Short update before I run off down south for Fiestas Patrias until Sunday:
Saturday I went out to Cajon de Maipo, a collection of mountainside Andes towns about two hours south of Santiago. We didn't have plans, we just hopped on a bus and off we went in hopes of finding something to occupy ourselves for the day. But we found so much more than that. On the bus down there, a Chilean sitting in front of us overheard our confused conversation about where to go and offered to help us out. We hopped off that one bus, followed him onto another and then when a third one wasn't coming to cart us off higher into the mountains to Baños Morales--a scenic hiking spot close to El Morado, a national park with a glacier in the mountains--we decided to begin walking our way up from the town. Luckily about 20 minutes in, our new Chilean friend flagged down a passing pickup and we hitched a ride up into the Andes in the bed of the truck. Crazy adventures abound when you're young and traveling.
We got there, did some hiking and when our friend heard that I hadn't been up to the snow in the Andes yet, he swept us out to the peaks of the Andes, the El Morado glacier just in view, and I had my first taste of Chilean snow. Scrambling up the shifty rocks, I passed a group of Chileans potoganning (literally poto-gan, as in tobogan but on your butt or poto) down the snow. On my way back down, a seven-year-old Chilean boy caught me off gaurd when he pounded me in the back with a massive snowball. And there began a quite epic snowball fight in the Andes.
And even though I had snow in my pants at the end of the day, it was well worth it.
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2 comments:
soccer with costa rican kids, snowball fights with chilean kids, why am i not around for these events?????
also, too bad hitchhiking in america is a no-no, cuz it sounds kinda fantastic in the andes.
love, jozi
All I can say is "oy!" That is Chilean for "be careful but have fun."
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