el camping con las vacas

I feel quite refreshed after a weekend away from Santiago's polluted air. We went to Parque Nacional La Campana, about an hour north of Santiago in the coastal mountain range. The scenery reminded me of the mountains of Southern California or maybe Israel. It was a semi-desert area with low scraggly trees and great huge Chilean palms. There were wild horses and cows running through the park, and there was cow dung everywhere. The cows eat the coquitos, which are small fruits which fall from the palms. They then spit the pits out, which, as we campers discovered, can be smashed open with a rock and eaten. The inside looks exactly like a coconut and tastes similar to one.

A few things were a little disappointing about the camping trip. First of all, we never had any big bonfires. When night fell there wasn't much to do except talk in the dark and drink pisco (Chile's national liquor, if I haven't mentioned it before). One had to step lively in order to avoid landing in a nice big cowpie. There was a bright full moon which helped to discern dark spots in the ground from the dirt. Another disappointing thing was that there was no coffee in the morning, which I have always considered a camping staple. I have just come to accept the fact that a decent cup of coffee is pretty much out of the question here. We DID, however, have s'mores each night. Never has a s'more tasted so good as it did in Chile.

However, for the most part the trip was a lot of fun. The night sky was so clear out there in the country that I could see satellites orbiting, and I was proud of myself when I found the Southern Cross constellation without any help from the program leaders (thank you, flags of Australia & New Zealand, for making me familiar with the shape!) On Saturday we hiked over 10km to a waterfall high up in the mountains. There were cow patties up there, too. On Saturday night, while making the 5-minute trek to the bathrooms (which did not have electricity or hot water - I loved the rusticity of it!) my friend Grace and I were astounded by the beauty of the place as the last pink hues of the sun shone from behind the mountains while on the other side of the sky, a full moon was rising above the palms and a few stars had just made their appearance. It was probably the single most beautiful moment I've ever experienced in nature. It reminded me that Chile (outside of Santiago) is a very beautiful country with a wide variety of landscapes. I look forward to seeing more of them in the months to come. Pictures to come later!