A few weeks ago I happened upon a group on Facebook called Andes Hike Club, which describes itself as a group of people in Santiago who like to organize hiking trips – sounded like my kind of organization!
Saturday morning, my friend Louisa and I left our apartment at 6:45 am to take the metro across town to meet up with the group and carpool to Parque La Campana, a national park close to Valparaiso to the west of Santiago. After frantically searching around the metro station for the supermarket where we were supposed to meet them and being initially told that there wasn’t enough room in the cars for us to come, we eventually hopped into the cars with other Chileans and foreigners and set off on a 2-hour ride to the park. I rode with three Chilean women and one man from Switzerland, chatting about life in Santiago as we made our way through the winding highway on the mountain.
The hike itself reminded me much more of the hikes I’ve done in the Appalachians, with more trees overhead and only small glimpses of the scenery around you until you get to large overlooks. We hiked for about 2 hours before my legs started to get pretty shaky (note to self: always stretch before you start a hike…) We stopped at a large overlook for a snack but I decided to let the group go on without me to the top, deciding instead to just sit at this beautiful overlook for a couple of hours and rest my legs. It was so nice to just sit on these large rocks overlooking the beautiful mountains down below. Louisa and I ended up waiting there for several hours before the group finally returned to tell us the hike got a lot harder and more technical as they went up further (confirming that it was probably best I not continue on shaky legs). The hike on the way down was much faster and easier and we made it back to the bottom in good time.
Saturday morning, my friend Louisa and I left our apartment at 6:45 am to take the metro across town to meet up with the group and carpool to Parque La Campana, a national park close to Valparaiso to the west of Santiago. After frantically searching around the metro station for the supermarket where we were supposed to meet them and being initially told that there wasn’t enough room in the cars for us to come, we eventually hopped into the cars with other Chileans and foreigners and set off on a 2-hour ride to the park. I rode with three Chilean women and one man from Switzerland, chatting about life in Santiago as we made our way through the winding highway on the mountain.
The hike itself reminded me much more of the hikes I’ve done in the Appalachians, with more trees overhead and only small glimpses of the scenery around you until you get to large overlooks. We hiked for about 2 hours before my legs started to get pretty shaky (note to self: always stretch before you start a hike…) We stopped at a large overlook for a snack but I decided to let the group go on without me to the top, deciding instead to just sit at this beautiful overlook for a couple of hours and rest my legs. It was so nice to just sit on these large rocks overlooking the beautiful mountains down below. Louisa and I ended up waiting there for several hours before the group finally returned to tell us the hike got a lot harder and more technical as they went up further (confirming that it was probably best I not continue on shaky legs). The hike on the way down was much faster and easier and we made it back to the bottom in good time.
It was a great day meeting new people and hiking in a part of Chile that I may not have been able to reach without the carpool! Pretty cool to walk the same route that Darwin walked on (though we all doubted his ability to walk up that terrain with no hiking boots or poles…