7. Parque Nacional La Campana

Note: I wrote this before the earthquake. We're fine, it looks like everything is OK in Valparaíso.

So, I’ve been planning my first excursion from the Greater Valparaíso region for some time now. My predictions of mountains and picnics in a previous blog post were previously dashed by rain – as I’ve related here, what would be just enough to get the grass damp in Houston is enough to cause a flood on the steep inclines in this part of the world, so our expedition crew decided to play it safe.

           Chile takes its nature reserves seriously – there are 140,000 km² of protected areas in the country, totaling about a fifth of Chile’s entire territory. And, being an environmental engineer, I am always looking to get out into nature. The excursion was planned for La Campana National Park – a famous reserve depicted on the back of the 5.000 peso bill, and conveniently located just a couple hours from Valparaíso. There are many trails through the park, including one going straight to the top of its highest “hill” (it would be a mountain in any other country, except maybe Nepal). If you make it to the top, they say, you can look back West and see the Pacific Ocean, and look East to see the snow-covered Andes peaks.

            The hike there and back is about eight hours, and the park is only open from 9:00am to 5:30pm, so we got up nice and early to meet our friends in town. We gathered in one of Valparaíso’s main plazas as the last of Friday night’s parties were turning their patrons out, the streets much chillier than normal in the last few minutes before the sun rose. We took a bus from Valparaíso to Quilpué, then from Quilpué to Limache, then from Limache straight to La Campana. Well, it let us off about a half mile away from the park gates, but it’s absolutely blown my mind how well you can get around without a car here. We came for a hike anyway.

           Once we got to the gate, the ranger in charge gave us an option of trails and some details. I wanted to go straight to the top, but my companions were intimidated by the ranger’s description of the 2000-meter ascent, and his warnings that we would need to rest adequately and have brought appropriate food. I was outvoted, and besides, there was a waterfall at the trailhead of the lower path. Could be worse, surely!

            The hike was very long, and despite reaching only half the height of the park’s tallest point, was steep and hard enough. We walked about four hours in the morning, and passed almost no one on the trail – I don’t think I’ve ever been in a park that was so empty. When we did come across other hikers, our “hola”s were met with “guten Tag”s, and our “hello”s met with “bonjour”s.

            Finally, we found this spot:

and decided to stop for lunch.

Having taken the time to sit down and eat, we realized we were pretty tired.

We didn’t make it to the waterfall, this time. After our siesta, it was almost time to head back to the gate – and just as we came to this conclusion, another passing hiker was able to tell us it was actually another seven kilometers from where we were, more than double the distance.

            We also didn’t stand on the top of the mountain with one eye on the Pacific and the other on the Andes; but we did see both from a slightly more manageable but still respectable height of 1000 meters.

It was a magical day. And I slept very, very well that night.

Next time: Independence Day in Chile

Previously: Purple photosythentic bacteria