The Warmup: Parque Nacional La Campana - Sector Granizo

When Charles Darwin landed in Valparaíso on the coast of Chile in 1834, he headed inland to a bell-shaped summit that, at 1,880 m (or some 6,200 ft.), jutted up from the ridges of the Andes that make their way from the border with Argentina towards the coast. From the top of this mountain, Cerro La Campana, he said that you could see Chile "as in a map", so it was to the park built around this peak, Parque Nacional La Campana, that I headed with a friend to finally take a serious trip into the Andes and break in all my new gear before I set out traveling and backpacking for 5 weeks when my program ends June 8.

From Santiago, the park's gateway town, Olmué, which is a lovely little place in it's own right, is only a 2-hour bus ride that costs about $10 round trip. From there, after some empanadas and fresh fruit juice (I decided to go for the "tuna", a sweet cactus fruit with a flavor kind of similar to honeydew), you can catch a smaller bus (60 cents) to within a kilometer of the entrances to 2 of the 3 sectors of the park: Sector Cajón Grande and Sector Granizo. After an accidental detour to the Cajón Grande entrance, we headed to Sector Granizo, planning to camp Sunday night and possibly head up La Campana on Monday until we found out that the last third of that particular trail was closed because of the earthquake. Still, we set up our tent and explored a little before cooking up a delicious dinner of curried rice with mushrooms and sautéd onions and bell pepper and hitting the sleeping bags.

I have to hand it to CONAF, the Chilean government's parks and conservation branch: they've done a wonderful job with this park. The campsites in Sector Granizo are strung out along a series of trails and usually built in rough terraces so that they're spacious without intruding too much on the landscape, and the actual trails achieve a similar effect: well-kept and well-planned without feeling too touristy or too intrusive. And between the wildlife - we saw a giant, tarantula-like spider, some wild cows, and a variety of hawks - and the incredible views, you could really spend a few days here even though the trail system isn't all that extensive. But since the route up La Campana was closed, we headed up Sendero Portezuelo, where the trails from all 3 sectors of the park meet in a saddle right below a huge, rocky peak, offering incredible views back towards the east and into and past the valley of Sector Ocoa (see picture above), one of the two places left in the country where you can see wild Chilean palms.

Unfortunately, we were a little pressed for time and had to bound back down the way we came, but with the park opening up to ridge after ridge of dry, arid mountains, I'm hoping to make every effort to make my way back before I head back to the States. For now, I'm back in Santiago with happily backpack-bruised hips and a small taste of what I'm in for when I head out on my own a month from now.