We met our first couchsurfing host Felipe at the last station of the metro line heading south, where he very kindly picked us up. We drove to his two bed house in Las Vizcachas, that was surrounded by high walls and two rather large entrances. Security is a big deal in Chile and this was no exception! We thought that the couch would be located in San José de Maipo as that is what his profile said, however he was just in the process of moving as we arrived. The first evening we spent sharing stories, drinking beer and watching an amazing HD sports documentary on the Andes showing the whole stretch of South America and natural beauty.
The next day we planned to go up into the mountains and so we took our time getting ready and eventually we got going. We arrived first in San José de Maipo where Felipe showed us where he works. He is an architect working for the local council, who’s job is to verify building plans of new construction in and around San José de Maipo. He would assess building plans and if there are any conflicts with the local environment or regulations, he would have the ability to delay or cancel the proposal. Quite an interesting and responsible job I think.
When we got to San José de Maipo, Filipe had to sort some stuff out at his old apartment for a bit, so we decided to look around town and check it out. It’s quite a small but charming town with a few restaurants hostels and a large square where on this particular day there was a small arts and crafts market. We bought a present there for Felipe and for lunch we went to a cheap take away to share a portion of roasted chicken and chips, yummy it was :) We also bumped into an interesting school fair which happened to have its own money system for the day. In order to buy anything, you have to exchange your money for pieces of paper with numbers on! Not sure why this was done as the notes they were using were pretty easy to forge! But anyway, we managed to get some seriously tasty cake and freshly squeezed juice for desert.
After receiving a phone call from Felipe and meeting him, we quickly got on our way as the last entrance up the mountain was around 15:00 thought Felipe Most of the way after San José de Maipo was unpaved road so the car Felipe had (4×4 Suzuki Vitara) was a good car for the job! We arrived at the entrance to the park at 14:30 and to our surprise the park rangers were not letting people up the mountain anymore. What a bum! They stop letting people in after 13:00! We were all a bit disappointed as we got up early that day, drove for 1h 45m and got turned away.
Oh well, but we did go to a nearby refuge that Felipe recommended. It was the first of it’s kind built in the Andes! Guess who built it? German pioneers. Above the entrance “Deutscher Andenverein”. This is really quite a special and fascinating place, decorated in what I would say from my experience, a traditional German style with old artifacts and pictures from around the Andes. It was a really beautiful place set in a very nice location on the foot of a mountain. Outside were picnic benches, deck-chairs and a wonderful garden. We had some peanuts and beer with us so we dug straight into them while admiring the views and soaking up the occasional spot of sunlight.
We went inside the refuge to find a welcoming, cosy, wooden interior and a friendly staff member. We ordered coffee and “kuchen” as they call it. A German word meaning Cake in English. Interestingly, due to early German immigrants arriving in Chile shortly after the second world war, the word kuchen is commonly used in the south of Chile. The goods were spot on and both the kuchen and coffee was excellent! It’s not easy to find a good coffee in Chile as most of the time, instant coffee would be served, even in some restaurants. Later in the evening we went back to Felipe’s place where we were greeted by many people in the surrounding area trying to get into the rock festival that just happened to be on this weekend. The festival was called Maquinaria and featured the band Kiss and my favorite, The Prodigy! I so wanted to just jump that fence and get involved but security was tight. Such a coincidence that we just happened to be staying right next to where my favorite was playing! Gutted, but I did hear them from afar.
The next morning, Felipe kindly gave us a lift to San José de Maipo where we took the bus up to Baños Morales and then from there, we started the trek up to Languna Morales where we planned to go the day before. The valley leads up to a glacier called San Francisco where we found many natural springs and beautiful landscapes along the way. The springs generally had rusty-red coloured minerals surrounding them. I assume this is from the high iron content in the water. In contrast with it’s environment, the springs, the green grass, multi-coloured mountains, good visibility and blue sky made for some incredible vistas! See the gallery for more pictures.
After descending down the valley and dipping into a nice lukewarm spring bath, we took to long and bumpy bus ride all the way back to Las Vizcachas. When we got back to the apartment, we had to wait for Felipe to get back from town in order to let us in. It was worth the wait as he brought a tasty Domino’s pizza and bottle of wine with him for dinner. This was our last meal at Felipe’s house before heading off in the morning back to busy Santiago.
We will spend one more day in Santiago with Nelson and then head south on an overnight bus to beautiful Pucon!
