Natalie and I got up early and left our house at 6:45 and walked to pick up Katie from her house, and then we all walked to catch a bus to Limache, which is a town about 50 minutes from Viña. The easiest thing to do is take the metro, but the metro does not start running until 9:15am on Sundays, and we wanted to get an earlier start. To climb and descend the entire mountain, it takes 7-9 hours, and since the sun sets at like 6:45pm here, we wanted to get started as soon as we could.
We hopped on a bus to Villa Alemana, then got off and switched to a bus for Limache. Then from Limache we caught a cab to Olmué, a town about 8km away which is the closest town to the National Park. Our cab driver took us out to the National Park as well which was nice. We had to walk about 1 km to get to the entrance, and we got there right at 9:00am as it was opening. It was really cool because we got to see the sun rising up over the mountains as we walked! I always wake up before the sun rises here, but I do not really get to see it rise because it rises when I am getting ready and so by the time I leave for work it is already up. The days are SO short here because it is winter, and the sun sets extra late because they decided not to follow Daylight Savings Time here this year. The sun rises at about 8:45 and sets at about 6:45. It is crazy!
We bought passes to enter the park, and then the guide said that the cumbre (the very top) part of the mountain is closed in the winter months (June to August) because it can be very slippery and dangerous up there because of all the snow and rain. So instead of going 7km up, we could only go 5 km up. At 6km, there is a plaque commemorating the fact that Charles Darwin climbed that same mountain, and at the top there are amazing views and a Chilean flag, but we decided to make the most of it and enjoy the fact that we were not going as high and could take our time and not stress about the top. The last kilometer is supposedly brutal and very rocky and involves some crawling and scrambling.
We used the port-a-potties (which was SO weird to me because I totally thought those were a USA thing) and then headed up the hill! We had to walk through the campground area first, which was pretty flat, and then started to ascend. The difficulty of breathing in altitude is SO noticeable! We had to stop for breathers quite often, not because our legs were getting sore, but because we needed to catch our breath! Viña sits at about 3 feet above sea level, so being up by the mountains is quite the change. We climbed about 2km and then stopped at a landing for some nice photos and to eat a snack.
*Back Story* On Saturday I was at Starbucks and ran into a big group of Americans who are studying at La Universidad Catolica in Valpo and living in Viña. We were chatting about travel and found out that we were all planning to go to La Campana the following day! We chatted for a while and then split ways. I was wondering if we would cross paths with them at all on the transportation to Limache, or in the park.
As we were sitting on that landing, sure enough, the group of Americans I ran into the day before came walking up! Such a small world haha. We talked to them for a while and then headed up because we had been sitting there for a while. It was funny because they followed not long after us and we could see them sometimes across the way, or hear them. They were a big group of about 8 or 9 so they were not exactly quiet. Ha! As we were hiking that second stint, we came across a cow suddenly and Natalie and I both screamed! She appeared out of NOWHERE and it was momentarily terrifying. I wanted to get a picture, but she left as soon as we screamed. Go figure. As we were approaching the mine area (the highest part we could go to), we ran into some Chilean people who were feeeding these two cute little foxes! They were so timid and skittish, but they loved the food the Chileans were feeding them so they stuck around. Eventually the big American group caught us there, and we all hung out with the foxes before continuing to the mine area.
Even though we had been hiking for a long time, we were still 2 hours from the absolute top!
My awesome hiking buddies! We had a fun day together :)
A look inside the mine! It was SO cool! Also a bit scary, thinking about mine collapses, but we did not go super far in. The ground started to get all slimy and watery, so we turned back.
After hanging out at the mine for a while, we started our descent. It only took us about an hour and a half to get back down, because we did not really need to take any breathing breaks this time. My joints got SO sore climbing down though! Going down is always so much harder on the hips and knees than going up is. We made it to the bottom though! SUCCESS!
Another fun little tidbit. When we were walking up to the park, the goofiest looking little dog ran up to us. It was totally a Dachshund/Jack Russell Terrier cross, and was basically a Jack Russell with a long wiener dog body. SO FUNNY. We named him Jack Wien and he followed us for a long time. Then when we were leaving, Natalie goes, "Here Jack Wien! Where are you?! Come here!" And he came running from a nearby yard! Turned out he was not stray, so we started to pet him and love on him. Also turns out he was a she, so we modified her name to Jackie Wien. She was so cute and a fun end to the park.
We took the metro back to Viña, and then grabbed some ice cream and watched the sunset on the beach. We went from the top of the mountains down to the beach all in the same day! It was a great day, and was filled with a LOT of walking, a lot of water, and a lot of laughs.
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