Hiking and heading south

We've spent the last few weeks continuing to adjust to our new apartment and getting it completely furnished. We have also stayed busy working on the new building and have spent some time in the old building taking out what remained and painting several walls for the owner. The day of the first service in the new building, I (John) went on a camping/hiking trip with Tyler, the new intern from Texas A&M, and Kani, Camilo and Renzo from the University group. We hiked up to an area outside of La Florida, the comuna where the guys all live. Sunday we spent about 4 hours getting up to the camp site, which we made just before dark. The hike was fairly hot, as we are still in the middle of summer here. We spent the night at a spot with a great view of Santiago, and enoyed hot dogs before going to sleep. I somehow managed to pack all of my camping gear in my suitcase when we left the states, so I got to use my own tent, sleeping bag and backpack. The next day we packed up and broke camp about 8 am, and headed for the summit of Punta de Damas, about 10,300 feet in elevation. We had to carry our tents and sleeping bags, because the guys told us it would not be there when we returned if we were to leave it. So, being used to carrying food and water on a summit, hike, I was much heavier than normal, which caused us to go quite a bit slower. We found a large group of boulders next to the trail about 3/4 of the way up, and stashed our tents between the rocks and covered the opening.
This took a good deal of weight off, and allowed us to move a bit faster. After about 5 hours, we reached the summit, where we took some photos, and rested awhile before heading down.
The view from the top was nice to the East towards the mountains, but not so much to the west where we could see the cloud of smog and pollution that hangs over Santiago. Yummy. The trip all the way down was obviously faster but harder due to the continuous sliding on loose rock, as the trail was fairly steep the whole way. It also took awhile longer as I began getting cramps about 2 hours from the bottom that required lots of stopping and resting. I felt like I was getting enough water, but probably not enough sodium and potassium. I was also wearing a long-sleeve shirt as well as a shirt under my hat to cover my face and neck to prevent getting a sunburn. Plus the temp was in the upper 80's to low 90's. But eventually we reached La Florida and hopped a bus back to Nunoa. Definitely took a few days ot recover from that one. But overall, the camping was good, good view from up high, and it was a great chance to spend time with some of the guys and get to know them better.

A few weeks ago we were having an once at our friend Paola's house, when she invited us to go to Chillan with her for a few days. So, Sunday the 5th, we took a train down south about 4 hours, to the small town of Chillan to spend a few days. Paola had lived there for a few years and knows the town and area really well. We stayed two nights in a hostel, and had the opportunity to do some hiking around the Vulcan Chillan, a dormant volcanoe about an hour outside town. The area is a ski resort in winter, and a fairly popular tourist place in the summer. The trail we hiked on wasn't near as steep as the one I had spent a few days on the week before, but we still hiked for several hours and were exhausted by the end of the day. We went with Paola and her friend Patricio, and though the day was long, we were able to enjoy some incredible views in the Cordillera of the Andes. The second day we slept in after our long day hiking on Monday, and wandered around Chillan and did some shopping, before heading back to Santiago on the afternoon train. Enjoy the photos!

These were sold by a guy on the side of the road, as "tortillas". Biggest tortilla I've ever seen!


We tried a dessert in Chillan called Mote con Huesillo that Paola recommended. It was two dried peaches in juice with a bunch of barley. Interesting. Thanks again for reading our updates! Love y'all
John and Amanda