Cerro La Campana VI

I hiked up Cerro La Campana again yesterday. I hurt today.

Click here for my other Cerro La Campana posts (scroll down the page).

Cerro La Campana V

Yesterday I went back to Cerro La Campana (click here for previous posts and scroll down the page).

This was the fourth time I've been to La Campana. You may be wondering why I've been so many times. Mainly it's because there aren't any other decent hikes within 45 minutes of Valpo but it's also because it's a really fun challenge; hard work but non-technical and the incredible views from the top are really worth the effort.

Yesterday, however, I wished I'd not gone. I went with a friend who decided after half an hour that he wasn't going to be able to make it up. He gave me his camera and urged me to go on alone. We arranged to meet at the mine area half way up after I'd been up to the cumbre.

The reason it was so tough early on was the warmth. The last three times I've been, the first hour was hiked in cool, even cold conditions under the cover of the trees. This time, it was over 20C at 8.30 in the morning and the extra effort required so early on in the hike proved exhausting. By the time I had reached the mine area on my own, I felt more tired than I had after reaching the top on previous occassions.

The part from the mine area up was really difficult for two reasons. One, the temperature had hit about 30C and two, due to the complete lack of rainfall at this time of the year, the trail was really dusty and very slippery. It was so tiring I was pausing momentarily every 20 metres or so to catch my breath.

By the time I reached the summit, I was ready to collapse. I ate my lunch, took a few snaps and was eaten alive by flies and midges. I lasted about 25 minutes before I was driven down again. I'd taken over 3.5 litres of water and half a litre of chocolate milk but it was so hot, all I had left was under 500ml for the descent.

I was happy to reach the car and get home.

So it was a reasonably miserable climb and had I known it would be so in advance I doubt I'd have gone. However, I'm glad I did push on. The views at the top were not the best but still worth the trouble and I feel pretty good about overcoming my desire to just give up and go home.

If you're thinking about climbing La Campana at this time of year I'd definitely say it's worthwhile if you can't do it at any other time. Otherwise I'd suggest waiting 'til April and May or Septmeber and October.

That white tinge to the photo is Valpo under a cloud.

Fiestas Patrias: Meat, Sand, Rail, Hill

I was dreading Fiestas Patrias. This area of the country usually turns into a complete nightmare of traffic and people during long weekends, bank holidays and school holidays. This makes it impossible or extremely stressful to get around in car, bus or even walking.

However, for some reason, Valpo and Vina were completely empty all of last week and even over the weekend. I have no idea why this was so and it even caught out the police. They were clearly expecting Sunday evening traffic chaos and were out in force yesterday but there were barely any cars on the road at all. It was quieter than a normal Sunday weekend in mid-winter. Very strange, but also very enjoyable for everyone that decided to stay in town for the holidays.

I didn't get up to all that much Fiestas Patrias-y over the last week. As I mentioned in the last post, the FPs don't really mean anything to me personally so it's hard to get excited. But I still did a few interesting things.

I did make it to a Fonda at the Sporting Club de Valparaiso in Vina. A Fonda is kind of like a little fair with stalls selling crap (it's FP tradition to sell Hello Kitty products and cheap sunglasses), a few fairground rides and dozens of little food stalls all selling the same things: BBQ beef, sausage sandwiches, empanadas, beer and chicha. It was pretty good fun.


The most entertaining part was when we were waiting for some more friends by the obvious meeting point of the Ferris Wheel. The motor malfunctioned and the wheel sped up to a fairly speedy speed and wouldn't be made to stop for well over 10 minutes. Eventually the police arrived with a mechanic and he got it to stop. Some of the children who got off were delighted with their ride, some were crying. The parents looked terrified.



We decided not to go on the Ferris Wheel.

I went back to the dunes in Con Con with a friend. We stopped off for lunch at this tiny little fish restaurant on the way where we had really good food at absurdly cheap prices in what is little more than a glorified tree house with a kitchen attached. Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo and can't remember the name but next time I go I'll remember to...

After that, we headed for the dunes. It wasn't as much fun as last time. We got stuck. At the bottom of a hill. Late afternoon. Sun starting to go down. After an hour or so of inching our way out through the tactic of digging the tires out, placing snow chains under the tires for grip and then trying to move as far as possible before getting stuck again, we were found by a friendly dune buggy driver who phoned his friends. They rescued us with a winch, all the while chuckling and taking photos. I have no doubt they went home and told their friends and families about the stupid gringos who got stuck in the sand.

