Anyways Chase and I decided we needed to get out of Santiago and get some fresh air, so we headed to Cajon De Maipo. This is a beautiful area in the Andes where there are many national parks and places to hike, ride horses, and white water raft.
Of coarse not having a car can make going to the mountain a little difficult but we found this place called Cascade de las Animas, which Chase describes as a Chilean dude ranch, to visit. So we woke up Monday took the metro on Line 4, which we had never ridden, to the last stop.
There were two options to get to Animas take a bus for $550 pesos which is like a little over a dollar or take these cars called Colectives for $1300 pesos. The bus would take about 1 and half hours but most likely more time than that or to ride in the colectives with only 2 other people and get there in a hour. Chase and I obviously chose the latter.
The hard part was however, trying to find the right colectives. I had written down directions but as with any directions in Chile once you get there, they make little sense. So for about half an hour we would see a bunch of colectives coming from a direction so we would head the direction they came from hoping to find them. We were on a wild goose chase through this small town.
Finally I had, had enough and asked a Cabinero (Policeman) for directions. He had no idea till Chase asked him where the Blockbuster was and then he knew exactly where to tell us to go. The Colectives left from in front of the Blockbuster. It turns out we got off at the wrong metro stop, so we had to walk back to the previous stop. Luckily we finally found our Coletive number 4010 and got in and headed up to the mountains. The drive was absolutely beautiful.
Chase paying for our car ride
What was great is that the car actually dropped us off at the entrance to the place. You see the Colectives operate by driving between two points like a bus, but instead it is just shared car ride.
Entrances to Animas
I must agree with Chase it does look like a dude ranch.
Upon arriving we headed down to the restaurant for lunch. There we shared an Ave Palta (chicken sandwhich with avacado) one of the few things that Chileans seem to always eat beside hot dogs because it is on every menu.
Eating lunch
After lunch we headed to the canopy tour to ride the zip line. I must say that it was not the greatest zip line I have ever been on, but it was still a lot of fun and we got to see a beautiful view while over the river.
Chase and I getting ready to go
You go over the river then walk up the mountain a little ways on the other side then ride back to the original side.
Merrill about go
Chase hiking up the mountain in his zip line gear
Chase about to ride back over the river
So their method of stopping you is not the most high tech but it worked. The funny thing is that in the demonstration before getting to go they showed us how to duck so we did not hit our heads on the tires. You can barley see me but that is me.
Getting off the zip line
After our zip line rides we went on a hike up to this beautiful waterfall. This was not just any hike however, for some reason if you are not staying on the property you have to pay and go on a guided hike. Doesn't sounds too bad right? Well there ended up being around 35 Chileans on our hike and let me tell you it was incredible entertaining.
The group
Bellow are a few pictures of some of the Chileans on our hike:
A woman who carried her poodle the entire way because...
they put the leash on the little boy
A woman wearing platform sandals and a girl wearing flip flops
The hike started by going through this gate onto a wood suspension bridge that had a beautiful view of the river and mountains.
We only made it about 15 minutes up hill before all the Chileans need a break. Some for water but most for a cigarette and a coke, every chileans go to for hydration.
The Andes
The trail headed to an incredible waterfall, that was definitely worth the short hike.
One ironic thing that did happen on our hike is that we met a very nice couple. Lollie was from Austin and is visiting her boy friend who is Chilean. The four of us ended up talking the entire way down the mountain and we really enjoyed their company. Polo and Lollie had driven to Animas in their car and offered us a ride. It was so nice to ride in a car again!
We stopped on the way home because there was such a beautiful view.
We stopped at a small roadside vendor, where Lollie bought some honey
We had a great time in the mountains and look forward to spending more time in the mountains soon!
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