Parque Nacional La Campana

Saturday, Camille, Cameron, and I headed for La Campana National Park with our friend Diego and three of his friends. I woke up at 6:30 to a dark sky and birds chirping and made my way to meet Camille at the bus stop. We met up with Diego at his house in Quilpué, about a 30 minute bus ride from Valparaíso. It was about another half hour in the car to the park. To summit, it took us about 4 1/2 hours and then about another 3 back down! Along the way we saw horses, lizards, and a fox. The trail was full of people enjoying the sunshine and suffering through the march up the steep incline together with moans, laughter, and Spanish words that should probably not be translated.

The first two and a half got us to La Mina (the mine). We went into one of the old mining tunnels and explored a bit and took a lunch break before heading up the last mile of the trail to la cima (the tallest point).

 This last portion of the trail was truly only about a mile, but the majority of it consisted of climbing up rock faces and took about 2 hours...

...Pero, vale la pena! (But, it was worth it!) because the views were spectacular and there is nothing like the gratification you get looking back down over the trail.

When we finally made it back down we celebrated at a campsite with scraps from our lunch and a couple of beers before heading into town for some completos (Chilean version of hot dogs).  We waited for the metro at the last stop in Limache and spent the hour on the train contentedly dozing with tired legs and full bellies.

I was so happy to get a good hike in, I have missed being able to hope in the car and head for Hogback. I love living in the city, but it has made me appreciate Marquette and Northern Michigan and all of the cool things I get to do at home. However, in Valparaíso I live on the ocean and, next week, my friends are going to teach me how to surf! I can't believe all of the crazy adventures I have been able to have here and all of the plans we have for the next three months, ¡Qué Bacán es mi vida en Chile!