My birthday - camping in the Andes

I spent the weekend camping in the Andes, not far from where I went last time to see the glacier. Was a trip organised by Joanne (the boss who has three dogs) and another teacher (Ann) and her partner Rodrigo. I had a fabulous time - what better way to spend my birthday!

We left Santiago in the hired truck with two dogs on the back and one in the cab with us (he gets car sick) mid afternoon on Friday, heading for the hills. The campsite was at the thermal pools on the side of El Volcan, a long volcano high up in the Andes which separates Argentina and Chile. It was deserted when we got there apart from four condors circling the springs high overhead, so we set up camp before dark and made some delicious BBQ pork ribs over the fire for dinner. We had a number of drinks, and as it started to rain climbed the hill to the hot springs. There were only four other people around so we had a pool to ourselves to enjoy a few drinks and stay warm. The night was freezing, though thankfully it stopped raining before we went to bed. In the morning we were greeted with snow capped mountains and ominous clouds.

When I finally crawled out of bed (it was freezing cold) there were condors circling above the next valley. I counted twenty, which is unheard of, usually you are lucky to see one or two. One even fly right over us quite close, and gave us an impressive show of its sheer size and grace. They are amazing birds, and some were flying higher than the mountains most of which were towering over us at 6000m.

After picking up another friend from down the road, and stopping to let the truck cool down a bit (Rodrigo had drunk a lot of coffee and was driving it like it was a racing car), we set off to walk up to the glacier (the same as my last trip). I was relieved that we drove much further this time, and Jo was astounded that they made us walk so far last time - her estimate was about 16km each way, and I would tend to agree with her. Turned out the weather wasn't great, and some in our party weren't as fit or prepared as they might have liked, so we turned back at halfway, which was fine. It really was cold and while I am sure it would have been beautiful up at the glacer with the fresh snow, it would have been so cold! We polished off the birthday champagne on the way down the mountain so all was not lost!

Back at camp we chilled out, made some dinner, drank quite a bit, and went up to enjoy the hot springs again. There were lots of people up there on Saturday night, everyone having arrived from Santiago in the morning. However, the night was clear, and the moon just past full, so we could see the entire surrounding valley and peaks, as well as millions of stars, which was truely magic. It really is surreal to be so high in such an intimidating and beautiful landscape. I was much warmer the second night having gone to bed wearing nearly every item of clothing that I had with me. One of the dogs was sleeping in the tent with Joanne too, which helped keep it warmer, and one of the other dogs came in in the middle of the night and slept near my feet on my sleeping bag which was also a great warmer.

We broke camp early on Sunday morning in order to get the hire truck back to Santiago by early afternoon. The ride back was uneventful, and the dog positioned himself across all three knees in the back seat and went to sleep which made for a cosy trip. I had such a great time that really can't be put into words. Can't wait to go back and have some real hiking expeditions around those mountains. There are just so many areas to explore!

There are a few more photos interspersed through here of the area. I didn't get any of the hot springs because we only ventured up there in the dark, and as pointed out by Mum there are actually none of me. Thats OK, I was pretty much too busy having fun to take many pictures! The last picture here is the view from my tent door - I kid you not!!

OK, enough prcrastination, back to lesson planning.
Hasta luego,
KiwiKaz