have a lesson on map reading and us looking down on the valley below us. It's beautiful. Continuing on we use the old mine access road. Along the route is an old stone fence (from about 400 years ago) that was built by hired indigenous slaves to separate herds of the first Spanish landowners.
Along the path to the campsite we came across a rather large bull. We passed by him (about 15 ft.) while he stared at us. Unfortunately I was last in line and my backpack is red. I was scared and perhaps he sensed it, as he started pawing the ground like he was going to charge. It took discipline to not run, but we just kept an even pace until we were safely passed.
We arrived at the campsite which was just along the abandoned road by a little spring run off where apparently the water was ok to drink. We set up our campsite and cooked our dinner in our little groups, we have a little class session about the next day and about how the day went, lessons learned etc. It was really a long day and nice to settle in. I slept outside on the group the same as Otto, and everyone else checked into their tents for the night. I had expected the trip to be mostly gringos, but with all the Spanish speakers around it was a nice surprise, and to not have a choice but speak Spanish is always a good thing.
In the morning we got up early, cooked up some avena (oatmeal) and then hid our backpacks in the woods and just took the basics for the day. Along the way we had another crazy animal encounter. There was a lone horse approaching us along the road so we all spread out to the sides, but when it saw us it got spooked and went into a full charge and flew past as we hid along the sides. After running into the other half of the group a little bid behind us, the horse, even more spooked, returned full charge back at us, causing us to go diving for cover again. Absolutely crazy. But things proceeded fairly calmly afterwards.
Our first summit was accomplished along a service road. We got to the top of Cerro el Roble, the tallest in the Cordillera de la Costa. From the top was clearly visible the towering Andes, and on the other side, the Pacific. Chile is so thin! From the cumbre (summit) we could see Mt. Aconcagua (world's tallest mountain outside of the Himalayas) there was also the highest volcano in the world, Ojos del Salado? I forget the name. Then we came down and then summited a smaller mountain that was right next door where there was supposed to be a condor nest (where the condors from the night before were coming from) however they never showed up and instead I got a pretty bad sunburn on my arms (luckily my face was nicely protected by my gigantic hat from the desert) We got back to the camp area around 3, cooked a lunch and then headed to our next camp site. We bush-whacked the whole way but for a nice segment we were able to use an old road, and some cow paths.
When we arrived at a beautiful campsite on the ridge of a mountain, we unpacked our stuff, had a mini class about cat-holes, then cooked dinner. All the while there was a spectacular sunset, turning the valley below into shades of orange and purple, and casting the Andes with a red glow. As the sun finally dropped beyond the horizon the lights begin turning on. It wasn't long before I realized that looking down into the next valley were clearly visible the lights of Santiago. Then to the west were also visible the lights of Quilpue, Viña, and Valpo. Breathtaking.
The food was pretty yummy, and as the tents were all set up, and my spot of sand was smoothed out, I ended up with my head turned upwards towards the sky (as often happens). The stars were beautiful and very bright despite the nearby glow of the capital. Some of the people that didn't know much about the night sky were interested in the little knowledge I had to offer. So there was about four of us laying on a big sun warmed rock looking heavenwards. I saw many estrellas fogaz (shooting stars). I left my glasses on while I layed in my saco de dormir (sleeping bag) watching the night sky. I slept pretty good, but woke up a couple times with the light from the moon being too overpowering.
We got up at dawn the next day, with many challenges ahead. The sunrise over the Andes in the east was just as incredible as the sunset the night before. Being one of the first ones up, it was fun to watch everyone slowly start to rise and camp come to life, stoves turn on, etc. We eat breakfast, get everything packed up, and head out at about 8. We bush-whack, and cross various farmers fences until we get to an old road which we then follow until we cross the highway. Here was somehow picked up a little stray dog as a friend, later coined 'Bengie'. We finally reach a location with water where we will camp. Unfortunately to get to regions supposedly unspoiled by pasturing cows you had to climb real high up. We had about an hour break, and then we hid our big packs, took daypacks and headed up to the summit, Bengie following. I was sure the dog was going to die from thirst, but it wouldn't give up. The also wasn't a path to climb this mountain, and it took a few hours to finally reach the summit. Another spectacular view of the surrounding countryside. After an hour or so of relaxing, and the discovery of a box left behind by previous climbers with crackers in it, we signed the box, ate some of the crackers, and then began the descent.
