I needed to escape. I had been under some pressure lately and needed some time on my own, apart from everyone and everything, to find myself again. Those who have been through this before understand what it feels like. Anyway, I decided to rent a car and just drive away from Santiago for three days. Destination: Cajon del Maipo, an area southeast from the capital, in the direction on the
cordillera, that I wanted to visit since a while but never had the chance. It is a beautiful valley and one of the best summer destinations close to Santiago. Since now we are at the end of the winter, this place has a different feel, which I had sensed already when planning the trip. Winter in the Andes means snow. Snow in dirt roads means limited accessibility to many places. Bad access, together with low season and week days, means no people around. No people around means peace and isolation, exactly what I was looking for. I booked a floor at a mountain lodge, checked the road conditions and left, for one of the best trips in Chile!
Once you leave the
pre-cordillera, with its villages and green valleys, to enter the
cordillera, the paved road ends and the snow shows up on the mountains around you. The lodge was located almost at the end of the dirt road, in front of Morales, a summer village known for its hot springs and glaciers nearby. All this area was covered in snow, a beautiful and rare sight for me. The lodge is run by a family, which lives there, and I was the only customer for those days. Around the lodge, two hectares of land with pine trees, a lake and snow all over gave it a delightful alpine look. Electricity was limited to a few hours a day and there was no mobile phone network. Just perfect, peacefulness and isolation guaranteed! I borrowed a pair of snow boots and sunglasses (I am still an amateur with respect to snow issues) and the next day went to explore El Morado natural park, just next to Morales. The park ranger told me I should not go much further as there had been some avalanches and the risk was still high, so I walked around only for one hour, on snow, trying to adapt myself to the feeling of sinking at every few meters of walk. I saw some hares and footprints of foxes and even pumas. Coming back to the lodge, I climbed a hill on the back of it, to see the sunset back over the valley. When coming down, at some moment it felt like the sun had been switched off for one second. Looking up, I saw a couple of condors, the Andean condor, one of the biggest birds in the world, with a wing span that can reach more than 3 meters. This is the season when the juveniles learn to fly, so you see more of them.
This day alone was already worth the trip, but it was surpassed by the day after. 11 kms further up into the mountains there are other less popular hot springs, where the dirt road ends and which are open in summer. Now the road was closed just one kilometer from the lodge due to the snow and I was told that it would take me around 4 hours to get there in normal conditions. Driven by the confidence gained the previous day, I took the risk and this turned out to be one of the treks of my life. The first two hours were really tough, because I had to make my way through avalanches and soft sinking snow. Moreover, the first part was the steepest, around 500 meters difference from the lodge. Soon the terrain levelled off, but just before reaching the springs, the worst part came. A huge snow field, made endless by its softness. Literally at every step I would sink half of my leg into the snow. To make things a bit more interesting I realized at some point that I was not on snow, but on cracking ice and with a river below it. The springs were all covered in snow. For some buildings you could only see the roof, and the pits had no thermal water. No hot bath for me, but while having lunch, I met the only other living being during this walk. A fluffy yellow and black bird approached me, naturally curious about my food. It didn't look scared and, as I put some bread bits on my hand, he fearlessly came, jumped onto my fingers and pinched my hand softly until all the bread was gone. This was a moment I will never ever forget! On the way back, the snow was even softer as the sun was melting it throughout the day. Luckily most of it was walking down now. It took me 3.5 hours to get to the springs and 3 hours to get back to the lodge. The views were amazing, truly breathtaking, and I was alone all the time, not a single person around. I arrived almost dead and this lovely family was waiting for me with a hot cup of tea.
These three days went by really fast, but time was enough to taste every minute of it, without rush or stress. I would wake up, have breakfast, get out and walk for the whole day, have a cup of tea and a soup for dinner, read a couple of hours and go to bed early. No computers, no internet, no mobile phones, no television. Just me, snow, a book and the mountain, the silent and imposing presence of one of the biggest mountain ranges of the world, just a couple of hours from Santiago. I didn't solve all my problems and I'm not sure if I found myself, but the feeling of being there and going through it all is something that I will never forget. I shall once again say that "...I still believe in paradise. But now at least I know it's not some place you can look for, 'cause it's not where you go. It's how you feel for a moment in your life when you're a part of something, and if you find that moment... it lasts forever...". It will last forever...
As I mentioned already last year, the 18th September is Chile's national day (see here). This year it was not very different. I was working again, the same folk group came, the organization of the event and the folk show this year were a little different, people were less up on the mountain, but the spirit was the same. The show presented folklore from Chiloé Island, a very peculiar place in the south of Chile, that I will visit soon, and the typical cueca. There was also some acting together with the dancing. In what is called a repicada, one of the girls came to pick someone from the audience (which turned out to be me!) to dance in a very provocative way, while her partner would try to start a fight, in jealousy. The act would continue after the dance, now with the guy trying to pick someone from the audience and the girl making a fuss. It ended with them making up and dancing together. It was very funny, specially because I didn't know all this before. Finally, it ended with the cueca and I saw myself drawn into a contest. Luckily, I had had one cueca lesson a couple of days before and got myself a second place! Not bad at all!
