One thing is for certain, the mountains looming next to Santiago valley look spectacular under their winter blanket of snow and after the rain washes away the dirty husk of the smog, the mountains seem to be everywhere you look.
Last long weekend, held in celebration for Saints Peter and Paul, a group of us decided to venture to Cajón del Maipo, the canyon southeast of Santiago. Having already visited the main village San José de Maipo a couple of times, my lovely Chilean and I weren't expecting too much from the outing, perhaps just a nice meal at one of the many gourmet restaurants. Never did I expect the canyon to extend on into a vast array of hikes, villages, waterfalls and thermals to choose from.
The only trouble was that the public buses barely hit the halfway point in the canyon and so without a car, it's practically impossible to get to any one of these amazing places. Having come this far by ridiculously slow public transport, we decided to wait an hour to take the bus that would take us onto the next village (the last place the buses drive to).
From San Gabriel, we walked along the highway to a little village by the riverside, where people picnicked or had beers at the little café, behind of which began a path that trailed up the Maipo River. We followed this as far as we could, leaping from stone to stone and climbing high up the quarried slopes to avoid the rapid current below. We found a spot to rest upon the rocks while we drank a beer and mediated upon the radiating beauty of the cordillera.
On the way back, we watched as three brave men prepared to kayak amidst the rushing rapids. As we walked up the hill to the bus stop, we saw them far below battling against nature, and then they turned a bend and were gone. Once on the bus, our eyelids became heavy and we awoke an hour later back in the city, the smog once again filling our lungs in a familiar embrace.
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