the big friendly giant
revelations and snuggles from a weekend on the chilean coast.
My first weekend out of the city of Santiago since I got to Chile was absolutely fantastic.
My friends Wendy and Cristobal picked me up on Thursday (April 30th) night. We bought some groceries for the weekend and picked up Leslie. Then we were on our way. We drove for about 2 hours and finally found ourselves in a tiny town called Olmue. We drove to our weekend home - a little ranch with cabanas (cabins/houses) for tourists called La Vida Sana (the healthy life). The place is owned by an older couple who really take care of you and make you feel at home. We were asked to take our pick of our favourite cabin out of three possible choices. We decided on a cozy two story house and moved in.
We stayed up for some drinks and later crawled into bed. Although the particular place we decided on had 4 beds in total, Leslie and I decided to share one because it was so cold. Currently it's fall here. It's beautiful - but a little chilly. I went to bed that night with 3 shirts, 2 pairs of pants and socks and as many layers at that sounds like, Leslie wore the same but with 2 jackets. On top of us we had several blankets piled up...nice and cozy.
When we woke up the next morning - we decided to walk around the ranch and see what exactly La Vida Sana looked like in daylight. There were a couple horses, cacti, flowers, apple trees, figs, and so much more. We ate breakfast which was actually more like lunch. We had a lovely pasta meal, ate outside and then booked some plans to ride horses later in the afternoon.
Leslie and I chatted outside on the swings to pass the time. It was nice to be in a new place and to be sharing it with a familiar face.
3:00pm came quickly and we gathered our things and went on our way to go horseback riding. I was really looking forward to it but had no idea what to expect. We paid 15,000 pesos (30 bucks) to ride horses up part of a mountain for a couple hours and then come back down. We were gone for a little over 3 hours and it was such a great experience. My horse didnt want to stick with the rest of the group really...he really didn't like to walk beside the other horses so we stayed towards the back of the group while Leslie, Wendy and Cristobal managed to stay in the front of the pack. It was a little frustrating but after a while I just had to remind myself where I was, what I was doing and how beautiful a day this way shaping up to be. It's not everyday I get to be in Olmue, riding a horse up a mountain.
Here are some pictures from that day:
We got a picture with the wassos (cowboys) that were our tour guides and after stopping at a rest point, we rode back down to our starting point. Later that night we went out to a small restaurant in the town's centre (which was really a couple of dirt roads). We went back home and went to bed shortly after. Although the horses were the ones doing all the work that day, we were exhausted. We also wanted to get enough rest to start the following day off early so we could attempt to climb "La Campana" - a nearby mountain.
The next morning we were up at 8 and off to La Campana shortly after. We prepared our lunch for the day and packed water for us all. When we woke up it was very cold. We decided to dress accordingly - wear many layers. However, when the sun comes out and you're climbing up a mountain...many layers isn't always the best idea.
Here's a picture that describes the crappiness of wearing many layers while climbing a mountain:
Beautiful right?After climbing for a couple hours, we stopped to have lunch - pre-made sandwiches, apples and cookies. We admired the beautiful view all around us like we had during the hike up to our lunch spot. I can't even describe how empowering yet tiny a mountain can make you feel. At one moment you can feel like you are on top of the world - or soon to be on top of the world. But then it makes you realize how vast the beauty in the world is and how small of a part of that beauty we all are. It's amazing for me to think of how many people will never have the opportunity or ability to see what I saw that day at La Campana.
We finished lunch and moved on after taking some pictures at our lunch spot. Here are just a few of them:
Lunch time was over and so we pushed on. We soon reached an area that was very steep and very very rocky. It was an intimidating section of La Campana but was even more intimidating was what my friend Cristobal said at the bottom of this part of the mountain: "A gringa died here a couple of years ago at this part. She went off the trail and got lost and slipped." (A gringa is the Chilean word for an American girl by the way). Of course looking down at this point was scary enough but the thought of someone dying there...doing the same thing I was doing - that was really scary.
We all looked out for each other and took it slow. We pushed on and it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. It was a relief however to get past that part. Leslie and I looked at each other after going up and said:
"now we are just going to have to worry about how to get down".
We walked up a little more and saw a beautiful rock face. As we got closer to it, we saw a plaque describing how Charles Darwin had explored this area as well way back in his day. What a cool feeling to have proof that I was standing in the same spot Mr. Darwin did many years ago. What an honour...and this is what we all saw:
We took a rest here to enjoy the view. We had been looking up at this rock face during most of our climb and now we were right beside it. It wouldn't be long before we reached the top. We had already been hiking for hours and we weren't totally sure how much longer we had to hike in order to make it all the way to the top but we weren't about to give up now.
We had a few more tough spots to hike through but right when we were getting tired and wiped out we came across some hikers that were descending. We asked how much longer we had until we reached the top - 30-40 minutes they said. We were almost there.
Right when we needed it, we passed by this rock "face" which gave us a little extra boost of confidence.
Thanks little buddy.
A couple minutes later we approached the top of La Campana. Yes, I was on top of the world. Well to be honest I was 6,000 feet above sea level. I was in the clouds. I was at peace. It's amazing what a view like this can make you feel. Take a look:
After taking in the top of the mountain and realizing what the world looks like from 6,000 feet up, we started our hike back down. Leslie and I strayed away from Wendy and Cristobal because they were going slow and we were concerned about getting back down before dark. We went forward and had such a wonderful chat on the way down while we admired the view. On the way down I thought about the gringa Christobal told us about earlier - the one who died on this very mountain. All I could think was that I hoped she had died on the way down...after seeing the amazing view at the top. I hope she was able to experience the happiness and peace at the top. It's one thing to discuss life with someone - it's another thing to discuss these things with a backdrop like this:
The sun started going down and although it was breathtaking, it was a scary thought - we are not at the bottom and soon we will have NO light to guide us down this path. We kept going, stuck together and continued our chat about the importance of enjoying sunsets, embracing life, living, and being grateful of the opportunities we have available to us. By the time we got to the bottom, it was cold and dark. we made it down before wendy and cristobal so we waited and celebrated in the bathroom haha. we had just gone up 6000 feet and came back down together. I think we felt automatically bonded from that experience.
Later we drove to town, picked up our friend Alicia who took a bus to Olmue to meet us. We picked up a bunch of food and went back to La Vida Sana. We had a lovely bbq with TONS of food and had a feast later. We ate and went to bed shortly after.
The next morning we packed up our things and made breakfast from the leftovers of the previous night's bbq. We got ready, said bye to la vida sana and headed out to Vina Del Mar. Vina is an oceanside city which is very touristy. So in tourist fashion, we hopped on a horse drawn carriage and had a little tour around the city. Here are some pictures from our ride:
After our ride, we stopped at a cafe for some lovely ice cream and sat by the ocean. We took a walk along the sea side where there was a gigantic row of vendors selling jewelry, books, movies, trinkets and so on...all for very cheap. So I picked up a few things like earrings, hair clips and a little children's book "el gigante bonachon". It was such a fun afternoon. We ate at a pizza place after our walk and then started our trek home. We created a dance party in the car all the way home and just had a great time. It was a wonderful and fun ending to a wonderful and fun weekend. That weekend made for such a lovely bundle of memories that I'll never forget.
besitos
-jacquie
Normally I'm not a fan of climbing...but this post made me want to try it. 6000 feet above sea level!? Wow that must be thrilling. How was the air? I've heard that you'd feel difficulty to breathe when you climb a really high mountain.
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