Cajun Del Maipo

Domingo headed back to La Serena for the weekend, so I crashed at the hostel La Casa Roja in barrio brazil for Friday night. Almost couldnt find the place it was that hidden in amongst the old buildings. Got up at the crack of dawn, caught the metro right down to Bellavista de la Florida at the end of the green line. Found a local bus that went right up to Baños Morales which had a few Chilean climbers aboard, so though that looked like the go.

We left at 8:30 and got up there by midday. Everyone headed straight for the hills, so i found the closest hostel, dumped the bags, bought a few bananas, and headed into the National Park.

Headed up the steep first bit which took a few hours, had a quick bite to eat at the little lake where everyone was setting up there tents to stay the night with a great view of El Morado (5060m). Then the San Francisco glacier was only a few kilometers up the valley so i got back on the trail.

It was getting late in the arvo, with just a few couples at the bottom of the glacier, and a group of serious climbers preparing to head further up for a few days. I got up to the start of where the real glacier begins, when we had to dash out of the path of a 1m diameter boulder that was cruizing down the glacier besides us.

The climbers decided to get further up the mountain, and i decided it was time to get back to town before it got dark.

Got back to town about 6 (5 hours trekking), but the town was dissapointingly dead. Ate a few chocolate biscuits i still had from santiago and called it a night.

Sunday i was expecting the bus to leave about midday again like it did on Saturday. Had a chat to the driver and it turned out it wasnt leaving till 6pm. So the only thing left to do was rest my weary legs in the local mineral-rich termal boaths (22 degrees) for the rest of the day.

Got the bus back to Santiago but not in time to see the Placido Domingo concert in Plaza de Armas (he must have gone straight from Stephs concert in UAE to Santiago, maybe Moruya next!)

Staying again at La Casa Roja for 2 nights, then heading to Valparaiso and Viña Del Mar.