As we then headed out of the dunes, we had to cross the train tracks. The tracks are quite raised but usually easy to cross with a bit of care. However, in order to get out of the sand, I'd had to let the tires down to a really low pressure. One of the back tires caught on the track, squashed itself all the way to the alloy and left the car dangling on two wheels, stuck on the track. As you might imagine, being stuck on train tracks isn't the best place to be stuck. I actually thought the car had beached itself but fortunately, on closer inspection, it was just the wheel...I rushed out, pushed and a short while later we were unstuck with the car bouncing down the other side of the track and making noises a car shouldn't really make.

I'm never going back to the dunes.

Stuck car, murdered dune companion.



Yesterday, I decided that heading back to Cerro La Campana would be fun. I was right, for the most part. The last time I went, I ran up and down on my own as a form of exercise. The first time, I went with my friend Mike and we also got up and down pretty quickly. This time, I went again with Mike but also with another friend, Allie. As Allie is not very tall, we went a lot slower. This was actually quite a nice change.

Cerro La Campana at 6.30am from my house.


We saw 3 big-ish tarantulas on the path up.


Short legs got a bit tired after a few minutes stroll.


While Mike and Allie pretended to be rock stars, I maintained my English composure.



The main problem yesterday with slow hiking, however, was that it is coming into summer and the fly situation is pretty bad. The first couple of times I went to La Campana, there were no flies at all due to the chill in the air. Yesterday, from La Mina until about 10 minutes from the summit, we were attacked by tiny little Black Flies. Black Flies are bastards because they don't sting you, they actually bite you...until they draw blood...and then they all try to feast on that wound. Fortunately, they're incredibly slow so it's easy to kill them but they made a good hour of the hike quite unpleasant.

Anyway, apart from that, it was a good day out. The views from the top were spectacular towards La Cordillera but not so great towards Valpo and the Pacific. It was pretty cloudy in that direction. And when we were on our way down we actually walked into a giant mist cloud which was a great way to cool down.


At some point soon, I might get around to posting specifically about Valparaiso as that is the main point of this blog. This personal doing stuff blogging is no doubt getting boring.

Cerro La Campana III

The weather here has been absolutely spectacular for the last week or so: A complete change from the previous couple of weeks of torrential rain. Unfortunately, I haven't really had a great deal of time to take advantage of it and I've been going a little crazy being couped up inside, looking out at perfect sunny days and spectacular views over the ocean and towards the mountains.

The last couple of days I have managed to get out and about. On Sunday a friend and I went up to the Cementerio de Playa Ancha (posts to follow when I finally get around to posting a few more photos of Cementerio Numero 2). And then yesterday, I decided to return to Cerro La Campana for a spot of mountain based exercise.

This time, I went on my own. I just wanted to stretch my legs and see how quickly I could get up and down and didn't want to have to slow down for anyone else.

As I've already described the trip to Cerro La Campana before (more photos here), I won't bore you with too many details. Just that it was much chillier than before and from about 30 minutes into the hike, there was frost on the ground and, from the Darwin plaque and up, chunks of ice that had fallen from the cliff face. It wasn't really cold, especially with the exercise to warm me up but I kept my hoody on the entire time. To be honest, the conditions were pretty perfect for hiking-cool and dry.

I beat my time from a few weeks ago by 25 minutes...I got to the top in exactly 2 hours and 20 minutes and then I literally ran back down in 1 hour 15 minutes (that's 50 minutes quicker than last time). That's pretty speedy. Next time I go, I'm going to aim for 2 hours up...remember that it's 7km up and 7km back down ago...

My legs hurt today.

Some photos and more commentary below:

Cerro La Campana and Aconcagua as seen from my house (I hadn't realised that this was La Campana until I got back yesterday and I recognised it from the shape):




Ice (the bandage thing on my hand is from when I slightly stabbed myself with a knife on Saturday. Ouch.):

Views from the top:




Chi-Chi-Chi-Le-Le-Le. Be proud Chilenos.

Essential hiking gear for a Chilean:

-Sturdy boots
-Warm clothes
-Water
-Food
-Spray paint



This is Aconcagua again, I love the plane flying over the top.


And this is another big-arse mountain that I'd find the name of if I could be bothered (I can't).


I was joined at the top by this cheeky little chappy. He was quite shy at first but I think he was used to being around people and begging food from them as seen in the second photo with a fellow hiker in it:




Finally, the money shots...Valparaiso, in all its glory as seen from the top of a 2000m high mountain (or a "hill" in local terms). This view was so incredible. It made me feel better than Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n Roll.

Wait. Let me re-phrase that. It made me feel better than Rock 'n Roll.

