Siete Tazas

This weekend I went on a camping trip with some colleagues from work in a national park called Reserva Siete Tazas, so named after the seven basins within the park. The trip gave a whole new meaning to what I like to call "Chilean time." If people show up late to meetings here, I should have assumed that meant that nothing went according to the schedule planned out for the weekend. If nothing else, it did make for a rather relaxing camping trip. We left Santiago around 10 (supposed to have been 9, but the people I was carpooling with were still at the mall buying a backpack at that time) to meet up with the rest of the group. Despite our late departure, the guide and 4 other members of the group had yet to arrive. I shouldn't have been surprised. After driving for 4-5 hours, we arrived in Parque Ingles around 2:30 and set up tents. I didn't know it until morning, but the camp site was gorgeous!



Vela de la Novia (right by the campsite)

 We didn't get going until about 9:30 or 10 on Saturday morning. Of course, packing up the tent, having coffee, registering with the park ranger, and who knows what else took a while. We hiked all day up to where we ended up camping for the night approximately 10 km from the basecamp. I would like to say that we made it further, but picking edible mushrooms out of the trees, playing with catepillars and crossing the river 7 times held us up a little bit.

Victor picking mushrooms out of the trees

Not to mention poor Alfonso who really shouldn't have been hiking at all. The guide ended up taking his tent off his hands about half-way through the day because he was afraid he might fall off the mountain. I thought my backpack was ridiculously heavy and I didn't even have a tent in it. I can't imagine carrying two! I guess he can pick mushrooms if he wants...



One of the many river crossings

 Once we got to the campsite, everyone went and took naps (so Chile!) so I played in the river for a while until I got bored and started looking for firewood. I should have been setting up tarantula traps to keep away the three that we saw later on in the evening. Victor, our guide told us some Mapuche legends about the area that we were in around the campfire later in the evening.

El Bolsón

The next day, we hiked up to El Bolsón to admire the beauty of the Andes and all they have to offer. There were a few "refugios" that were built a long time ago in the clearing. We hiked up a bit more and got a great view of a Salto de La Leona.

Salto de la Leona (the waterfall) in front of el Cornillo del Diablo (pointy peak in the distance)

We hiked back to the campsite to pack up and head down the mountaing to round out our 24 km weekend. Once we arrived at the cars, we started a fire and had an Asado complete with Chilean beer, meat, potatoes and tardiness. Our plan to leave by 4 turned into 7:30, meaning I didn't make it back to Santiago until 11:45. Next time I will just add 5 hours to everything I am told and expect to sleep very little. Aside from the worlds largest blister, I had a really great weekend.

Beauty at its finest

For more pictures from this weekend, check out my album on Snapfish @ http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4263209023/a=155380414_155380414/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/