Unfortunately the descent didn't start so well for me, I slipped on a loose rock about 20 minutes into the descent and landed right on a prickley cactus ball. Now for how many times I had been sticked, stabbed, poked, and irritated by prickly things (the region is just chalk full of them) this one hurt. As I tried to continue the descent, I realized that there were spines in my shirt, so I took that off and removed a few and descended some more. Then I realized that the pain was coming from spines stuck into my shoulder. I was able to pull 4-5 out along the decent, but one of them I couldn't get a grip on. Luckily Blanca was nice enough to pull the last one out. Ouch, don't fight with cacti, they always win.
When we finally got back down to camp, we set up our stuff, and then cooked a quick dinner. It was then time to have our class on fire. We made a small fogata, and sat around it talking about stuff, and then playing some great games such as 'voy a pasar la montaña con....' , the 'a quien maté' game, and the 'dos arriba dos abajo' game. All a lot of fun, but I can't just give away how they are played. Come camping with me sometime!
Bengie magically reappeared to guard the camp at night, barking from time to time. We also discovered that the place where we had gotten our water was in fact accessible to cattle, when a couple guys were up filling water, and a big bull came by and did his thing right by the stream. I guess we thought about what that meant, but we also had to eat and drink, we sort of boiled some of it, and sort of didn't. Lesson: always have iodine on hand when camping!
I slept really well on my bed made of sand. At the fire we saw a scorpion, my first one in the wild and I saw a nice big spider in the sand by my bed but I wasn't too scared, and managed to sleep through the night until being woken by some huasos (cowboys) leading a cow up into the mountain. Breakfast was good, and we had a class session on evaluation and on how the adventure went. It was sad to think about leaving the mountains to go back to the city, we did a lot of bonding, and everyone sort of had on our minds that our time in Chile was coming to a close.
We hiked back to the highway and found an aahhem 'other form' of transportation back to Olmue. Talked a lot about the beauty of Chile on the way, how it compares with parts of the U.S. etc. Very interesting ride and the micro back to Viña was uneventful, although it was good conversation.
The last week of class was definitely stressful. Ok well all of you at K are prolly at a different level, but with arranging travel plans and taking finals, essays etc. It's been crazy. I'm sort of scared to see what my grades end up being in my classes. Especially since I can't go complain to the professor at the beginning of the next quarter!! Wednesday we had a re-entry workshop. We all got together and talked about what its going to be like to come back to the United States. It got sort of heavy at times, some people almost cried, and that at other times it was very lighthearted and humorous. I think that will be the key, keep the sense of humor and go with the flow. In many ways I think it may be similar to moving from city to city. Perhaps my experiences there will help. Of course the fact that my family is also in that process makes things a little more complicated! I still don't know whether I'll be flying into Detroit or Nashville! How crazy.
Wednesday night was a party for all the exchange students at some Mexicans' apartment. There were like 60 people in this tiny apartment, making sooo much noise. There were professors, staff, and tons of gringos and Chileans hanging out, drinking some Escudo and Cristal, and having a bittersweet goodbye. Of course the neighbors finally called the carabineros who made everyone leave. So, we went down to the beach and continued the party there. Have I mentioned yet that I'm really going to miss this place?
Thurs. morning I had a final exam, wasn't feeling so good for that, but I think I did ok. We'll see. Then we went shopping at Jumbo for camping stuff for the south.
Thursday night we had a little Thanksgiving dinner thing and goodbyes. It was hard to say adios to all these really great people who have made my time here so wonderful. Hopefully we will stay in touch, but it'll never be the same. Good food. Gave lots of thanks and appreciation to this wonderful opportunity that I was given. It was my first Thanksgiving away from home, but it was a pretty happy one. I must say I missed grandpa's mashed potatoes and moms cooking, as well as pumpkin pie. No regrets though.
Friday mornin' woke up at 6 to take a bus to Santiago. Went to the Brazil consulate with Lauren and Becca to take care of that visa. Got lost on the subway trying to get home, and then finally made it back. A ton of loose ends to wrap up before I go south. It'll get done.
I have decided (from some of your requests) to continue trying to email. It might be sporadic, and I may or may not be able to respond to your personal emails, or post fotos on the internet. Bear with me, you can always get the full gist in March!
It's been a great semester here in Chile, and its hard to put the period at the end, I'm kind of easing out, but its really hard to say goodbye when you know that most likely you will never see some of these people again. Hope you have enjoyed being along for the ride, I don't really know who was driving, but it was fun, and we should throw them a couple lucas for a tip.
Now on to vacation. Take care everyone!
abrazos,