But still, it was pretty awe-inspiring. I'd heard that you could see the city from the top on a clear day but I hadn't realised how good the view would be. I could even just about pick out my own house through my binoculars. Fantastic. I just sat for over an hour at the top looking at the city I love from about 60km (40 miles) away:



Go hike Cerro La Campana now.

Cerro La Campana II

Conaf


So after those teasing photos got your juices flowing, here's an account of my trip up Cerro La Campana on Saturday.

This was a trip that I'd been wanting to do for a while but I just hadn't got around to. Mainly out of pure laziness. My problem is that I love this kind of activity when I'm actually doing it. But getting to the start line, so to speak, is a real ordeal for me and something I'll find any old excuse to avoid.

I actually arranged to do this trip with Mike last weekend when I was drunk enough to really believe it was a good idea. But we confirmed during the week that we were definitely going to do it. That didn't stop me seriously thinking about phoning him up when my alarm went off at 6am on Saturday and saying that my back hurt. Turns out that Mike wouldn't have tried to change my mind.

As it was, we arrived at the park at around 8.15, only to be confronted with a sign that said the ranger's station opened at 9. Luckily the ranger turned up for work early, so we paid our 1500 pesos each and got underway. The weather was looking quite promising-it was terrible on Friday and Sunday but we got really lucky. The temperature was absolutely perfect for hiking, cool but not cold and more and more blue sky started to appear from out of the clouds.

Here's me at the very start of the day.


We had been told by various people that it's a four to four and half hour hike up and around 3 back down. A pretty long day.


I have to say that the hike is reasonably tough going. There's no problem with altitude as even at the peak, you're only 1900m above sea-level. However, the start of the trail is at 400m so you're hiking 1500m in altitude in just 7km. That's a pretty decent gradient-there's precious little flat ground on the way up. It's mostly solidly uphill. To give you an idea of the slope, Mike was less than a couple of metres behind me when he took this photo.


After about 30 minutes of walking, we'd left the cloud behind. The next two photos are looking west towards the Pacific. The blue line on the horizon is the water.



We covered the first 5km to the Area la Mina in just an hour and 40 minutes. It's quite a nice little walk up through Chilean Oaks with the occasional clearing allowing for views like in the photos above. I can't find out what was mined there...I've found three different stories about what was mined and until when. It could be gold, copper or quartz and it could have been going on until up to about 10 years ago. Maybe someone can help me out.




After reaching the mine area in so little time, we were determined to get to the summit in under three hours. It's only another 2km from the mine but the trail becomes progressively steeper. The first half hour was ok, just steep. But then the walk becomes less of a walk and more a scramble over rocks and scree along a terribly marked trail. Still, we were making good time.


After about 20 minutes, we reached this plaque. It turned out that I wouldn't be the first European to reach the top. Some bloke called Charles Darwin had rather beaten me to it, some 174 years earlier. Bastard.


Here's me looking pissed off at Darwin.


It was at this point that the trail becomes rocky and scree-y. I have to say, it's not that much fun but you know you're just being tested to see whether you're worthy of what awaits at the top.

The three hour mark was starting to come up fast. Every time it looked like we were about to arrive, another bloody rock was laughing at us. Eventually, we did reach the top, to be rewarded with some incredible views.

Look west and you see the Pacific Ocean.


Look east and you see the Andes and Aconcagua, just about visible through the cloud in the centre of the photo.


Some random people.






Someone had left their trousers at the top. Bet they were pissed off when they got back down to the bottom.


After 40 minutes or so at the top we headed back down. We chose well arriving early. We ran into quite a few others climbing up. It was really nice to have the mountain all to ourselves for the time we were at the summit. Also, just as we started to descend, the cloud rolled in and ruined the views for all those who started the day later than us. Ha-ha.

Here's me at the bottom.


We went for a huge lunch at a restaurant called No Me Olvides in Quebrada Alvarado. After a massive costillar, empanada and a well earned beer we set off back home.

If you like a bit of hiking, then a day climbing Cerro La Campana is highly recommended.

So how am I feeling? Well, apart from severe pain in my calves and thighs, crippling pain in my shoulders, a slightly twisted ankle and stabbing pains shooting down from my lower back to my knees, I feel absolutely no ill effects from the hike at all.

Actually, I don't feel all that bad and certainly a lot better than I expected. This is the first hike I've done for about 6 years. Hopefully it will be the first of many over the next few months.

Oh, by the way, we took 2 hours forty five minutes exactly to reach the top and 2 hours five minutes to get back down. Not bad for a slightly overweight Englishman with crippling back pain, eh?

Click here for my second visit to Cerro La Campana and to see even better photos all the way to Valparaiso.